Pliny the Younger

3 units

Pliny the Younger is the outstanding representative of almost all aspects of Roman intellectual life circa AD 100. He was Pliny the Elder's adopted son; he was taught by Quintilian; he corrected Tacitus's works; he moved in the same circles as poets like Martial, Statius, and Silius Italicus; he was a Roman advocate, senator, consul, and governor; he was a correspondent of Trajan. Always an object of interest for his value as a source for matters social and historical, in recent years he has begun to attract interest as a sophisticated literary artist in his own right. In this course we will read all of Pliny's surviving writings.