Naturalis Historia used to begin to study at night on the Festival of Vulcan, not for luck but from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at the seventh hour.
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19 Facts About Naturalis Historia
2.
Naturalis Historia considers it a weakness to try to find the shape and form of God, or to suppose that such a being would care about human affairs.
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3.
Naturalis Historia describes comets, noting that only Aristotle has recorded seeing more than one at once.
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4.
Naturalis Historia devotes considerable space to bees, which he admires for their industry, organisation, and honey, discussing the significance of the queen bee and the use of smoke by beekeepers at the hive to collect honeycomb.
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5.
Naturalis Historia is critical of the Magi, attacking astrology, and suggesting that magic originated in medicine, creeping in by pretending to offer health.
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6.
Naturalis Historia praises Cato the Elder and his work De Agri Cultura, which he uses as a primary source.
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7.
Naturalis Historia describes machines used in cultivation and processing the crops.
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8.
Naturalis Historia describes how grain is ground using a pestle, a hand-mill, or a mill driven by water wheels, as found in Roman water mills across the Empire.
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9.
Naturalis Historia is critical of greed for gold, such as the absurdity of using the metal for coins in the early Republic.
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11.
Naturalis Historia discusses why gold is unique in its malleability and ductility, far greater than any other metal.
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12.
Naturalis Historia once saw Agrippina the Younger, wife of Claudius, at a public show on the Fucine Lake involving a naval battle, wearing a military cloak made of gold.
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13.
Naturalis Historia says mercury is used for gilding copper, while antimony is found in silver mines and is used as an eyebrow cosmetic.
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14.
Naturalis Historia says that the colour is similar to scolecium, probably the kermes insect.
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16.
Naturalis Historia provides a thorough discussion of the properties of fluorspar, noting that it is carved into vases and other decorative objects.
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17.
Naturalis Historia refers to using one hard mineral to scratch another, presaging the Mohs hardness scale.
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18.
Naturalis Historia prefers the marble Laocoon and his Sons in the palace of Titus to all the pictures and bronzes in the world .
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19.
Naturalis Historia describes gold mining in detail, with large-scale use of water to scour alluvial gold deposits.
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