Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as the Elder, was born in 23 or 24 A.D. in Como, and died on 24 August 79 A.D. asphyxiated by the gases from the eruption of Vesuvius, the volcano that destroyed Pompei. He rose to high rank in the Roman army and became a governor of a province. He service took him from Spain in the west to Syria in the east. A historian and encyclopedist, his written output was immense. He completed 37 books of his Natural History in 77 A.D.
 
PLINY THE ELDER

ON ANCIENT GREEK
PAINTING

BOOK 35 OF THE NATURAL HISTORY

Translated from the original Latin
by Takis Roussos and Alekos Levidis
EDITED, PREFACED AND ANNOTATED
BY ALEKOS LEVIDIS

(560 pages, 21X14 cm.)
 

In the 35th Book of this monumental work, in which Pliny examines various kinds of earth - the basic raw material for the colours used by painters in his day - he gives an account of the history of painting and the most important painters known to him from
the 6th century B.C. until the 1st century A.D. The same book also includes a brief history of sculpture.

Pliny's record of painting and painters is a vital source for historians of ancient art for it supplements the various scattered references that can be found elsewhere in the ancient sources. Indeed, it is the fullest account of the Greek art of antiquity that we possess.

This is the first time that a full and annotated text (original and translation) of this part of Pliny's Natural History has been published in Greek. The editor provides a full commentary on the historians and artists of the ancient world, and the book is richly illustrated so as to provide the reader with a comprehensive modern account of the subject.

This book was awarded the Athens Academy Book Prize in 1995.