Natural History Volume 2, The by PLINY THE ELDER

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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 a

  • 15 minutes 50 seconds
    01 - 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
  • 8 minutes 45 seconds
    32 - 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
  • 20 minutes 48 seconds
    25 - 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
  • 23 minutes 10 seconds
    26 - 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
  • 12 minutes 31 seconds
    27 - 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
  • 20 minutes 18 seconds
    28 - 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
  • 11 minutes 24 seconds
    29 - 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
  • 12 minutes 24 seconds
    30 - 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
  • 16 minutes 4 seconds
    31 - 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
  • 14 minutes 3 seconds
    33 - 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
  • 21 minutes 1 second
    23 - 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
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