Plinius

Plinius (Pliny the Elder / Gaius Plinius, AD 23-79) was a Roman historian and natural scientist who lived during the Roman Empire, born in Verona or Novum Comum. Among ancient sources, he is remembered as one of the authors who shed light on the geographical and ethnographic background of Kurdish history with his encyclopedic work (Volume 1, p. 46).

Plinius's work titled Naturalis Historia (Natural History) is valuable for containing rich information from the perspective of historical geography (Volume 1, p. 46). In this respect, Plinius became a reference source for subsequent generations; for example, when evaluating Kazvinî's works in Islamic period geography and travel literature, these works were compared with the famous Greek historian Herodotus (425-484 BC) along with Gaius Plinius (AD 23-79) due to their importance (Volume 2, p. 28).

The geographical information provided by Plinius is important in determining the settlement areas of the region's peoples. Plinius mentions the living areas of the Mard/Amardi as the Niphates mountains northeast of Van Gölü (Volume 1, p. 46).

Some information provided by Plinius is evaluated with a critical eye. It is pointed out that the information regarding the Cossaei being assigned to the Persian army might be erroneous; for Diodorus states that the Cossaei were not subjects of the Persian king (Volume 1, p. 46).