Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger (c. 61–c. 113) was a Roman lawyer, senator and letter-writer. Born Gaius Caecilius at Comum, he was adopted by his uncle Pliny the Elder, author of the Natural History, whose death at Vesuvius in 79 he later described in two letters to Tacitus. A pupil of Quintilian, he became a leading advocate, held the consulship in 100 under Trajan and died as governor of Bithynia and Pontus. His ten books of letters, polished for publication, portray the life of a cultivated Roman and his circle, and the exchange with Trajan on the treatment of Christians is a key document for early Christian history.