Cesare, Pompeo, l’elefante e la fortuna. Il volere umano tra natura, società e colpi della sorte nei libri VII-VIII della “Storia naturale” di Plinio il Vecchio

To obtain a complete description of the paradeigmata voluntatis, it is necessary to question natural science as well as philosophical and literary documents. Therefore it becomes interesting to face Pliny the Elder, a contemporary of Seneca. Pliny’s attention is turned to man placed in a world where the will of destiny plays an explicit role, in a completely unpredictable game of alternation between positive and negative. A method of investigation is emerging that does not disdain to engage between science and myth, between empirical reality and dreams, between limits and protagonists seeking their overcoming, as in the case of Caesar and Pompey.