caption relations death_place children birth_place citizenship imagesize parents birth_date spouse residence image article_title education name occupation death_cause
pliny artist . no contemporary depiction of pliny is known to the survive . elder , as imagined by a 19th-century sister younger -rrb- -lrb- plinia -rrb- , nephew -lrb- pliny the stabiae , campania , roman empire pliny -rrb- the younger -lrb- adopted son , originally nephew comum -lrb- como -rrb- , italy , roman empire roman 178px celer and marcella ad 23 none rome , provincial locations , misenum pliny the elder.png pliny the elder
 rhetoric , grammar pliny the elder gaius plinius secundus lawyer military commander , -lrb- admiral of the fleet at misenum , -rrb- provincial governor author , natural philosopher , naturalist , died 79 -rrb- on the beach at stabiae ; pliny had in asthma and therefore died due to breathing difficulties induced by the the toxic gases emitted by the volcano . eruption of mt. vesuvius -lrb- ad
pliny the elder

gaius plinius secundus -lrb- ad 23 -- august 25 , ad 79 -rrb- , better known as pliny the elder -lrb- -rrb- , was a roman author , naturalist , and natural philosopher , as well as naval and army commander of the early roman empire and personal friend of the emperor vespasian .
spending most of his spare time studying , writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field , he wrote an encyclopedic work , `` naturalis historia '' , which became a model for all other encyclopedias .
pliny the younger , his nephew , wrote of him in a letter to the historian tacitus : pliny is referring to the fact that tacitus relied on his uncle 's now missing work on the `` history of the german wars '' .
pliny the elder died on august 25 , ad 79 , whilst attempting to rescue pomponianus -lrb- a friend of pliny 's -rrb- and his family from the eruption of mount vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of pompeii and herculaneum .
when pliny arrived , pomponianus had packed his bags ready for a swift getaway , but having arrived , pliny ordered for a bath to be drawn in order to calm pomponianus ' fears .
a swift getaway was not possible due to the wind directly facing stabiae , and so it appears that pliny used his initiative in this instance .
it is subtly implied in pliny the younger 's letter to tacitus -lrb- the death of my uncle -rrb- , that pliny drew this bath to allow time for him to decide what to do next .
however , it is also implied that he felt the necessity to bathe because he thought it would help his asthma .
for in his letter , pliny the younger describes how anybody walking past the room in which pliny was bathing -lrb- the door was closed -rrb- could hear his wheezing .
therefore , it is thought that pliny commanded a bath not only to gather a revised plan , but furthermore to recuperate himself somewhat .
from this we know that the toxic gas was already beginning to take effect on pliny .
it is known that when the pumice stones began to fall seemingly ` from the sky ' , pliny the elder and the entire team on his ship tied pillows to their heads and fastened them with thin strips of linen .
pliny the younger makes sure to detail this , which implies that he wanted his uncle 's meticulous , creative and perhaps even thoughtful -lrb- as he provided pillows to his slaves too -rrb- nature to be properly conveyed .
the unfavourable prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave the shore , and thus travel away from the toxic fumes .
his companions attributed his collapse and death on the beach at stabiae to toxic fumes , but they were unaffected by the fumes , as pliny had asthma and therefore was affected more severely .
