Providing a series of fascinating views of Imperial Rome, The Letters of the Younger Pliny also offer one of the fullest self-portraits to survive from classical times. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Betty Radice.
A prominent lawyer and administrator, Pliny was also a prolific letter-writer, who numbered among his correspondents such eminent figures as Tacitus, Suetonius and the Emperor Trajan, as well as a wide circle of friends and family. His lively and very personal letters address an astonishing range of topics, from a deeply moving account of his uncle''s death in the eruption that engulfed Pompeii, to observations on the early Christians - ''a desperate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths'' - from descriptions of everyday life in Rome, with its scandals and court cases, to Pliny''s life in the country.
Betty Radice''s definitive edition was the forst complete modern translation of Pliny''s letters. In her intro
