Pliny the Younger wrote, recited, and published short poems modeled after those of Catullus. In a number of letters, he describes his engagement with this poetry as a leisure-time activity and classifies it under the rubric of otium. At the same time he consistently deprecates it, explicitly and implicitly, in comparison to activities that fall under the rubric of negotium, the primary activities through which he cultivates his reputation and by which he measures his value among his peers. These negotia, which include serving as a legal advocate, discharging a magistracy or other high official post, and being a member of the senate, had for centuries been the most valued and prestigious activities open to aristocrats. They are the defining and characteristic activities, moreover, of what Riggsby has called the" engaged public figure." l Pliny can

* I am grateful to Eleanor Winsor Leach, Andrew Riggsby, TAPA editor Marilyn Skinner, and two anonymous referees for their engaged and thoughtful readings of various draftsespecially for clarifications of their own views and for bibilographical guidance. I should note that, despite a titular resemblance, this article is not a response to Gunderson's piece in last year's TAPA (127). Gunderson is concerned with the erotics of a literary form he calls the" love-letter," examples of which he finds in Catul. 50 and Plin. Ep. 1. 15. While he argues for certain congruences between Pliny's epistolary project and Catullus' poetic one (eg, 216-22), he does not (and need not) contend that Pliny's erotics directly engage or respond to those of Catullus. I do argue that Pliny directly engages Catullus, but in a different respect. lIt is specifically the orator whom Riggsby 1998 categorizes as an" engaged public figure"(75-77 and passim). On Riggsby's account, the word" public" in this locution signifies that this figure takes actions that are visible to the community as a whole and also consequential for it (77). Since the orator in Roman society typically occupies himself, and practices his craft, precisely as a magistrate, an advocate, and a senator, these figures are all" public" in the required sense; other activities too might satisfy this definition. This figure's" engagement," meanwhile, resides in his ethical orientation toward the community under whose gaze he acts, and for which his actions are consequential. In Pliny's case, this ethical orientation consists in seeking praise from the community for fulfilling his public social roles in the most appropriate manner; that is, he measures his own worth by the reputation he wins as a consequence of his activities as an advocate, senator, magistrate, and so on (89-90). This characterization of Pliny is helpful for the current discussion because, when he describes the objections to which his production of Catullan poetry is subject, and when he seeks to neutralize these objections, at