Plinius

Plinius wrote about spells and witches in a superstitious manner. […] But the sort of spell which Plinius talks of, smacking of superstition, is false, contrived and quite impossible in true believers.

“Welcome, sire!” Vespasian saluted, and after the briefest hesitation Plinius followed his legate’s example, swallowing his distaste for such deference to a mere native, albeit a king of his people.

Contemporary and employer of Suetonius and friend of Tacitus, Plinius was a highly skilled rhetorician well known for letters rightly dubbed literary classics.