Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus Ad 61 or

PLINY THE YOUNGER (GAIUS PLINIUS CAECILIUS SECUNDUS) (A.D. 61 or 62–c. 113), Latin prose author, was born at Novum Comum (Como) in Cisalpine Gaul. The second son of L. Caecilius Cilo and Plinia, sister of the elder Pliny, he bore the name P. Caecilius Secundus until the death of his uncle (A.D. 79), who by his will made him his adopted son, when he assumed the name C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus. He was then in his 18th year (Epp. VI. 20. 5). Educated in rhetoric under Quintilian (Epp. II. 14. 9, VI. 6. 3), he made his debut as an advocate at the age of 18 (Epp. V. 8. 8).

Pliny was fortunate in having as guardian—doubtless under his father's will (Epp. II. 1. 8)—L. Verginius Rufus (A.D. 14-97), who had three times declined to become emperor (in Nero's life time, Dio 63. 25, after Nero's death, Plut. Galb. Dio 64. 4, after the death of Otho, Plut. Oth. 18). He thus commenced his public career under the most favourable auspices. He became a quaestor in 89 and in 91 a tribune of the plebs, withdrawing dur ing his year of office from practice at the bar (Epp. i. 23, vii. 16.

2,

Paneg. 95). In 93 he became praetor (Epp. III. I 1. 2; VII. I I. 4; 16. 2, Tac. Agric. 6, 45; Juv. X. 36) and during his year of office was one of the counsel for the impeachment of Baebius Massa, procurator of Hispania Baetica (Epp. III. 4, VI. 29, VII. 33). In 94 or 95 he was appointed praefectus aerarii militaris.

Under Nerva in 98 he became praefectus aerarii Saturni (i.e., commissioner of the public treasury in the temple of Saturn). In September 1 oo he became consul, holding office for two months.

His oration of thanks to Trajan for his nomination (Epp. III. 13.

I; 18. I)

is what is called in the mss. Panegyricus Traiano dictus. After acting as counsel for the defence of two ex-governors of Bithynia—Iulius Bassus and Varenus Rufus—he was himself appointed by Trajan, circ. III A.D., governor of that province. Whether he died in that office is not known, but the probable date of his death is 113, since in the Comum inscription Trajan is mentioned without the titles, conferred in 114, of Optimus and Parthicus. The inscription referred to was inscribed on a marble slab in the wall of the baths (thermae) presented by Pliny to Comum and commemorated that and other benefactions, includ ing a library. The stone was removed to Milan and broken into six pieces. Four of these were built into a tomb in the church of St. Ambrose, and from the only one of these now known Mommsen, with the aid of other records, restored the inscription.

The extant works of Pliny are the Panegyric on Trajan already referred to (cf. Epp. III. 18), which is of some historical im

portance, the Letters in nine books, and a tenth book comprising his Correspondence with Trajan. Mommsen (Zur Lebensges chichte des jiingeren Plinius, in Hermes 3, 1868), suggests as dates: Bk. I., A.D. 97; II., early in loo; III., ToI or 102; IV., early in 105; V., 106; VI., 106 or 107; VII., 107; VIII., 109; IX., perhaps at same time as VIII. ; and Correspondence with Trajan, 111-113. Merrill has modified Mommsen's theory by the sug gestion that the Letters were published in groups : I.–II. in 97 or 98, III.–VI. in 106, VII.–IX. in 108 or 109.

The interest attaching to letters selected and edited for publica tion, like those of Pliny, is wholly different from that of such a frank and unguarded correspondence as the letters of Cicero. There is in Pliny always a suggestion of pose, of self-conscious ness and self-complacency. But the Letters are admirable exam ples of polished and pointed Latinity, while the range of subject and the quality of the persons to whom some of them are ad dressed render them of singular interest and attraction. As an example of his manner may be taken the letter (I. 21) which he writes on hearing of the death of the poet Martial, who had some time bef ore retired from Rome to his native Bilbilis: "I hear that Valerius Martialis has gone, and I am sorry. He was a man able, acute, and keen: one in whose writing there was wit and pungency, yet not less candour. When he was leaving Rome I provided his travelling expenses, a tribute to friendship, a tribute also to the lines which he wrote about me. It was an old custom to reward with honours or money those who had written the praises of individuals or of cities : in our times, like other fair and excellent things, this also among the first has become obsolete : for since we ceased to do things worthy of praise, praise itself we account foolishness. You ask what are the lines for which I showed my gratitude? I would have referred you to the book itself [Martial, X., 19], were it not that I remember certain of them. He addresses the Muse, bids her seek my house on the Esquiline, approach it reverently : But beware nor in season unpropitious, Tipsy reveller, knock upon the door of him who dedicates all his days to Pallas, While he cons for the hearing of the Hundred What posterity and the after ages May compare to the writings of Arpinum: Safer go when the lamps of eve are lighted: Thine the hour when the ruddy wine is flowing, On locks perfume-bedewed the roses glowing— Then stern Catos themselves might read my verses.