[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
In September 2022, a conference dedicated to Pliny the Younger, one of the most famous authors from this region, was held at Villa Vigoni, the German-Italian Center for European Dialogue, beautifully situated on Lake Como. The contributions to this conference are now available in the volume under review here. In the introduction, the three editors, Thorsten Fögen, Stefano Rocchi, and Alberto Canobbio, provide an overview of the research, which covers all parts of the Plinian oeuvre, including all ten books of his correspondence and his panegyric speech to Emperor Trajan, delivered in 100 AD. They focus on three themes—self-representation, insight into the values and norms of imperial society, literary aspects and intertextuality—and concentrate on the last two decades of scholarship, not least because they see their undertaking both as a continuation and as an update of the similarly structured volume Plinius der Jüngere in seiner Zeit, edited by Luigi Castagna and Eckard Lefèvre in 2003, which was also based on a conference at Villa Vigoni. They identify the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of research on Pliny the Younger as an important change over the last decades, which they (successfully) want to take into account in the compilation of the contributions gathered here.
The 14 chapters, six of which are written in German and eight in Italian, and all with an English abstract, follow one another without further subdivision and do not reveal any particularly apparent organizing principle, without, however, invoking the helping hand of chance, as Pliny himself did in the opening letter to his collection.
Margot Neger (“Erzählte Inschriften in den Briefen des Jüngeren Plinius”) takes a closer look at those letters in which Pliny reproduces inscriptions and explains them both in terms of their historical background and their respective literary references. Beyond these examples, she argues that letters interacting in this way with inscriptions could be understood as a separate subgenre, for which she proposes the term “epistolary prosimetrum” (p. 10).
Anna Anguissola (“L’esperienza del paesaggio nelle ville di Plinio il Giovane”), deals with the recurring feature of colonnaded walkways in Pliny’s description of his villas in three of his letters (2.17, 5.6, and 9.7) and illustrates their intended impact on the experience of landscape, among other things, by comparing them with architectural studies of the so-called “panoramic villas” from Pompeii.
Gregor Vogt-Spira (“Plinius der Jüngere und der Diskurs der imitatio in Rom,”), analyzes Pliny’s understanding of imitatio and places him within this crucial discourse, which was conducted throughout antiquity (as well as in modern times) but took on a specific form in Rome in the 1st and early 2nd centuries AD. In this context in particular, Pliny’s collection of letters proves to be an interesting case because it combines individual contributions to theory with examples of practical application, the latter also being characterized by a special form of urban sprezzatura, which seems to have been characteristic of Pliny, but also of many of his contemporaries.
Bardo Gauly (“Formen des Wissens beim Jüngeren Plinius. Die Briefe im Verhältnis zur Naturgeschichte des Älteren Plinius,”), explores three questions in his contribution: How does the younger Pliny portray the elder Pliny, how do the descriptions of nature in his letters relate to the much more extensive naturalis historia of his adoptive uncle, and how do both authors deal with prodigia?
Thorsten Fögen (“Das römische Gastmahl als sozialethischer Handlungsraum. Zum cena-Diskurs im Briefcorpus des Jüngeren Plinius,”), focuses on the nine letters relevant to the topic of the dinner party, in which Pliny appears in various roles (e.g. as a host, as a satisfied guest, but also as a critic). These are presented both in terms of their rich literary allusions and their references to various genres. In addition to this analysis, the convincing thesis is put forward that these letters—like Martial’s epigrams on the same subject—use the example of the cena not least to discuss ideas of right and wrong behaviour in society in a more general sense.
Stefano Rocchi (“Sulla struttura del libro VIII dell’epistolario pliniano. Destinatari, temi e stagioni,”), sets out to find elements of order in the deliberate disorder or variatio of Pliny’s collection of letters, using the eighth book as an example. His proposal is based primarily on three quite different categories: the arrangement of the addressees, the placement of topics, and the sequence of the seasons.
Giulio Vannini (“Il nonno di Calpurnia e la conclusione dell’epistolario di Plinio di Giovane,”), delves into the surprisingly large number of letters addressed to Lucius Calpurnius Fabatus, the grandfather of Pliny’s third wife, and traces the relationship between the two individuals. The fact that two letters dealing with the death of Fabatus constitute the conclusion of the 10th book gives rise to considerations about the (presumably posthumous) publication and arrangement of these letters.
Elena Merli (“Silio Italico: un modello per la classe senatoria? Esemplarità ‘politica’ e temporalità nell’Epist. 3.7 di Plinio,”), successfully demonstrates that the portrait of Silius Italicus depicted by Pliny in Letter 3.7 contains fewer negative traits than is often assumed and that Silius Italicus’ preoccupation with studia in particular made him a positively regarded role model within the Roman upper class during the reign of Trajan.
Cosima Möller (“Die Wertschätzung des Plinius für den Juristen Aristo. Rückschlüsse auf Charakteristika der römischen Jurisprudenz um 100 n. Chr.,”), focuses on Aristo, the jurist described in Letter 1.22, a figure discussed more frequently by her colleagues in law than by historians or literary scholars. Through her detailed examination of Aristo’s positions, which are characterized, not least by his masterful mediation between the prevailing schools of law, she is able to trace the reasons for Pliny’s esteem in a very convincing manner.
Irene Leonardis (“La sconfitta dell’immanitas sotto Traiano. Echi e sviluppi della retorica in Plinio il Giovane,”), examines how Pliny takes up the semantic field of immanis and immanitas, which has been used in a political context since at least Cicero’s time to install an atmosphere of fear (“una retorica della paura,” p. 293), and how Pliny develops it further, not least by claiming—forming part of his praise in the Panegyricus—that Trajan was the one who was able to overcome this threat.
The next two contributions focus even more clearly on the Panegyricus. On the one hand, Alberto Canobbio (“Traiano Optimus nel Panegirico di Plinio il Giovane. Valenze e ragioni di un cognomen,”) convincingly traces how Pliny and his peers attempted at the beginning of Trajan’s reign to align the new ruler to interests of the senate by calling him optimus princeps, but that Trajan only adopted this name much later and from a position of strength (among other things, after his military successes in the East).
On the other hand, Silvia Speriani (“Ut si. Vedere per credere nel Panegirico di Plinio il Giovane,”), analyzes convincingly and with many good observations on literary details how Pliny highlights the political role-playing of both Trajan and his contemporaries: while the princeps repeatedly gives the impression of being merely a private citizen, the senators contribute to the success of the performance as co-actors.
Gianpaolo Angelini (“Concivi suo desiderabili. Iconografie pliniane dal Rinascimento al Neoclassicismo (e oltre),”), traces a fascinating chapter in the history of pictorial reception by demonstrating how influential the statues of Pliny the Younger and his adoptive uncle Pliny the Elder, installed on the façade of Como Cathedral in the late 15th century, were in shaping the ideas about the appearance of both writers for centuries to come.
Finally, Judith Hindermann (“Plinius der Jüngere und die Schule. Mehr als Vesuvausbruch und Christenbriefe?”), addresses the twofold question of what role schools and teaching played as a possible place of reception for Pliny when writing his letters, and what role his letters have played and could play in classrooms from antiquity to the present day.
This contribution is a fitting conclusion to a volume (which also contains three substantial indexes of places, names, and subjects) that offers a wealth of insights into why Pliny and his works continue to attract such enduring interest, and which in turn contributes to ensuring that this fascination will endure in the coming decades.
Authors and titles
Thorsten Fögen, Stefano Rocchi & Alberto Canobbio: Einleitung
- Margot Neger: Erzählte Inschriften in den Briefen des Jüngeren Plinius
- Anna Anguissola: L’esperienza del paesaggio nelle ville di Plinio il Giovane
- Gregor Vogt-Spira: Plinius der Jüngere und der Diskurs der imitatio in Rom. Ein multiperspektivisches Zeugnis für Konzeption und Praxis eines römischen Leitbegriffs
- Bardo Gauly: Formen des Wissens beim Jüngeren Plinius. Die Briefe im Verhältnis zur Naturgeschichte des Älteren Plinius
- Thorsten Fögen: Das römische Gastmahl als sozialethischer Handlungsraum. Zum cena-Diskurs im Briefcorpus des Jüngeren Plinius
- Stefano Rocchi: Sulla struttura del libro VIII dell’epistolario pliniano. Destinatari, temi e stagioni
- Giulio Vannini: Il nonno di Calpurnia e la conclusione dell’epistolario di Plinio il Giovane
- Elena Merli: Silio Italico: un modello per la classe senatoria? Esemplarità “politica” e temporalità nell’Epist. 3.7 di Plinio
- Cosima Möller: Die Wertschätzung des Plinius für den Juristen Aristo. Rückschlüsse auf Charakteristika der römischen Jurisprudenz um 100 n. Chr.
- Irene Leonardis: La sconfitta dell’immanitas sotto Traiano. Echi e sviluppi della retorica ciceroniana in Plinio il Giovane
- Alberto Canobbio: Traiano Optimus nel Panegirico di Plinio il Giovane. Valenze e ragioni di un cognomen
- Silvia Speriani: Ut si. Vedere per credere nel Panegirico di Plinio il Giovane
- Gianpaolo Angelini: concivi suo desiderabili. Iconografie pliniane dal Rinascimento al Neoclassicismo (e oltre)
- Judith Hindermann: Plinius der Jüngere und die Schule. Mehr als Vesuvausbruch und Christenbriefe?