| Summary: | "Pliny the Younger (c. 60-112 CE)--senator and consul in the Rome of Domitian and Trajan, eyewitness to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, early 'persecutor' of Christians on the Black Sea--remains the best documented Roman individual, other than emperors, between Cicero and Augustine. Standard biographical approaches rarely suit him. But no Roman writer, not even Vergil, ties his identity to the regions of Italy more successfully than Pliny. His individuality can be captured by focusing on the range of locales in which he lived, including Comum, Umbria and Rome. What is Pliny's attachment or relationship to a region? What is his persona, and what does he do there? What does he see, or not see, in a landscape or its inhabitants? Why does he play Comum up or play Umbria down? A strong thread of linear narration is maintained. In his youth Pliny spent a period of time on the bay of Naples alongside his famous uncle, the Elder Pliny, author of the Natural History. It was while here he witnessed the catastrophe of 79. Pliny spent the last years of his life as governor in the province of Pontus-Bithynia in northwest Turkey, in a landscape and political milieu quite different from the one he had known in Italy. Four figures from the classical past, present, and future accompany Pliny: Cicero, Tacitus, Epictetus, and Augustine"--Publisher's description
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