Pliny the Younger (61/62 – c. 112), Roman senator and man of letters, has three unique prose works to his name: the nine-book Epistles, a masterpiece of fragmented autobiography, the Panegyricus (an oration addressed to the emperor Trajan), the only extant speech from the early Roman empire, and a book of correspondence with Trajan, probably edited posthumously and now known as Epistles 10.

Life

Gaius (or Lucius) Caecilius Secundus was born in 61 or 62 CE to an equestrian family of Comum (modern Como, near Milan) in Transpadana, the northern Italian region that produced so many of Rome’s great literary talents. Our information about his parents is scarce. The father, L. …

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Citation: Whitton, Christopher. "Pliny the Younger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 July 2013; last revised 17 February 2017. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12623, accessed 12 December 2024.]

12623 Pliny the Younger 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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