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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6)

Chapter 57: CHAP. 52. (51.)—OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIGHTNING395 AND THEIR WONDERFUL EFFECTS.
By the Elder Pliny
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About This Book

The text assembles a systematic survey of the natural world, opening with cosmological and geographical discussions and proceeding through plants, animals, minerals, and human uses of natural substances. It synthesizes reports from earlier authors, travelers, and craftsmen, combining empirical observation, hearsay, and learned commentary to describe physical phenomena, medicinal remedies, technologies, and curiosities. Organized as an encyclopedic sequence of books and chapters, it catalogues facts and theories, cites authorities, and balances practical instruction with natural-philosophical reflection.

CHAP. 52. (51.)—OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIGHTNING395 AND THEIR WONDERFUL EFFECTS.

We have accounts of many different kinds of thunder-storms. Those which are dry do not burn objects, but dissipate them; while those which are moist do not burn, but blacken them. There is a third kind, which is called bright lightning396, of a very wonderful nature, by which casks are emptied, without the vessels themselves being injured, or there being any other trace left of their operation397. Gold, copper, and silver are melted, while the bags which contain them are not in the least burned, nor even the wax seal much defaced. Marcia, a lady of high rank at Rome, was struck while pregnant; the fœtus was destroyed, while she herself survived without suffering any injury398. Among the prognostics which took place at the time of Catiline’s conspiracy, M. Herennius, a magistrate of the borough of Pompeii, was struck by lightning when the sky was without clouds399.