Pliny’s Panegyric is the written version of the speech which Pliny gave in the senate on the occasion of his consulship, which he assumed on 1 September AD 100. The speech is crucial not only as a very rare surviving example of oratory from the early empire, but also for its negotiation of imperial ideology and the relationship between emperor, senate and people (see further Rees 2001, Seelentag 2004).
The text of the speech which survives is not a verbatim transcription of the utterance which Pliny delivered in the senate as consul. Certainly, oral delivery of a speech of such great length (which might be seen as a strategic feature of the text we have, and which will be discussed below) would place unusual …
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Citation: Gibson , Bruce. "Panegyricus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 June 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35608, accessed 25 November 2024.]
