Pliny's praise

Written by Pliny the Younger and addressed to the emperor Trajan, the Panegyricus (c. AD 100) is a rare surviving example of senatorial oratory from the early Roman Empire. Its eyewitness view covers the final years of Domitian's rule, the brief reign of Nerva, and the opening years of Trajan's. The speech also lays out, from a senator's perspective, how an emperor ought to behave, which makes it a key text for the evolving ideals of imperial leadership and for understanding political culture under the empire.

This volume, the first devoted entirely to the Panegyricus, gathers expert studies of its historical and rhetorical backgrounds, along with critical approaches to the published text and its reception in antiquity. Scholars of Roman history, literature and rhetoric will find an up-to-date survey of the main ways of reading the speech, while students and general readers will find an authoritative introduction to a work that has received too little attention.