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Often appears with: reason and the intellect · the fear of death · st vincent chapel · socratic elenchus · self-presentation · pride, vanity, and humility · pliny’s vanity · pliny the elder death · plato’s dialogues · plague, famine, and mass death · naval warfare and sea power · misenum
Usually: narrative (2) · confronting death (2) · wonder (2) · argument (1) · dialogue (1) · detachment (1) · humor (1) · reverence (1) · skepticism (1)
“Happy I esteem those to be to whom by provision of the gods has been granted the ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being related or to relate them in a manner worthy of being read; but peculiarly happy are they who are blessed with both these uncommon talents.” Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus), Letters of Pliny · insight
“He turned off the subject, saying, 'Sir, I hope to see your grand-children!” James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Jo · vivid
“The Socratic method, of which the Platonic dialogues are the chief example, is unsurpassed as a discipline for correcting the errors, and clearing up the confusions incident to the *intellectus sibi permissus*, the understanding which has made up all its bundles of associations under the guidance of popular phraseology.” John Stuart Mill, Autobiography · insight
Mill continues reading Latin and Greek authors with his father—Demosthenes, Tacitus, Juvenal, Quintilian, and Plato—arguing that Plato’s Socratic method trains precise thinking via elenchus and distinctions.
opposite conclusion, scarcely even attempting to confute the reasonings of their antagonists; and, therefore, at the utmost, leaving the question, as far as it depends on argument, a balanced one. During this time, the Latin and Greek books which I continued to read with my father were chiefly such as were worth studying, not for the language merely, but also for the thoughts. This included much of the orators, and …
On a fine day Boswell tours Johnson around Auchinleck’s castle ruins, family chapel foundations, and old trees; Johnson advises planting, avoids dwelling on death, and remarks on hornless cattle and a Tacitus passage.
shewed him some venerable old trees, under the shade of which my ancestors had walked. He exhorted me to plant assiduously, as my father had done to a great extent. As I wandered with my reverend friend in the groves of Auchinleck, I told him, that, if I survived him, it was my intention to erect a monument to him here, among scenes which, in my mind, were all classical; for in my youth I had appropriated to them ma…
Pliny writes Tacitus to request that he record Pliny the Elder’s death at Misenum during the eruption of Vesuvius, describing how he went by sea to aid people near the burning coast.
LXV -- To TACITUS YOUR request that I would send you an account of my uncle's death, in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my acknowledgments; for, if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, the glory of it, I am well assured, will be rendered forever illustrious. And notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune, which, as it involved at the same time a most beautiful country …
The introduction discusses Pliny’s personal vanity and self-praise, including his comparisons to Cicero and his admiration for Tacitus, while arguing that his character’s charm makes the vanity tolerable.
bier. What a different picture from anything we find in Juvenal, who would fain have us believe that Messalina was the type of the average Roman matron of his day! Such were some of Pliny's friends. His distinguished position at the Bar drew him a host of clients; his official status and his friendship with Trajan gave him the entree into any society he liked. He was, moreover, a man of considerable wealth, genero…