The Panegyric of Trajan

Posted on ¹ October 100, this panegyric is a work of fact. It was indeed a tradition to thank the originator of year when it was appointed consul. The text that has survived follows the appointment by Trajan, Pliny the Younger as a consul.

Correspondence

The Correspondence of Pliny ushers in a prose epistolary art, where utilitarianism Civic Exchange familiar gives way to the urbanity of the literary person. If you believe the letter writer, this refinement is to compensate for the lack of material. It involves the decline of the Republic , which once provided to Cicero many opportunities to write. Although his letters are addressed mostly to relatives and the letter writer admits that "writing for a friend does not write for the public" (Correspondence, VI, 17, 22). But his work is the scene of a staged rhetoric in which the recipients are only nominally included. They are all excuses to exercise in style and expression egotistical. If the letters are written in open-heart ones we keep the best memory, style "quick and correct" the epistolary mode does not exclude the ornament, and former student of Quintilian remembers the lessons of his master when it advocates, rather than atticism an exaggerated simplicity, an eloquence full, "tight and thick, but at the same time abundant Books I-IX

The first book opens with a dedication letter serves as a preface to the whole. We learn that Pliny, at the instigation of the recipient, a septicus, have undertaken to publish those of his letters he had composed with "a little more care." He said he does not follow chronological order, claiming that their classification was made at random from those who have fallen under his hand.
In fact, it was more for the author to choose the order most appropriate to their development. As for "authentic" they may be (that is to say they were sent or not), these letters are primarily exercises in prose form which, while highly diverse (story, essay , history, praises , etc.) always keeps prevail on the merits. The dedication ends with a vow with a commitment: "It remains that we do not repent you of your board and I to my docility. In this case, I will seek Correspondence real or literary fiction

For J. Bayet and A.-M. Guillemin, Pliny's letters are only little poems in prose, of sheer facticity, whose correspondent is a fictional dedicatee: they are sufficient unto themselves. Because it lacks a certain spontaneity, so that we can see artistic or scholarly works intended for public reading. They were classified as follows: compliments, praise, portraits, descriptions (cities, various sites), documentary or historical narrative, moral or literary essay. These letters may be fictitious:

• They are not dated.
• There are almost as many letters as correspondents.
• Each deals with one subject.
• No calls answered.
• There is no record of correspondence.

Other critics believe that there is no reason to question the reality of correspondence:

• The presence or absence of a date not prejudge the authenticity of the letters: only letters to Trajan were not dated.
• Pliny prefers to treat a single topic each time.
• The fact that the answers are not published does not mean that there was no: it may be a choice of the editor of Pliny.
• No matter that there is no correspondence: Pliny has chosen not to publish an anthology, part of his correspondence.
• It may indeed be selected pieces: Pliny could select a sample of letters, worthy of publication, in a bill of several layers.

Book X

Book X is devoted to his correspondence as governor of Bithynia to the Emperor Trajan, in which he asks for advice on small and big problems he faces in the government of his province. It is a monument of administrative interest. 122 letters are collected, sometimes with the imperial response. All the answers do not appear in the hand of the emperor, it is most often the answer seems imperial chancery. The Emperor is very dry: Pliny consults for a yes or a no. Trajan, annoyed, remains nevertheless remains committed to patient and Pliny.

Letter 97, for example, concerns the Christians, against whom Pliny has received complaints and in respect of which it is unclear what stance to take. The emperor, in his reply (letter 98), considers that they should not be pursued but should be punished if they were reported but not anonymous, and if convinced of Christianity. These provisions, as confirmed by Antoninus and Hadrian unclear ^{, ,} .