PLINY THE YOUNGER Pliny on persecution of writers "I have avoided shame but deserve no praise. Admittedly, when Dominitian expelled his critics from Rome, I visited one, even loaned him money, though this jeopardised my own position. Seven of my friends had already been killed or exiled. I was clearly standing amid a rain of thunderbolts and there were signs that a similar end was in store for me." (Letter 3.11)