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Gaius or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius or Caius Plinius Caecilius, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 AD.
Background
Born in Como, northern Italy, the son either of a Lucius Caecilius or a landowner named Gaius Caecilius (born in Como ca. 30 AD, son of Gaius Caecilius, born in Como ca. 1 AD) and his wife Plinia Marcella (born in Verona), Pliny the Younger was also a maternal nephew of Pliny the Elder. It seems, however, since Gaius Caecilius was the name of his mother's grandfather, that his father was Lucius Caecilius, perhaps the Lucius Caecilius born ca.
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Timeline
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63 Born
81 Pliny the Younger was ''flamen Divi Augusti'' (priest in the cult of the Emperor).
84 Pliny the Younger was ''sevir equitum Romanorum'' (commander of a cavalry squadron).
90 Pliny the Younger's appointment as urban quaestor ends.
91 Pliny the Younger was named a ''tribunus plebis''.
93 Pliny the Younger was named a ''praetor''.
100 Pliny the Younger advances to consulship.
103 Pliny the Younger becomes a member of the college of Augurs (-104).
104 Pliny the Younger is a member of the college of Augurs (103-104).
109 Pliny the Younger is legate to Bithynia.
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Quotations
An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.
Book II, letter 15
He (Pliny the Elder) used to say that no book was so bad but that some good might be got out of it.
Book III, letter 5
His only fault is that he has no fault.
Book IX, letter 26
That indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing.
Book VIII, letter 9
Objects which are usually the motives of our travels by land and sea are often overlooked and neglected if they lie under our eye...We put off from time to time going and seeing what we know we have an opportunity of seeing when we please.
Book VIII, letter 20
Encyclopedia
Gaius or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius or Caius Plinius Caecilius, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 AD.
Background
Born in Como, northern Italy, the son either of a Lucius Caecilius or a landowner named Gaius Caecilius (born in Como ca. 30 AD, son of Gaius Caecilius, born in Como ca. 1 AD) and his wife Plinia Marcella (born in Verona), Pliny the Younger was also a maternal nephew of Pliny the Elder. It seems, however, since Gaius Caecilius was the name of his mother's grandfather, that his father was Lucius Caecilius, perhaps the Lucius Caecilius born ca. 15 BC who was a great-grandson of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio. He revered his uncle, Pliny the Elder, and provides pencil sketches of how his uncle worked on the Naturalis Historia.
Pliny's father died at an early age when his son was still young; as a result, Pliny probably lived with his mother. His guardian and preceptor in charge of his education is known to have been Lucius Verginius Rufus, famed for quelling a revolt against Nero. After being first tutored at home, Pliny later travelled to Rome where he furthered his education and was taught rhetoric by the great teacher and author Quintilian and Nicetes Sacerdos of Smyrna. It was at this time that Pliny became closer to his uncle Pliny the Elder, and when the elder Pliny died during the Vesuvian eruption, the terms of the will passed the estate to the younger Pliny. In the same document he was adopted by his uncle, changing his name from Gaius Plinius Caecilius to Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, a common practice in Roman culture.
Pliny was considered an honest and moderate man and rose through a series of Imperial civil and military offices, the cursus honorum (see below). He was a friend of the historian Tacitus and employed the biographer Suetonius in his staff. Pliny also came into contact with many other well-known men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates during his time in Syria.
He married three times, firstly when he was very young, about eighteen, to a stepdaughter of Veccius Proculus, of whom he became a widower at age 37, secondly to the daughter of Pompeia Celerina, at an unknown date and thirdly to Calpurnia, daughter of Calpurnius and granddaughter of Calpurnus Fabatus of Comum. Letters survive in which Pliny records this latter marriage taking place, as well as his attachment to Calpurnia and his sadness when they were unable to have children.
Pliny is thought to have died suddenly during his appointment in Bithynia-Pontus, around 112 AD, since no events referred to in his letters date later than that.
Career Pliny's career began at the age of eighteen and followed a normal route through the cursus honorum (see Career summary below).
Pliny was active in the Roman legal system, especially in the sphere of the Roman centumviral court, which dealt with inheritance cases. Later, he was well-known for prosecuting (and defending) at the trials of a series of provincial governors, including Baebius Massa, governor of Baetica, Marius Priscus, the governor of Africa, Gaius Caecilius Classicus, governor of Baetica and most ironically in light of his later appointment to this province, Gaius Julius Bassus and Varenus Rufus, both governors of Bithynia-Pontus.
Pliny's career is commonly considered as a summary of the main Roman public charges and is the best-documented example from this period, offering proof for many aspects of imperial culture. Effectively, Pliny crossed all the principal fields of the organization of the early Roman Empire. It is no mean achievement for a man to have not only survived the reigns of several disparate emperors, especially the much-detested Domitian, but also to have risen in rank throughout.
Career summary
Writings As a literateur, Pliny started writing at the age of fourteen, penning a tragedy in Greek. In the course of his life he wrote a quantity of poetry, most of which was lost despite the great affection he had for it. Also known as a notable orator, he professed himself a follower of Cicero, but his prose was certainly more magniloquent and less direct than Cicero's. The only oration that now survives is the Panegyricus Trajani. This was pronounced in the Senate in 100 and is a description of Trajan's figure and actions in an adulatory and emphatic form, especially contrasting him with the Emperor Domitian. It is, however, a relevant document that allows us to know many details about the Emperor's actions in several fields of his administrative power such as taxes, justice, military discipline, and commerce. Pliny defined it as an essay about the optimus princeps (the perfect ruler).
Epistulae However, the largest body of Pliny's work which survives is his Letters (Epistulae), a series of personal missives directed to his friends and associates. These letters are a unique testimony of Roman administrative history and everyday life in the 1st century. The style is very different from that in the Panegyricus and some commentators affirm that Pliny was the initiator of a new particular genre: the letter written for publication. This genre offers a different type of record than the more usual history; one which dispenses with objectivity but is no less valuable for it. Especially noteworthy among the letters are two in which he describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August of AD 79 during which his uncle Pliny the Elder died (6.16; 6.20), and one in which he asks the Emperor for instructions regarding official policy concerning Christians (10.96). Pliny's attention to detail in the letters about Vesuvius is so keen that vulcanologists today describe that type of eruption as a Plinian. In his letter he relates the first warning of the eruption:
On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother
desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual
size and shape. He had just taken a turn in the sun and, after
bathing himself in cold water, and making a light luncheon, gone
back to his books: he immediately arose and went out upon a rising
ground from whence he might get a better sight of this very
uncommon appearance. A cloud, from which mountain was
uncertain, at this distance (but it was found afterwards to come
from Mount Vesuvius), was ascending, the appearance of which I
cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to
that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a
very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of
branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that
impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced upwards,
or the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own weight,
expanded in the manner I have mentioned; it appeared sometimes
bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either
more or less impregnated with earth and cinders. This
phenomenon seemed to a man of such learning and research as my
uncle extraordinary and worth further looking into.
The letters about Vesuvius were written to the historian Tacitus, a long-time friend of Pliny's. Other major literary figures of the late first century A. D. appear in the collection as friends of Pliny's, e. g., the poet Martial and the biographer Suetonius. But the most famous literary figure to appear in his letters is his uncle, Pliny the Elder. His nephew provides details of how his uncle worked tirelessly to finish his magnum opus, the Naturalis Historiae. Since Pliny the Younger was heir to to his uncle's estate, he inherited his uncle's large library, and benefited by the acquisition.
The Epistulae are usually treated as two halves: those in Books 1 to 9, which Pliny prepared for publication, and those in Book 10, all of which were written to or by the Emperor Trajan during Pliny's governorship of Bithynia-Pontus. This final book was, significantly, not intended for publication.
Book 10 As already mentioned, the letters of Book 10 are addressed to or from the Emperor Trajan in their entirety, and it is generally assumed that we have received them verbatim. As such, they offer a unique insight into the administrative functions of a Roman province of the time, as well as the machinations of the Roman system of patronage and wider cultural mores of Rome itself. In addition, the corruption and apathy which occurred at various levels of the provincial system can be seen clearly. The letters also contain the earliest external account of Christian worship, and reasons for the execution of Christians .
The letter regarding Christians deserves mention because its contents were, in the view of many historians, to become the standard policy toward Christians for the rest of the pagan era. Taken together, Pliny's letter and Trajan's response constituted a fairly loose policy toward Christians. Christians were not to be sought out, but executed if brought before a magistrate by a reputable means of accusation (no anonymous charges were permitted) and they were to be given the opportunity to recant. While some persecutions represent a departure from this policy, many historians have concluded that these precedents were nominal for the Empire across time.
Fortunately, Trajan's replies to Pliny's queries and requests were also collected for publication, making the anthology even more valuable. The letters thus allow us a wonderful glimpse of the personalities of both Pliny and Trajan.
Stylistically, Book 10 is much simpler than its precursors because it was not intended for publication by Pliny. It is generally assumed that this book was published after Pliny's death, and Suetonius, as a member of Pliny's staff, has been suggested as one possible editor.
ManuscriptsIn France Giovanni Giocondo discovered a manuscript of Pliny the Younger's letters containing his correspondence with Trajan. He published it in Paris dedicating the work to Louis XII. Two Italian editions of Pliny's Epistles were published by Giocondo, one printed in Bologna in 1498 and one from the press of Aldus Manutius in 1508.
See also
BibliographyFurther reading- Albert A. Bell, Jr., "A Note on Revision and Authenticity in Pliny's Letters," American Journal of Philology 1989, pp. 460-466.
- Albert A. Bell, Jr., "Pliny the Younger: The Kinder, Gentler Roman," Classical Bulletin 1990, pp. 37-41.
- Albert A. Bell, Jr., All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger. Ingalls Publishing Group, 2002. A novel featuring Pliny and Tacitus as sleuths.
- Manuel Dejante Pinto de Magalhães Arnao Metello and João Carlos Metello de Nápoles, "Metellos de Portugal, Brasil e Roma", Torres Novas, 1998.
- E. S. Dobson, "Pliny the Younger's Depiction of Women," Classical Bulletin 1982, pp. 81-85.
- Betty Radice, "Pliny and the Panegyricus," Greece & Rome 1968, 166-172.
- A. N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny: A Social and Historical Commentary, Oxford, 1966.
- A. N. Sherwin-White, "Pliny, the Man and his Letters," Greece & Rome 1969, pp. 76-89.
- Ronald Syme, "People in Pliny," Journal of Roman Studies 1968, pp. 135-151.
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