Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus (born 23 or 24 CE; died 79 CE), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman author, naturalist, scientist, naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and friend of the emperor Vespasian. Pliny wrote the encyclopedic (''Natural History''), a comprehensive thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field.

Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume ''Bella Germaniae'' ("Wars of Germania"), which is no longer extant. ''Bella Germaniae'', which began where Aufidius Bassus' writings on Germani wars left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Tacitus may have used ''Bella Germaniae'' as the primary source for his work, ''De origine et situ Germanorum'' ("On the Origin and Situation of the Germani").

Pliny the Elder died in AD 79 in Stabiae while attempting to rescue people from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Provided by Wikipedia