The natural history of pigeons / Illustrated by thirty-two plates, coloured, and numerous woodcuts. With memoir of Pliny by Andrew Crichton.

  • Selby, Prideaux John, 1788-1867.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of pigeons / Illustrated by thirty-two plates, coloured, and numerous woodcuts. With memoir of Pliny by Andrew Crichton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the testimony of his nephew, who asserts that, while yet quite young, he was employed in the Roman ar- mies in Germany. He there served under Lucius Pomponius, whose friendship he gained, and who entrusted him with the command of a part of the cavalry. In these campaigns he must have availed himself very fully of the opportunity to explore the country; since he informs us that he had seen the sources of the Danube, and had also visited the Chauci, a tribe that dwelt between the Elbe and the Weser, on the borders of the Northern Ocean. The operations of the war seem not entirely to have en- grossed his time, as he found leisure to write a trea- tise (his first work) De Jaculatione Equestri, on the art of throwing the javeline on horseback. He also composed a life of his General, Pomponius, which was dictated by his strong attachment to that com- mander, and by the gratitude which he felt for his numerous favours. He was induced about the same period to engage in a literary enterprise of great la- bour, viz. that of composing the history of all the wars carried on in Germany by the Romans. This undertaking, as recorded by his nephew, was sug- gested to him by a remarkable dream, in which the shade of Drusus appeared to him, and urged him to write his memoirs,—a task which he eventually exe- cuted in the compass of twenty books. About the age of thirty Pliny returned to Rome, where he pleaded several causes according to the custom of his countrymen, who were fond of allying