Pliny the Younger: citizen, landowner, intellectual

Abstract

Pliny the Younger is a statesman, writer and lawyer, the author of the only correspondence between the governor of the province and the emperor that has survived to this day. The relevance of the research topic is due to the stereotyped idea formed in historiography of Pliny the Younger as an apologist for Emperor Trajan and an indecisive manager who, for any reason, asked for the authoritative opinion of his august patron. The relevance of the research topic is due to the stereotyped idea formed in historiography of Pliny the Younger as an apologist for Emperor Trajan and an indecisive manager who, for any reason, asked for the authoritative opinion of his august patron. The purpose of the study is to reveal those aspects of the multifaceted personality of Pliny the Younger, which usually remain in the shadow of the usual image of a clever courtier and mediocre administrator. The author considered such facets of Pliny the Younger’s activity as housekeeping and literary creativity. Conclusions: despite the fact that Pliny the Younger began his career under the tyrannical regime of Domitian, he managed to maintain his selfesteem and remain true to his own ideas of honor, duty and conscience. Being generally indifferent to the economy, Pliny the Younger devoted most of his time to literary works, philosophy and rhetoric.

Keywords

• domitian
• nerva
• trajan
• tacitus
• antonines
• bithynia
• principate
• epistolary genre