Pliny the Elder: NATVRALIS HISTORIA

[l] Libros Naturalis Historiae, novicium Camenis Quiritium tuorum opus, natos apud me proxima fetura licentiore epistula narrare constitui tibi, iucundissime Imperator; sit enim haec tui praefatio, verissima, dum maximi consenescit in patre. namque tu solebas nugas esse aliquid meas putare, ut obiter emolliam Catullum conterraneum meum (agnoscis et hoc castrense verbum): ille enim, ut scis, permutatis prioribus syllabis duriusculum se fecit quam volebat existimari a Veraniolis suis et Fabullis.

[l] The books of the Natural History, a novice work for the Camenae of your Quirites, born with me in the latest brood, I have resolved to recount to you by a somewhat freer letter, most delightful Emperor; let this, indeed, be your preface, most truthful, while the very greatest grows old in its father. For you were accustomed to think my trifles to be something, that I may incidentally soften my fellow-countryman Catullus (you recognize even this camp-word): for he, as you know, with the first syllables exchanged, made himself a bit harder than he wished to be thought by his little Veranii and Fabulli.

[2] Simul ut hac mea petulantia fiat quod proxime non fieri questus es in alia procaci epistula nostra, ut in quaedam acta exeat sciantque omnes quam ex aequo tecum vivat imperium.

[2] At the same time, that by this my petulance there may come about what you lately complained was not happening, in another of our procacious letters: that it go forth into certain Acta, and that all may know how on equal terms the imperium lives with you.

[3] Triumphalis et censorius tu sexiesque consul ac tribuniciae potestatis particeps et, quod his nobilius fecisti, dum illud patri pariter et equestri ordini praestas, praefectus praetorii eius omniaque haec rei publicae es: nobis quidem qualis in castrensi contubernio, nec quicquam in te mutavit fortunae amplitudo, nisi ut prodesse tantundem posses et velles.

[3] Triumphal and censorial you are, and six times consul, and a participant in tribunician power, and—what you have done more noble than these—while you render that alike to your father and to the equestrian order, his praetorian prefect; and all these things you are for the commonwealth: to us indeed just as in the camp’s tent‑companionship, nor has the amplitude of fortune changed anything in you, except that you could—and would—be of use just as much.

[4] Itaque cum ceteris in veneratione tui pateant omnia alia, nobis ad colendum te familiarius audacia sola superest: hanc igitur tibi imputabis et in nostra culpa tibi ignosces. perfricui faciem nec tamen profeci, quoniam alia via occurris ingens et longius etiam summoves ingenii fascibus.

[4] Therefore, while for the others, in their veneration of you, all other avenues lie open, for us, to cultivate you more familiarly, only audacity remains: this, then, you will charge to yourself, and in our fault you will pardon yourself. I have brazened my face, and yet I have not advanced, since by another path you confront me immense, and you even drive me farther off with the fasces of your genius.

[5] Fulgurare in nullo umquam verius dicta vis eloquentiae, tribunicia potestas facundiae. quanto tu ore patris laudes tonas! quanto fratris amas!

[5] The force of eloquence—so truly called “flashing”—has never flashed more truly in anyone; a tribunician power of facundity. With what mouth you thunder your father’s praises! How greatly you love your brother!

quantus in poetica es! o magna fecunditas animi! quem ad modum fratrem quoque imitareris excogitasti.

how great you are in poetry! O great fecundity of mind! you have devised how you might imitate your brother as well.

[6] Sed haec quis possit intrepidus aestimare subiturus ingenii tui iudicium, praesertim lacessitum? neque enim similis est condicio publicantium et nominatim tibi dicantium. tum possem dicere: 'Quid ista legis, Imperator?

[6] But who could unflinchingly evaluate these things, about to undergo the judgment of your genius, especially when it has been provoked? For the condition of those who publish and of those who address you by name is not the same. Then I could say: 'Why do you read those things, Emperor?

humili vulgo scripta sunt, agricolarum, opificum turbae, denique studiorum otiosis. quid te iudicem facis? cum hanc operam condicerem, non eras in hoc albo.

They are written for the lowly vulgar, for farmers, for the throng of artificers, and, in fine, for the otiose of studies. Why do you make yourself judge? When I contracted for this service, you were not on this roll.

maiorem te sciebam, quam ut descensurum huc putarem.'

I knew you to be greater than that I should think you would descend hither.'

[7] Praeterea est quaedam public etiam eruditorum reiectio. utitur illa et M. Tullius extra omnem ingenii aleam positus et, quod miremur, per advocatum defenditur: nec doctissimis. Manium Persium haec legere nolo, Iunium Congium volo.

[7] Besides, there is a certain public rejection even of the erudite. That is employed even against M. Tullius, placed beyond every hazard of talent; and, what we may marvel at, he is defended through an advocate—not by the most learned. I do not want Manius Persius to read these things; I want Junius Congius.

quod si hoc Lucilius, qui primus condidit stili nasum, dicendum sibi putavit, Cicero mutuandum, praesertim cum de re publica scriberet, quanto nos causatius ab aliquo iudice defendimur?

but if Lucilius, who first founded the nose of the stylus, thought this should be said by himself—that Cicero is to be borrowed—especially when he was writing about the Republic, by how much more with cause are we defended by some judge?

[8] Sed haec ego mihi nunc patrocinia ademi nuncupatione, quoniam plurimum refert, sortiatur aliquis iudicem an eligat, multumque apparatus interest apud invitatum hospitem et oblatum.

[8] But I have now taken these defenses away from myself by my nuncupation, since it matters very greatly whether someone draws a judge by lot or chooses one, and there is much difference of apparatus in the case of an invited guest and one offered.

[9] Cum apud Catonem, illum ambitus hostem et repulsis tamquam honoribus inemptis gaudentem, flagrantibus comitiis pecunias deponerent candidati, hoc se facere, quod tum pro innocentia ex rebus humanis summum esset, profitebantur. inde illa nobilis M. Ciceronis suspiratio: O te felicem, M. Porci, a quo rem inprobam petere nemo audet!

[9] When, with the elections blazing, the candidates were depositing monies with Cato— that enemy of electoral bribery, and one rejoicing in repulses as though in honors unbought— they professed that they were doing this which then, on behalf of innocence, was the highest thing among human affairs. Hence that famous sigh of M. Cicero: O happy you, M. Porcius, from whom no one dares to ask for an improper thing!

[10] Cum tribunos appellaret L. Scipio Asiaticus, inter quos erat Gracchus, hoc adtestabatur vel inimico iudici se probari posse. adeo summum quisque causae suae iudicem facit quemcumque, cum eligit. unde provocatio appellatur.

[10] When L. Scipio Asiaticus appealed to the tribunes, among whom was Gracchus, he thereby attested this: that he could be approved even by a hostile judge. Thus each person makes as the supreme judge of his cause whomever he chooses, when he selects him; whence it is called “provocation.”

[11] Te quidem in excelsissimo generis humani fastigio positum, summa eloquentia, summa eruditione praeditum, religiose adiri etiam a salutantibus scio, et ideo curant, quae tibi dicantur ut digna sint. verum dis lacte rustici multaeque gentes et mola litant salsa qui non habent tura, nec ulli fuit vitio deos colere quoquo modo posset.

[11] I know that you, set upon the loftiest pinnacle of the human race, endowed with the highest eloquence and the highest erudition, are approached with religious reverence even by those who salute you; and therefore they take care that what is said to you be worthy. But rustics and many peoples, who do not have frankincense, propitiate the gods with milk and with salted meal; nor was it ever a fault for anyone to worship the gods in whatever way he could.

[12] Meae quidem temeritati accessit hoc quoque, quod levioris operae hos tibi dedicavi libellos. nam nec ingenii sunt capaces, quod alioqui in nobis perquam mediocre erat, neque admittunt excessus aut orationes sermonesve aut casus mirabiles vel eventus varios, iucunda dictu aut legentibus blanda sterili materia:

[12] To my temerity there has been added this as well: that I have dedicated to you these little books of lighter labor. For they are not capable of ingenuity—which otherwise in us was very mediocre—nor do they admit excursions or speeches or conversations, or marvelous occurrences or diverse outcomes, pleasant to say or enticing to readers, in a barren material:

[13] Rerum natura, hoc est vita, narratur, et haec sordidissima sui parte ac plurimarum rerum aut rusticis vocabulis aut externis, immo barbaris etiam, cum honoris praefatione ponendis.

[13] The nature of things, that is, life, is narrated—and this in its most sordid part—and, for very many matters to be set forth with rustic vocables or foreign, nay even barbarous ones, with a preface of honor.

[14] Praeterea iter est non trita auctoribus via nec qua peregrinari animus expetat. nemo apud nos qui idem temptaverit, nemo apud Graecos, qui unus omnia ea tractaverit. magna pars studiorum amoenitates quaerimus; quae vero tractata ab aliis dicuntur inmensae subtilitatis, obscuris rerum tenebris premuntur.

[14] Moreover, the journey is a road not worn by authors, nor one on which the mind would desire to peregrinate. There is no one among us who has attempted the same, no one among the Greeks who, as a single man, has handled all these things. For a great part of our studies we seek amenities; but those things which, handled by others, are said to be of immense subtlety are pressed down by the obscure darkness of things.

ante omnia attingenda quae Graeci thV egkukliou paideiaV vocant, et tamen ignota aut incerta ingeniis facta; alia vero ita multis prodita, ut in fastidium sint adducta.

before all, those things must be touched upon which the Greeks call the enkyklios paideia, and yet have been made unknown or uncertain to minds; others, indeed, have been handed down by so many that they have been brought into tedium.

[15] Res ardua vetustis novitatem dare, novis auctoritatem, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem, omnibus vero naturam et naturae suae omnia. itaque etiam non assecutis voluisse abunde pulchrum atque magnificum est.

[15] An arduous thing: to give novelty to the time-worn, authority to the new, luster to the obsolete, light to the obscure, grace to the disdained, faith to the doubtful, and, indeed, to all, a nature and everything belonging to their own nature. And so, even for those who do not attain it, to have willed it is abundantly fair and magnificent.

[16] Equidem ita sentio, peculiarem in studiis causam eorum esse, qui difficultatibus victis utilitatem iuvandi praetulerint gratiae placendi, idque iam et in aliis operibus ipse feci et profiteor mirari me T. Livium, auctorem celeberrimum, in historiarum suarum, quas repetit ab origine urbis, quodam volumine sic orsum: iam sibi satis gloriae quaesitum, et potuisse se desidere, ni animus inquies pasceretur opere. profecto enim populi gentium victoris et Romani nominis gloriae, non suae, composuisse illa decuit. maius meritum esset operis amore, non animi causa, perseverasse et hoc populo Romano praestitisse, non sibi.

[16] Indeed I thus think, that in studies there is a peculiar cause of those who, the difficulties conquered, have preferred the utility of helping to the grace of pleasing; and this I myself have already done also in other works, and I profess that I marvel at T. Livius, a most celebrated author, in a certain volume of his histories, which he traces back from the origin of the city, having begun thus: that enough glory had now been secured for himself, and that he could sit idle, if his restless spirit were not being fed by work. For assuredly it was fitting to have composed those things for the glory of the people conqueror of nations and of the Roman name, not for his own. There would be a greater merit to have persevered for love of the work, not for the sake of his own spirit, and to have rendered this to the Roman people, not to himself.

[17] XX Rerum dignarum cura—quoniam, ut ait Domitius Piso, thesauros oportet esse, non libros—lectione voluminum circiter VV, quorum pauca admodum studiosi attingunt propter secretum materiae, ex exquisitis auctoribus centum inclusimus XXXVI voluminibus, adiectis rebus plurimis, quas aut ignoraverant priores aut postea invenerat vita.

[17] 20 The care of things worth knowing—since, as Domitius Piso says, there ought to be treasuries, not books—by the reading of approximately 2,000 volumes, which very few of the studious touch because of the secrecy of the subject-matter, we have included from a hundred select authors into 36 volumes, with very many matters added which the earlier writers had either not known or which life afterwards discovered.

[18] Nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint. homines enim sumus et occupati officiis subsicivisque temporibus ista curamus, id est nocturnis, ne quis vestrum putet his cessatum horis. dies vobis inpendimus, cum somno valetudinem computamus, vel hoc solo praemio contenti, quod, dum ista, ut ait M. Varro, musinamur, pluribus horis vivimus.

[18] Nor do we doubt that there are many things which have escaped us as well. for we are human beings and occupied with duties, and we attend to these matters in spare times, that is, nocturnal ones, lest any of you think that these hours have been idled. we devote the days to you; we compute our health together with sleep, content with even this single reward, that, while we, as M. Varro says, muse on these things, we live for more hours.

profecto enim vita vigilia est.

for indeed life is a vigil.

[19] Quibus de causis atque difficultatibus nihil auso promittere hoc ipsum tu praestas, quod ad te scribimus. haec fiducia operis, haec est indicatura. multa valde pretiosa ideo videntur, quia sunt templis dicata.

[19] For these causes and difficulties, since we have dared to promise nothing, you yourself provide this very thing, that we write to you. This is the confidence of the work; this will be the indicator. Many things seem very precious for this reason, because they are dedicated to temples.

[20] Vos quidem omnes, patrem, te fratremque, diximus opere iusto, temporum nostrorum historiam orsi a fine Aufidii. ubi sit ea, quaeres. iam pridem peracta sancitur et alioqui statutum erat heredi mandare, ne quid ambitioni dedisse vita iudicaretur.

[20] We have indeed designated you all—your father, you, and your brother—for a just work, having undertaken the history of our times from the end-point of Aufidius. Where it is, you will ask. It has long since been completed and is under seal, and besides it had been resolved to entrust it to an heir, lest life be judged to have given anything to ambition.

proinde occupantibus locum faveo, ego vero et posteris, quos scio nobiscum decertaturos, sicut ipsi fecimus cum prioribus.

Therefore I show favor to the occupants of the place; I, for my part, also favor posterity, whom I know will contend with us, just as we ourselves did with our predecessors.

[21] Argumentum huius stomachi mei habebis quod in his voluminibus auctorum nomina praetexui. est enim benignum, ut arbitror, et plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profeceris, non ut plerique ex iis, quos attigi, fecerunt.

[21] You will have the argument of this my indignation, that in these volumes I have prefixed the names of the authors. For it is benign, as I judge, and full of ingenuous modesty to confess through whom you have made progress, not as most of those whom I have touched upon have done.

[22] Scito enim conferentem auctores me deprehendisse a iuratissimis ex proximis veteres transcriptos ad verbum neque nominatos, non illa Vergiliana virtute, ut certarent, non Tulliana simplicitate, qui de re publica Platonis se comitem profitetur, in consolatione filiae Crantorem, inquit, sequor, item Panaetium de officiis, quae volumina ediscenda, non modo in manibus cotidie habenda, nosti.

[22] For know that, while comparing authors, I discovered that by the most sworn among their intimates the ancients had been transcribed word for word and not named—not with that Vergilian virtue, so as to vie, not with Tullian simplicity, who professes himself a companion of Plato in On the Republic; in the consolation for his daughter he says, “I follow Crantor,” likewise Panaetius in On Duties—volumes which you know are to be learned by heart, not merely kept daily in the hands.

[23] Obnoxii profecto animi et infelicis ingenii est deprehendi in furto malle quam mutuum reddere, cum praesertim sors fiat ex usura.

[23] It is assuredly the mark of a servile spirit and an ill-starred wit to prefer to be caught in theft rather than to repay a loan, especially since the principal is made from the interest.

[24] Inscriptionis apud Graecos mira felicitas: khrion inscripsere, quod volebant intellegi favum, alii keraV AmalqeiaV, quod copiae cornu, ut vel lactis gallinacei sperare possis in volumine haustum; iam ia, Mousai, pandektai, egceiridia, leimwn, pinax, scediwn: inscriptiones, propter quas vadimonium deseri possit; at cum intraveris, di deaeque, quam nihil in medio invenies! nostri graviores Antiquitatium, Exemplorum Artiumque, facetissimi Lucubrationum, puto quia Bibaculus erat et vocabatur. paulo minus asserit Varro in satiris suis Sesculixe et Flextabula.

[24] Of inscription among the Greeks there is a marvelous felicity: they inscribed khrion, by which they wished a honeycomb to be understood; others keraV AmalqeiaV, which is the horn of plenty, so that you might even hope in the volume for a draught of hen’s milk; now ia, Mousai, pandektai, egceiridia, leimwn, pinax, scediwn: inscriptions for which a recognizance might be abandoned; but when you go in, gods and goddesses, how you find nothing in the middle! our own are graver—Of Antiquities, Of Examples and of Arts—most facetious, Lucubrations, I suppose because he was Bibaculus and was so called. Varro asserts a little less in his satires Sesculixe and Flextabula.

[25] Apud Graecos desiit nugari Diodorus et biblioqhkhV historiam suam inscripsit. Apion quidem grammaticus—hic quem Tiberius Caesar cymbalum mundi vocabat, cum propriae famae tympanum potius videri posset—immortalitate donari a se scripsit ad quos aliqua componebat.

[25] Among the Greeks Diodorus stopped trifling and entitled his history Library. Apion indeed the grammarian—this man whom Tiberius Caesar used to call the cymbal of the world, though he might rather seem the tympanum of his own fame—wrote that those for whom he composed something were endowed by him with immortality.

[26] Me non paenitet nullum festiviorem excogitasse titulum et, ne in totum videar Graecos insectari, ex illis mox velim intellegi pingendi fingendique conditoribus, quos in libellis his invenies, absoluta opera et illa quoque, quae mirando non satiamur, pendenti titulo inscripsisse, ut APELLES FACIEBAT aut POLYCLITUS, tamquam inchoata semper arte et inperfecta, ut contra iudiciorum varietates superesset artifici regressus ad veniam velut emendaturo quicquid desideraretur, si non esset interceptus.

[26] I do not repent of having devised no more facetious a title; and, lest I seem altogether to assail the Greeks, I would presently wish it to be understood from them—namely from the founders of painting and sculpting, whom you will find in these little books—that they inscribed their finished works, even those which we do not grow sated of admiring, with a pendent title, such as APELLES WAS MAKING or POLYCLITUS, as though the art were always inchoate and imperfect, so that, against the varieties of judgments, there might remain to the artist a retreat to indulgence, as if he were about to amend whatever might be desired, had he not been intercepted.

[27] Quare plenum verecundiae illud, quod omnia opera tamquam novissima inscripsere et tamquam singulis fato adempti. tria non amplius, ut opinor, absolute traduntur inscripta ILLE FECIT, quae suis locis reddam. quo apparuit summam artis securitatem auctori placuisse, et ob id magna invidia fuere omnia ea.

[27] Wherefore full of modesty was that practice, that they inscribed all works as if latest, and as if each man had been taken away by fate. three, no more, as I think, are reported as absolutely inscribed “HE MADE (IT),” which I will render in their proper places. From this it appeared that the highest security (assurance) of the art pleased the maker, and on that account all those works were in great envy.

[28] Ego plane meis adici posse multa confiteor, nec his solis, sed et omnibus quos edidi, ut obiter caveam istos Homeromastigas (ita enim verius dixerim), quoniam audio et Stoicos et dialecticos Epicureosque—nam de grammaticis semper expectavi—parturire adversus libellos, quos de grammatica edidi, et subinde abortus facere iam decem annis, cum celerius etiam elephanti pariant.

[28] I plainly confess that many things can be added to my own works, not to these alone, but to all that I have published, so that I may by the way beware of those Homeromastiges (for thus, indeed, I would more truly say), since I hear that both the Stoics and the dialecticians and the Epicureans—for from the grammarians I have always been expecting it—are in labor against the little books which I published on grammar, and from time to time produce abortions now for ten years, when even elephants give birth more quickly.

[29] Ceu vero nesciam adversus Theophrastum, hominem in eloquentia tantum, ut nomen divinum inde invenerit, scripsisse etiam feminam, et proverbium inde natum suspendio arborem eligendi.

[29] As if indeed I did not know that even a woman wrote against Theophrastus, a man in eloquence so great that from it he obtained a divine name, and that from this there arose the proverb of choosing a tree for hanging.

[30] Non queo mihi temperare quo minus ad hoc pertinentia ipsa censorii Catonis verba ponam, ut appareat etiam Catoni de militari disciplina commentanti, qui sub Africano, immo vero et sub Hannibale didicisset militare et ne Africanum quidem ferre potuisset, qui imperator triumphum reportasset, paratos fuisse istos, qui obtrectatione alienae scientiae famam sibi aucupantur: Quid enim? ait in eo volumine, scio ego, quae scripta sunt si palam proferantur, multos fore qui vitiligent, sed ii potissimum, qui verae laudis expertes sunt. eorum ego orationes sivi praeterfluere.

[30] I cannot restrain myself from setting down the very words of Censorial Cato that pertain to this, so that it may appear that even for Cato, commenting on military discipline—who had learned to soldier under Africanus, nay rather under Hannibal, and could not even bear Africanus, who as imperator had carried off a triumph—there were ready those who, by detraction of another’s science, hunt fame for themselves: “Why indeed? he says in that volume, I know that the things which are written, if they are brought forth openly, there will be many who will carp, but those most of all who are devoid of true praise. their speeches I have allowed to flow past.”

[31] Nec Plancus inlepide, cum diceretur Asinius Pollio orationes in eum parare, quae ab ipso aut libertis post mortem Planci ederentur, ne respondere posset: cum mortuis non nisi larvas luctari. quo dicto sic repercussit illas, ut apud eruditos nihil impudentius iudicetur.

[31] Not without wit, Plancus—when it was being said that Asinius Pollio was preparing speeches against him, which would be published by himself or by his freedmen after Plancus’s death, so that he could not reply—said: “with the dead one wrestles only with phantoms.” By this remark he so parried those attacks that among the learned nothing is judged more impudent.

[32] Ergo securi etiam contra vitilitigatores, quos Cato eleganter ex vitiis et litigatoribus composuit—quid enim illi aliud quam litigant aut litem quaerunt? —, exequemur reliqua propositi.

[32] Therefore, secure even against the vitilitigators, whom Cato elegantly compounded from vices and litigators—for what else do they do than litigate or look for a lawsuit?—, we shall pursue the remaining parts of our purpose.

[33] Quia occupationibus tuis publico bono parcendum erat, quid singulis contineretur libris, huic epistulae subiunxi summaque cura, ne legendos eos haberes, operam dedi. tu per hoc et aliis praestabis ne perlegant, sed, ut quisque desiderabit aliquid, id tantum quaerat et sciat quo loco inveniat. hoc ante me fecit in litteris nostris Valerius Soranus in libris, quos epoptidwn inscripsit.

[33] Because your occupations had to be spared for the public good, I have appended to this epistle what is contained in each individual book, and with the utmost care I have taken pains that you should not have to read them; through this you will also provide for others that they not read them through, but that, as each person desires something, he should seek only that and know in what place he may find it. Valerius Soranus did this before me in our literature, in the books which he entitled epoptidwn.