Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (23-79). Roman writer on natural history who died in the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79 because, being eager to observe the phenomenon, he landed at Stabiae (Castellamare) and was soon stifled by the fumes. Woodcut from Liber chronicarum mundi (Nuremberg Chronicle) by Hartmann Schedel (Nuremberg), 1493.