3 Adjectives to Describe Pliny the Elder

There are many adjectives that would describe Pliny the Elder. Some of the most fitting of these would be: inquisitive, clever, and foolhardy. There are many justifications for each of these adjectives that can be found from textual evidence. For example, he is quite inquisitive from the first viewings of the phenominum as it states he ascended to a place which would give him the best view of the phenominum. (ascendit locum ex quo maxime miraculum illud conspici poterat) He always wanted to learn more and that was the origanal basis for him sailing over to Vesuvius. It appeared most scholarly and worthy of further investigation. (Magnum propiusque noscendum, ut eruditissimo viro, visum) Pliny the Elder was a very scholarly man, but he realized that he had no justification to send the fleets out for science. This is where Pliny the Elder was clever. As the text says, he changed his mind from a scholarly one to a heroinc one. (Verit ille consilium et quod studioso animo incohaverat obit maximo) Now that he is doing it for noble intentions, the fleet can be sent out. Yet, all the way he dictates his scientific observations. (adeo solutus metu ut omnes illius mali motus, omnes figuras, ut dephrehenderat oculis, dictaret enotaretque) It was a clever move on Pliny the Elder's part to hide a trip based off of the desire for knowledge under the guise of a herioc rescue. He successfully prevents any further questioning of his actions, not that there would be much time for them to be questioned. The previous line of text also states he was without fear when he did all this. (adeo solutus metu) This is proving his foolhardiness. He is sailing into an unknown thing that is spewing fire into the sky. His ship has flaming rocks and pumice falling on it. (iam pumices etiam nigrique et ambusti et fracti igne lapides) This is not a rescue mission; it is a death mission. He had all the tme in the world to turn back, it was suggested by his crew, but he did not. (mox gubernatori ut ita faceret momenti) He has the opportunity to save his men and his life, but he does not. Instead, he says (Fortes fortuna iuvat; Pomponianum pete) He is not saving these peolpe, he is condeming many more to die because of his own foolhardiness.

Pliny Blog

Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians is making a complete mockery out of the tourture he is ordered to give any person who is a Christian. The only doubt that Pliny has is that they are making a mistake and that they should be toururing these people. He finds out the great exent of the Christian horrors is them "gathering together before dawn to sing to Christ as if he were a God." It is incocievable that, the destructive threat to the Roman Empire takes oaths to committ; "no theft, no fraud...." Pliny is satiring the entire principle of attacking a group of people because he doesn't understand them. A Roman with little contact to Christians would think that while the have different beliefs, they are merely trying to be better people after reading Pliny's letter. They would not be filled with fear about the "virus" which is spreading across the Empire. They have exetreme superstition, but that doesn't require execution. Pliny's doubt lie in how wrong the treatment of the Christians is, not how to conduct an investigation of them.