A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

was the son of C. Caecilius, and of Plinia, the sister of C. Plinius, the author of the Naturalis Historia. His native place was probably Comum, now Como, on the Lake Larius, Lake of Como, on the banks of which he had several villae (Ep. 9.7). The year of his birth was A. D. 61 or 62, for, in a letter addressed to Cornelius Tacitus (Ep. 6.20), in which he describes the great eruption of Vesuvius, which happened A. D. 79, he says that he was then in his eighteenth year. His father died young, and after his death Plinia and her son lived with her brother, who adopted his nephew, Caecilius. Under the republic his name after adoption would have been C. Plinius Caecilianus Secundus.

The education of Plinius was conducted under the care of his uncle, his mother, and his tutor, Verginis Rufus (Ep. 2.1). From his youth he was devoted to letters. In his fourteenth year he wrote a Greek tragedy (Ep. 7.4); but he adds, "what kind of a thing it was, I know not : it was called a tragedy." He studied eloquence under Quintilianus and Nicetes Sacerdos (ep. 6.6). His acquirements finally gained him the reputation

of being one of the most learned men of the age ; and his friend Tacitus, the historian, had the same honourable distinction. He was also an orator. In his nineteenth year he began to speak in the forum (Ep. 5.8), and he was frequently employed as an advocate before the court of the Centumviri (Ep. 1.18--9.23), and before the Roman senate, both on the side of the prosecution, as in the cases of Baebius Massa and Marius Priscus, and for the defence, as in the cases of Julius Bassus and Rufus Varenus (Ep. 6.29).

He filled numerous offices in succession. While a young man he served in Syria, as tribunus militum, and was there a hearer of the stoic Euphrates (Ep. 1.10), and of Artemidorus. He was subsequently quaestor Caesaris, praetor in or about A. D. 93 (Ep. 3.11), and consul A. D. 100, in which year he wrote his laneqyricus, which is addressed to Trajanus (Ep. 3.13). In A. D. 103 he was appointed propraetor of the province Pontica (Ep. 10.77), where he did not stay quite two years. Among his other functions he also discharged that of curator of the channel and the banks of the Tiber (Ep. 5.15, and an inscription in Gruter, p. 454. 3).

Plinius was twice married. His second wife was Calpurnia, the granddaughter of Calpurnius Fabatus, and an accomplished woman : she was considerably younger than her husband, who has recorded her kind attentions to him, and her affection in a letter to her aunt Hispulla (Ep. 4.19). He had no children by either wife, born alive.

The life of Plinius is chiefly known from his letters. So far as this evidence shows, he was a kind and benevolent man, fond of literary pursuits, and of building on and improving his estates. He was rich, and he spent liberally. He built a temple at Tifernum, at his own cost, and an aedes to Ceres, on his own property. He contributed, or offered to contribute a third of the cost of establishing a school in his patria (probably Comum), for the education of the youth there, and he asked his friend Tacitus to look out for teachers (Ep. 4.13). The dedication of a library at the same place, and the establishment of a fund for the benefit of youths (

annuos sumptus in alimenta ingenuorum

, Ep. 1.8), are among the instances of his generosity recorded in his letters. He was a kind master to his slaves. His body was feeble, and his health not good. Nothing is known as to the time of his death.

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