Episode XLVII - Pliny the Younger

Emperors of Rome

La Trobe University

Roman Emire, Rhiannon Evans, Biography, Emperor, La Trobe University, Roman History, Julius Caesar, Rome, Caesar, Ancient History, History, Caillan Davenport, Roman Emperors

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2016

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The letters of Pliny the Younger are a great source of information for life in 2nd C. CE Rome - they tell us about administrative issues, villas, the eruption of Pompeii, and give us an invaluable record of correspondence with the Emperor himself, Trajan.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Salve podcast listeners just a quick notice in our last episode of emperors of Rome
0:05.1	we talked about Trajan going and conquering dacia now to commemorate that victory he had a
0:09.6	massive monument built called Trajan's column so if you'd like to know more about the
0:13.7	column, the construction of it and what it all means, then go and listen to the new
0:17.4	episode of the When in Rome Podcast. Rianenin and I have discussed it over there.
0:21.6	Now coming up there's a bit of a long episode so maybe
0:24.3	pause it go and make yourself a hot drink and enjoy. Ahve, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a podcast about the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.
0:38.8	I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always is Dr. Rianna Evans, a lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Lottrobe University.
0:48.0	This is episode XL V-I-I, Pliny the Younger. Now in our discussions on Trajan we're a bit short on sources, but one of the most
0:57.2	important things we do have is the correspondence between Trajan as an emperor and a man
1:01.7	named Pliny the Younger. Someone who he was quite close with he was a governor at the time and also
1:06.6	a respected writer and thinker in the second century C.E.
1:10.6	So we thought while we look at this correspondence we'll take a look at the rest of Pliny's career and the collected letters that he sent. Here's Rianna Evans.
1:18.0	Pliny was born during the reign of Nero in either late 61 or early 62 CE and he's from Northern Italy from
1:27.1	Comum which is now Como on Lago de Como which which is very beautiful if you ever been there.
1:35.0	No, I haven't.
1:36.0	It's very close to Switzerland and it's a gorgeous life.
1:40.0	So he was born in a part of Italy, which by this point it doesn't matter so much which part of Italy you come from.
1:47.0	But it's, you know, again, it's not in Rome itself.
1:50.0	He's not at the center of power growing up and he's not from a senatorial family he's from the next level down from an equestrian family but that too is becoming less and less important
2:00.0	by this point. It's probably important to say at this point that his name from birth isn't plenty is it?
2:07.2	It's not no that's a name that he takes upon adoption but it's it's a name that's part of his mother's name because he of course
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from La Trobe University, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of La Trobe University and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.