Roman (and earlier) naturalists

[Jack Harrison]

I was recently visited (or was near) to some ancient Roman remains. A strange thought crossed my mind: it can perhaps be answered by some of you historians or classics' scholars.

Did the Romans (or for example the Greeks before them) have naturalists? Are there any writings that suggest an interest (other than perhaps as a source of food or sport) in the wildlife of the day? And of course, especially intriguing to us: were there any lepidopterists?

Jack

[millerd]

Aristotle apparently is credited with founding Entomology as a science. He developed his Taxonomy for classifying insects. Pliny the Younger wrote something called Historia Naturalis, which plagiarised previous Greek works and of which Ch. 11 concerned insects. That's as far into internet research as I could get relatively quickly!

Dave

[MikeOxon]

You can actually read the Naturalis Historia on the web at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... .+Nat.+toc

Pliny the Elder was certainly very interested in the natural world and died while observing the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 a little too closely! He was the author of the work but most of it was published after his untimely death by his nephew (Pliny the Younger)

His book is nothing like a modern text and though some parts are quite factual others quote complete fantasy. Concerning insects, he has most to say about bees and beekeeping, on which he was very knowledgable.

Mike