A member of the regional aristocracy of Como in northern Italy, Pliny the Younger inherited the property from his wealthy uncle, the author Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D). Pliny the Younger owned villas on Lake Como, in Tuscany and at Laurentum near Ostia (James, 2008, p.72). Pliny the Younger illuminates the importance of country retreat for the Roman elite under Domitian. In a reading from Pliny the Younger, Book 1, Letter 6, he gives an entertaining account of "carrying his legal papers on a boar hunt" (James, 2008,