] ego in Syria, cum
adulescentulus militarem, penitus et domi inspexi.'

The date of Pliny's praetorship as A.D. 93 is settled by _Ep._ iii.
11, 2, the events recorded in which passage are known from Tac. _Agr._
45 to have taken place shortly after Agricola's death in August, A.D.
93.

'Fui praetor ... cum ... occisis Senecione Rustico Helvidio, relegatis
Maurico Gratilla Arria Fannia ... mihi quoque impendere idem exitium
certis quibusdam notis augurarer.'

The words in _Ep._ vii. 16 (of Calestrius Tiro), 'Simul quaestores
Caesaris fuimus: ille me in tribunatu liberorum iure praecessit, ego
illum in praetura sum consecutus, cum mihi Caesar annum remisisset,'
refer to the fact that the emperor did not insist on the year of
absence from office between the tribunate and the quaestorship. Pliny
was quaestor from 1st June, 89 to 31st May, 90 A.D., being nominated
by the emperor, as shown by the above passage. He was _trib. pleb._
from 10th December, 90 to 9th December, 91 A.D., and during his year
of office undertook no cases. Cf. _Ep._ i. 23, 2, 'Ipse cum tribunus
essem ... abstinui causis agendis.' By special favour he was allowed
to take office as praetor on 1st January, A.D. 93. In this year he
appeared before the Senate for the people of Baetica against the
procurator Baebius Massa.

_Ep._ vii. 33, esp. par. 4, 'Dederat me senatus cum Herennio Senecione
advocatum provinciae Baeticae contra Baebium Massam.'

The inscriptions of Pliny show that he was _praefectus aerarii
militaris_ between his praetorship in 93 and his _praefectura aerarii
Saturni_ (from 98 onwards), and this office he held either from 94 to
96 or from 95 to 97 A.D. Pliny tells us that he and Cornutus Tertullus
were designated consuls, when they had held the _praefectura aerarii
Saturni_ for less than two years.

_Paneg._ 91, 'Nondum biennium compleveramus in officio laboriosissimo
et maximo, cum tu nobis ... consulatum obtulisti.'

This _designatio_ took place on 9th January, A.D. 100, whence the
_praefectura_ must have been entered on shortly after 9th January,
A.D. 98. Pliny was probably nominated to it by Nerva and Trajan.

Cf. _ad Trai._ 3, 'Ut primum me, domine, indulgentia _vestra_ promovit
ad praefecturam aerarii Saturni.'

Mommsen[108] believes that this praefectura was held at the same time
as the consulship, and on to December, A.D. 101, an unusual length of
tenure. H. F. Stobbe, however, makes the trial of Classicus, on which
the