Natural History Volume 2

by Pliny the Elder

Classics (Greek & Latin Antiquity)Animals Nature Reference

42 chapters14h 2mEnglish1855

About this book

Naturalis Historia (Latin for "Natural History") is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77-79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. The work became a model for all later encyclopedias in terms of the breadth of subject matter examined, the need to reference original authors, and a comprehensive index list of the contents. The scheme of his great work is vast and comprehensive, being nothing short of an encyclopedia of learning and of art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from nature. The work divides neatly into the organic world of plants and animals, and the realm of inorganic matter, although there are frequent digressions in each section. He is especially interested in not just describing the occurrence of plants, animals and insects, but also their exploitation (or abuse) by man, especially Romans. The description of metals and minerals is particularly detailed, and valuable for the history of science as being the most extensive compilation still available from the ancient world. (Summary from Wikipedia)This second volume includes books six to ten, covering the following subjects:Book 6 - An account of countries, nations, seas, towns, havens, mountains, rivers, distances, and peoples who now exist or formerly existedBook 7 - Man, his birth, his organization and the invention of the artsBook 8 - The nature of the terrestrial animalsBook 9 - The natural history of fishesBook 10 - The natural history of birds

Chapters (42)

101 - Book 6, Chapters 1-5: The Euxine and the Maryandini; Paphlagonia; Cappadocia; the region of Themiscyra and the nations therein; the region of Colica, the nations of the Achaei and other nations in the same parts

950

202 - Book 6, Chapters 6-14: The Cimmerian Bosporus; Lake Maeotis and the adjoining nations; the situation of Cappadocia; the Lesser and the Greater Armenia; the rivers Cyrus and Araxes; Albania, Iberia and adjoining nations; the passes of the Caucasus; the islands of the Euxine; nations in the vicinity of the Scythian Ocean

971

303 - Book 6, Chapters 15-20: The Caspian and Hyrcanean sea; Adiabene; Media and the Caspian Gates; nations situated around the Hyrcanian sea; the nations of Scythia and the countries on the Eastern Ocean; The Seres

1203

404 - Book 6, Chapters 21-23: The nations of India; the Ganges; the Indus

1484

505 - Book 6, Chapters 24-26: Taprobane; the Ariani and adjoining nations; voyages to India

1592

606 - Book 6, Chapters 27-31: Carmania; the Persian and the Arabian Gulfs; the Parthian Empire; Mesopotamia; the Tigris

1395

707 - Book 6, Chapters 32-34: Arabia; the gulfs of the Red Sea; Troglodytice

1697

808 - Book 6, Chapters 35-37: Aethiopia; Islands of the Aethiopian Sea; the Fortunate Islands

1177

909 - Book 6, Chapters 38-39: The comparative distances of places on the face of the earth; division of the earth into parallels and shadows of equal length; summary; Roman authors quoted; foreign authors quoted

980

1010 - Book 7, Chapters 1-4: Man; the wonderful forms of different nations; marvellous births; the generation of man; the unusual duration of pregnancy; instances of it from seven to twelve months

1965

1111 - Book 7, Chapters 5-13: Indications of the sex of the child during the pregnancy of the mother; monstrous births; of those who have been cut out of the womb; who were called Vopisci; the conception and generation of man; striking instances of resemblance; what men are suited for generation; instances of very numerous offspring; at what age generation ceases; remarkables circumstances connected with the menstrual discharge

1065

1212 - Book 7, Chapters 14-23: The theory of generation; some account of the teeth and some facts concerning infants; examples of unusual size; chldren remarkable for their precocity; some remarkable properties of the body; instances of extraordinary strength; instances of remarkable agility; instances of acuteness of sight; instances of remarkable acuteness in hearing; instances of endurance of pain

961

1313 - Book 7, Chapter 24-31: Memory; vigour of mind; clemency and greatness of mind; heroic exploits; union in the same person of three of the highest qualities with the greatest purity; instances of extreme courage; men of remarkable genius; men who have been remarkable for wisdom

1259

1414 - Book 7, Chapters 32-44: Precepts the most useful in life; divination; the man who was pronounced to be the most excellent; the most chaste matrons; instances of the highest degree of affection; names of men who have excelled in the arts, astrology, grammar and medicine; geometry and architecture; painting, engraving on bronze, marble and ivory, carving; slaves for which a high price has been given; supreme happiness; rare instances of good fortune continuing in the same family; remarkable example of vicissitudes; remarkable examples of honours

1158

1515 - Book 7, Chapters 45-50: Ten very fortunate circumstances which have happened to the same person; the misfortunes of Augustus; men whom the gods have pronounced to be the most happy; the man whom the gods ordered to be worshipped during his life-time; a remarkable flash of lightning; the greatest length of life; the variety of destinies at the birth of man

1166

1616 - Book 7, Chapters 51-56: Various instances of diseases; death; persons who have come to life again after being laid out for burial; instances of sudden death; burial; the Manes, or departed spirits of the soul

1278

1717 - Book 7, Chapter 57: The inventors of various things

826

1818 - Book 7, Chapters 58-60: The things about which mankind first of all agreed; the ancient letters; when barbers were first employed; when the firsttime-pieces were made; summary; Roman authors quoted; foreign authors quoted

379

1919 - Book 8, Chapters 1-12: Elephants: their capacity; when elephants were first put into harness; the docility of the elephant; wonderful things which have been done by the elephant; the instinct of wild animals when perceiving danger; when elephants were first seen in Italy; the combats of the elephants; the way in which elephants are caught; the method by which they are tamed; the birth of the elephant and other particulars respecting it; in what countries the elephant is found; the antipathy of the elephant and the dragon; the sagacity of these animals

1502

2020 - Book 8, Chapters 13-22: Dragons; serpents of remarkable size; the animals of Scythis; the bison; the animals of the north: the elk, the achlis and the bonasus; lions: how they are produced; the different species of lions; the peculiar character of the lion; who it was that first introduced combats of lions at Rome; wonderful feats performed by lions; a man recognized and saved by a dragon

1528

2121 - Book 8, Chapters 23-35: Panthers; the decree of the Senate, and laws respecting African animals; tigers: when first seen at Rome, their nature; camels: the different kinds; the cameleopard: when it was first seen at Rome; the chama and the cepus; the rhinoceros; the lynx, the sphynx, the crocotta and the monkey; the terrestrial animals of India; the animals of Aethiopia: a wild beast which kills with its eye; the serpents called basilisks; wolves; different kinds of serpents

1227

2222 - Book 8, Chapters 36-47: The ichneumon; the crocodile; the seincus; the hippopotamus; who first exhibited the hippopotamus and the crocodile at Rome; the medicinal remedies which have been borrowed from animals; prognostics of danger derived from animals; nations that have been exterminated by animals; the hyaena; the crocotta, the mantichora; wild asses; beavers; amphibious animals; otters

1137

2323 - Book 8, Chapters 48-56: Bramble-frogs; the sea-calf; beavers; lizards; stags; the chameleon; other animals which change colors; the tarandus, the lycaon and the thos; the porcupine; bears and their cubs; the mice of Pontus and of the Alps; hedgehogs

1261

2424 - Book 8, Chapters 57-69: The leontophonus and the lynx; badgers and squirrels; vipers and snails; lizards; the qualities of the dog; examples of its attachment to its master; nations which have kept dogs for the purpose of war; the generation of the dog; remedies against canine madness; the nature of the horse; the disposition of the horse; remarkable facts concerning chariot horses; the generation of the horse; mares impregnated by the wind; the ass: its generation; the nature of mules and of other beasts of burden

1783

2525 - Book 8, Chapters 70-76: Oxen: their generation; the Egyptian Apis; sheep and their propagation; the different kinds of wool and their colours; different kinds of cloth; the different shapes of sheep; the musmon; goats and their propagation

1248

2626 - Book 8, Chapters 77-84: The hog; the wild boar; who was the first to establish parks for wild animals; animals in a half-wild state; apes; the different species of hares; animals which are tamed in part only; places in which certain animals are not to be found; animals which injure strangers only, as also animals which injure the natives of the country only, and where they are found; summary; Roman authors quoted; foreign authors quoted

1390

2727 - Book 9, Chapters 1-6: Why the largest animals are found in the sea; the sea monsters of the Indian Ocean; the largest animals that are found in each ocean; the forms of Tritons and Nereids; the forms of sea-elephants; the balaena and the orca; whether fishes respire and whether they sleep

751

2828 - Book 9, Chapters 7-16: Dolphins; human beings who have been beloved by dolphins; places where dolphins help men to fish; other wonderful things relating to dolphins; the tursio; turtles: the various kinds of turtles and where they are caught; who first invented the art of cutting tortoise shell; distribution of aquatic animals into various species; those which are covered with hair,or have none, and how they bring forth; sea-calves or phocae; how many kinds of fish there are

1218

2929 - Book 9, Chapters 17-24: which of the fishes are of the largest size; tunnies, cordyla and pelamides and the various parts of them that are salted; melandrya, apolecti and cybia; the aurias and the scomber; fishes which are never found in the Euxine; those which enter it and return; why fishes leap above the surface of the water; that auguries are derived from fishes; what kinds of fishes have no males; fishes which have a stone in their head; those which keep themselves concealed during winter

684

3030 - Book 9, Chapters 25-37: Fishes which conceal themselves during the summer; the mullet; the acipenser; the lupus, the asellus; the scarus, the mustella; the various kinds of mullets and the sargus that attends them; enormous prices of some fish; that the same kinds are not everywhere equally esteemed; gills and scales; fishes which have a voice; fishes without gills; fishes which come on land; the proper time for catching fish; classification of fishes, according to the shape of the body; the fins of fish, and their mode of swimming

744

3131 - Book 9, Chapters 38-49: Eels; the murena; various kinds of flat fish; the echeneis and its uses in enchantments; fishes which change their colour; fishes which fly above the water; the sea swallow; the fish that shines in the night; the horned fish; the sea-dragon; fishes which have no blood; fishes known as soft fish; the saepia, the loligo, the scallop; the polypus; the nautilus, or sailing polypus; the various kinds of polypi; their shrewdness; the sailing nauplius

964

3232 - Book 9, Chapters 50-53: Sea-animals which are enclosed with a crust; the cray-fish; the various kinds of crabs; the pinnotheres; the sea urchin; cockles and scallops; various kinds of shell-fish; what numerous appliances of luxury are found in the sea

525

3333 - Book 9, Chapters 54-59: pearls: how they are produced, and where; how pearls are found; the various kinds of pearls; remarkable facts connected with pearls - their nature; instances of the use of pearls; how pearls first came into use at Rome

843

3434 - Book 9, Chapters 60-67: The nature of the murex and the purple; the different kinds of purples; how wools are dyed with the juices of the purple; when purple was first used at Rome; fabrics called conchyliated; the amethyst, the Tyrian, the hysgnian and the crimson tints; the pinna and the pinnotheres; the sensitiveness of water-animals; the torpedo, the pastinaca, the scolopendra, the glanis and the ram-fish

1222

3535 - Book 9, Chapters 68-78: Bodies which have a third nature, that of the animal and vegetable combined; the sea-nettle; sponges: the various kinds of them, and where they are produced; proofs that they are gifted with life by nature; dog-fish; fishes which are enclosed in a stony-shell; sea-animals which have no sensation; other animals which live in the mud; venomous sea-animals; the maladies of fishes; the generation of fishes; fishes which are both oviparous and viviparous; fishes the belly of which opens in spawning, and then closes again; fishes that have a womb; those which impregnate themselves; the longest lives known among fishes

1049

3636 - Book 9, Chapters 79-88: The first person that formed artificial oyster-beds; who was the first inventor of preserves for other fish; who invented preserves for murenae; who invented preserves for sea-snails; land-fishes; the mice of the Nile; how the fish called the anthias is taken; sea-stars; the marvellous properties of the dactylus; the anthipaties and sympathies that exist between aquatic animals; summary; Roman authors quoted; foreign authors quoted

856

3737 - Book 10, Chapters 1-12: The ostrich; the phoenix; the different kinds of eagles; the natural characteristics of the eagle; when the eagle was first used as the standard of the Roman legions; an eagle which precipitated itself on the funeral pile of a girl; the vulture; the birds called sangualis and immusulus; hawks; the buteo; in what places hawks and men pursue the chase in company with each other; the only bird that is killed by those of its own kind; a bird that lays only one egg; the kite

1388

3838 - Book 10, Chapters 13-32: The classification of birds; crows; birds of ill omen; at what season they are not inauspicious; the raven; the horned owl; birds, the race of which is extinct or of which all knowledge has been lost; birds which are born with the tail first; the owlet; the wood-pecker of Mars; birds which have hooked talons; the peacock; who was the first to kill the peacock for food; who first taught the art of cramming them; the dunghill cock; how cocks are castrated; a cock that once spoke; the goose; who first taught us to use the liver of the goose for food; the Commagenian medicament; the chenalopex, the cheneros, the tetrao and the oris; cranes; storks; swans

1250

3939 - Book 10, Chapters 33-49: Foreign birds which visit us; swallows; birds that take their departure from us, and whither they go; birds which remains with us throughout the year; birds that remain with us only six or three months; the Memnonides; the Meleagrides; the Seleucides, the ibis; places in which certain birds are never found; the various kinds of birds which afford omens by their note; birds which change their colour and their voice; the nightingale; the melancoryphus; the erithacus and the phoenicurus; the oenanthe, the chlorion, the blackbird and the ibis; the times of incubation of birds; the halcyones: the halcyon days that are favourable to navigation; other kinds of aquatic birds; the instinctive cleverness displayed by birds in the construction of their nests; the wonderful works of the swallow

1369

4040 - Book 10, Chapters 50-62: The acanthyllis and other birds; the merops - partidges; pigeons; wonderful things done by them; prices at which they have been sold; different modes of flight and progression in birds; the birds called apodes or cypseli; respecting the food of birds - the caprimulgus, the platea; the instinct of birds - the carduelis, the taurus, the anthus; birds which speak - the parrot; the pie which feeds on acorns; a sedition that arose among the Roman people in consequence of a raven speaking; the birds of Diomedes; animals that can learn nothing

1358

4141 - Book 10, Chapters 63-81: The mode of drinking with birds; the porphyrio; the haematopous; the food of birds; the pelican; foreign birds: the phalerides, the pheasant and the numidicae; the phoenicopterus, the attagen, the phalacrocorax, the pyrrhocorax and the lagopus; the new birds; the vipio; fabulous birds; who first invented the art of cramming poultry: why the first Censors forbade this practice; who first invented aviaries; the dish of Aesopus; the generation of birds: other oviparous animals; the various kinds of eggs and their nature; defects in brood-hens and their remedies; an augury derived from eggs by an empress; the best kinds of fowls; the diseases of fowls and their remedies; when birds lay and how many eggs; the various kinds of herons; what eggs are called hypenemia and what cynosura; how eggs are best kept; the only winged animal that is viviparous and nurtures its young with milk

1631

4242 - Book 10, Chapters 82-98: Terrestrial animals that are oviparous; various kinds of serpents; generation of all kinds of terrestrial animals; the position of animals in the uterus; animals whose origin is still unknown; salamanders; animals which are born of beings that have not been born themselves - animals which are born themselves, but are not reproductive - animals which are of neither sex; the senses of animals - that all have the senses of touch and taste - those which are more remarkable for their sight, smell or hearing - moles - whether oysters have the sense of hearing; which fishes have the best hearing; which fishes have the finest sense of smell; diversities in the feeding of animals; animals which live on poisons; animals which live on earth - animals which will not die of hunger or thirst; diversities in the drinking of animals; antipathies of animals; proofs that they are sensible of frienship and other affections; instances of affection shown by serpents; the sleep of animals; what animals are subject to dreams;summary; Roman authors quoted; foreign authors quoted

2138

Natural History Volume 2

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Chapters (42)

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