Max Beerbohm once said that Pliny's letters were the only writings of antiquity that could be enjoyed without knowing anything about the ancient world. But Beerbohm himself lived in a society of polished ease, wealth, and literary sophistication that was not so very different in its setting from the sort of society in which Pliny lived. It is often more difficult for us than for Max. It is no good reading Pliny if you are looking for modern attitudes of mind. You must allow for the standards and values of his own day.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Friday, March 10, 2023
Pliny's Letters
A.N. Sherwin-White, "Pliny, the Man and His Letters,"
Greece & Rome 16.1 (April, 1969) 76-90 (at 78):