Compare Pliny's Letters To The People

Pliny’s versus Pericles’s Letters to the People

Both Pliny and Pericles aim to take the dead people seem honorable and attempt to replace the people's mourning with Pride Throughout their letters, Pliny and Pericles both make the dead seem like fearless leaders.
Pliny is quoted as saying “Meanwhile on Mount Vesuvius broad sheets of fire and leaping flames blazed at several points, their bright glare emphasized by the darkness of night. My uncle tried to allay the fears of his companions by repeatedly declaring that these were nothing but bonfires left by the peasants in their terror, or else empty houses on fire in the districts they had abandoned” and “In my uncle's case one reason outweighed the other, but for the others it was a choice of fears” this made his death glorified and him seem like a resilient and fearless leader the people could rally behind.

 Pericles also speaks of the fearlessness of his soldiers by saying “These men have shown themselves valiant in action, and it would be enough, I think, for their …show more content…
Pliny shows that when his uncle set out to save the woman and the people around her he and his army faced no fear which is a reflection of the Roman people as whole. This makes the people feel proud of their origins. “He hurried to the place which everyone else was hastily leaving, steering his course straight for the danger zone. He was entirely fearless, describing each new movement and phase of the portent to be noted down exactly as he observed them.” In Pericles's funeral Oration he reminds the people of how powerful Athens is to try to spark some patriotism in his people by saying “Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make s soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about.” This is to remind of how mighty they are similar to what Pliny