SOURCE: Hershkowitz, Debra. “Pliny the Poet.” Greece and Rome 42, no. 2 (1995): 168-81.

In the following essay, Hershkowitz notes that although Pliny considered his poetry an interest that was secondary to his oratory, it was a significant part of his literary activity, often aiding him greatly in his work as a statesman and an orator.

In letter 4.14, Pliny the Younger remarks that he doesn't worry too much about criticism of his poetry since he's not planning to give up the day job (§10):

nam si hoc opusculum nostrum aut potissimum esset aut solum, fortasse posset durum uideri dicere ‘quaere quod agas’: molle et humanum est ‘habes quod agas’.

For if this little work were my chief or sole effort it might possibly seem unkind to tell me to ‘find something else to do’: but there is nothing unkind in the gentle reminder that I ‘have something else to do’.¹

This well...