Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies

  • Roy K. Gibson
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
›res vera, res ficta‹: Fictionality in Ancient Epistolography
This chapter is in the book ›res vera, res ficta‹: Fictionality in Ancient Epistolography

Abstract

Pliny stands at the intersection between epistolary (biographical) fiction and fact. He is routinely studied by two academic constituencies whose critical assumptions do not necessarily align: ancient historians and literary critics. Statements about biographical fiction in Pliny often proceed from unargued assumptions about ‘how literature works’ - assumptions generally derived from study of the Augustan poets. I argue that assumptions about autobiographical fiction in Ovid cannot simply be transferred to Pliny. We need to construct individual theories for individual authors, working from the text up to personalized theory, rather than from generalized theory down to text. The Augustan poetry book is central to the development of Latin letter collections (in sharp contrast to the lack of influence from poetry books on the Greek epistolographical tradition). But the poetics of the two Roman forms are fundamentally different. In Ovid’s Amores, the signifier is centripetal and returns to reflect on its own programmatic status within a collection; but Pliny’s letters are centrifugal and generally move outwards from internal signifier to external signified. Prospects for reading events in Pliny’s life as primarily instantiations of a literary programme are diminished.

Abstract

Pliny stands at the intersection between epistolary (biographical) fiction and fact. He is routinely studied by two academic constituencies whose critical assumptions do not necessarily align: ancient historians and literary critics. Statements about biographical fiction in Pliny often proceed from unargued assumptions about ‘how literature works’ - assumptions generally derived from study of the Augustan poets. I argue that assumptions about autobiographical fiction in Ovid cannot simply be transferred to Pliny. We need to construct individual theories for individual authors, working from the text up to personalized theory, rather than from generalized theory down to text. The Augustan poetry book is central to the development of Latin letter collections (in sharp contrast to the lack of influence from poetry books on the Greek epistolographical tradition). But the poetics of the two Roman forms are fundamentally different. In Ovid’s Amores, the signifier is centripetal and returns to reflect on its own programmatic status within a collection; but Pliny’s letters are centrifugal and generally move outwards from internal signifier to external signified. Prospects for reading events in Pliny’s life as primarily instantiations of a literary programme are diminished.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction: Fictions of Genre 1
  5. Part I: (Auto)Biographical Fictions
  6. Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies 21
  7. Fiction and Authenticity in the Letters of Euripides 45
  8. Greetings from the Margin: Ovid’s Epistulae ex Ponto 69
  9. Part II: Editorial Fictions
  10. Just Some Notes for My Own Use: Arrian’s (‘Arrian’s’?) Letter to Lucius Gellius 89
  11. Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares: From Authentic Letters to Literary Artefact 107
  12. Part III: Pseudepigraphic Fictions
  13. The Latin Letters of Pseudo-Brutus (Cic. Brut. 1.16 and 1.17) 131
  14. Fictionality and Pseudepigraphy in the Apocryphal Letter Exchange between Seneca and Paul 161
  15. Part IV: Ekphrastic Fictions
  16. Fictions in the Real World: Language and Reality in Cicero’s Letters 181
  17. Let’s Get Real: Ekphrasis, Reality and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles 207
  18. List of Contributors 239
  19. Bibliography 241
  20. General Index 259
  21. Index Locorum 263
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111308128-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction: Fictions of Genre 1
  5. Part I: (Auto)Biographical Fictions
  6. Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies 21
  7. Fiction and Authenticity in the Letters of Euripides 45
  8. Greetings from the Margin: Ovid’s Epistulae ex Ponto 69
  9. Part II: Editorial Fictions
  10. Just Some Notes for My Own Use: Arrian’s (‘Arrian’s’?) Letter to Lucius Gellius 89
  11. Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares: From Authentic Letters to Literary Artefact 107
  12. Part III: Pseudepigraphic Fictions
  13. The Latin Letters of Pseudo-Brutus (Cic. Brut. 1.16 and 1.17) 131
  14. Fictionality and Pseudepigraphy in the Apocryphal Letter Exchange between Seneca and Paul 161
  15. Part IV: Ekphrastic Fictions
  16. Fictions in the Real World: Language and Reality in Cicero’s Letters 181
  17. Let’s Get Real: Ekphrasis, Reality and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles 207
  18. List of Contributors 239
  19. Bibliography 241
  20. General Index 259
  21. Index Locorum 263
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 25.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111308128-002/html
Scroll to top button