, 5; Comum is
referred to as 'patria mea' in _Ep._ iv. 30, 1. The Caecilii were a
family of station at Comum even in Caesar's time. Cf. Catull. 35,

'Poetae tenero meo sodali
velim Caecilio, papyre, dicas,
Veronam veniat Novi relinquens
Comi moenia Lariumque litus.'

Pliny inherited landed property there from his father and mother.

_Ep._ vii. 11, 5, 'Indicavit mihi cupere se aliquid circa Larium
nostrum possidere: ego illi ex praediis meis quod vellet ... optuli,
exceptis maternis paternisque.'

The above inscription shows that Pliny's father belonged to the
municipal nobility, and possibly had 'equestris nobilitas.'

Pliny was in his eighteenth year (_Ep._ vi. 20, 5, 'agebam
duodevicensimum annum') on 24th August, A.D. 79, when his uncle
perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, and he was therefore born in the
second half of 61 or in the first half of 62 A.D. Cilo died young,
before holding the chief municipal post, and before Pliny was of age;
and Verginius Rufus became Pliny's guardian.

_Ep._ ii. 1, 8, 'Ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis
exhibuit.' Pliny was removed to Rome with his uncle, probably at the
end of A.D. 72. While at school he wrote poetry (_Ep._ vii. 4, 2,
quoted below), and studied philosophy and rhetoric.

_Ep._ vi. 6, 3, 'Quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum, Niceten
Sacerdotem.' Cf. also ii. 14, 10; i. 20, 4; vii. 4, etc. For literary
studies with his uncle cf. _Ep._ vi. 20, 5, 'Posco librum Titi Livi et
quasi per otium lego, atque etiam, ut coeperam, excerpo.'

His uncle, as above stated, died on 24th August, A.D. 79, and by his
will adopted Pliny, whose name thereafter was C. Plinius L. f. Ouf.
Caecilius Secundus. He therefore changed his praenomen to that of his
adoptive father, and put his former nomen among his cognomina. By his
contemporaries he is called Plinius (cf. Martial, x. 19), or Secundus,
as by Trajan. The name Caecilius was confined to formal inscriptions.

In A.D. 80 or 81 Pliny first appeared as an advocate. Cf. _Ep._ v. 8,
8, 'Undevicensimo aetatis anno dicere in foro coepi.' Before entering
the Senate, he held (as stated in the chief inscription, given below)
the decemvirate _litibus iudicandis_, the military tribunate in the
third Gallic legion, and the title of Sevir in the Roman knighthood.
Pliny probably held his military tribunate under Domitian (_i.e._,
after 13th September, A.D. 81) in Syria.

Cf. _Ep._ i. 10, 2, 'Hunc [Euphraten philosophum