24 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



the profession of arms with the practice of the bar. 

 It does not appear that he held any official situation, 

 and during the greater part of the reign of Nero, he 

 seems to have remained without any employment 

 from the state. He spent a portion of his time at 

 Comum, where he superintended the education of 

 his nephew ; and it was probably for his use that he 

 composed a work on Eloquence, in six volumes, en- 

 titled " Studiosus" (the Student), in which he con- 

 ducts the orator from his cradle onward, until he had 

 reached the perfection of his art. A quotation from 

 it, made by Quintilian, leads us to infer that in this 

 treatise the author even pointed out the manner in 

 which the orator should regulate his dress, his person, 

 his gesture, and his deportment on the tribunal. An- 

 other grammatical work (Dubii Sermonis), on the 

 precise signification and choice of words, appeared 

 towards the close of Nero's reign, when the terror 

 inspired by that monster's cruelties had driven vir- 

 tue and excellence into banishment, and imposed a 

 check on all liberal and elevated pursuits. It has 

 been supposed, however, from chronological compu- 

 tation, that he was named by that emperor procura- 

 tor in Spain. His nephew says expressly that he 

 filled that office, and he himself mentions certain 

 observations which he made in that country. There, 

 it is to be presumed (for we find no other period of 

 his life at which the event could have occurred), 

 he continued to reside during the civil wars of Galba, 

 Otho, and Vitellius ; perhaps, also, during the first 



