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  • Chapter 13 - Risus et indignatio: Scoptic Elements in Pliny’s Letters

  • from Part V - Pliny Turns Nasty: Satire and the Scoptic Tradition
  • Edited by Margot Neger, University of Cyprus, Spyridon Tzounakas, University of Cyprus
  • Book:
    Intertextuality in Pliny's <i>Epistles</i>
    Published online:
    07 September 2023
    Print publication:
    21 September 2023, pp 259-278

  • Summary

    Pliny the Younger’s Epistles contain a significant number of letters where Pliny presents himself as openly hostile to certain individuals by ridiculing them or expressing his indignation. The individuals who are the targets of Pliny’s epistolary invectives or satires usually do not appear as addressees in the collection: the chapter discusses Pliny’s letters 1.5 and 4.7 on Regulus, 7.29 and 8.6 on Pallas, 4.25 on an anonymous senator’s behaviour during a secret election and 6.15 on the faux pas of Iavolenus Priscus during a recitation. It then moves on with investigating how Pliny evokes the tradition of scoptic poetry, satire and invective not only in those letters where one would expect it, but also in letters which, at first glance, present themselves as friendly or joking conversations with various addressees such as Ep. 2.2 and 5.10. Here, the scoptic tone of literary models such as Catullus and Martial is transformed into a different context of communication, according to the conventions of epistolography.