"The 37-volume Naturalis Historia, written by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, is the world's earliest surviving encyclopedia. In the first century C.E., Pliny set out to collect the breadth of human knowledge, and millennia later, it's still a great document for learning a little bit about everything. It has chapters on sugar, Germany, the rainbow, Cesarean births, the art of painting, and hypothetical antipodes."
"It also makes delightfully apparent where Pliny's most passionate interests lay: Consider the chapters "Elephants (Their Capacity)," "When Elephants Were First Put Into Harness," "The Docility of the Elephant," and "Wonderful Things Which Have Been Done by the Elephant." I hope you find a topic you enjoy just as much in this week's trivia. Find last week's questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily. Monday, November 3, 2025"
The 37-volume Naturalis Historia, compiled in the first century C.E., collects a vast range of knowledge on natural history, geography, medicine, arts, and curiosities. Chapters address topics such as sugar, Germany, the rainbow, Cesarean births, the art of painting, and hypothetical antipodes. Multiple chapters focus on elephants, treating their capacity, harnessing, docility, and remarkable deeds. The work represents the earliest surviving encyclopedia and remains useful for general learning across disciplines. Trivia prompts include questions about U.S. presidential architecture, poetic meter origins, baseball strikeout notation, and the Athletics' elephant mascot origin.
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