Pliny's Women Constructing Virtue and Creating Identity in the Roman World [Paperback]

Pliny's Women provides a comprehensive consideration of the many women who appear in the letters of Pliny the Younger.Plinys Women offers a comprehensive consideration of the many women who appear in the letters of Pliny the Younger. Its chief purpose is to show how important women were to Plinys reputation and more generally to any Roman mans self-representation in the late first century. In addition, the book has much to say about how Pliny uses his letter collection to lead the reader to conclusions about his own character.Plinys Women offers a comprehensive consideration of the many women who appear in the letters of Pliny the Younger. Its chief purpose is to show how important women were to Plinys reputation and more generally to any Roman mans self-representation in the late first century. In addition, the book has much to say about how Pliny uses his letter collection to lead the reader to conclusions about his own character.Plinys Women offers a comprehensive consideration of the many women who appear in the letters of Pliny the Younger. Combining detailed prosopography with close literary analysis, Jacqueline Carlon examines the identities of the women whom Pliny includes and how they and the men with whom they are associated contribute both to this presentation of exemplary Romans and particularly to his own self-promotion. Virtually all of the named women in Plinys nine-book corpus are considered. They form six distinct groups: those associated with opposition to the principate; the family of Plinys mentor, Corellius Rufus; his own family members; women involved in testamentary disputes; ideal wives; and women of unseemly character. Detailed analysis of each letter mentioning women includes the identity of its recipient and everyone named within, its disposition within the collection, Plinys language and style, and its significance to our perception of the changing social fabric of the early principate.1. Pliny: enemy of tyrants; 2. Pliny: modell£“