thanksgiving for the consulate. This, though diffuse and somewhat
too complimentary for modern taste, became a model for this kind
of composition. The others were mostly of two classes, forensic
and political, many of the latter being, like Cicero's speech against
Verres, impeachments of provincial governors for cruelty and
extortion toward their subjects. in these, as in his public activities
in general, he appears as a man of public spirit and integrity; and
in his relations with his native town he was a thoughtful and
munificent benefactor.

The letters, on which to-day his fame mainly rests, were largely
written with a view to publication, and were arranged by Pliny
himself. They thus lack the spontaneity of Cicero s impulsive
utterances, but to most modern readers who are not special
students of Roman history they are even more interesting. They
deal with a great variety of subjects: the description of a Roman
villa; the charms of country life; the reluctance of people to attend
authors readings and to listen wizen they were present; a dinner
party; legacy-hunting in ancient Rome; the acquisition of a piece
of statuary; his love for his young wife; ghost stories; floating
islands, a tame dolphin, and other marvels. But by far the best
known are those describing the great eruption of Vesuvius in
which his uncle perished, a martyr to scientific curiosity, and the
letter to Trajan on his attempts to suppress Christianity in
Bithynia, with Trajan s reply approving his policy. Taken
altogether, these letters give an absorbingly vivid picture of the
days of the early empire, and of the interests of a cultivated Roman
gentleman of wealth. Occasionally, as in the last letters referred to,
they deal with important historical events; but their chief value is
in bringing before us, in somewhat the same manner as "The