Name: Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; known as Pliny the Younger
Dates: 60/61 - c. 112
Parents: Lucius Caecilius Cilo and Plinia Marcella Occupation: Statesman and Writer
Along with Epicurus, Cicero, Cato, and Seneca, the younger Pliny is known for his letters (epistles). We also look to his letters for information about him, his uncle, the emperors, and the times, including the status of the new religion of Christianity.
Pliny the Younger came from a wealthy, land-owning equestrian family from Novum Comum (Como). He shared his family's interest in property and owned more than one villa.Pliny's father died young and so his education and upbringing were entrusted to Verginius Rufus and then his maternal uncle, the Elder Pliny. Under their care, he was educated at Rome by exceptional rhetoricians of the day, enabling Pliny to become a talent writer and advocate. These rhetoricians were Quintilian and Nicetes Sacerdos.
After his education, Pliny the Younger served in a variety of career-advancing posts. He supervised the accounts for auxiliary forces in the military when stationed in Syria. When back in Rome, he served as advocate and then was appointed quaestor under Domitian, giving him a position in the Senate. He served as Tribune of the Plebs and then praetor in about 93. He then served as prefect of the military treasury to pay out retired soldier pensions, and then seems to have fallen out of favor with Domitian. After Domitian's assassination, Pliny started his upward rise again. He became treasury prefect of Saturn (the temple) from 98-100,For the last half of the year 100 he was promoted to serve as suffect consul sharing the consulship with a friend, Gaius Julius Cornutus Tertullus. Trajan granted his request to become an augur, then made him curator of the Tiber. In 109/110, he was appointed to govern Bithyia-Pontus as propraetorian legate with consular powers. He died in Bithynia in 112.
A biography of Pliny the Elder, attributed to Suetonius (c. A.D. 70. to c. 130), a contemporary of Pliny, confounds details of the lives of both men [Note on the identity of the Pliny.
Sources:
- Complete Letters of Pliny (the Younger.), Patrick Gerard Walsh - 2006 Oxford
- Livius
