The Anecdotal Narration and Encyclopedic Thought of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia
Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, with its varied content, enables and expects the reader to employ a complex interpretative technique. One aspect of Pliny’s diction is that he often interrupts the discussions of topics with digressions and begins to address something that seemingly has nothing to do with the subject. The hypothesis suggested by this book is that these digressions that occur in different places and in great number throughout the text of Naturalis Historia should not be regarded as mistakes fragmenting the encyclopedia’s structure.
Most of these digressions are anecdotes. Researching the aetiological anecdotes, and those about the life of animals, famous persons from political or intellectual life, and the most important Greek painters and sculptors requires the application of different perspectives. When we approach anecdotes from the perspective of narrative techniques, the role of the stories as exempla becomes clearer, and its further aspects can be spotted. This book also draws attention to Pliny the writer, an aspect of the text that has been contested until very recently.
Dr Ágnes Darab is a Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Miskolc, Hungary. Her main areas of research include classical philology, ancient literature and sister arts, narratology, genre of anecdote, and comparative literature, with special focus on the Classical-Hungarian relations in contemporary Hungarian literature. She is the author of one book and many essays in English, German and Hungarian on Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia. She edited, with an introduction, translation and notes, the first complete Hungarian translation of Books 7–8, 34 and 36 of Pliny’s encyclopaedia.
"[Any] student of Pliny the Elder, the Roman Empire, or first century C.E. Rome will find much of value in these pages."
Georgia Irby, Professor of Classical Studies, The College of William and Mary
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