Appendix A: Inscriptions

THERE are a few fragmentary inscriptions referring to Pliny, the longest of which (C.I.L.V. 5262) is known only from a fifteenth-century copy and one fragment remaining in Milan. The whole had evidently stood over the baths at Comum, but was afterwards cut up to make a tomb and sent to Milan in the middle ages, where it was found in the church of St Ambrose.

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius of the tribe Oufentina, consul: augur: praetorian commissioner with full consular power for the province of Pontus and Bithynia, sent to that province in accordance with the Senate’s decree by the Emperor Nerva Trajan Augustus, victor over Germany and Datia, the Father of his Country: curator of the bed and banks of the Tiber and sewers of Rome: official of the Treasury of Saturn: official of the military Treasury: praetor: tribune of the people: quaestor of the Emperor: commissioner for the Roman knights: military tribune of the Third Gallic legion: magistrate on board of Ten: left by will public baths at a cost of… and an additional 300,000 sesterces for furnishing them, with interest on 200,000 for their upkeep… and also to his city capital of 1,866,666 2/3 sesterces to support a hundred of his freedmen, and subsequently to provide an annual dinner for the people of the city…. Likewise in his lifetime he gave 500,000 sesterces for the maintenance of boys and girls of the city, and also 100,000 for the upkeep of the library….

The following fragment can still be seen, built into the wall of Como Cathedral (C.I.L.V. 5263).

To Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius of the tribe Oufentina, consul: augur: curator of the bed and banks of the Tiber and sewers of Rome….

The following inscription was found at Fecchio, a small village near Como, and sent to the Brera Museum in Milan (C.I.L.V. 5667).

To Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius of the tribe Oufentina, consul: augur: curator of the bed and banks of the Tiber and sewers of Rome: official of the Treasury of Saturn: official of the military Treasury:… quaestor of the Emperor: commissioner for the Roman knights: military tribune of the Third Gallic legion: magistrate on board of Ten: priest of the deified Emperor Titus: dedicated by the citizens of Vercellae.

This is the only reference we have to a priesthood which must have been held in Pliny’s native Comum; another inscription records that Calpurnius Fabatus held a similar one.