Listed 14 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "LOMBARDIA Region ITALY" .
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Elpidius or Helpidius (Elpidios), one of the physicians of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, A. D. 493--526, whom he attended in his last illness. (Procop de Bello Goth. lib. i. p. 167, ed. Hoschel.) He was a Christian, and in deacon's orders, and probably a native of Milan. There is extant a letter to him from king Theodoric (ap. Cassiod. Vrariar. iv. 24), and four from Ennodius (Epist. vii 7, viii. 8, ix. 14, 21; ap. Sirmondi Opera, vol. i.)
COMO (Town) LOMBARDIA
23 - 79
Pliny the Elder or Caius Plinius Secundus: Roman officer and encyclopedist, author
of the Natural history.
Youth
Caius Plinius Secundus -or, to use his English name, Pliny- was born
in 23 or 24 at Novum Comum (modern Como), a small city in the region known as
Gallia Transpadana. We do not know much about his family, except for the fact
that he had a sister, and that his father was wealthy enough to be a member of
the equestrian class, which means that he possessed at least 400,000 sesterces
(100,000 normal day wages).
As a result, Pliny was able to study, and in the 30's he was in Rome.
In his Natural history, the encyclopedia that he was to write forty years later,
he recalls several incidents of which he had been an eyewitness. For example,
when he describes the statue known as the Apoxyomenos of Lysippus, he tells this.
It was dedicated by Marcus Agrippa in front of his Baths. Tiberius
also much admired this statue [...] and removed the Apoxyomenos to his bedroom,
substituting a copy. But the people of Rome were so indignant about this that
they staged a protest in the theater, shouting 'Bring back the Apoxyomenos!' And
so despite his passion for it, Tiberius was obliged to replace the original statue.
[Natural history 34.62; tr. J.F. Healy]
Was the boy present during in the theater? We can not be certain,
but it is certainly possible.
Like all Roman boys, Pliny had to study rhetoric, which is essentially
the art to speak in public. However, since a speech is only convincing when the
speaker looks reliable, there was a lot more to rhetoric than only speaking: it
was a complete program of good manners and general knowledge. After 37, Pliny's
teacher was Publius Pomponius Secundus, who was regarded as the best tragic poet
of his age, and sometimes stayed at the imperial court of Caligula and Claudius.
Pliny considered Caligula's wife a parvenue.
I have seen Lollia Paulina [...] celebrating her betrothal covered
with alternating emeralds an pearls, which glittered all over her head, hair,
ears, neck and fingers, to the value of 50 million sesterces. She was ready, at
the drop of a hat, to give written proof of her ownership of the gems.
[Natural history 9.117; tr. J.F. Healy]
Pomponius gave Pliny the connections that were needed to make a career,
and is probably responsible for his pupil's odd style of writing.
Officer
In 45, when he was twenty-one years old, Pliny left Italy
and went to Gallia Belgica, where he served as military tribune. This administrative
office was a very common step in the career of a young men of the senatorial or
equestrian order, especially when they aspired to a position in the government
of the empire. Pliny, however, developed a liking of the military, and was soon
promoted to prefect of a cavalry unit. He was a fighting officer. His unit was
stationed at Xanten (Castra Vetera) in Germania Inferior on the lower Rhine. One
day, he must have lost the bridle of his horse, because after many centuries,
it was found back by archaeologists.
In 47, the new commander of the army of the lower Rhine, Gnaeus Domitius
Corbulo, arrived, and invaded the country of the Frisians and Chauci along the
Wadden Sea. It is possible that the two men already knew each other, because Corbulo's
sister had been married to Caligula. However this may be, Pliny's unit took part
in this campaign. Later, he recalled Lake Flevo, which the Romans had had to cross
before they reached the country of the Frisians and Chauci:
The shores are occupied by oaks which have a vigorous growth rate,
and these trees, when undermined by the waves or driven by blasts of wind, carry
away vast islands of soil trapped in their roots. Thus balanced, the oak-trees
float in an upright position, with the result that our fleets gave often been
terrified by the 'wide rigging' of their huge branches when they have been driven
by the waves -almost deliberately it would seem- against the bows of ships riding
at anchor for the night; consequently, our ships have had no option but to fight
a naval battle against trees!
[Natural history 16.5 tr. John Healy]
The campaign was successful. The Frisians and Chauci surrendered,
and Corbulo was already building a fortress for a garrison, when he received an
order that he had to return. We do not know why the emperor Claudius issued this
order, but it is probable that he did not want to get involved in a war in Germany
when the conquest of Britain had not been completed.
Pliny seems to have stayed in the Rhine army for some time, because
in 50/51, he took part in the campaign against the Chatti, a tribe that lived
opposite Mainz. His commander was his former teacher Publius Pomponius Secundus.
It was a remarkable campaign, not in the least because the Romans discovered in
the Germanic villages several old slaves, who turned out to be former Roman soldiers
taken captive in the battle in the Teutoburger forest, forty years before. During
this campaign, Pliny visited the thermal sources at Wiesbaden and the sources
of the Danube.
In these years, Pliny wrote his first book, a short treatise on spear
throwing from horseback, now lost. It has been assumed that he had seen how the
Germans threw spears, and wanted to learn this technique to his fellow Romans.
In 52, he was Italy. He was probably escorting Pomponius to Rome. Pliny was present
when the emperor Claudius organized a very special spectacle:
I have seen Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, at a show where he was
presenting a naval battle, seated by him, wearing a military cloak made entirely
of gold cloth.
[Natural history 33.63; tr. J.F. Healy]
This naval battle took place on the Fucine lake, and Pliny tells us
that Claudius had drained this large lake by digging a channel through a mountain.
The author of the Natural history was impressed by the operations, which had been
carried out in darkness. In these years,
Pliny wrote a second book, The Life of Pomponius Secundus. Probably,
the teacher had died, and the pupil felt he owed this book as an act of homage
to Pomponius. From a literary point of view, this was an important work, because
the Romans had not yet developed the biographical genre.
Pliny returned to the Rhine army, and wrote a long history of the
Germanic wars in twenty volumes. His nephew Pliny the Younger tells about his
uncle:
He began this during his military service in Germany, as the result
of a dream; in his sleep he saw standing over him the ghost of Drusus, who had
triumphed far and wide in Germany and died there. He committed his memory to my
uncle's care, begging him to save from the injustice of oblivion.
[Letters, 3.5.4; tr. B. Radice]
It is not known when Pliny published this work, but it is intriguing
that he states that Drusus, the father of the emperor Claudius, had to be saved
from oblivion. Is this a silent commentary on Claudius' unambituous Germanic policy?
Did Pliny try to influence the new emperor Nero, hoping that he would renew Drusus'
program to move the frontier from the Rhine to the Elbe?
In these years, Pliny also met Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the son
of another Titus Flavius Vespasianus. Both men were to rule as emperors: father
Vespasian from 69 to 79, his son Titus from 79 to 81.
In 59, Pliny returned to Italy, thirty-six years old. A remarkable
man, already: the author of three books, and a bachelor. A serious man, who had
trained himself to live with the minimum of sleep, and wanted the world to benefit
from his knowledge. He may have had some ambitions when he arrived in Rome, and
could expect an appointment as procurator. However, things turned out differently.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Scholar
When Pliny returned to Rome
in 59, he was thirty-six years old, a reliable officer in search for a new occupation.
A procuratorship would have been possible. However, this did not happen. We do
not know why. Of course, his patron Pomponius was dead, but Pliny was a veteran
officer and had published two important books on military matters and a biography,
so it is not exaggerated to say that he was "someone". He did not really need
a patron to proceed his career.
The real reason must have been a change in the political climate.
Claudius was by now dead, Nero was in the fifth year of his reign, and other rules
applied. Under the old emperor, historians had been welcome, but Nero was more
interested in musicians, singers, dancers, and other performers. 59 was the year
in which Nero disgraced himself by giving a recital - something a member of a
royal family simply was not supposed to do. This was not the kind of court in
which the serious veteran could play a role.
Perhaps, Pliny understood that worse was to come. A performing emperor
was not only a disgrace to his high office, but also a danger to the quality of
government. There were rumors that Nero had murdered his mother. Pliny must have
known that he was not the man to cope with this type of situation. He retired
from public life -after all, he was a wealthy man- and devoted his talents to
the study of literature. The result is described by Pliny the Younger: three books.
The scholar - three volumes divided into six sections on account of their length,
in which he trains the orator from his cradle and brings him to perfection.
Problems in grammar - eight volumes; this he wrote during Nero's last years when
the slavery of the times made it dangerous to write anything at all independent
or inspired.
A Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus - thirty-one volumes.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5.5-6; tr.B. Radice]
As the younger Pliny seems to admit, these were not "independent or
inspired" works. The scholar was a haphazard collection of incidents and suggestions,
which was quoted ironically by the great rhetorician Quintilian, and forgotten.
The same fate befell the works of the man who had taught Pliny rhetoric, Pomponius
Secundus. The style of writing of Pliny and his master were considered strange,
and we may assume that the Problems in Grammar suffered the same fate. The Continuation
of the History of Aufidius Bassus must have dealt with the years after 47 (the
year in which Pliny had taken part in the campaign against the Chauci), and was
not finished when Nero died.
Meanwhile, Pliny had become uncle. His sister Plinia had given birth
to a son, Caius Caecilius Secundus (62). Unfortunately, the boy's father Lucius
Caecilius died soon after, and Pliny, who had no wife and children, would adopt
his nephew (posthumously). As was usual, the young men would adopt his uncle's
name and become known as Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or, to use his English
name, Pliny the Younger. He was educated in his uncle's Roman house.
In the meantime, the political situation was deteriorating. Nero was
becoming more and more of a tyrant and many people were killed, or forced to commit
suicide, as was the fate of Corbulo, the general whom Pliny had served. In 68,
the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Caius Julius Vindex, revolted, but the general
of the army of the middle Rhine, Lucius Verginius Rufus (a friend of Pliny), suppressed
the rebellion. However, the Senate declared that Nero was an enemy of the state
and proclaimed Servius Sulpicius Galba, an ally of Vindex, emperor. Nero committed
suicide.
This was the beginning of a terrible civil war. Galba despised the
soldiers of the Rhine army, who first offered the throne to Verginius Rufus (who
refused) and then to the general of the army of the lower Rhine, Aulus Vitellius.
Galba panicked, made mistakes, and was lynched by soldiers of the imperial guard,
which placed a rich senator named Marcus Salvius Otho on the throne, but he was
defeated by the army of Vitellius. He had only just reached Rome, when the news
arrived that in the east, where the Romans were fighting a war against the Jews,
another general had revolted: Vespasian, the father of Pliny's friend Titus. The
armies of the Danube immediately sided with the new pretender and defeated Vitellius'
army. Youth Officer Scholar Procurator and prefect The Natural history Vespasian
Kobenhavn (Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket)
All this happened in 69. Pliny seems to have been in the city. He
must have heard eyewitnesses about the death of Galba, he must have seen how Vitellius
entered Rome, he must have seen how the Capitol was afire. This must have been
the subject matter of the Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus, and
it is likely that Pliny's history influenced the Histories of his younger contemporary
Tacitus.
Procurator and prefect
Because he was befriended with the new emperor and his son Titus,
Pliny suddenly had a spectacular career: he obtained several procuratorships,
which took him through the entire western part of the Roman world. In 70, he was
in Gallia Narbonensis, in 72 in Africa, in 73 in Hispania Terraconensis, and in
75 in Gallia Belgica. During the two first jobs, Pliny was not only responsible
for the emperor's personal possessions and finances, but also for the administration
of justice. During the two last procuratorships, Pliny was responsible for all
taxes of his provinces.
He was never in Rome and can not have done much for the education
of his nephew. A guardian was appointed: Verginius Rufus, the man who in 68 had
refused the throne. To him, there was no chance upon a further career, and he
founded a literary salon. It had several important members, such as the famous
orator Nicetes of Smyrna,
who became the younger Pliny's teacher in Greek and rhetoric.
On his return from Gallia Belgica, where he must have interviewed
people who had witnessed the Batavian revolt (69-70), Pliny must have finished
the Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus. Perhaps the work was dedicated
to the emperor, because Pliny now belonged to the emperor's advisory council and
had a function in the imperial palace, the Golden House. We do not know his function,
but the prefecture of the fire brigade (the vigiles) is a possibility. The younger
Pliny, who seems to have been living in the elder Pliny's urban residence, was
impressed:
He would rise half-way through the night; in winter it would often
be at midnight or an hour later, and two at the latest. Admittedly, he fell asleep
very easily, and would often doze and wake up again during his work. Before daybreak
he would visit the emperor Vespasian (who also made use of his nights) and then
go to attend to his official duties. On returning home, he devoted his spare time
to his work. After something to eat (his meals during the day were light and simple
in the old-fashioned way), in summer when he was not too busy he would often lie
in the sun, and a book was read aloud while he made notes and extracts. He made
extracts of everything he read, and always said that there was no book so bad
that some good could not be got out of it.
After his rest in the sun he generally took a cold bath, and then
ate something and had a short sleep; after which he worked till dinner time as
if he started on a new day. A book was read aloud during the meal and he took
rapid notes.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5.8-12; tr. B. Radice]
The next stage in Pliny's career was a military function again: he
was made prefect of one of the two Roman navies. It was stationed at Misenum,
and Pliny was responsible for the safety of the entire western half of the Mediterranean.
He must have been a terribly busy man, but he was able to finish an encyclopedia,
the Natural history, which contained all knowledge he had, both from reading and
from autopsy. It was dedicated to his friend Titus, and was
written for the masses, for the horde of farmers and
artisans, and, finally, for those who have time to
devote time to these pursuits.
[Natural history, Preface 6; tr. J.F. Healy]
In August 79, Pliny's sister and her son were staying with him at
Misenum, when the Vesuvius became active. On the twenty-fourth, after he had been
out in the sun and had taken a bath, Plinia drew the admiral's attention to the
umbrella-shaped cloud. Pliny the Younger says:
My uncle's scholarly acumen saw at once that it was important enough
for closer inspection, and he ordered a fast boat to be made ready, telling me
I could come with him if I wished. I replied that I preferred to go on with my
studies, and as it happened he had given me some writing to do.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.37 tr. B. Radice]
However, the admiral changed his mind. What had begun in a spirit
of inquiry, became a humanitarian mission. He gave orders for the warships to
be launched, so that the people from the towns around the volcano could be evacuated.
But it was impossible to reach the far side of the bay, and Pliny landed at Stabiae,
where he spend the night with a friend named Pomponianus. However, he died during
the evacuation; the exact cause of his death is unknown, but it seems that he
was asthmatic and overcome by the sulphurous fumes.
In this way the elder Pliny died. His nephew erected a literary epitaph,
when he wrote:
The fortunate man, in my opinion, is he to whom the gods have granted the power
either to do something which is worth recording or to write what is worth reading,
and most fortunate of all is he who can do both. Such a man was my uncle.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.3; tr. B. Radice]
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
The Natural history
"There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it," Pliny the Elder used to say, and he read everything that he could obtain. His nephew Pliny the Younger gives an indication how devoted his uncle was to reading and studying, which was like working to him.Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Gaius Plinius Secundus, called the Elder. A Roman representative
of encyclopaedic learning, born A.D. 23, at Novum Comum (Como), in Upper Italy.
Although throughout his life he was almost uninterruptedly occupied in the service
of the State, yet at the same time he carried on the most widely extended scientific
studies to which he laboriously devoted all his leisure hours, and thus gained
for himself the reputation of the most learned man of his age. Under Claudius
he served as commander of a troop of cavalry (praefectus alae) in Germany; under
Vespasian, with whom he was in the highest favour, he held several times the office
of imperial governor in the provinces, and superintended the imperial finances
in Italy. Finally, under Titus, he was in command of the fleet stationed at Misenum,
when in A.D. 79, at the celebrated eruption of Vesuvius, his zeal for research
led him to his death. For a detailed account of this event, as well as of his
literary labours, we have to thank his nephew, the Younger Pliny (Epist. iii.
5; vi. 16).
Besides writings upon military, grammatical, rhetorical, and
biographical subjects, he composed two greater historical works--a history of
the Germanic wars in twenty books, and a history of his own time in thirty-one
books. His last work was the Natural History (Historia Naturalis), in thirtyseven
books, which has been preserved to us. This was dedicated to Titus, and was published
in A.D. 77; but he was indefatigably engaged in amplifying it up to the time of
his death. This encyclopaedia is compiled from 20,000 notices, which he had extracted
from about 2000 writings by 474 authors. Book i. gives a list of contents and
the names of the authors used; ii. is on astronomy and physics; iii.-vi., a general
sketch of geography and ethnography, mainly a list of names; vii.-xix., natural
history proper (vii., anthropology; viii.-xi., zoology of land and water animals,
birds, and insects; xii.-xix., botany); xx.-xxxii., the pharmacology of the vegetable
kingdom (xx.-xxvii.) and of the animal kingdom (xxviii.-xxxii.); xxxiii.xxxvii.,
mineralogy and the use of minerals in medicine and in painting, sculpture, and
the engraving of gems, besides valuable notices upon the history of art. A kind
of comparative geography forms the conclusion.
Considering the extent and varied character of the undertaking,
the haste with which the work was done, the defective technical knowledge and
small critical ability of the author, it cannot be surprising that it includes
a large number of mistakes and misunderstandings, and that its contents are of
very unequal value, details that are strange and wonderful, rather than really
important, having often unduly attracted the writer's attention. Nevertheless,
the work is a mine of inestimable value in the information it gives us respecting
the science and art of the ancient world; and it is also a splendid monument of
human industry. Even the unevenness of the style is explained by the mosaic-like
character of the work. At one time it is dry and bald in expression; at another,
rhetorically coloured and impassioned, especially in the carefully elaborated
introductions to the several books. On account of its bulk, the work was in early
times epitomized for more convenient use. An epitome of the geographical part
of Pliny's encyclopaedia, belonging to the time of Hadrian, and enlarged by additions
from Pomponius Mela and other authors, forms the foundation of the works of Solinus
and Martianus Capella. Similarly the Medicina Plinii is an epitome prepared in
the fourth century for the use of travellers.
About two hundred manuscripts of Pliny are in existence, divided
into two general classes--the vetustiores, all more or less incomplete, but truer
to the original, and the recentiores, which are less fragmentary, but also less
accurate. Of the former the best is the Codex Bambergensis of the tenth century,
containing only bks. xxxii.-xxxvii. The recentiores are all of the same "family,"
going back to a single archetype now lost.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited July 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pliny the Elder : Various WebPages
62 - 115
Pliny the Younger or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62-c.115): Roman senator,
nephew of Pliny the Elder, governor of Bithynia-Pontus (109-111), author of a
famous collection of letters.
The Roman senator Pliny the Younger is one of the few people from
Antiquity who is more to us than just a name. We possess a long inscription which
mentions his entire career, one or two of his houses have been discovered, and
-more importantly- we can still read many of his letters. They are often very
entertaining: he tells a ghost story, gives accounts of lawsuits, guides us through
his houses, describes the friendship of a boy and a dolphin, informs us about
the persecution of Christians, tells about the eruption of the Vesuvius. But we
can also read his correspondence with the emperor Trajan. With the senator Cicero
and the father of the church Augustine, Pliny is the best-known of all Romans.
In this article, we will first describe his career, and then focus
on his governorship of Bithynia-Pontus
(109-111), where he was some sort of interim-manager who had to settle a troubled
province. His opinions and world view will be discussed passingly - you can better
read his letters.
Youth
In 62, a rich Roman knight named Lucius Caecilius and his wife Plinia
of Como (Novum Comum) in
northern Italy became parents of a son, Caius Caecilius Secundus. Unfortunately,
the father soon died, and the young man was (later) adopted by Plinia's brother,
Caius Plinius Secundus. The boy took over his uncle's name and became known as
Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. In English, nephew and uncle are usually called
Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder.
The younger Pliny was brought up in the houses of his uncle, in Como
and Rome. Pliny the Elder
had been a cavalry officer in the Rhine army and had some literary pretensions.
He had published two books on military matters and had written one of the first
Latin biographies. When he had returned to Italy,
three years before his nephew's birth, he had found his further career obstructed.
We do not know why, but it is easy to believe that there was no room for a military
man at the court of the emperor Nero, who preferred the company of musicians,
singers, dancers, and other performers. Pliny the Elder had started a career as
a scholar, and was preparing a book on Problems in grammar. It was a safe occupation.
During the younger Pliny's youth, the political situation was deteriorating.
Nero was becoming more and more of a tyrant, until in the spring of 68, the governor
of Gallia Lugdunensis, Caius Julius Vindex, revolted. Many senators were sympathetic
to this revolt, but the general of the army of the middle Rhine, Lucius Verginius
Rufus (a friend of Pliny the Elder), suppressed the rebellion. However, the Senate
declared that Nero was an enemy of the state and proclaimed Servius Sulpicius
Galba, an ally of Vindex, emperor. Nero committed suicide.
This was the beginning of a terrible civil war. Galba despised the
soldiers of the Rhine army, who first offered the throne to Verginius Rufus (who
refused) and then to the general of the army of the lower Rhine, Aulus Vitellius
(January 69). Galba panicked, made mistakes, and was lynched by soldiers of the
imperial guard, which placed a rich senator named Marcus Salvius Otho on the throne,
but he was defeated by the army of Vitellius. He had only just reached Rome, when
the news arrived that in the east, where the Romans were fighting a war against
the Jews, another general had revolted: Vespasian. The armies of the Danube immediately
sided with the new pretender and defeated Vitellius' army (December 69). The reign
of Vespasian could begin.
To the Plinii, this was an important change - for the better. The
old officer was a close friend of one of the sons of the emperor, Titus: both
men had been together in Germany. In 70, Pliny the Elder was made procurator and
sent to Gallia Narbonensis, Africa, Hispania Terraconensis, and Gallia Belgica.
He did not return until 76, when he became one of the emperor's personal advisers
and (perhaps) prefect of the Roman fire brigade.
During his absence, the elder Pliny was no longer able to take care
of his nephew, who was eightyears old when his uncle resumed his career. A guardian
was appointed: Verginius Rufus, the man who had refused the imperial purple. He
had been rewarded, but in fact, his career was at a dead end, and he founded a
literary salon. Many important authors visited him, and among them was the famous
orator Nicetes of Smyrna,
who became the younger Pliny's teacher in Greek and rhetoric. His Latin teacher
was Quintilian, professor in Latin rhetoric and one of the most influential authors
of his age.
Pliny had to study rhetoric, because was essential to be able to speak
in public. Since a speech is only convincing when the speaker looks reliable,
there was a lot more to rhetoric than only speaking: it was a complete program
of good manners and general knowledge.
It was impossible to find better teachers. Pliny's style of writing
is, therefore, more polished than that of his uncle. His first literary work was
a tragedy, which he wrote 75 or 76. We do not know what it was about, except that
it was in Greek. It was the beginning of a long love for the theater. Two of his
villa's at Lake Como were called Comedy and Tragedy.
When Pliny was seventeen years old, his uncle died (25 August 79).
His last office was that of admiral of one of Rome's navies, which was stationed
at Misenum near Naples. When
the Vesuvius erupted, the elder Pliny wanted to rescue people and do some scientific
research, but he did not survive. His nephew, who was now adopted, inherited his
uncle's possessions. He had already inherited the country houses and money of
his father, and must have been a rich man. And rich men were, in Antiquity, supposed
to take their responsibility. He had to embark upon a public career.
Becoming senator
At the end of his life, Pliny founded a bath-house in his home town
Como. As was usual in his
age, the building inscription was made as long as possible, because in that way
the founder could show that he was able to read and write, prestigious talents.
Therefore, Pliny mentioned all offices he had occupied.
Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius, of the Oufentine
tribe; consul; augur; legatus Augusti pro praetore consulari potestate for the
province of Pontus and Bithynia, sent to that province in accordance with the
Senate's decree by the emperor Nerva Trajan Augustus Germanicus Dacicus, the father
of his country; curator of the bed and banks of the Tiber and sewers of Rome;
prefect of the treasury of Saturn; prefect of the military treasury; praetor;
tribune of the people; quaestor of the emperor; commissioner of the Roman knights;
tribune of the Third Gallic legion; magistrate on the Board of Ten; left by will
public baths at a cost of [lacuna] and an additional 300,000 sesterces for furnishing
them, with interest on 200,000 for the upkeep. He also left to his city capital
of 1,866,666 sesterces to support a hundred of his freedmen, and subsequently
to provide an annual dinner for the people of the city. Likewise in his lifetime
he gave 500,000 sesterces for the maintenance of boys and girls of the city, and
also 100,000 for the upkeep of the library.
[tr. B. Radice, with minor changes]
The first half of this text mentions all offices Pliny occupied, in
antichronological order. However, the very first step of his public career is
not mentioned. When he was eighteen years old (in 80), he spoke as the lawyer
of one Junius Pastor at the so-called Centumviral Court, which dealt with wills
and inheritances. Many years later, he recalled:
I was very young at the time and I was about to plead in the Centumviral Court
against men of great political influence, some of them also friends of the emperor;
any one of these considerations could have shaken my resolve [...], but I carried
on, believing that "the best and only omen is to fight for your country"
[Homer, Iliad 12.243]. I won my case, and it was that speech which drew attention
to me and set me on the threshold of a successful career.
[Letters 1.18.3-4;
tr. B. Radice]
One year later (in 81), Pliny was member of the Board of Ten, which
presided over the Centumviral Court. Probably, he was not only elected because
he had made a remarkable speech, but also because he had influential friends:
Verginius Rufus was one of them, and another one was the emperor, Titus, who had
been a close friend to Pliny's uncle and may have felt that he owed something
to his friend's adoptive son.
In the Roman world, all careers were always more or less the same.
(This pattern is called cursus honorum.) An ambituous young man was supposed to
see all branches of Roman government; the Romans did not appreciate specialism,
but preferred, to use the modern expression, maximum employability. The shared
presidency of the Centumviral Court was a traditional beginner's function, and
so was the next step in Pliny's career: he had to make his tour of duty (82).
Because he belonged to the wealthy equestrian class, he served as a military tribune,
which means that he had an administrative function. His legion was III Gallica,
which was stationed in Syria.
Pliny's only feat of arms was the exposure of malversations among the auxiliary
units.
On his return, contrary winds forced him to stay at Icaria,
one of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Here, he decided to write some poetry with
the sea and the island as theme (now lost). Perhaps he also visited his former
teacher Nicetes of Smyrna,
who lived just around the corner. Pliny must have taken some time to visit the
Greek towns around the Aegean, which was a normal holiday. The Romans still admired
the Greeks.
According to the inscription, he became Commissioner of the Roman
knights, an office that we do not really understand. It can not have been very
important to Pliny's career. In Syria, he had shown that he was a good accountant,
and this was a very rare talent in the Roman world. (You understand why if you
multiply the sum of MDCIV and CCLIV with the quotient of MDCLXVII and MLXI.) When
Pliny was candidate for the office of quaestor, a financial office, he was supported
by the emperor Domitian, who had in the meantime succeeded his brother Titus.
When he was twenty-eight, in 90, Pliny served as quaestor. If he had
died at this moment, it would have been a brilliant career. His father and his
uncle had been knights, but Pliny was now a senator. Of course there were several
ranks in the Senate (former quaestors, former praetors, former consuls...) and
Pliny belonged to the least important senators, but nevertheless: he was a senator,
and he was allowed to wear a toga with a broad purple edge. In the Colosseum,
Pliny was seated on the first rank. However, this was only the beginning of a
brilliant career.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
CREMONA (Town) LOMBARDIA
Bibaculus, M. Furius, who is classed by Quintilian (x. 1.96) along with Catullus
and Horace as one of the most distinguished of the Roman satiric iambographers,
and who is in like manner ranked by Diomedes, in his chapter on iambic verse (ed.
Putsch.) with Archilochus and Hipponax, among the Greeks, and with Lucilius, Catullus,
and Horace, among the Latins, was born, according to St. Jerome in the Eusebian
chronicle, at Cremona in the year B. C. 103. From the scanty and unimportant specimens
of his works transmitted to modern times, we are scarcely in a condition to form
any estimate of his powers. A single senarian is quoted by Suetonius (de Illustr.
Gr. c. 9), containing an allusion to the loss of memory sustained in old age by
the famous Orbilius Pupillus; and the same author (c. 11) has preserved two short
epigrams in hendecasyllabic measure, not remarkable for good taste or good feeling,
in which Bibaculus sneers at the poverty to which his friend, Valerius Cato, had
been reduced at the close of life, as contrasted with the splendour of the villa
which that unfortunate poet and grammarian had at one period possessed at Tusculum,
but which had been seized by his importunate creditors. In addition to these fragments,
a dactylic hexameter is to be found in the Scholiast on Juvenal (viii. 16), and
a scrap consisting of three words in Charisius (ed. Putsch.). We have good reason,
however, to believe that Bibaculus did not confine his efforts to pieces of a
light or sarcastic tone, but attempted themes of more lofty pretensions. It seems
certain that he published a poem on the Gaulish wars, entitled Praigmatia Belli
Gallici, and it is probable that he was the author of another upon some of the
legends connected with the Aethiopian allies of king Priam. The former is known
to us only from an unlucky metaphor cleverly parodied by Horace, who takes occasion
at the same time to ridicule the obese rotundity of person which distinguished
the composer. (Hor. Serm. ii. 5. 41, and the notes of the Scholiast; comp. Quintil.
viii. 6.17.) The existence of the latter depends upon our acknowledging that the
"turgidus Alpinus" represented in the epistle to Julius Florus (1. 103)
as "murdering" Memnon, and polluting by his turbid descriptions the
fair fountains of the Rhine, is no other than Bibaculus. The evidence for this
rests entirely upon an emendation introduced by Bentley into the text of the old
commentators on the above passage, but the correction is so simple, and tallies
so well with the rest of the annotation, and with the circumstances of the case,
that it may be pronounced almost certain. The whole question is fully and satisfactorily
discussed in the dissertation of Weichert in his Poet. Latin. Reliqu. Should we
think it worth our while to inquire into the cause of the enmity thus manifested
by Horace towards a brother poet whose age might have commanded forbearance if
not respect, it may perhaps be plausibly ascribed to some indisposition which
had been testified on the part of the elder bard to recognise the merits of his
youthful competitor, and possibly to some expression of indignation at the presumptuous
freedom with which Lucilius, the idol and model of the old school, had been censured
in the earlier productions of the Venusian. An additional motive may be found
in the fact, which we learn from the wellknown oration of Cremutius Cordus as
reported by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 34), that the writings of Bibaculus were stuffed
with insults against the first two Caesars - a consideration which will serve
to explain also the hostility displayed by the favourite of the Augustan court
towards Catullus, whose talents and taste were as fully and deservedly appreciated
by his countrymen and contemporaries as they have been by modern critics, but
whose praises were little likely to sound pleasing in the ears of the adopted
son and heir of the dictator Julius.
Lastly, by comparing some expressions of the elder Pliny (Praef H.
N.) with hints dropped by Suetonius (de Ilustr. Gr. c. 4) and Macrobius (Saturn.
ii. 1), there is room for a conjecture, that Bibaculus made a collection of celebrated
jests and witticisms, and gave the compilation to the world under the title of
Luceubrationes.
We must carefully avoid confounding Furius Bibaculus with the Furius
who was imitated in several passages of the Aeneid, and from whose Annals, extending
to eleven books at least, we find some extracts in the Saturnalia. (Macrob. Saturn.
vi. 1; Compare Merula, ad Enn. Ann. p. xli.) The latter was named in full Aulus
Furius Antias. and to him L. Lutatius Catulus, colleague of M. Marius in the consulship
of B. C. 102, addressed an account of the campaign against the Cimbri. (Cic. Brut.
c. 35.) To this Furius Antias are atattributed certain lines found in Aulus Gellius
(xviii. 11), and brought under review on account of the affected neoterisms with
which they abound. Had we any fair pretext for calling in question the authority
of the summaries prefixed to the chapters of the Noctes Atticae, we should feel
strongly disposed to follow G. J. Voss, Lambinus, and Heindorf, in assigning these
follies to the ambitious Bibaculus rather than to the chaste and simple Antias,
whom even Virgil did not disdain to copy. (Weichert, Poet. Latin. Reliqu.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MANTOUE (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Publius Vergilius Maro, 15 October 70 - 19 BC, known in English as
Virgil or Vergil, Latin poet, is the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics, and
the Aeneid, a narrative poem in twelve books that deserves to be called the Roman
Empire's national epic. Born in the village of Andes (modern Pietole), near Mantua
in Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul "this side", i.e., south of the Alps, present
northern Italy), Vergil received
his earliest schooling at Cremona and Milan. He then went to Rome
to study rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for philosophy.
In this period, while he was in the school of Siro the Epicurean, Vergil began
writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Vergil survive
but most are spurious. One, the Catalepton (bagatelles?), consists of fourteen
little poems, some of which may be Vergil’s, and another, a short narrative
poem titled the Culex (the mosquito), was attributed to Vergil as early as the
first century AD. [...]
This extract is cited May 2004 from the Malaspina Great Books URL below, which contains image.
COMO (Town) LOMBARDIA
Fabatus Calpurnius, a Roman knight, accused by suborned informers of being privy to the crimes of
adultery and magical arts which were alleged against Lepida, the wife of C. Cassius.
By an appeal to Nero, judgment against Fabatus was deferred, and he eventually
eluded the accusation. (Tac. Ann. xvi. 8). Fabatus was grandfather to Calpurnia,
wife of the younger Pliny (Plin. Ep. viii. 10). He possessed a country house,
Villa Camilliana, in Campania (Id. vi. 30). He long survived his son, Pliny's
father-in-law, in memory of whom he erected a portico at Comum, in Cisalpine Gaul.
(v. 12). According to an inscription (Gruter, Inscript.), Fabatus died at Comum.
The following letters tire addressed by Pliny to Fabatus, his prosocer fiv. 1,
v. 12, vi. 12, 30, vii. 11, 16, 23, 32, viii. 10.
CREMONA (Town) LOMBARDIA
Hormus, was one of Vespasian's freedmen, and commanded a detachment in Caecina's division B. C. 70. He was said to have instigated the soldiers to the sack of Cremona. After the war his services were recompensed with the rank of eques. (Tac. Hist. iii, 12, 28; iv. 39.)
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Grata, daughter of the emperor Valentinian I. by his second wife, Justina, whom he married, according to Theophanes, A. D. 368. She remained all her life unmarried. She and her sister, Justa, were at Mediolanum or Milan while the remams of her murdered brother, Valentinian II., continned there unburied, and deeply la [p. 301] mented his loss. It is doubtful if they were at Vienna in Gaul, where he was killed, at the time of his death (A. D. 392), and accompanied his body to Milan, or whether they were at Milan. (Socrat. II E. iv. 31; Ambros. de Obitu Valentiniani, 40, &c., Epist. 53)
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