- 224 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Pliny the Younger who lived c. 100 AD, left a large collection of letters, thanks to which we know him better than almost any other Roman. He is best known as witness to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 that destroyed Pompeii, and for his dealings with the early Christians when a regional governor. He was not an emperor or general, but a famous lawyer of his time specialising in private finance and later a senior state official specialising in public finance. His life straddled both a 'bad'; emperor (Domitian) and a 'good'; emperor (Trajan), so his life and letters are relevant to perennial political questions like how an honourable man could serve an absolute autocracy such as Rome, and how justice could live alongside power. His letters also give a unique insight into social, literary and domestic life among the wealthy upper classes of the empire. He knew most of the famous writers of his time, and wrote love letters to his wife. But there are serious controversies about how honest and truthful a man he was - did he use his letters to rewrite history (his own history) and cover up questionable aspects of his career? This general biographical account of Pliny is the first of its kind and covers all aspects of his life in a systematic way. This accessible title tackles key issues including his political anxieties and issues, his relationship with women and his literary style in a roughly chronological order. It covers his life as a lawyer, both in private practice and in state prosecutions, his literary circle, his career in state office and his working relationships with two very different emperors, his background, his property and his family life.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Notes on conventions
- 1 Your witness, your defendant
- 2 Reading the evidence: Are Pliny’s letters what they seem?
- 3 Youth, class and that Plinian eruption
- 4 Starring in the noisy Court of One Hundred Men
- 5 Sparring with Regulus and ‘the most immoral fraud’
- 6 Pliny the prosecutor: Corruption and the limits of Roman justice
- 7 Surviving Domitian: Among the flames of thunderbolts?
- 8 Tactically praising Trajan: ‘You tell us to be free: We will be’
- 9 Love letters to Calpurnia: Marriages but no children
- 10 How rich was Pliny? Assets, income and expenses
- 11 His posh country villas: A literary house and garden tour
- 12 A fine crop of poets: Pantomime in the salon
- 13 His literary circle – who’s in, who’s out, where’s Juvenal?
- 14 Nervous in Bithynia: Those quarrelsome little Greeks
- 15 Christians – what is the crime and what is the punishment?
- 16 Meeting Pliny
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Place Names
- Index of Latin Terms
- Index of Subject Matter