Bi-ography
Mar. 14th, 2020 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: In the Shadow of Vesuvius - A Life of Pliny, by Daisy Dunn
Granted, this is a book mostly about Pliny the Younger, but it also throws in some material about Pliny the Elder. Dunn doesn't take a strictly chronological path, but starts with the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, when Pliny the Elder's curiosity was roused, though his mission rapidly changed to one of rescue, and in which he ultimately died. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, was invited to join the expedition but declined, preferring to stay home with his books. That turned out to be a good decision.
Pliny the Elder had a fairly standard military career, but also an insatiable curiosity about the natural world, eventually recorded in his Natural History, an early encyclopedia. Stoic to the point of ascetic, Dunn certainly portrays him in many ways as a Grumpy Old Man, though he must also have been very hard-working, frequently writing after dark by oil-lamp. Pliny the Younger took a somewhat more relaxed path, becoming a lawyer and senator, eventually sent to Bithynia as a provincial governor. Concern for his self-image and posterity seems rather at odds with his uncle's stoicism; he decided to collect and publish a number of his letters during his own lifetime, providing insight into his class of society in the late first and early second century AD. This is, of course, why he remains a figure known to this day, and Dunn discusses his legacy throughout the book. At one time there was confusion over whether there were in fact two Plinys, or just one - and there was a constant battle between Como and Verona to claim his family seat; despite putting down early Christianity in Bithynia during his governorship, both Pliny the Elder and Younger found their way into significant carvings on Como Cathedral.
This is a very readable book and I enjoyed it; I also learned by reading it. I had not realised (or had long-since forgotten) that Lucius Caecilius Iucundus of Cambridge Latin Course and Doctor Who fame was a real historical figure; serendipitously, the story about Dr Polidori, Byron and the Shelleys would have meant much less to me prior to this season's Doctor Who episode.
Granted, this is a book mostly about Pliny the Younger, but it also throws in some material about Pliny the Elder. Dunn doesn't take a strictly chronological path, but starts with the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, when Pliny the Elder's curiosity was roused, though his mission rapidly changed to one of rescue, and in which he ultimately died. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, was invited to join the expedition but declined, preferring to stay home with his books. That turned out to be a good decision.
Pliny the Elder had a fairly standard military career, but also an insatiable curiosity about the natural world, eventually recorded in his Natural History, an early encyclopedia. Stoic to the point of ascetic, Dunn certainly portrays him in many ways as a Grumpy Old Man, though he must also have been very hard-working, frequently writing after dark by oil-lamp. Pliny the Younger took a somewhat more relaxed path, becoming a lawyer and senator, eventually sent to Bithynia as a provincial governor. Concern for his self-image and posterity seems rather at odds with his uncle's stoicism; he decided to collect and publish a number of his letters during his own lifetime, providing insight into his class of society in the late first and early second century AD. This is, of course, why he remains a figure known to this day, and Dunn discusses his legacy throughout the book. At one time there was confusion over whether there were in fact two Plinys, or just one - and there was a constant battle between Como and Verona to claim his family seat; despite putting down early Christianity in Bithynia during his governorship, both Pliny the Elder and Younger found their way into significant carvings on Como Cathedral.
This is a very readable book and I enjoyed it; I also learned by reading it. I had not realised (or had long-since forgotten) that Lucius Caecilius Iucundus of Cambridge Latin Course and Doctor Who fame was a real historical figure; serendipitously, the story about Dr Polidori, Byron and the Shelleys would have meant much less to me prior to this season's Doctor Who episode.