


Produced by David Reed and David Widger



LETTERS OF PLINY

By Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus

Translated by William Melmoth


Revised by F. C. T. Bosanquet



GAIUS PLINIUS CAECILIUS SECUNDUS, usually known as Pliny the Younger,
was born at Como in 62 A. D. He was only eight years old when his father
Caecilius died, and he was adopted by his uncle, the elder Pliny, author
of the Natural History. He was carefully educated, studying rhetoric
under Quintilian and other famous teachers, and he became the most
eloquent pleader of his time. In this and in much else he imitated
Cicero, who had by this time come to be the recognized master of Latin
style. While still young he served as military tribune in Syria, but he
does not seem to have taken zealously to a soldier's life. On his return
he entered politics under the Emperor Domitian; and in the year 100 A.
D. was appointed consul by Trajan and admitted to confidential
intercourse with that emperor. Later while he was governor of Bithynia,
he was in the habit of submitting every point of policy to his master,
and the correspondence between Trajan and him, which forms the last part
of the present selection, is of a high degree of interest, both on
account of the subjects discussed and for the light thrown on the
characters of the two men. He is supposed to have died about 113 A. D.
Pliny's speeches are now lost, with the exception of one, a panegyric on
Trajan delivered in thanksgiving for the consulate. This, though diffuse
and somewhat too complimentary for modern taste, became a model for this
kind of composition. The others were mostly of two classes, forensic and
political, many of the latter being, like Cicero's speech against
Verres, impeachments of provincial governors for cruelty and extortion
toward their subjects. In these, as in his public activities in general,
he appears as a man of public spirit and integrity; and in his relations
with his native town he was a thoughtful and munificent benefactor.

The letters, on which to-day his fame mainly rests, were largely written
with a view to publication, and were arranged by Pliny himself. They
thus lack the spontaneity of Cicero's impulsive utterances, but to most
modern readers who are not special students of Roman history they are
even more interesting. They deal with a great variety of subjects: the
description of a Roman villa; the charms of country life; the reluctance
of people to attend author's readings and to listen when they were
present; a dinner party; legacy-hunting in ancient Rome; the acquisition
of a piece of statuary; his love for his young wife; ghost stories;
floating islands, a tame dolphin, and other marvels. But by far the best
known are those describing the great eruption of Vesuvius in which his
uncle perished, a martyr to scientific curiosity, and the letter to
Trajan on his attempts to suppress Christianity in Bithynia, with
Trajan's reply approving his policy. Taken altogether, these letters
give an absorbingly vivid picture of the days of the early empire, and
of the interests of a cultivated Roman gentleman of wealth.
Occasionally, as in the last letters referred to, they deal with
important historical events; but their chief value is in bringing before
us, in somewhat the same manner as "The Spectator" pictures the England
of the age of Anne, the life of a time which is not so unlike our own as
its distance in years might indicate. And in this time by no means the
least interesting figure is that of the letter-writer himself, with his
vanity and self-importance, his sensibility and generous affection, his
pedantry and his loyalty.



CONTENTS



LETTERS GAIUS PLINIUS CAECILIUS SECUNDUS

I -- To SEPTITTUS

II -- To ARRIANUS

III -- To VOCONIUS ROMANUS

IV -- To CORNELIUS TACITUS

V -- To POMPEIUS SATURNINUS

VI -- To ATRIUS CLEMENS

VII -- To FABIUS JUSTUS

VIII -- To CALESTRIUS TIRO

IX -- To SOCIUS SENECIO

X -- To JUNSUS MAURICUS

XI -- To SEPTITIUS CLARUS

XII -- To SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS

XIII -- To ROMANUS FIRMUS

XIV -- TO CORNELIUS TACITUS

XV -- To PATERNUS

XVI -- To CATILIUS SEVERUS [27]

XVII -- To VOCONIUS ROMANUS

XVIII -- To NEPOS

XIX -- To AVITUS

XX -- To MACRINUS

XXI -- To PAISCUS

XXII -- To MAIMUS

XXIII -- To GALLUS

XXIV -- To CEREALIS

XXV -- To CALVISIUS

XXVI -- To CALVISIUS

XXVII -- To BAEBIUS MACER

XXVIII -- To ANNIUS SEVERUS

XXIX -- To CANINIUS RUFUS

XXX -- To SPURINNA AND COTTIA[53]

XXXI -- To JULIUS GENITOR

XXXII -- To CATILIUS SEVERUS

XXXIII -- To ACILIUS

XXXIV -- To NEPOS

XXXV -- To SEVERUS

XXXVI -- To CALVISIUS R