Gaius PLINIUS Secundus (Pliny the Younger), born 62 C.E.; died before 114. He was seventeen in A.D. 79 at the time of the famous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which killed his uncle PLINY the ELDER. Ten books of Letters, 1-9 written between 97 and 109 C.E.; book ten to the emperor Trajan (written in 112).
Pliny lived under nine emperors:
- Nero 54-68 (Verginius Rufus refuses the principate in 68)
- Galba 68 (June to January 69)
- Otho 69 (Jan. through March)
- Vitellius 69 (April to December)
- Vespasian 69 (Dec.) - 79
- Titus 79-81
- Domitian 81-96 called himself dominus et deus; purged important senators through a series of treason trials (cf. letters about Regulus)
- Nerva 96-98
- Trajan 98-117 optimus princeps