Letters

A considerable amount of information about Rome in the first century AD has come down to us thanks to Letters of Pliny the Younger (c. 61-113/114). After the early death of his father, he was adopted by his uncle - Pliny the Elder, the creator of the famous "Natural History". The young man received a superb education, which later allowed him to hold significant positions in Rome and the provinces. He practiced as a lawyer under three emperors - Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. With the latter, he maintained correspondence, as well as with his scholarly contemporaries - Suetonius, Martial, and Tacitus. Pliny the Younger himself grouped the letters into books for publication, likely realizing the importance of these testimonies for history. So, a curious reader today, almost two thousand years later, can learn from them about the first Christian communities, the eruption of Vesuvius in August 79 AD, which cost Pliny the Elder his life, the everyday details of Roman life, the structure of government power, and much more.