Pliny, Epistulae [Letters]

Charilaos N. Michalopoulos (University of Democritus)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (The American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication 99 - 112

Places

Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Letter(s)

Resources

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or Pliny, owes his literary fame to his Letters (Epistulae), which comprise nine books of private letters (books 1-9) and one book of his official correspondence with the emperor Trajan (book 10). Pliny’s epistolary work offers a most valuable insight to the author’s intellectual environment and the culture of literary and political friendship within the Roman aristocracy during Trajan’s dominion. Books 1-9 contain the author’s own collection of 247 private letters addressed to a remarkable number of 105 real, not fictive recipients (Pliny’s friends and other members of the Roman aristocracy of his time). The exact dating of the letters remains unresolved, since only a very …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2542 words

Citation: Michalopoulos, Charilaos N.. "Epistulae". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 June 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=26476, accessed 22 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article