Pliny the Younger
Pliny the Younger | |
|---|---|
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus | |
Detail from Pliny the Younger and His Mother at Miseno by Angelica Kauffman, 1785 | |
| Born | Gaius Caecilius Cilo AD 61 |
| Died | c. AD 113 (aged c. 52) Bithynia, Roman Empire |
| Occupation(s) | Politician, judge, author |
| Notable work | Epistulae |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Pliny the Elder (uncle, later adoptive father) |
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; 61 – c. 113), better known in English as Pliny the Younger (/ˈplɪni/ PLIN-ee), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him.
Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, of which 247 survived, and which are of some historical value. These include 121 official memoranda addressed to Emperor Trajan (reigned 98-117). Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus. Pliny served as an imperial magistrate under Trajan, and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors.
Pliny rose through a series of civil and military offices, the cursus honorum. He was a friend of the historian Tacitus and might have employed the biographer Suetonius on his staff. Pliny also came into contact with other well-known men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates the Stoic, during his time in Syria.