My old Tusculum edition of Pliny’s letters by Helmut Kasten (first published in 1968; eightieth unchanged edition) is already quite worn, so I was excited to see what the new edition by Margot Neger had to offer. At first glance, the greater length is what stands out: Neger’s edition comprises 862 pages, whereas Kasten’s has only 711. This difference is mainly due to the length of the introduction (Neger: 30 pages; Kasten: 10 pages), the commentary (Neger: 63; Kasten: 21), and the bibliography (Neger: 5; Kasten: 1).
While Kasten’s introduction focuses primarily on Pliny’s biography, the historical background, and the constitutional law of the imperial period, Neger discusses Pliny’s works beyond his letters (his Panegyricus and his poems) and the relationship with the other authors mentioned by Pliny in his letters. She also includes a chapter on Pliny’s position in ancient epistolography, demonstrating how he was influenced both by the tradition of prose letters and by verse epistles. In another chapter, based among others on the studies of Ludolph and Gibson on the composition of Pliny’s letters, Neger provides an overview of the structure of the first nine books and of Pliny’s narrative art, including the intense intertextuality of the letters. The final chapter of the introduction shows how Pliny’s letters were received by later authors.
In her introduction, Neger thus focuses on the major developments and new dimensions in Plinian scholarship over the past 57 years. Pliny’s collection of letters is now generally read as an artfully arranged corpus comparable to a book of poetry, designed to present the author in a positive light and characterized by several central themes. As a distinguished Pliny scholar, Neger succeeds in bringing together the most important research trends in an accessible foreword that is not aimed exclusively at specialists.
Neger’s bibliography concentrates on monographs and collected volumes on Pliny but does not systematically include individual studies on his letters. In addition, many of the titles listed refer primarily to the general introduction. The edition is therefore not suitable as a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography on Pliny.
As for the commentary, this too is more extensive in Neger’s edition than in Kasten’s. Neger makes it reader-friendly by integrating information on the individuals mentioned directly into the commentary on each letter, rather than collecting it separately in an index, as Kasten did. This spares the reader the need to flip back and forth between pages. On the other hand, this arrangement makes it more difficult to trace recurring persons and themes across Pliny’s letters.
In her commentary, Neger explains much more than Kasten did in his very brief notes. She elucidates Greek terms, Latin quotations from other authors, place names, and aspects of antiquity that are no longer familiar to modern readers (for example, in Letter 1.2.5, the white voting stone as a symbol of acquittal, which Kasten still regarded as common knowledge and did not comment on). She also provides additional information on the addressees and the many individuals mentioned in the letters. Nevertheless, the commentary remains pleasantly concise and only rarely refers to further reading.
The Latin text of this edition follows, with only minor deviations, the Oxford edition by Mynors (1963). Neger begins with a brief overview of the textual tradition of Pliny’s letters, which are preserved in more than one hundred manuscripts and can be traced back to two ancient lines of transmission.
The German language generally facilitates the imitation of Pliny’s convoluted style. Kasten had already produced a translation that adhered closely to the Latin text. At times, however, he departed from Pliny’s formulations and rendered them into German in a freer and more playful manner. Because of his lexical choices, his translation occasionally appears somewhat antiquated, but it still captures Pliny’s style effectively. Neger adheres more strictly to the Latin text and follows Pliny down to the grammatical structure.
Where Kasten, for example, often turns adjectives into nouns in his translation, Neger retains the adjectival forms in German (cf. Ep. 1.5.1 Vidistine quemquam M. Regulo timidiorem, humiliorem post Domitiani mortem…). Kasten translates this as “Hast Du je einen grösseren Feigling und Kriecher gesehen als M. Regulus seit dem Tode Domitians”, whereas Neger renders it as “Hast Du jemals irgendwen gesehen, der ängstlicher und kriecherischer war als Marcus Regulus nach dem Tod Domitians?”. In the same passage, Neger mirrors the Latin sentence structure by translating coepit vereri, ne sibi irascerer as “er begann zu fürchten, ich sei wütend auf ihn”, while Kasten inserts a noun and rephrases the verbal construction as “er bekam es mit der Angst, ich könnte ihm böse sein”.
To facilitate comprehension, Neger also modifies Mynors’ punctuation of the Latin text. For instance, she uses a question mark to break up the long passage in 1.5.1 that Kasten rendered with a comma and a subordinate clause (… Domitiani mortem? sub quo …). Another example of Neger’s more literal translation style can be found in Letter 7.1.1, where she again remains closer to the Latin text than Kasten. She translates: “(1) Mich beängstigt Deine so hartnäckige Krankheit, und obwohl ich weiss, dass Du sehr selbstbeherrscht bist, befürchte ich doch, dass sie sich auch auf Deinen Charakter auswirken könnte. (2) Daher mahne ich Dich, ihr geduldig standzuhalten: Das ist lobenswert, das ist heilsam.” Kasten once more prefers nominal constructions (“Hartnäckigkeit”, “Selbstbeherrschung”) and alters the verbal forms (“Deshalb wünschte ich, Du begegnetest ihr mit Geduld; das wäre löblich, das wäre auch heilsam”).
Neger avoids poetic turns of phrase, as can be seen, for example, in her translation of Pliny’s Vesuvius letter (6.16.1) concerning his uncle’s death: immortalem gloriam esse propositam becomes “unsterblicher Ruhm bevorsteht”, in contrast to Kasten’s more figurative “unvergänglicher Ruhm winkt”. Neger’s translation is sober; her Pliny appears somewhat more bureaucratic and less poetic than Kasten’s. At the same time, her translation greatly aids comprehension through its accurate and precise rendering of the Latin formulations.
Kasten’s edition is still available for purchase (at least in Switzerland) for CHF 59.20 and is about one third cheaper than Margot Neger’s new edition (CHF 96.40). Nevertheless, Neger’s incorporation of recent scholarship and her more substantial commentary fully justify the higher price. Kasten’s edition, however, can still be used with confidence by those who already own a copy.