Pliny's Progress: On a troublesome Domitianic Career

Abstract

The Domitianic cursus of Pliny the Younger has occasioned long debate. This article demonstrates that he was praetor in either 93 or 94, and establishes the likely coordinates of his earlier career. It also shows that the trials of Herennius Senecio, Arulenus Rusticus and the younger Helvidius cannot be dated certainly to 93; that Calestrius Tiro’s career should probably be modified; and that Pliny was in all likelihood appointed praefectus aerari militaris by Domitian. His post eventum styling of this career, it is proposed, calls neither for condemnation nor for credulity.