Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman scholar, cavalry officer and naval commander from Novum Comum in northern Italy. His Natural History, in 37 books and largely finished by 77 CE, gathered what Romans knew about the universe, the earth, animals, plants, medicine, metals and art from hundreds of earlier authors. It remained an authority on scientific matters into the Middle Ages, despite its uneven accuracy.

He died in 79 CE at Stabiae, near Mount Vesuvius, after sailing with the fleet toward the eruption, an event described by his nephew, Pliny the Younger.

Book 2 covers the heavens and weather, including comets, meteors and lights in the sky. One entry, dated by the consuls Lucius Valerius and Gaius Marius (100 BCE), describes a burning shield scattering sparks that ran across the sky at sunset from west to east. Pliny files it among other named phenomena. Modern readers suggest a bright fireball meteor; ancient-astronaut writers cite it as an early UFO report. He also records that Athens honored the Babylonian astrologer Berossus with a statue with a gilded tongue.