Pliny's Statue The Letters, Self-Portraiture and Classical Art

The Younger Pliny's letters are full of observations about the Roman experience but above all, Henderson argues, they are about their author. This extremely specialised study, which seems to revel in its own verbal cleverness, examines the episodes and content of the letters to explore the ways in which Pliny constructed his self-statuette within the context of Latin literature and art. As the caption of one of the unusual illustrations says: Art is Autobiography'.

John Henderson is Reader in Latin Literature, University of Cambridge and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He is co-author (with Mary Beard) of Classics: A very short introduction (Oxford, 1995) and is the author of many books, including Figuring Out Roman Nobility: Juvenal's Eighth Satire (1997) and A Roman Life: Rutilius Gallicus on Paper and In Stone (1998), both published by University of Exeter Press.