Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger’s letters describe villas, legal cases, patronage, imperial service, literary culture and the eruption of Vesuvius, which killed his uncle. His correspondence with Trajan as governor of Bithynia is also a key source for Roman provincial administration.

For the site, he belongs in Classical for pages on Roman letters, provincial government, early Christianity, senatorial society and eyewitness memory. His letters are among the clearest sources for the habits and concerns of the imperial elite.