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플리니우스는 『서한집』 속에서 자신을 도미티아누스 황제 치하의 희생자들 및 그들의 가족 구성원들과 연계시키고자 한다. 도미티아누스의 폭정 하에서 정치 경력상의 중단을 경험했노라는 『찬가』 95의 주장과 마찬가지로, 『서한집』에서도 플리니우스는 자신을 폭정의 희생자들 가운데 한 사람으로 주조해 낸다. 그는, 도미티아누스에 의해 박해받았던 이들과의 친연성을 주장할 뿐만 아니라, 동료 원로원 의원들을 기소하였던 고발자 무리와 자신을 차별화하고자 애쓴다. 플리니우스가 진실을 윤색하고 있긴 하지만, 그의 저술은 역사적으로 의미 있는 작품이다. 그의 『서한집』은 꾸밈없는 사실로 여겨질 수는 없지만, 그 속에서 우리는 플리니우스 개인의 자기 정당화뿐만 아니라 불안정한 이행기를 살아남은 자들이 시도했을 자기표현의 일단을 엿볼 수 있다.
In several letters, Pliny tries to affiliate himself with certain of Domitian’s victims and their family members. Just like his statement in the Panegyricus 95 that he halted in his career at the time of the reign of terror, Pliny casts himself as one of the victims of tyranny in his Letters. He struggles not only to claim proximity to the victims of the Domitianic persecution but also to distinguish himself from a group of delatores who persecuted their senatorial peers during Domitian’s reign. Despite his own claims that his career was hindered during the final years of Domitian’s reign, there is no positive evidence that Pliny was impeded in his promotion. Although Pliny embellishes the truth, his writings are historically significant. In the Letters which cannot be regarded as the unadorned truth, we have an opportunity to see not only Pliny’s self-justification but also the representation of political survivors who came through Domitian’s reign unscathed. Through the prism of his Letters, we catch the glimpse of a spirit or mood associated with a generation of senators who survived tyranny and had feelings of anxiety about their status under the new regime.
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Pliny, Domitian, Epistulae, politics of memory, senate
