Pliny was in his eighteenth year (_Ep._ vi. 20, 5, 'agebam duodevicensimum annum') on 24th August, A.D. 79, when his uncle perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, and he was therefore born in the second half of 61 or in the first half of 62 A.D. Cilo died young, before holding the chief municipal post, and before Pliny was of age; and Verginius Rufus became Pliny's guardian. _Ep._ ii. 1, 8, 'Ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit.' Pliny was removed to Rome with his uncle, probably at the end of A.D. 72. While at school he wrote poetry (_Ep._ vii. 4, 2, quoted below), and studied philosophy and rhetoric. _Ep._ vi. 6, 3, 'Quos tunc ego frequentabam, Quintilianum, Niceten Sacerdotem.' Cf. also ii. 14, 10; i. 20, 4; vii. 4, etc. For literary studies with his uncle cf. _Ep._ vi. 20, 5, 'Posco librum Titi Livi et quasi per otium lego, atque etiam, ut coeperam, excerpo.' His uncle, as above stated, died on 24th August, A.D. 79, and by his will adopted Pliny, whose name thereafter was C. Plinius L. f. Ouf. Caecilius Secundus. He therefore changed his praenomen to that of his adoptive father, and put his former nomen among his cognomina. By his contemporaries he is called Plinius (cf. Martial, x. 19), or Secundus, as by Trajan. The name Caecilius was confined to formal inscriptions. In A.D. 80 or 81 Pliny first appeared as an advocate. Cf. _Ep._ v. 8, 8, 'Undevicensimo aetatis anno dicere in foro coepi.' Before entering the Senate, he held (as stated in the chief inscription, given below) the decemvirate _litibus iudicandis_, the military tribunate in the third Gallic legion, and the title of Sevir in the Roman knighthood. Pliny probably held his military tribunate under Domitian (_i.e._, after 13th September, A.D. 81) in Syria. Cf. _Ep._ i. 10, 2, 'Hunc [Euphraten philosophum] ego in Syria, cum adulescentulus militarem, penitus et domi inspexi.' The date of Pliny's praetorship as A.D. 93 is settled by _Ep._ iii. 11, 2, the events recorded in which passage are known from Tac. _Agr._ 45 to have taken place shortly after Agricola's death in August, A.D. 93. 'Fui praetor ... cum ... occisis Senecione Rustico Helvidio, relegatis Maurico Gratilla Arria Fannia ... mihi quoque impendere idem exitium certis quibusdam notis augurarer.'