Pliny's Defense of Empire

Laehn offers a radical reinterpretation of the architecture of Pliny¿s encyclopedia, exposing fundamental errors in the inherited understanding of the text traceable to its initial reception in ancient Rome. Recognition of the text¿s true structure reveals that Pliny¿s encyclopedia is in fact a first-rate work of political philosophy constituting an apology for Roman imperial expansionism grounded in a sophisticated account of human nature.