Across the Waters of Time: Pliny Remembered
The long and incredibly varied life of Pliny the Elder forms the subject of Parejko’s fantastic book, taking readers on a first-person narration of the great man’s life and times. That life was more eventful than most: cavalry officer in Germany and Judea, imperial administrator in Syria, Spain, and North Africa, author of the mammoth Natural History, friend to the emperor Vespasian, and, perhaps most famously of all, the admiral who sailed his fleet toward Naples when Vesuvius was erupting in AD 79, dying there during his attempt to rescue stranded survivors.
In telling this life story, Parejko is able to dramatize one of the most fascinating periods in ancient Roman history, through the filter of one of the most remarkable men of antiquity. The dialogue flows easily, the research is extremely thorough but smoothly incorporated, and the atmosphere is well-evoked; it adds up to a book that’s very strongly recommended.
