PLINY'S TACITUS: THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION

Abstract

As Eleanor Winsor Leach and others have demonstrated, in the corpus of the Letters Pliny represents different aspects of his ideal self through the way he characterizes his relationships with his correspondents. This paper examines more closely the letters to and about Tacitus, disregarding intertextual references between the works of Tacitus and Pliny (a well-mined field), and shifting the focus to the friendly competition Pliny creates with Tacitus. In particular, Pliny arranges the ‘Tacitus cycle’ into three sections which highlight their roles as orators, patrons, and literary figures. In each of these, Pliny shows that he and his friend are similar in their goals, but unique in their styles and methods. Thus, Pliny creates a world where he is both inferior and superior to his former mentor, as in Laelius' paradox — ‘maximum est in amicitia parem esse inferiori’ (Cic. Amic. 19.69).