Editing Natural History (Pliny) (section)

===Style===

Pliny's writing style emulates that of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]].<ref>Cf. Trevor Murphy, ''Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia'', OUP (2004), pp.&nbsp;181–197.</ref> It aims less at clarity and vividness than at [[epigrammatic]] point. It contains many [[antitheses]], questions, exclamations, [[Trope (linguistics)|tropes]], [[metaphor]]s, and other [[mannerism]]s of the [[Silver Age of Latin Literature|Silver Age]].<ref>Cf. P. L. Chambers, ''The Natural Histories of Pliny the Elder: An Advanced Reader and Grammar Review'', University of Oklahoma Press (2012), ''s.v.'', and Latin [[syntax]] in Pliny; see also Roger French & Frank Greenaway, ''Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence'', Croom Helm (1986), pp.&nbsp;23–44.</ref> His sentence structure is often loose and straggling. There is heavy use of the [[ablative absolute]], and [[ablative]] phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g.,<ref name="NH XXXV:80">''Natural History'' XXXV:80</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ A sentence illustrating Pliny's writing style
|-
! style="width:  80px;" | &nbsp;
! style="width: 225px;" | First half: description 
! style="width: 225px;" | Second half: Pliny's opinion
|-
! Pliny<ref name="NH XXXV:80"/> 
| {{lang|la|dixit (Apelles)&nbsp;... uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere,}} || {{lang|la|memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.}}
|-
! Grammar 
| [[Active voice|Active sentence]] || [[Ablative absolute]] phrase
|- 
! Translation<ref>Healy, 2004. page 331 (translation of XXXV:80</ref> 
| In one thing Apelles stood out, namely, knowing when he had put enough work into a painting, || a salutary warning that too much effort can be counterproductive.<br/>&nbsp;
|}