The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)

The final volume of the most ambitious work of encyclopedic knowledge to survive from antiquity. Here Pliny the Elder completes his survey of the world's geography and peoples, moving eastward from the Mediterranean to encompass Arabia, India, and the mysterious lands at the edge of the known world. Written in AD 77, just two years before his death in the eruption of Vesuvius, the Natural History represents a Roman senator's furious attempt to gather every scrap of knowledge worth preserving from the accumulated wisdom of the ancient world. Volume 6 captures Pliny at his most wondrous: describing India's fabulously wealthy kingdoms, the practices of peoples whose customs shock Roman sensibilities, and the natural marvels that mark the boundaries of the oikumene, the entire inhabited earth. This is not dry compilation but a working mind grappling with the totality of creation, convinced that nature exists to serve humanity and that cataloging her wonders is a sacred duty. For anyone curious about how Romans understood their world, or anyone drawn to the strange pleasure of encountering ancient knowledge both familiar and utterly alien.