PLINY THE YOUNGER.
Pliny’s full name on the inscriptions of the later period of his life reads ‘C. Plinius L. f. Ouf. Caecilius Secundus.’ This name he partly got from his mother’s brother C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the elder), who adopted him by will: cf. Ep. v. 8, 5, ‘Avunculus meus idemque per adoptionem pater.’ Pliny’s name before his adoption in A.D. 79 (see below) was P. Caecilius L. f. Ouf. Secundus. His birthplace was Comum, and he belonged to the Oufentina, the tribe of the people of Comum, as well on the side of his natural as on that of his adoptive father. In an inscription preserved at Como (C.I.L. v. 5279) Pliny’s father, Cilo, is mentioned, and two men who are undoubtedly Cilo’s sons, the second mentioned being Pliny the younger, who had always been called Secundus.
‘L. Caecilius L. f. Cilo iiii.vir a(edilicia) p(otestate), qui testamento suo (sestertium) n(ummum) xxxx. (milia) municipibus Comensibus legavit, ex quorum reditu quotannis per Neptunalia oleum in campo et in thermis et in balineis omnibus, quae sunt Comi, praeberentur, t(estamento) f(ieri) iussit et L. Caecilio L. f. Valenti et P. Caecilio L. f. Secundo et Lutullae Picti f. contubernali.’[107]
For Cilo’s bequests here mentioned cf. Pliny, Ep. i, 8, 5; Comum is referred to as ‘patria mea’ in Ep. iv. 30, 1. The Caecilii were a family of station at Comum even in Caesar’s time. Cf. Catull. 35,
‘Poetae tenero meo sodali
velim Caecilio, papyre, dicas,
Veronam veniat Novi relinquens
Comi moenia Lariumque litus.’
Pliny inherited landed property there from his father and mother.
Ep. vii. 11, 5, ‘Indicavit mihi cupere se aliquid circa Larium nostrum possidere: ego illi ex praediis meis quod vellet ... optuli, exceptis maternis paternisque.’
The above inscription shows that Pliny’s father belonged to the municipal nobility, and possibly had ‘equestris nobilitas.’
Pliny was in his eighteenth year (Ep. vi. 20, 5, ‘agebam duodevicensimum annum’) on 24th August, A.D. 79, when his uncle perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, and he was therefore born in the second half of 61 or in the first half of 62 A.D. Cilo died young, before holding the chief municipal post, and before Pliny was of age; and Verginius Rufus became Pliny’s guardian.
Ep. ii. 1, 8, ‘Ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit.’ Pliny was removed to Rome with his uncle, probably at the end of A.D. 72. While at school he wrote poetry (Ep. vii. 4, 2, quoted below), and studied philosophy and rhetoric.
Ep. vi. 6, 3, ‘Quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum, Niceten Sacerdotem.’ Cf. also ii. 14, 10; i. 20, 4; vii. 4, etc. For literary studies with his uncle cf. Ep. vi. 20, 5, ‘Posco librum Titi Livi et quasi per otium lego, atque etiam, ut coeperam, excerpo.’
His uncle, as above stated, died on 24th August, A.D. 79, and by his will adopted Pliny, whose name thereafter was C. Plinius L. f. Ouf. Caecilius Secundus. He therefore changed his praenomen to that of his adoptive father, and put his former nomen among his cognomina. By his contemporaries he is called Plinius (cf. Martial, x. 19), or Secundus, as by Trajan. The name Caecilius was confined to formal inscriptions.
In A.D. 80 or 81 Pliny first appeared as an advocate. Cf. Ep. v. 8, 8, ‘Undevicensimo aetatis anno dicere in foro coepi.’ Before entering the Senate, he held (as stated in the chief inscription, given below) the decemvirate litibus iudicandis, the military tribunate in the third Gallic legion, and the title of Sevir in the Roman knighthood. Pliny probably held his military tribunate under Domitian (i.e., after 13th September, A.D. 81) in Syria.
Cf. Ep. i. 10, 2, ‘Hunc [Euphraten philosophum] ego in Syria, cum adulescentulus militarem, penitus et domi inspexi.’
The date of Pliny’s praetorship as A.D. 93 is settled by Ep. iii. 11, 2, the events recorded in which passage are known from Tac. Agr. 45 to have taken place shortly after Agricola’s death in August, A.D. 93.
‘Fui praetor ... cum ... occisis Senecione Rustico Helvidio, relegatis Maurico Gratilla Arria Fannia ... mihi quoque impendere idem exitium certis quibusdam notis augurarer.’
The words in Ep. vii. 16 (of Calestrius Tiro), ‘Simul quaestores Caesaris fuimus: ille me in tribunatu liberorum iure praecessit, ego illum in praetura sum consecutus, cum mihi Caesar annum remisisset,’ refer to the fact that the emperor did not insist on the year of absence from office between the tribunate and the quaestorship. Pliny was quaestor from 1st June, 89 to 31st May, 90 A.D., being nominated by the emperor, as shown by the above passage. He was trib. pleb. from 10th December, 90 to 9th December, 91 A.D., and during his year of office undertook no cases. Cf. Ep. i. 23, 2, ‘Ipse cum tribunus essem ... abstinui causis agendis.’ By special favour he was allowed to take office as praetor on 1st January, A.D. 93. In this year he appeared before the Senate for the people of Baetica against the procurator Baebius Massa.
Ep. vii. 33, esp. § 4, ‘Dederat me senatus cum Herennio Senecione advocatum provinciae Baeticae contra Baebium Massam.’
The inscriptions of Pliny show that he was praefectus aerarii militaris between his praetorship in 93 and his praefectura aerarii Saturni (from 98 onwards), and this office he held either from 94 to 96 or from 95 to 97 A.D. Pliny tells us that he and Cornutus Tertullus were designated consuls, when they had held the praefectura aerarii Saturni for less than two years.
Paneg. 91, ‘Nondum biennium compleveramus in officio laboriosissimo et maximo, cum tu nobis ... consulatum obtulisti.’
This designatio took place on 9th January, A.D. 100, whence the praefectura must have been entered on shortly after 9th January, A.D. 98. Pliny was probably nominated to it by Nerva and Trajan.
Cf. ad Trai. 3, ‘Ut primum me, domine, indulgentia vestra promovit ad praefecturam aerarii Saturni.’
Mommsen[108] believes that this praefectura was held at the same time as the consulship, and on to December, A.D. 101, an unusual length of tenure. H. F. Stobbe, however, makes the trial of Classicus, on which the last date depends, extend from September 99 to July 100 A.D. (Philologus, xxx. 347 sqq.).
Paneg. 92, ‘Nobis praefectis aerarii consulatum ante quam successorem dedisti.’
Pliny, along with Cornutus Tertullus, his colleague in the praefectura, was made consul A.D. 100. He held the office in September of that year, and the tenure was either from July 1 to September 30, or from September 1 to October 31.
Paneg. 92, ‘Ei nos potissimum mensi attribuisti quem tuus natalis exornat.’
The Panegyricus is a speech of thanks to Trajan spoken on this occasion. In A.D. 99 Pliny, along with Tacitus, appeared for the Africans against the proconsul Marius Priscus (see Ep. ii. 11 quoted [p. 338]); and in A.D. 101, while still praefectus aerarii, he appeared for the people of Baetica against the proconsul Caecilius Classicus.
Ep. iii. 4, 2, ‘Legati provinciae Baeticae questuri de proconsulatu Caecili Classici advocatum me a senatu petierunt.’
Pliny obtained the augurship, probably in 103 or 104, in succession to Sex. Iulius Frontinus, who probably died in 102 or 103 A.D. Cf. Ep. iv. 8, 3, ‘Successi Iulio Frontino.’ In 103 or 104 A.D. he appeared against the Bithynians for the proconsul Iulius Bassus (Ep. iv. 9 etc.). He held the cura alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis probably from 105 to 107 A.D. See Pliny’s chief inscription (below), and cf. Ep. v. 14, 1-2, ‘Mihi nuntiatum est Cornutum Tertullum accepisse Aemiliae viae curam ... aliquanto magis me delectat mandatum mihi officium, postquam par Cornuto datum video.’
About A.D. 106 Pliny appeared against the Bithynians for the proconsul Varenus Rufus (Ep. vi. 29, 11).
From 111-2 or 112-3 A.D. Pliny was governor of Pontus and Bithynia, being sent out for a special purpose by the emperor as legatus pro praetore consulari potestate. Cf. the chief inscription (below) and the words of Trajan.
Trai. 32, ‘Meminerimus idcirco te in istam provinciam missum, quoniam multa in ea emendanda apparuerint.’
The date of Pliny’s governorship is fixed by the mention of Calpurnius Macer in the letters (ad Trai. 42; 61; 62) as the governor of the nearest province. Mommsen has identified him with P. Calpurnius Macer Caulius Rufus, who is shown by an inscription (C.I.L. iii. 7 and 17) to have been governor of Lower Moesia in 112 A.D. This is corroborated by the fact that no mention is made of Bithynia in the chief collection of letters, which was not completed till A.D. 108 at least. Therefore the governorship falls after that time. On the other hand, Pliny must have been sent out not later than A.D. 113, as in the chief inscription Optimus does not appear in Trajan’s name, and this cognomen he assumed in A.D. 114. Finally, the fact that Trajan was at Rome during Pliny’s governorship points to a time between the end of the second Dacian War in A.D. 107 and the outbreak of the Parthian War in A.D. 113.
Our information about Pliny ends with the close of his correspondence with Trajan. It is certain that he held no further office, and it is probable that he died before A.D. 114 in his province or shortly after his return to Rome.
As regards municipal relations, Pliny held the post of flamen divi Augusti, according to the inscription which the corporation of Vercellae erected to him at his own town (C.I.L. v. 5667).
‘C. Plini[o L. f. O]uf. Caec[ilio] Secundo [c]os. augur. cur. alv. Tib. [et ripa]r. et cloac. urb. [praef. a]er. Sat. praef. aer. mil. [pr. tr. pl.] imp. sevir. eq. R. tr. ml. leg. iii. Gall. x. viro stl. iud. fl. divi T. Aug.’
For bequests to his native town see the chief inscription (below). Besides these are mentioned gifts in his life-time. Under Domitian Pliny presented his townspeople with a library (Ep. i, 8), apparently worth 1,000,000 sesterces (v. 7), and endowed it with 100,000 sesterces. He also gave 500,000 sesterces for the support of freeborn boys and girls (Ep. i, 8); and promised to pay one-third of the salary of the professor of rhetoric at Comum (Ep. iv. 13, 5).
The following is the chief inscription of Pliny (as restored by Mommsen), which was erected at the Thermae which he presented to Comum (C.I.L. v. 5262):
‘C. Plinius L. f. Ouf. Caecilius Secundus cos. augur legat. pro pr. provinciae Ponti et Bithyniae consulari potestat. in eam provinciam ex. s. c. missus ab Imp. Caesar. Nerva Traiano Aug. Germanico Dacico p.p. curator alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacar. urb. praef. aerari Saturni praef. aerari milit. pr. trib. pl. quaestor imp. sevir equitum Romanorum trib. milit. leg. iii. Gallicae x.vir stlitib. iudicand. thermas ex HS ... adiectis in ornatum HS ccc ... et eo amplius in tutelam HS CC t. f. i. item in alimenta libertor. suorum homin. C. HS XVIII LXVI DCLXVI reip. legavit, quorum increment. postea ad epulum pleb. urban. voluit pertinere ... item vivus dedit in aliment. pueror. et puellar. pleb. urban. HS D item bybliothecam et in tutelam bybliothecae HS C.’
Pliny was also patron of Tifernum Tiberinum and of the Baetici.
Ep. iv. 1, 4, ‘Oppidum est praediis nostris vicinum, nomen Tiferni Tiberini, quod me paene adhuc puerum patronum cooptavit ... In hoc ego ... templum pecunia mea exstruxi, cuius dedicationem ... differre longius inreligiosum est.’
Ep. iii. 4, 4, ‘Legati ... inplorantes fidem meam, quam essent contra Massam Baebium experti, adlegantes patrocini foedus.’
Pliny married three times, twice under Domitian. Cf. ad Trai. 2, ‘Liberos ... habere etiam tristissimo illo saeculo volui, sicut potes duobus matrimoniis meis credere.’ For his third wife, Calpurnia, who died A.D. 97, see Ep. iv. 19. Pliny had no children, but Trajan conferred on him the ius trium liberorum in A.D. 98. Cf. ad Trai. 2, ‘Me dignum putasti iure trium liberorum.’
Pliny as orator and writer.—Most of Pliny’s cases were before the centumviri, who dealt with inheritances: cf. Ep. vi. 12, 2, ‘in harena mea, hoc est apud centumviros.’ So Mart. x. 19, 14 (written A.D. 96),
‘Totos dat tetricae dies Minervae
dum centum studet auribus virorum
hoc quod saecula posterique possint
Arpinis quoque comparare chartis.’
For Pliny’s five speeches in criminal trials before the Senate see above. Cf. Ep. vi. 29, 7 sqq., ‘Egi quasdam a senatu iussus ... Adfui Baeticis contra Baebium Massam ... Adfui rursus isdem querentibus de Caecilio Classico ... Accusavi Marium Priscum ... Tuitus sum Iulium Bassum ... Dixi proxime pro Vareno.’
Pliny recited his speeches before delivering them, and subsequently published them, sometimes with additions.
Ep. vii. 17, 2, ‘Miror quod scribis fuisse quosdam qui reprehenderent quod orationes omnino recitarem.’
Ep. iii. 18, 1 (of the Panegyricus), ‘Quod ego in senatu cum ad rationem et loci et temporis ex more fecissem, bono civi convenientissimum credidi eadem illa spatiosius et uberius volumine amplecti.’
Pliny speaks of his early attempts at poetry:
Ep. vii. 4, 2-3, ‘Numquam a poetice (altius enim repetam) alienus fui; quin etiam quattuordecim natus annos Graecam tragoediam scripsi. Qualem? inquis: nescio: tragoedia vocabatur.’
In Books i.-iii. he appears only as a lover of poetry and a patron of poets (cf. i. 16; iii. 15). From Book iv. (published A.D. 105) onwards he appears as a poet. In Ep. vii. 4, 6 are thirteen poor hexameter lines on Cicero; ibid. §§ 7-8, ‘Transii ad elegos: hos quoque non minus celeriter explicui: addidi iambos, facilitate corruptus ... Postremo placuit exemplo multorum unum separatim hendecasyllaborum volumen absolvere, nec paenitet. Legitur, describitur, cantatur etiam.’ Pliny defends himself for writing light verses in Ep. v. 3, etc. In the later books he refers to another proposed collection of verses.
Ep. viii. 21, 3, ‘Liber fuit et opusculis varius et metris.’
Pliny says he did not observe chronological order in publishing his letters.
Ep. i. 1, 1, ‘Collegi non servato temporis ordine (neque enim historiam componebam), sed ut quaeque in manus venerat.’
This, however, is not convincing, as it falls in with Pliny’s wish to give an appearance of negligence to the work, and besides it may apply only to Book i. Successive publication of the different Books is shown by many references; so Ep. ix. 19, ‘Significas legisse te in quadam epistula,’ where Ep. vi. 10 is referred to. So also contemporaneous events are always described in the same Book or in two Books close together; and when a subject is continued in another letter, the order of the two letters fits in with chronology. So iii. 4 and iv. 1 deal with the building of a temple at Tifernum; iii. 20 and iv. 25 with ballot at elections.
The following are the probable dates of publication: Book i. in A.D. 97; Book ii. in A.D. 100; Book iii. in A.D. 101 or 102; Book iv. in A.D. 105; Book v. in A.D. 106; Book vi. possibly in A.D. 106; Book vii. in A.D. 107; Book viii. not before A.D. 109; Book ix. probably about the same time.
The correspondence with Trajan is independent of the nine Books of letters. The epistles are roughly in chronological order. Epp. 1-14 range from 98 to 106 A.D. Epp. 15 to the end were probably all written in Bithynia during Pliny’s governorship there. Trajan’s reply is subjoined to most of the letters. The correspondence extant stretches from September A.D. 111 over January A.D. 113.
Pliny had intimate relations with other writers, the principal being Tacitus; Martial (cf. Ep. iii. 21); Silius Italicus (cf. Ep. iii. 7). See [pp. 340], [298], [289]. For his literary reputation see Ep. ix. 23, 2, quoted [p. 338] and cf. Ep. i. 2, 6, ‘Libelli quos emisimus dicuntur in manibus esse, quamvis iam gratiam novitatis exuerint; nisi tamen auribus nostris bibliopolae blandiuntur.’
Pliny’s character.—Pliny, without being a great man, is a more favourable specimen of character, feeling, and gentlemanly tone, than almost any other Roman author. He avoided censorious writing, and most of the people he mentions are praised. The chief exception is Regulus (Ep. i. 5, etc.), and possibly also Iavolenus Priscus (vi. 15). When anybody is blamed, his name is omitted unless he is dead or has been banished.
Ep. vii. 28, i, ‘Ais quosdam apud te reprehendisse, tamquam amicos meos ex omni occasione ultra modum laudem. Agnosco crimen, amplector etiam. Quid enim honestius culpa benignitatis?’
For his desire of praise cf. Ep. ix. 23, 5, ‘An ... ego celebritate nominis mei gaudere non debeo? Ego vero et gaudeo et gaudere me dico.’
For his kindness to slaves cf. Ep. viii. 16, 1, ‘Permitto servis quoque quasi testamenta facere eaque ut legitima custodio’ (and the rest of the letter).
For his grief at the loss of friends cf. Ep. v. 21, 6, ‘Sed quid ego indulgeo dolori? cui si frenos remittas, nulla materia non maxima est. Finem epistulae faciam, ut facere possim etiam lacrimis quas epistula expressit.’
For his love of nature cf. Ep. i. 9, 6, ‘O mare, o litus, verum secretumque μουσεῖον, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis!’
Cf. also descriptions of natural scenery, as in Epp. ii. 17, 3; v. 6, 13; vi. 31, 15; viii. 8.