by Daisy Dunn
Renaissance, 18, 159–62, 234
rings, 116, 122, 157–58, 160
roads, 71, 155
Rodari, Giovanni, 232
Roman empire: administration of provinces, 28–29, 52, 56, 81, 85, 94, 216–29; Annals of Tacitus on, 35, 207; archives, 25; civil war following Nero’s death, 53–54, 56, 94; delatio or ‘informing’ in, 26–27, 48–49, 170–71, 178, 179, 207, 224, 227; Diocletian’s tetrarchy, 228–29; expansion of, 81, 85–86, 108; extent under Claudius, 23; extent under Trajan, 208–9; Flavian dynasty, 27, 85, 170; in German Wars, 21–24, 52, 54–55, 87–88; grain supply of, 205; imperial fleets of, 3–4, 6–7, 24; invasion of Britain (AD 43), 23; Jewish uprising (AD 66), 52–53, 54, 55, 85, 141–42, 174; Julio-Claudian emperors of, 21–27; legal system of, 44–46, 48–49, 68, 81–83, 92, 99, 100, 134, 144–49, 167; luxury and, 83–84, 96, 130, 158, 235; persecution of Christians, 26, 221–28, 229, 232–33; and revolt of Boudicca, 66; social class in, 20, 20n, 28, 30; Teutoburg Forest defeat of, 21–22; Vulcanalia festival, 43; ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), 53–54, 56; see also legal system
Rome: Arch of Titus, 141; Centumviral Court, 44–46, 48–50, 92, 100, 134, 167; Circus Maximus, 157; Curio’s theatre, 167–68; damnatio memoriae process in, 179–80; Esquiline Hill, 32, 59, 141, 193; fire in (AD 64), 26, 236; Flavian amphitheatre (‘Colosseum’), 85, 165; Ludi Romani, 205; Nero’s Golden House, 30; Pantheon, 159; Pliny’s water-based engineering role in, 210; Temple of Saturn, 168; Tiber and, 203, 210; Trajan’s Column, 209
Sacerdos, Nicetes, 133–34
Sarpedon, 57, 98
Saturnalia, festival of, 70–71, 73–75
‘sciapods,’ 139
Scipio, Lucius, 130, 235
Seneca the Younger, 27, 92, 96, 98–99, 143, 197, 236
Senecio, Herennius, 92, 144, 146, 147, 148
Septicius Clarus (equestrian), 61, 66–67, 253n51
sexually transmitted diseases, 141
Shelley, Mary, 117–18
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 117–18, 262n58
Silius Italicus (poet), 87, 212, 213
soothsayers and diviners, 50
Spartacus, 5
Spartacus uprising, 5
Spazi, Lorenzo degli, 231
Stabiae (port town), 7, 8, 9–11, 13, 14, 131
Statius (poet), 186
Steele, Sir Richard, 187
Stephanus (private secretary of Flavia Domitilla), 169–70
St Helens, Mount (Washington State), 20, 243n27
Stoicism: ekpyrosis, 14, 93; expulsion of philosophers from Italy, 144, 147, 148, 149, 174, 223, 237; Pliny seeks revenge after trial, 149, 172–73, 174, 175; Pliny supports victims of Domitian, 148, 171–72, 173, 175; Pliny the Elder and, 92–93, 96–97; Pliny the Younger and, 93–94, 95–96, 97, 99–101, 136, 145–46, 149, 172, 182; prominence of in Rome, 92; Thrasea Paetus and, 142–44; trial of Stoics under Domitian, 144–47, 171–72, 173, 237; view of death and mortality, 98–99, 100; view of natural world, 92, 96–97
Strabo (geographer), 5
Strato of Lampsacus, 8–9
Suetonius, 12n; in Britain with Septicius Clarus, 66; on death of Titus, 85, 256n15; Domitian and, 86, 147, 169, 229; ius trium liberorum honour to, 217; as lawyer, 67, 69; Lives of the Caesars, 25, 26, 66, 85, 86, 169, 222, 257n40; in Pliny’s letters, 67–69
suicide, 53, 98–100, 140, 141–42, 188–89, 251n7
summer solstice, 190–91, 192
‘sumptuary’ laws, 224
Swift, Jonathan, 81
Sylva Sylvarum (Bacon), 38
Syria, 52, 54, 94, 96, 99, 101, 149
Tacitus, Cornelius, 236; Annals, 35, 207; on the Chatti, 87; Domitian and, 88, 146; friendship with Pliny, 35–36, 37, 74, 135, 165–67, 229; funeral oration for Verginius, 36–37; as governor of Asia, 219; as lawyer, 81, 82; on Nerva, 174, 204; on persecution of Christians, 223; Pliny’s letters to, 3, 35–36, 37–38, 40, 48, 74, 165–67; on Tiberius, 178; on Trajan, 207; witnesses trial of Stoics, 144, 145–46
Tambora volcano eruption (1816), 117
Tarraconensis province, Hispania, 56
Tertullian (Christian writer), 227
Thales of Miletus, 243n28
Thrasea Paetus, 92, 142–44, 236, 267n17, 267n21
Tiber (river), 203–4, 210
Tiberius, Emperor, 21, 71, 178, 179, 222, 235, 236
Tifernum Tiberinum (Città di Castello), 154, 155, 168, 177–78, 205
Titian, 162
Titius Aristo, 99, 100–101
Titus, Emperor: and 79 AD eruption, 58, 236; background of, 54, 87; and conquest of Judaea, 54, 55, 85, 222, 226; death of, 85–86, 237, 256n15; German Wars and, 54, 55; Pliny the Elder and, 54, 55, 57, 58, 111; rule of, 27, 57, 58, 110, 179
Trajan, Emperor: Christianity and, 28–29, 222–23, 225–28; grain supply and, 205; Licinius Sura and, 119; military commands/feats of, 174, 207, 208–10; Nerva’s adoption of, 174–75; Pliny’s letters to, 28, 36, 219–20, 222–23, 225–27, 228; rule of, 27, 28–29, 67, 204–11, 212–14, 216, 217–28, 229, 237
Trimalchio, 130
Triton, 4
Trojan War, 3–4, 13, 57, 90
Tuscan villa and estate (near Perugia), 48, 116, 153–57, 205; archaeological discoveries at, 76, 156, 162; art and sculpture at, 162–63, 178, 230; ball court at, 153n; crops grown at, 191–92, 194–95; estate management of, 168, 178, 190–93, 194–96, 198–99; extent of estate, 166; floating dining table at, 120; hippodrome garden at, 156–57, 162; Pliny buys adjoining estate of, 194; Pliny’s inheritance of, 29, 178–79; Pliny’s routine at, 164–66; roof tile discovery of, 156–57; soil quality at, 193, 194; summer solstice at, 190–91, 192; Temple of Ceres at, 177–78, 205; vineyards at, 195–96, 199
Vadimon, Lake (Lago di Bassano), 121–22
Valla, Lorenzo, 19, 245n7
Varus (Roman legate), 21–22, 236
Vasari, Giorgio, 19, 125, 158, 159, 162, 234
Verania (Piso’s widow), 250n49
Vercelli, Bishop Bonomio of, 231–32
Verginius Rufus, 36–37
Verona, 18–19, 72, 111, 232
Vertumnus (god of the seasons), 196
Vespasian, Emperor: as emperor, 54, 55, 236; Jewish War and, 52–53, 55, 85, 236, 251n5; rule of, 27, 52, 56–57, 85, 142, 143, 144, 178–79, 236; and son Domitian, 27, 169
Vestal Virgins, 89–90, 91–92, 257n40
Vesuvius, 6n; eruption of (AD 79), 3, 4–8, 9–16, 37–38, 39, 41–44, 58, 237; eruption of (AD 1631), 39–40; eruption of (BC 1600), 242n10; eruptions in 1760s, 40–41; precise date of AD 79 eruption, 42–44, 249n29; pre-eruption tremors of, 8; return to normality after eruption, 186, 259n5, 274n38
Vetera (modern Xanten), 54–55
Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy, 72
vines and vineyards, 5, 195–96, 199, 204; Domitian bans planting of, 197–98
Virgil: Aeneid, 4, 13, 15, 35, 46, 53, 69, 73; Eclogues, 124; Georgics, 164; Stoicism and, 92
Vitellius, Emperor, 54, 236
Vitruvius, 19, 203, 211
volcanoes, 4–6, 20; ash from, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 243n27; ash in concrete, 211; and death of livestock, 8, 9; Plinian clouds and, 38, 39; pumice from, 7, 8, 9–10, 11, 38, 41, 121–22; pyroclastic flow from, 11–12, 39; sickness in survivors of eruptions, 15; Tambora eruption (1816), 117. see also Vesuvius
wine, 5, 62, 182, 196–99
Works and Days (Hesiod), 107, 192, 193, 195
Xerxes, King of Persia, 212–13
Yellowstone National Park, 20–21
Zeno, 93
Zeus, 57, 69, 98, 160
Zeuxis of Heraclea, 161
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet
The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation
Copyright © 2019 by Daisy Dunn
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Amanda Short
First American Edition 2019
First published in Great Britain under the title
IN
THE SHADOW OF VESUVIUS: A Life of Pliny
Excerpt from “The Barn” from OPENED GROUND: SELECTED POEMS 1966–1996
by Seamus Heaney. Copyright © 1998 by Seamus Heaney. Reprinted by permission of
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; also by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. from
DEATH OF A NATURALIST by Seamus Heaney, copyright © 1966 by Seamus Heaney.
Maps by Martin Brown
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Dunn, Daisy, author.
Title: The shadow of Vesuvius : a life of Pliny / Daisy Dunn.
Other titles: In the shadow of Vesuvius
Description: First American edition. | New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2019. |
“First published in Britain under the title In the shadow of Vesuvius : a life of Pliny”—
Verso title page. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019032450 | ISBN 9781631496394 (hardcover) |
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Subjects: LCSH: Pliny, the Younger. | Authors, Latin—Biography. | Lawyers—
Rome—Biography. | Pliny, the Elder. | Naturalists—Rome—Biography.
Classification: LCC PA6640 .D86 2019 | DDC 188—dc23
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