SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Which letter or letters stood out as of particular note?  Why?

What most surprised you about these letters?

What is the purpose of these letters?  How should that influence our use of them as primary sources?

How can these letters best be used as source material for understanding the social and political history of turn-of-the-1st-century-CE Rome?

What is most interesting about the exchange of letters between Pliny and Emperor Trajan?  What insights do these letters offer about imperial administration?  What portrait does Pliny paint of Bithynia and what challenges was he confronted with there?

What did you learn about ancient religion through Pliny's letters?  Assess the exchange between Pliny and Trajan on their response to the Christians of Bithynia.

How would you compare and contrast Pliny's interactions with and discussion of women with the approach of Livy?

What did you learn about Roman class relations through Pliny's letters?  The patron/client relationship?  About slavery?

What did you learn about Roman legal history through these letters?

How does Pliny seem to understand Roman history and the relationship between its past and its present?  How does he situate himself in the historical narrative?

How does Pliny represent himself in these letters?  What impression did you get of Pliny the man?

How would you compare the Letters of the Younger Pliny as an historical source with the histories of Livy and Suetonius or with Virgil's Aeneid?

How valuable are Pliny's Letters as an historical and literary source?

SOME EXTRA SOURCES