Letters, Book 3

Book 3 of Pliny's letters belongs to the early years of Trajan's reign, after Pliny's consulship in AD 100. Like the other books it was selected and arranged for publication, with each letter devoted to one theme.

It opens with a portrait of the old consular Spurinna, whose ordered day of walking, reading, exercise and dinner Pliny holds up as the ideal for old age. A celebrated letter lists the many books of Pliny's uncle, the Elder Pliny, and describes his habits of study: rising before dawn, reading or being read to at every meal and journey, and taking notes on everything. Pliny describes the death of the poet Silius Italicus, who starved himself when incurably ill, and the murder of Larcius Macedo, a harsh master, by his slaves. He reports the prosecution of Classicus and his accomplices for misgovernment in Baetica, the secret ballot in the senate, and his speech of thanks to Trajan, now read to friends over three days. He advises on choosing a teacher and considers buying a neighbouring estate. The book ends with the death of the epigrammatist Martial, quoting the poem Martial had written about him. The letter on Arria, wife of Caecina Paetus, is in the course.

The letters on the Elder Pliny and on Martial are important for literary history. The Latin is clear and well balanced, a good introduction to imperial prose.