Pliny the Younger

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63-ca. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author and a natural philosopher of Ancient Rome.

Related Topics:
63 - 113 - Lawyer - Author - Natural philosopher - Rome

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Born in Como, Italy, Pliny the Younger was the nephew of Pliny the Elder, who is considered by many to be the greatest naturalist of antiquity.

Related Topics:
Como - Italy - Pliny the Elder - Antiquity

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Pliny was orphaned at an early age. He had Virginius Rufus (an important man and general in the Roman army) as his tutor. He was later adopted by his uncle Pliny the Elder, who brought him to study in Rome, where his teachers were Quintilian and Nices Sacerdos. He started his legal career at the age of nineteen and his reputation grew rapidly. Pliny was considered an honest and moderate man and rose through a series of Imperial civil and military offices, the cursus honorum.

Related Topics:
Virginius Rufus - Roman army - Tutor - Quintilian - Nices Sacerdos - Cursus honorum

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He was flamen Divi Augusti (priest in the cult of the Emperor) in 81, then decemvir litibus iudicandis (a sort of civil judge), military tribune in Syria (where he met the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates), sevir equitum Romanorum (commander of a cavalry squadron) in 84, and quaestor imperatoris and urban quaestor in 89-90. He was named a tribunus plebis in 91, praetor in 93, praefectus (of the military treasury first, and of the treasury of Saturn later), and consul in 100. He then became a member of the college of Augurs (103-104 - publicly elected), the responsible director (superintendens) for the Tiber river and finally a legatus (ambassador) of the Emperor in Bithynia, where he is supposed to have died. His career is commonly considered as a sort of summary of all the main Roman public charges, and effectively he crossed all the principal fields of the organization of the Roman state of the early Empire.

Related Topics:
81 - Syria - Artemidorus - Euphrates - Cavalry - 84 - 89 - 90 - 91 - 93 - Saturn - Consul - 100 - Augur - 103 - 104 - Tiber - Bithynia

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His moderate character is displayed in his many letters, the Epistulae. In one of the most famous (Letters, Book X, 96), he asks the Emperor about the way he ought to judge Christians, since he had always condemned those who did not deny Christianity and discharged those who offered the prescribed sacrifices to the Roman gods. He said in his letter:

Related Topics:
Christian - Christianity

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their guilt or error was simply this -- on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a god. So far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, they swore to keep from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith, and not to deny any trust money deposited with them when called upon to deliver it. This ceremony over, they used to depart and meet again to take food -- but it was of no special character, and entirely harmless. They also had ceased from this practice after the edict I issued -- by which, in accord with your orders, I forbade all secret societies.

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I then thought it the more needful to get at the facts behind their statements. Therefore I placed two women, called "deaconesses," under torture, but I found only a debased superstition carried to great lengths, so I postponed my examination, and immediately consulted you.

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Trajan answered (X, 97) approving his conduct and ordering Pliny not to pursue anonymous accusations.

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Pliny had three wives but no sons. Only his last wife, Calpurnia, occasioned emotional words in the letters. He was quite wealthy and owned several villas in Italy; the two villas in Como, his native town, were named "Tragedy" and "Comedy".

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As a litterateur, Pliny started writing at the age of fourteen, with a tragedy in Greek, and 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. He took part in some famous trials, but the only oration that we have now is the Panegiricus Trajani. This was pronounced in 100 and is a description of Trajan's figure and actions in an adulatory and emphatic form. 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 like taxes, justice, military discipline, and commerce. Pliny defined it as an essay about the optimus princeps (the perfect ruler).

Related Topics:
Tragedy - Greek - Poetry - Orator - Cicero - 100 - Essay

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These letters are a unique testimony of Roman administrative history and everyday life in the 1st century. The style is very different from the one used in the Panegyricus and some commentators affirm that Pliny was the initiator of a new particular genre, the letter written for publication.

Related Topics:
1st century - Panegyricus

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In the younger Pliny's Letters, he describes the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the death of his uncle and mentor, Pliny the Elder. Volcanic eruptions of this type are referred to as Plinian. This letter was addressed to his friend Tacitus, who was one of the greatest Roman historians. So as the Letters begin, Pliny the Younger is telling Tacitus that the following words are meant to be used as an accurate history (probably in one of the lost books of Tacitus' Histories) of the death of Pliny the Elder and of the eruption itself, which destroyed Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Pompeii.

Related Topics:
Mount Vesuvius - Volcanic eruption - Plinian - Tacitus - Histories - Herculaneum - Stabiae - Pompeii

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Other famous letters are the first one (I,1), directed to Septicius Clarus, which is practically a sort of poem, the letters about the Vesuvius' eruption (see below), the ones about his villas and about Martial's death.

Related Topics:
Septicius Clarus - Martial

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He presumably died in Bithynia.

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