Summary: Pliny the Younger was a prolific Roman letter-writer. A prominent lawyer in the 1st century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, in modern Turkey. Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life and government in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London; Roy Gibson, Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester and Alice König, Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews.
