Whether Wilde was intentionally following Pliny or not, several close parallels with Pliny’s story are immediately obvious. The ghost here appears late at night. The initial disturbance is a noise that sounds like clanking metal and comes closer and closer, which parallels Pliny's description, «you could hear... the clanking of chains, first from far off, then from close by» (strepitus vinculorum longius primo deinde e proximo reddebatur, 7.27.5). The person to whom the ghost appears is calm and rational, as was Athenodorus. The noise continues; although it is not described as increasing in volume, the placement of this phrase parallels Pliny’s. «Then the din grew even louder» (tum crebescere fragor, 7.27.8). Light, in this case moonlight, is needed in this story so that the ghost can he seen, as in Pliny (and Lucian). The physical appearance of the ghost might have been drawn straight from Pliny: an old man with long, matted hair (promissa barba, horrenti capillo) and dirty clothes (squalore confectus), with chains—described separately—on his arms and legs (cruribus compedes, manibus catenas, 7.27.5). — Felton, DebbieHaunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity. — 2010. — С. 92.; https://books.google.am/books?id=3TCwxMR2GokC&pg=PA92
