Pliny the Younger

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2013

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Pliny the Younger, famous for his letters. A prominent lawyer in Rome in the first century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. Throughout his career he was a prolific letter-writer, sharing his thoughts with great contemporaries including the historian Tacitus, and asking the advice of the Emperor Trajan. Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius.

With:

Catharine Edwards Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Roy Gibson Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester

Alice König Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:38.7	For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. UK slash radio 4. I hope you enjoy
0:46.0	the program.
0:47.0	Hello after a fire which destroyed several houses and two public buildings, a local government official wrote to his superior asking for permission to set up a fire brigade.
0:58.0	His modest request for a force of 150 men equipped with fire engines and buckets was turned down.
1:03.7	There were concerns that a fire brigade might become a focus of political opposition.
1:08.3	This took place almost 2,000 years ago in the ancient city of Nicomedia in Asia Minor. We know about it because the
1:15.2	correspondence between the local Roman governor Pliny the Younger and his emperor
1:19.9	Trajan has survived. Pliny was a successful lawyer born in the first century
1:24.4	AD who became a prominent member of the Roman administration. His greatest
1:28.8	legacy is the hundreds of letters he wrote to friends, colleagues and the Roman
1:32.2	Emperor himself.
1:33.4	They describe life in ancient Rome at the height of its powers in detail from the law courts to
1:37.9	dinner party etiquette and even include a stunning eyewitness account of his uncle's death in the eruption of Vesuvius.
1:45.7	With me to discuss the life and letters of Pliny the Younger are.
1:49.0	Catherine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck University of London, Roy Gibson, Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester, and Alice Kearney, lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews.
	...

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