Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus)
Statue of Pliny the Younger on the façade of Cathedral of S. Maria Maggiore in Como.
Born	61 AD Como
Died	c. 113 AD (aged c. 52) Bithynia
Occupation	Politician, judge, author
Parent(s)	Lucius Caecilius Cilo and Plinia Marcella

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (/ˈplɪni/), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him. Both Pliny the Elder and the Younger were witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, in which the former died.

Pliny the Younger wrote hundreds of letters, many of which still survive and are of great historical value. Some are addressed to reigning emperors or to notables such as the historian Tacitus. Pliny served as an imperial magistrate under Trajan (reigned 98–117), and his letters to Trajan provide one of the few surviving records of the relationship between the imperial office and provincial governors.

Pliny rose through a series of civil and military offices, the cursus honorum. He was a friend of the historian Tacitus and might have employed the biographer Suetonius on his staff. Pliny also came into contact with other well-known men of the period, including the philosophers Artemidorus and Euphrates the Stoic, during his time in Syria.

Pliny the Younger was born in Novum Comum (Como, Northern Italy) around 61 AD, the son of Lucius Caecilius Cilo, born there, and his wife Plinia Marcella, a sister of Pliny the Elder's. He was the grandson of Senator and landowner Gaius Caecilius', revered his uncle, Pliny the Elder (who at this time was extremely famous around the Roman Empire), and provides sketches of how his uncle worked on the Naturalis Historia.