Working Papers in Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.23 (16/7/14)
‘The Empire of Letters: Book 10 of Pliny’s Letters and imperial correspondence’ Myles Lavan, 16th July, 2014
This working paper is an abstract for a chapter that will be published in the forthcoming edited volume Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian: volume 1 (edd. A. König & C. Whitton). It outlines a new approach to Pliny’s tenth book of letters that will consider it in the light of other imperial correspondence – and the implications which that raises for how we are to read it as a book. Among other things, the chapter will draw attention to interactions between ‘literary’ and non-‘literary’ spheres of activity, at the level of consumption as well as production.