When a Man Loves a Nomen:
Pliny on Cicero and Poetry (Ep. 7.4)

Timothy J. Stover (Florida State University)

That Pliny’s Letters constitute a complex act of self-fashioning is by now a well recognized feature of his epistolary productions (Leach 1990, Riggsby 1995, Roller 1998, Hoffer 1999, Henderson 2002). Within this process of self-representation the figure of Cicero looms particularly large, emerging as the preferred exemplum on which Pliny models various aspects of his persona (Guillemin 1929, 67-111, Weische 1989, Riggsby 1995). In this paper, I show that Epistle 7.4 is a remarkable example of Pliny’s desire to portray himself as intensely Ciceronian, and in a manner that is rather surprising. For we learn here that Pliny composed homoerotic poetry, a fact that prompted Pontius Allifanus to demand an explanation (7.4.1). Pliny’s answer is basically that he composes such verse because Cicero did (7.4.3-6), a move that reveals the extent to which Pliny’s project in self-fashioning is dominated by the name of Cicero, even beyond the field of oratory.

In fact, Pliny seems to be almost entirely motivated here by the desire to link his name to Cicero’s, as he uses the bewilderment expressed by his addressee to launch into a brief history of how he came to write such risqué verse. In the course of this discussion, Pliny authorizes and defends his own practice by appeal to Ciceronian precedent. Moreover, I show that this strategy involves an attempt to control the reception of Cicero’s nugatory poetry, which I suggest functions as a ploy by Pliny to influence the reception of his epistolary self-portrait. For apparently Cicero’s epigrammatic verse had not been universally well received, judging from Pliny’s reference to the views of Asinius Gallus (7.4.3), the son of Cicero’s fiercest critic, Asinius Pollio (Seneca Suas. 6.14). It is likely that Gallus cited Cicero’s verse in order to embarrass him. Pliny counters this negative evaluation of Cicero’s poetry by exalting Cicero’s epigram to exemplary status, claiming in fact that it gave birth (natalis…causa, 7.4.3) to Pliny’s own poetic compositions, before moving on to employ Cicero’s homoerotic verse in what is best described as a ‘foundation myth’ for Pliny’s poetic practices (7.4.6). In so doing, the great fame Pliny claims he has won from his amatory poetry (7.4.9-10) implicitly reveals the merit of Cicero’s verse too; it also implies that Pliny’s choice to model his activity on that of Cicero was a wise one, for which he has no regrets (nec paenitet, 7.4.9). As it is, Pliny’s defense of Cicero’s good name goes hand-in-hand with his assertion that Ciceronian style homoerotic poetry has helped him make a name for himself.

Pliny’s desire to appropriate a decidedly Ciceronian persona has left other traces in Epistle 7.4 as well. For example, I argue that Pliny’s rather curious emphasis on the blazing speed with which he composed his poetry (7.4.5, 7), a boast that would have placed him in the crosshairs of a Horace (Serm. 1.4.9) or a Catullus (Carm. 95), whom Pliny in fact claims as an important model for his poetry elsewhere (Hershkowitz 1995, Roller 1998), can be regarded as a Ciceronian trait. For Cicero could apparently churn out five hundred verses per night (Plutarch Cic. 40)! And judging from Pliny’s extant verse, choosing Cicero as his Muse had its drawbacks as well as its benefits.

But for better or worse Pliny did choose Cicero as his Muse and in Epistle 7.4 we see him deftly defending this choice, which entails a defense of Cicero himself. Pliny’s poetic amores were inspired by his amor Ciceronis, his desire to emulate his chosen exemplar in every detail. Epistle 7.4 was written in Cicero’s name for the greater glory of Pliny’s.

Works Cited:

Guillemin, A.-M. 1929. Pline et la vie littéraire de son temps. Paris.

Henderson, J. 2002. Pliny’s Statue: The Letters, Self-Portraiture, and Classical Art. Exeter.

Hershkowitz, D. 1995. Pliny the Poet. G&R 42: 168-81.

Hoffer, S.E. 1999. The Anxieties of Pliny the Younger. Atlanta.

Leach, E.W. 1990. The Politics of Self-representation: Pliny’s Letters and Roman Portrait Sculpture. CA 9: 14-39.

Riggsby, A. 1995. Pliny on Cicero and Oratory: Self-fashioning in the Public Eye. AJP 116: 123-35.

Roller, M. 1998. Pliny’s Catullus: The Politics of Literary Appropriation. TAPA 128: 265-304.

Weische, A. 1989. Plinius d. J. und Cicero: Untersuchungen zur römischen Epistolographie in Republik und Kaiserzeit. ANRW II.33.1: 375-86.