PLINY, C. PLINIDS C,ECILICS SECUNDUS, nephew of the preceding, and son of C. Cmecilius, frequently called Pliny the younger, was b. at NOVU111 CORIUM, 61 A.D. IIO was still young when he lost his father, and was adopted by his uncle, under whose care, and that of Ids mother, Piinia, and his tutor, Virginias Rufus, his education was prose cuted. Passionately devoted to literature, he wrote a Greek tragedy at the age of 13; studied eloquence under Quintilian, and became so famous for his literary accomplish ments that he acquired the reputation of being one of the most learned men of the age. His oratorical powers were also considerable; in his 19th year he began to speak in the forum, and his services as an advocate before the court of the centumviri cud the Homan senate were in frequent request. He held numerous official appointments; served, while a young man, as iribu.aus maitani, in Syria, where lie listened to the teach ing of Euphrates the stoic, and Artemidorus, was afterwards qucestor Ccesaris; was praetor about 93, and consul in 100, when he wrote his Pailegyricus, an adulatory eulo glum of the emperor Trajan, and containing little information as to the author and Ins times. lie was:appointed, in 103, proprietor of the province Pontica, an office which he vacated in less than two years; and he also discharged the function of curator of the banks and channel of the Tiber. Ile was twice married, his second wife being Calpur nia, granddaughter of Calpurnins Fabatns, and considerably younger than her husband, by whom she was much beloved for her accomplishments and amiability. He had no issue by either marriage.
Our knowledge of the younger is mainly derived from his letters or Epistoke, of winch there are 10 books. lie collected thew himself, and probably wrote many of them with a view to publication. They bold a high place in epistolary literature, and
give us many interesting glimpses into the life of their author and his contemporaries. Pliny himself appears iu them to considerable advantage, as a genial and philanthropic man, enamored of literary studies, and foul of improving his estates by architectural ornament. His ample fortune was liberally bestowed, and his slaves always found in him an indulgent master. Infirm health impaired throughout life his constitution, which, was naturally weak; but of the time or cause of his death we know nothing. Of the facts contained in his letters, however, the most interesting to us are those relating to the punishment of the Christians. Death appears to have been the penalty attached even to. the confession of being a Christian; although the adherents of the faith admitted no other acts, on examination, than those of meeting on-a fixed day before dawn, when a hymn to Christ was sung, and taking an oath to avoid theft, adultery, breach of faith, and denial of a deposit. Nothing more unfavorable to them than this could lie extorted by Pliny from two female slaves, reputed to be deaconesses, whom he put to the torture. Pliny having asked Trajan how he was to stop the spreading superstition, the emperor replied that no general rule could be laid down; that he ought not to insti tute a search after persons supposed to be Christians; but if any were brought before him, and the charge was proved, such were to be punished, if still impenitent. The best edition of Pliny's Panegyricus and Epistolic together is that of Schaefer; of the .4istoki., alone, that of Gierig.