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He was the son of a Roman equestrian with the cognomen Celer by one Marcella, some say the son of the Senator Gaius or Caius Caecilius of Novum Comum (Como) others of one Titus, which suggests a possible connection with the Titii Pomponii, and being the connection with the Caecilii from Celer, cognomen used by that Gens[1]. He was born in Como, not (as is sometimes supposed) at Verona it is only as a native of Gallia Transpadana that he calls Catullus of Verona his conterraneus, or fellow-countryman, not his municeps, or fellow-townsman.[2] A statue of Pliny on the facade of the Duomo of Como celebrates him as a native son.
Before AD 35 [3] Pliny's father took him to Rome, where he was educated and did his military service in Germania on his command under his father's friend, the poet and military commander, Publius Pomponius Secundus, who inspired him with a lifelong love of learning. Two centuries after the death of the Gracchi, Pliny saw some of their autograph writings in his preceptor's library,[4] and he afterwards wrote that preceptor's Life.
He mentions the grammarians and rhetoricians, Remmius Palaemon and Arellius Fuscus,[5] and he may have been their student. In Rome he studied botany in the topiarius (garden) of the aged Antonius Castor,[6] and saw the fine old lotus trees in the grounds that had once belonged to Crassus.[7] He also viewed the vast structure raised by Caligula,[8] and probably witnessed the triumph of Claudius over Britain in 44.[9] Under the influence of Seneca the Younger he became a keen student of philosophy and rhetoric, and began practicing as an advocate.
