On Pliny on Martial on Pliny on Anon… (Epistles 3.21/Epigrams 10.19)

Abstract

For the most part, editors and teachers have conspired to ignore the book gatherings in administering their dosage of Pliny (as of Cicero's, or of Seneca'sLetters). ButEpistles3.21 is a striking tailpiece which pricks the reader to reflect back over all the book they have been reading. A resounding sequence of letters through the book has been writing up writers when we reach the finale's valediction to Martial. Each time writer and subject of writing share the trait of beingwriters, this entices readers to play at joining them, and so entertain the experience of reading throughtheirminds' eyes. Attuned empathy is the challenge, though not necessarily in a spirit of congeniality or collegiality; and the cumulative project is to lever us into sharing and appreciating Pliny's ability to represent the fraternity to others, and thereby to communicate his own self, as writer and subject of writing. No half measures: letters mediate, immediate.

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