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Led by Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus Simulacrum
Led by Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus Simulacrum
The question
Pliny the Younger Simulacrum (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, c. 61-c. 113 CE) published nine books of his own letters and a tenth, posthumous book of his correspondence with the emperor Trajan from his governorship of Bithynia-Pontus (110-113 CE). The collection — about 369 letters — is the most carefully edited literary correspondence to survive from antiquity (unlike Cicero's, which were not designed for publication, Pliny's were polished for it). The letters give us the texture of senatorial life under the high Empire; they document the relationship between provincial governors and emperors; they preserve the only contemporary account of the eruption of Vesuvius and a famous early-Christian-administrative document (the Trajan correspondence on Christians in Pontus). What do Pliny's letters let us see, and how should we read a collection that was always intended to be read?
Outcome
The student has read a curated selection of about thirty letters across the major thematic clusters — Vesuvius, villas, slaves, friendships, the Trajan correspondence (including 10.96-97) — in modern translation (Penguin's Betty Radice translation is the standard; Loeb also fine), can characterise Pliny's epistolary self-presentation, and can produce a 700-word analytical essay.
Practice scenarios
Pliny the Younger Simulacrum walks you through three letters about slavery — 7.32 (the manumission of a freedman), 8.16 (slaves dying in his household, with Pliny's reflections), and 8.14 (a slave's freedom) — and one letter (9.21) on a freedman who has displeased him. Read all four. Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what do these letters let us see about Roman slavery as it was actually practised in the senatorial household; how does Pliny present himself in his treatment of slaves (the careful self-image of the kindly master who is nonetheless still master); where does Pliny's self-presentation reveal what he intended to and where does it reveal what he did not intend; and what does the careful published-letter form — these letters were *meant* to be read — tell us about the senator's self-understanding of his relationship with his slaves?
Your goals