was “Historia Naturalis” (Natural History), an encyclopedia of natural science that spanned thirty-seven books. In this work, Pliny describes in detail the physical nature of the world.

Focusing on a passage from Pliny the Elder's Natural History (arguably the urtext of classical art history), this paper explores the perennial question of how the material stuff of antiquity can be ...

His motivation appears to have been simple: Pliny wanted fame. He hoped that these letters would help shape the history of the empire, but most of all he wanted them to make him famous.