For Pliny

[Disclaimer: For those of you that know me well enough, I've got a boner for the classical period in general and Rome in particular. While I think that this blog is going to have something to say to folks who aren't as enamored with our Latin-speaking western predecessors - why else would I write it - readers should bear in mind that what follows is basically me geeking out. Indulge me.]

"Whether posterity will give us a thought I don't know" wrote Pliny to Tacitus, "but surely we deserve one..."

Modest, no; but true enough. Out of all the ancient authors, whose works are still extant, I love Pliny the Younger best.

Reading ancient authors is especially difficult. Apart from all the reasons you can guess, what's frustrating is what information We and They find worthy of historical note is seldom the same. Reading Tacitus's histories of the first five (Julio-Claudian) emperors, I was struck by the all-too-perfect irony when he had to break from his narration to basically explain "Look, I know you must be bored to tears reading about all this conniving, bloodletting, bizarre executions and utterly debauched sex, God knows I don't enjoy it, but lets just get through this part so I can get back to the manifest of the legions of Northern Germany, and how they secured the precious winter's corn supply." I guess poor Tacitus would be shocked and appalled if he knew that I skimmed past every description of grain shipments to get the the parts about gratuitous sex and violence. But those kinds of details (descriptions of skirmishes, who was Consul for the year, etc) are apparently what they thought important.

Not so with Pliny. All that survives of him are his personal letters. Some addressed to his wife or relatives; Some to friends like Tacitus; Some to the Emperor Trajan (and responses!) during his service as magistrate in Asia Minor. Through this vast collection of correspondence, Pliny paints a vivid image for us - perhaps inadvertently - of day-to-day life in his age. He describes what morality meant before Christianity co opted it. He shows us love of Country, love of Mankind and love of Justice. He talks about superstitions and good etiquette.

Why is this relevant? Apart from historical curiosity, Pliny shares a common connection with us. He was not born during the founding of Rome. Nor was he born during the beginning of the Empire. He, and others of his age, inherited an empire, as we do now. Pliny's empire was past it's golden age, but still in the midst of a "silver age" of maintained supremacy, but edging closer to decline. There were no great battles left to fight. No room for new victories. The ethic had shifted from pursuit of conquest to avoidance of disaster. Like Pliny, we see our glorious forefathers (the founders, and the "greatest generation") as beyond comparison to ourselves (excluding the Baby Boomers, of course). We feel unequal to the task of making them proud, but determined not to cause them shame. We feel that we've inherited greatness, and we're paranoid that we might screw it up. He is a kindred spirit to us, "Generation Y", who have inherited a Cold War dinosaur, a mountain of debt and must find a way to forge ahead.

Yet, Pliny's time is considered by modern historians to be a high point for the empire. The longest and most consistent period of good governance and relative peace. And although his name is not so well remembered as Caesar, Cicero and Nero, Pliny is remembered for being a responsible public servant, who was attentive to duty and fundamentally decent. This gives me hope. We who work shitty day jobs; we who spend our free time learning good politics and good faith; we who happily pay into social security knowing full well they we will probably never withdraw benefits; we who are looked down upon by elders who themselves refuse to make sacrifices - we will someday be redeemed. We will earn a modest place in history, through decency and responsibility. Will posterity give us a thought? I don't know. But surely we deserve one.

Time off

John pissed me off enough to set me off on about 2 months of steady writing, but I can feel I'm running out of ideas worth writing about, and running out of enthusiasm at any rate. Gonna take some time off for a while to brew something worth talking about.