 | By: Pliny the Younger Binding: Paperback Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0140441271 ISBN-13: 9780140441277 Released: 31 Jan 1974 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Pliny (the Younger) was a Roman nobleman born around 61AD. He served as a magistrate under the emperor Trajan, & was the nephew of Pliny (the Elder) the famous statesman & writer. It's refreshing to read the words of an actual Roman for a change instead of those of ancient or modern historians, & Pliny's letters cover many fascinating aspects of roman life. Also gratifying is that often we are also given the replies.
Among the topics covered are; family, villas, court cases, hobbies, & poetry (his own verses, it must be said, stink!). How refreshing to get inside a Roman nobleman's head, & share his thoughts (even though his letters were written perhaps with "one eye" on their eventual publication).
The most famous letter is addressed to his friend the roman historian Tacitus who has asked for an account of his uncle's death in the eruption of Vesuvius. This of course took place in 79AD & caused the destruction of both Pompeii & other towns in the Bay of Naples).
The translator Betty Radice has done a very good job rendering the letters into modern english & her twenty-two page introduction makes interesting reading. Brief appendices include a short glossary & three maps. If "real" roman history is your thing - you can't beat this collection!
Here are just a few excerpts:-
To: Valerius Paulinus "I am furious with you, rightly or not I don't know, but it makes no difference. You know very well that love is sometimes unfair, often violent, & always quick to take offence, but I have good reason, whether or not it is a just one, to be as furious as I would be in a just cause. It is so long since I had a letter from you. The only way to placate me is to write me a lot of letters now, at long last - lengthy ones, too."
To: Sempronius Rufus "I had gone down to the Basilica Julia to listen to the speeches in a case where I had to appear for the defence at the next hearing. The court was seated, the presiding magistrates had arrived & counsel on both sides were coming & going; then there was a long silence, broken at last by a message from the Praetor. The court adjourned & the case was suspended, much to my delight for I am never so well prepared as not to be glad of a delay"
To: Cornelius Tacitus "I should like to obey your orders,but when you tell me I ought to honour Diana along with Minerva I find it impossible - there is such a shortage of boars. So I can only serve Minerva, & even her in the lazy way to be expected during a summer holiday.
On my way here I made up some bits of nonesense (not worth keeping) in the conversational style one uses when travelling, & I added something to them once I was here & had nothing better to do; but peace reigns over the poems which you fancy are only too easy to finish in the woods & groves. I have revised one or two short speeches, though this is the sort of disagreeable task I detest & is more like one of the hardships of country life than it's pleasures."
Pliny (the Younger) was a Roman nobleman born around 61AD. He served as a magistrate under the emperor Trajan, & was the nephew of Pliny (the Elder) the famous statesman & writer. It's refreshing to read the words of an actual Roman for a change instead of those of ancient or modern historians, & Pliny's letters cover many fascinating aspects of roman life. Also gratifying is that often we are also given the replies.
Among the topics covered are; family, villas, court cases, hobbies, & poetry (his own verses, it must be said, stink!). How refreshing to get inside a Roman nobleman's head, & share his thoughts (even though his letters were written perhaps with "one eye" on their eventual publication).
The most famous letter is addressed to his friend the roman historian Tacitus who has asked for an account of his uncle's death in the eruption of Vesuvius. This of course took place in 79AD & caused the destruction of both Pompeii & other towns in the Bay of Naples).
The translator Betty Radice has done a very good job rendering the letters into modern english & her twenty-two page introduction makes interesting reading. Brief appendices include a short glossary & three maps. If "real" roman history is your thing - you can't beat this collection!...
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