Pliny the Elder was one of the most extraordinary figures of the Roman world, a man whose relentless commitment to work and knowledge literally killed him. A military commander, government administrator, and author of the monumental Natural History, an encyclopedia attempting to catalog all human knowledge, Pliny embodied a Roman ideal of productive industry taken to its absolute extreme. His life and death reveal the Roman obsession with useful activity and the sometimes fatal consequences of refusing to waste a single moment. Pliny's daily routine was legendary even among his contemporaries. He began work before dawn, often by candlelight, and continued dictating notes, reading reports, and producing written work throughout every available moment of the day. He was carried through the streets in a litter so he could read or be read to during tran ...