Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
PLINY, THE YOUNGER
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PIG-POL
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:PLINY, THE YOUNGER . Publius See also:Caecilius See also:Secundus, later known as See also:Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (A.D. C. 61-c. 113), Latin author of the Letters and the See also:Panegyric on See also:Trajan, was the second son of See also:Lucius Caecilius Cilo, by Plinia, the See also:sister of the See also:Elder Pliny. He was See also:born at Novum Comum, the See also:modern See also:Como, the date of his See also:birth being approximately determined by the fact that he was in his 18th See also:year at the See also:death of his See also:uncle in See also:August A.D. 79 (Epp. vi. 20, 5). Having lost his See also:father at an See also:early See also:age, he owed much to his See also:mother and to his See also:guardian, Verginius See also:Rufus, who had twice filled the See also:office of See also:consul and had twice refused the See also:purple (ii. 1, 8). He owed still more to his uncle. When the Elder Pliny was summoned to See also:Rome by See also:Vespasian in A.D. 72, he was probably accompanied by his See also:nephew, who there went through the usual course of See also:education in See also:Roman literature and in See also:Greek, and at the age of fourteen composed a " Greek tragedy " (vii. 4, 2). He afterwards studied See also:philosophy and See also:rhetoric under Nicetes Sacerdos and See also:Quintilian (vi. 6, 3, ii. 14, 9), and modelled his own oratorical See also:style on that of See also:Demosthenes, See also:Cicero and Calvus (i. 2). The Elder Pliny inspired his nephew with something of his own indomitable See also:industry; and in August 79, when the author of the Historia naturalis lost his See also:life in the famous eruption of See also:Vesuvius, it was the sister of the Elder and the mother of the Younger Pliny who first descried the signs of the approaching visitation, and, some twenty-seven years later, it was the Younger Pliny who wrote a graphic See also:account of the last See also:hours of his uncle, in a See also:letter addressed to the historian See also:Tacitus (vi. 16). By his will the Elder Pliny had made his nephew his adopted son, and the latter now assumed the nomen and praenomen of his adoptive father. A year later he made his first public See also:appearance as an See also:advocate (v. 8, 8), and soon afterwards became a member of the See also:board of See also:decemviri stlitibus judicandis, which was associated with the See also:praetor in the See also:presidency of the centumviral See also:court. Early in the reign of See also:Domitian he served as a military See also:tribune in See also:Syria (A.D. 81 or 82), devoting See also:part of his leisure to the study of philosophy under the Stoic See also:Euphrates (i. to, 2). On returning to Rome he was nominated to the honorary office of sevir equitum romanorum, and was actively engaged as a pleader before the 'entumviri, the See also:chancery court of Rome (vi. 12, 2). His See also:official career began in A.D. 89, when he was nominated by Domitian as one of the twenty quaestors. He thus became a member of the See also:senate for the See also:rest of his life. In See also:December 91 he was made tribune, and, during his See also:tenure of that office, with-See also:drew from practice at the See also:bar (i. 23). Early in 93 he was appointed praetor (iii. u, 2), and, in his year of office, was one of the counsel for the See also:impeachment of Baebius See also:Massa, the See also:pro-See also:curator of Hispania Baetica (iii. 4, vi. 29, vii. 33). During the latest and darkest years of Domitian he deemed it prudent to withdraw from public affairs, but his See also:financial abilities were recognized by his nomination in 94 or 95 to the praefecturp .2erarii militaris (ix. 13, 11). On the death of Domitian and the See also:accession of N,,iva hedelivered a speech ('subsequently published) in See also:prosecution of Publicius Certus, who had been foremost in the attack on Helvidius See also:Priscus (ix. 13). Early in 98 he was promoted to the position of See also:praefect of the public See also:treasury in the See also:temple of See also:Saturn. After the accession of Trajan in the same year, Pliny was associated with Tacitus in the impeachment of See also:Marius Priscus for his maladministration of the See also:province of See also:Africa (ii. 11). The trial was held under the presidency of the See also:emperor, who had already nominated him consul suffectus for part of the year A.D. too. The formal oration of thanks for this nomination, described by Pliny himself as his gratiarum actio (iii. 13, 1 and 18, 1), is called in the See also:MSS. the Panegyricus Trajano dictus. The following year was marked by the death of Silius Italicus and See also:Martial, who are gracefully commemorated in two of his Letters (iii. 7 and 21). It is probable that in 103-104 he was promoted to a See also:place in the See also:college of See also:Augurs, vacated by his friend See also:Frontinus (iv. 8), and that in 105 he was appointed curator of the See also:river See also:Tiber (v. 14, 2). In the same year he employed part of his leisure in producing a See also:volume of hendecasyllabic See also:verse (iv. 14, v. 10). He usually spent the See also:winter at his seaside See also:villa on the Latian See also:coast near Laurentum, and the summer at one of his See also:country houses, either among the Tuscan hills, near Tifernum, or on the See also:lake of Como, or at See also:Tusculum, See also:Tibur or See also:Praeneste. It was probably in 104, and again in 106, that he was retained for the See also:defence of a See also:governor of See also:Bithynia, thus becoming See also:familiar with the affairs of a province which needed a thorough re-organization. Accordingly, about 111, he was selected by Trajan as governor of Bithynia, under the See also:special See also:title of " See also:legate propraetor with consular See also:power." He reached Bithynia in See also:September, held office for fifteen months or more, and probably died in 113. His See also:health was far from robust. He speaks of his delicate See also:frame (gracilitas mea); and he was See also:apt to suffer from weakness of the eyes (vii. 21) and of the See also:throat or See also:chest (ii. 11, 15). Frugal and abstemious in his See also:diet (i. 15; iii. 1 and 12), studious and methodical in his habits (i. 6, v. 18, ix. 36 and 40), he took a quiet delight in some of the gentler forms of outdoor recreation. We are startled to find him telling Tacitus of his See also:interest in See also:hunting the See also:wild See also:boar, but he is careful to add that, while the beaters were at See also:work, he sat beside the nets and was busily taking notes, thus combining the cult of See also:Minerva with that of See also:Diana (i. 6). He also tells the historian that, when his uncle See also:left See also:Misenum to take a nearer view of the eruption of Vesuvius, he preferred to stay behind, making an abstract of a See also:book of See also:Livy (vi. 20, 5). Among his See also:friends were Tacitus and Suetonius, as well as Frontinus, Martial and Silius Italicus; and the See also:Stoics, Musonius and Helvidius Priscus. He was thrice married; on the death of his second wife without issue, Trajan conferred on him the See also:jus trium liberorum (A.D. 98), and, before See also:toy, he found athird wife in the accomplished and amiable Calpurnia (iv. 19). He was generous in his private and his public benefactions (i. 19, 2, ii. 4, 2, vi. 32). At his Tuscan villa near Tifernum Tiberinum (iv. 1, 4), the modern Citta di See also:Castello, he set up a temple at his own expense and adorned it with statues of See also:Nerva and Trajan (x. 8). In his lifetime he founded and endowed a library at his native place (i. 8, v. 7), and, besides promoting See also:local education (iv. 13), established an See also:institute for the See also:maintenance and instruction of the sons and daughters of See also:free-born parents (vii. 18). By his will he left a large sum for the See also:building and the perpetual repair of public See also:baths, and the interest of a still larger sum for the benefit of one See also:hundred freedmen of the testator and, ultimately, for an See also:annual banquet.
On a See also:marble slab that once adorned the public baths at Comum, his distinctions were recorded in a See also:long inscription, which was afterwards removed to See also:Milan. It was there broken into six square pieces, four of which were built into a See also:tomb within the See also:great See also: With the exception of two mediocre sets of verses, quoted by himself (vii. 4 and 9), his poems have perished. His speeches were apt to be prolix, and he defended their prolixity on principle (i. 20). He was apparently the first to make a practice of reciting his speeches before a gathering of his friends before finally See also:publishing them (iii. 18). The only speech that has survived is the Panegyric on Trajan, first delivered by Pliny in the emperor's presence, next recited to the orator's friends for the space of three days, and ultimately published in an See also:expanded See also:form (Epp. iii. 18). It is unduly florid and redundant in style, but it supplies us with the fullest account of the emperor's antecedents, and of his policy during the first two years and a See also:half of his See also:rule. It describes his entering Rome on See also:foot, amid the rejoicings of the citizens; his liberality towards his soldiers and to the citizens of Rome, a liberality that was extended even to persons under eleven years of age; his charities for the maintenance of the See also:children of the poor; his remission of See also:succession-duties in cases where the See also:property was small or the heirs members of the testator's See also:family; his See also:establishment of free See also:trade in See also:corn between the various parts of the See also:empire; his See also:abandonment of vexatious and See also:petty prosecutions for " high See also:treason "; his See also:punishment of informers; his abolition of pantomimes; his See also:repairs of public buildings and his See also:extension and embellishment of the See also:Circus See also:Maximus. The speech was discovered by See also:Aurispa at See also:Mainz in 1432, as part of a collection of Panegyrici; and was first printed by Fr. Puteolanus at Milan about fifty years later. Besides the Panegyric, we possess the nine books of Pliny's Letters, and a See also:separate book containing his See also:Correspondence with Trojan. In the first letter of the first book Pliny states that he has collected certain of his letters without regard to See also:chronological See also:order (non servato temporis ordine). Pliny's learned biographer, the Dutch See also:scholar, See also:Jean See also:Masson (17o9), wrongly assumed that this statement referred to the whole of the collection. He inferred that all the nine books were published simultaneously; and he also held that Pliny was governor of Bithynia in A.D. 103-105. It was afterwards maintained by Mommsen (1868) that the books were in strictly chronological order, that the letters in each book were in See also:general arranged in order of date, that all of them were later than the death of Domitian (September 96), that the several books were probably published in the following order: i. (97); ii.,(too); iii. (101-102); iv. (105); v. and vi. (Io6); vii. (107); viii. (108) ; and ix. (not later than 109) ; and, lastly, that Pliny was ;governor of Bithynia from A. D. 111–112 to 113. The letter which is probably the earliest (ii. 20) has since been assigned to the last ppart of the reign of Domitian, and it has been suggested by See also:Professor See also:Merrill that the nine books were published in three See also:groups: i.–ii. (97 or 98); iii.–vi.(1o6); vii.–ix. (xo8 or 109). In his Letters Pliny presents us with a picture of the varied interests of a cultivated Roman See also:gentleman. The See also:etiquette of the imperial circle, scenes from the See also:law-courts and the recitation-See also:room, the reunions of dilettanti and philosophers, the busy life of the See also:capital or of the municipal See also:town, the recreations of the seaside and of the country—all these he brings vividly before our eyes. He elaborately describes his Laurentine and his Tuscan villa, and frankly tells us how he spends the See also:day at each (ii. 17, v. 6, ix. 36 and 40) ;"expatiates on his verses and his speeches, his See also:holiday-tasks in See also:Umbria (vii. 9, ix. ,o), and his happy memories of the Lake of Como (i. 6). He gives an enthusiastic account of a statuette of Corinthian See also:bronze he has recently See also:purchased (iii. 6). He is interested in providing a teacher of rhetoric for the place of his birth (iv. 13); he exults in the devotion of his wife, Calpurnia (vi. 19); towards his servants he is an indulgent See also:master (viii. 16); he intercedes on behalf of the freed-See also:man of a friend (ix. 21), and, when a freedman of his own is in 'delicate health, sends him first to See also:Egypt and afterwards to the See also:Riviera (v. 19). He consults Suetonius on the See also:interpretation of dreams (i. 18); he presents another of his correspondents with a batch of See also:ghost-stories (vii. 27) or a marvellous See also:tale about a tame See also:dolphin on the See also:north coast of Africa (ix. 33). He discourses on the beauties of the See also:Clitumnus (viii. 8) and the floating islands of the Vadimonian lake (viii. 2o). He describes an eruption of Vesuvius in connexion with the last days of the Elder Pliny (vi. 16 and 20), giving elsewhere an account of his manner of life and a See also:list of his writings (iii. 5). He laments the death of Silius Italicus (iii. 7), of Martial (iii. 21), and of Verginius Rufus (ii. 1), and of others less known to fame. He takes as his See also:models Cicero and Tacitus (vii. 2o), whose name is so often (to his delight) associated with his own (ix. 23). He rejoices to learn that his writings are read at See also:Lyons (ix. ii). He complains of the inanity of circus-races (ix. 6), of the decay of interest in public recitations (i. 13), of See also:bad See also:taste in matters of hospitality (ii. 6), and of the way in which time is frittered away in the social duties of Rome (i. 9). He See also:lays down the principles that should See also:guide a Roman governor in See also:Greece (viii. 24); he maintains the cause of the oppressed provinces of See also:Spain and Africa; and he exposes the iniquities of the informer See also:Regulus, the only living man whom he attacks in his Letters, going so far as to denounce him as omnium bipedum nequissimus (i. 5, 14)." The Letters are models of graceful thought and refined expression, each of them dealing with a single topic and generally ending with an epigrammatic point. They were imitated by See also:Symmachus (See also:Macrobius v. 1, 7) and by See also:Apollinaris Sidonius (Epp. ix. r, 1). In the See also:middle ages they were known to Ratherius of See also:Verona' (loth See also:century), who quotes a passage from i. 5, 16 (See also:Migne, cxxxvi. p. 391). Selections were included in a volume of See also:Flores compiled at Verona in 1329; and a MS. of bks. i.-vii. and ix. was discovered by See also:Guarino at See also:Venice in 1419. These books were printed in the editio princeps (Venice, 1471). Part of bk. viii. appeared for the first time at the end of thenextedition(Rome, c. 1474). The whole of bk. viii. was first published in its proper place by Aldus See also:Manutius (Venice, 15o8). Pliny's Correspondence with Trojan supplies us with many interesting details as to the See also:government of Bithynia, and as to the relations between the. governor and the central authority. It reflects the greatest See also:credit on the strict and almost punctilious conscientiousness of the governor, and on the assiduity and the high principle which animated the emperor. On reaching the province, Pliny celebrates the emperor's birth-day, and proceeds to examine the finances of Prusa. His See also:request for a surveyor to check the outlay on the public See also:works is refused on the ground that the emperor has hardly enough surveyors for the works he is carrying on in Rome. He asks the emperor to See also:sanction the repair of the See also:ancient baths at Prusa, the building of an See also:aqueduct at See also:Nicomedia and a See also:theatre at See also:Nicaea, and the covering in of a stream that has become a public See also:nuisance at Amastris. When he consults the emperor as to the baths at Claudiopolis, the emperor sensibly replies: " You, who are on the spot, will be best able to decide " (o). When Pliny hesitates about a small affair See also:relating to Dio See also:Chrysostom (the Bithynian friend of Nerva and Trajan), the emperor betrays a not unnatural impatience in his response: potuisti non haerere, mi Secunde carissime (82). Pliny also asks for a decision on the status and maintenance of deserted children (65), and on the See also:custom of distributing public doles on the occasion of interesting events in the life of a private See also:citizen. The emperor agrees that the custom might See also:lead to " See also:political factions," and should therefore be strictly controlled (117). Owing to a destructive See also:fire at Nicomedia, Pliny suggests the formation of a volunteer fire-See also:brigade, limited to 15o members. The emperor is afraid that the fire-brigade might become a " political See also:club," and cautiously contents himself with approving the See also:provision of a fire-See also:engine (34). Trojan's fear of factions and clubs in these two last cases has sometimes been connected with the question of his attitude towards the Christians in Bithynia. Pliny (Epp. 96) states that he had never taken part in formal trials of Christians, and was therefore tie-familiar with precedents as to the extent of the investigation, and as to the degree of punishment. He See also:felt that a distinction might be See also:drawn between adults and those of See also:tender years; and that See also:allowance might be made for any one who recanted. There was also the question whether any one should be punished simply for bearing the name of See also:Christian or only if he was found guilty of " crimes associated with that name.' Hitherto, in the See also:case of those who were brought before him, he had asked them three distinct times whether they were Christians, and, if they persisted in the See also:admission, had ordered them to be taken to See also:execution. What-ever might be the real See also:character of their profession, he held that such obstinate persistence ought to be punished. There were others no less " demented," who, being Roman citizens, would be sent to Rome for trial. Soon, as the natural consequence of these proceedings, a variety of cases had come under his See also:notice. He had received an See also:anonymous statement giving a list of accused persons. Some of them, who denied that they had ever been Christians, had consented to pray to the gods, to adore the See also:image of the emperor, and to blaspheme See also:Christ; these he had dismissed. Others admitted that they were Christians, but presently denied it, adding that they had ceased to be Christians for some years. All of these worshipped images of the gods and of the emperor, and blasphemed Christ. They averred that the sum and substance of their " See also:fault " was that they had been accustomed to meet on a fixed day before daylight to sing in turns a hymn to Christ as See also:God, and to bind themselves by a See also:solemn See also:oath (See also:sacramento) to abstain from See also:theft or See also:robbery, and from See also:adultery, See also:perjury and dishonesty; after which they were wont to separate and to meet again for a See also:common See also:meal. This, however, they had ceased to do as soon as Pliny had published a decree against collegia, in accordance with the emperor's See also:edict. To ascertain the truth, he had also put to the See also:torture two maid-servants described as deaconesses, but had discovered nothing beyond a perverse and extravagant superstition. He had accordingly put off the formal trial with a view to consulting the emperor. The question appeared to be worthy of such a consultation, especially in view of the number of persons of all ages and ranks, and of both sexes, who were imperilled. The contagion had spread through towns and villages and the open country, but it might still be stayed. Temples that had been wellnigh deserted were already beginning to be frequented, See also:rites long intermitted were being renewed, and the trade in See also:fodder for sacrificial victims was reviving. It might be inferred from this how large a number might be reclaimed, if only room were granted for repentance. Trajan in his reply (Epp. 97) expresses approval of Pliny's course of See also:action in the case of the Christians brought before him. It was impossible (he adds) to See also:lay down any See also:uniform or definite rule. The persons in question were not to be hunted out, but if they were reported and were found guilty, they were to be punished. If, however, any one denied that he was a Christian, and ratified his denial by worshipping the gods of Rome, he was to receive See also:pardon. But no See also:attention was to be paid to anonymous charges. It would be a bad precedent and unworthy of the spirit of the age. The view that the Christians were punished for being members of a collegium or sodalitas (once held by E. G. See also:Hardy, and still maintained by Professor Merrill) is hard to reconcile with Pliny's own statement that the Christians had promptly obeyed the emperor's decree against collegia (§ 7). Further reasons against this view have been urged by See also:Ramsay, who sums up his See also:main results as follows: (I) There was no See also:express law or formal edict against the Christians. (2) They were not prosecuted or punished for contravening any formal law of a wider character. (3) They were judged and condemned by Pliny (with Trajan's full approval) by virtue of the imperium delegated to him, and in accordance with the instructions issued to See also:governors of provinces to See also:search out and punish sacrilegious persons. (4) They had already been classed as outlaws, and the name of Christian in itself entailed condemnation. (5) This treatment was a settled principle of imperial policy, not established by the capricious action of a single emperor. (6) While Trajan felt See also:bound to carry rut the established principle his See also:personal view was to some extent opposed to it. (7) A definite form of See also:procedure had been established. (8) This procedure was followed by Pliny (W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 223). It has been well observed by E. G. Hardy that the " See also:double aspect of Trajan's rescript, which, while it theoretically condemned the Christians, practically gave them a certain See also:security," explains " the different views which have since been taken of it; but by most of the church writers, and perhaps on the whole with See also:justice, it has been regarded as favourable and as rather discouraging persecution than legalizing it " (Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan, 63, 210-217). AurfiomTIEs.—The correspondence with Trajan was apparently preserved in a single See also:Paris MS.; Epp. 41-121 were first printed by Avantius of Verona (1502) ; and Epp. 1-40 by Aldus Manutius (1508). The See also:original MS. has vanished; but the " copy suppliedto the printers of the Aldine See also:text was discovered by Mr. E. G. Hardy in the Bodleian in 1888. The two letters on the Christians were known to See also:Tertullian (A poi. c. 2). The attacks on the genuineness of the whole or part of the collection have been refuted by See also:Wilde (See also:Leiden, 1889).
For a See also:critical edition of text, see H. Kell (See also:Leipzig, 1870), with full See also:index of names by Mornmsen; for See also:plain text, Kell (1853), &c., C. F. W. See also: Kortte (1734), and the less trustworthy edition of M. Doring (1843) ; of bks. i. and ii., Cowan (1889) ; of iii., See also:Mayor (188o, with Life by G. H. Rendall); of vi., See also:Duff (1906); of the Panegyricus, C. G. See also:Schwarz (1846); of the Correspondence with Trajan, E. G. Hardy (1889) ; of Selected Letters, E. T. Merrill (1903) ; best Eng. trans. by J. D. See also:Lewis (1879). On Pliny's life, see the works by J. Masson (See also:Amsterdam, 1709); H. Schontag (See also:Hof, 1876) ; and Giesen (See also:Bonn, 1885). On the See also:chronology of the letters, &c., Mommsen, in See also:Hermes, iii. 31—114 (1868; trans. into See also:French by See also:Morel, 1873); criticized by Stobbe (Philologus, 1870) ; Gemoll (See also:Halle, 1872) ; C. See also:Peter (Philologus, 1873) ; Asbach (Rhein. See also:Mus., 1881) ; and See also:Schultz (See also:Berlin, 1899). For style, the works of H. See also:Holstein (1862—1869); K. Kraut (1872); J. P. Lagergren (1872); and Moriilot (See also:Grenoble, 1888). On the villas, See also:Burn's Rome and the Campagna (1871), 41.1—415; Aitchison, in the Builder (Feb. 8, 189o); Winnefeld, in Jahrb. See also:des See also:arch. Inst. (1891), pp. 201-217; and Magoun, in Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. (1895). See also bibliography in See also:Hubner and Mayor's See also:Lat. Lit. (1875), pp. 147-149; and in Schanz, Rom. Lit. §§ 444-449. For See also:recent literature on Pliny and the Christians, see C. F. See also:Arnold, Studien (See also:Konigsberg, 1887); See also:Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, ii. 7 (ed. 1889) ; See also:Neumann, Der romische Stoat and See also:die allgemeine Kirche (189o) vol. i.; Mommsen, in Hist. Zeitschrift (189c) ; W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire (ed. 1893), ch. Io, pp. 196-225; and E. G. Hardy, See also:Christianity and the Roman Government (1894), reprinted in Studies in Roman See also:History (1906), pp. 1-162; with the literature quoted in these works and in Schanz, Rom. Lit. § 641. (J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] PLINY, THE ELDER |
[next] PLIOCENE (from the Gr. sr?eiov, mere, and xatvbs, r... |