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 signiBcation and choice of words, appeared 
towanls 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 pui-suits. 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 
