Pliny the Younger: EPISTVLARVM LIBRI DECEM

1 Post aliquot annos insigne atque etiam memorabile populi Romani oculis spectaculum exhibuit publicum funus Vergini Rufi, maximi et clarissimi civis, perinde felicis. 2 Triginta annis gloriae suae supervixit; legit scripta de se carmina, legit historias et posteritati suae interfuit. Perfunctus est tertio consulatu, ut summum fastigium privati hominis impleret, cum principis noluisset.

1 After several years, the public funeral of Verginius Rufus, a very great and most illustrious citizen, equally fortunate, exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a distinguished and even memorable spectacle. 2 He outlived his own glory by thirty years; he read poems written about himself, he read histories, and he was present to his own posterity. He discharged a third consulship, in order to fill the highest pinnacle of a private man, since he had not wished that of a princeps.

3 Caesares quibus suspectus atque etiam invisus virtutibus fuerat evasit, reliquit incolumem optimum atque amicissimum, tamquam ad hunc ipsum honorem publici funeris reservatus. 4 Annum tertium et octogensimum excessit in altissima tranquillitate, pari veneratione. Usus est firma valetudine, nisi quod solebant ei manus tremere, citra dolorem tamen.

3 He escaped the Caesars to whom he had been suspect and even hated for his virtues, and left unharmed the best and most friendly man, as though reserved for this very honor of a public funeral. 4 He passed away in his eighty-third year, in the loftiest tranquility, with equal veneration. He enjoyed firm health, except that his hands used to tremble, yet without pain.

Aditus tantum mortis durior longiorque, sed hic ipse laudabilis. 5 Nam cum vocem praepararet acturus in consulatu principi gratias, liber quem forte acceperat grandiorem, et seni et stanti ipso pondere elapsus est. Hunc dum sequitur colligitque, per leve et lubricum pavimentum fallente vestigio cecidit coxamque fregit, quae parum apte collocata reluctante aetate male coiit.

Only the approach of death was harder and longer, but this very thing was praiseworthy. 5 For when he was preparing his voice, being about to deliver thanks to the emperor in his consulship, a rather large book which he had chanced to take up slipped by its own weight from him, he being both elderly and standing. While he follows it and picks it up, over the smooth and slippery pavement, his footing failing, he fell and broke his hip, which, set not very aptly, with age resisting, knit poorly.

6 Huius viri exsequiae magnum ornamentum principi magnum saeculo magnum etiam foro et rostris attulerunt. Laudatus est a consule Cornelio Tacito; nam hic supremus felicitati eius cumulus accessit, laudator eloquentissimus. 7 Et ille quidem plenus annis abit, plenus honoribus, illis etiam quos recusavit: nobis tamen quaerendus ac desiderandus est ut exemplar aevi prioris, mihi vero praecipue, qui illum non solum publice quantum admirabar tantum diligebam; 8 primum quod utrique eadem regio, municipia finitima, agri etiam possessionesque coniunctae, praeterea quod ille mihi tutor relictus affectum parentis exhibuit.

6 The obsequies of this man brought great ornament to the princeps, great to the age, great even to the forum and the rostra. He was lauded by the consul Cornelius Tacitus; for here the supreme crown was added to his felicity—a most eloquent laudator. 7 And he indeed departs full of years, full of honors, even of those which he refused; yet to us he is to be sought and longed for as an exemplar of a former age, and to me especially, who not only in public loved him as much as I admired him; 8 first, because the same region belonged to us both, our municipalities were bordering, and even our fields and properties were conjoined; besides, because he, left to me as a guardian, displayed a parent’s affection.

Sic candidatum me suffragio ornavit; sic ad omnes honores meos ex secessibus accucurrit, cum iam pridem eiusmodi officiis renuntiasset; sic illo die quo sacerdotes solent nominare quos dignissimos sacerdotio iudicant, me semper nominabat. 9 Quin etiam in hac novissima valetudine, veritus ne forte inter quinqueviros crearetur, qui minuendis publicis sumptibus iudicio senatus constituebantur, cum illi tot amici senes consularesque superessent, me huius aetatis per quem excusaretur elegit, his quidem verbis: 'Etiam si filium haberem, tibi mandarem.'

Thus he adorned me as a candidate with his suffrage; thus he ran up from his retreats to all my honors, although long before he had renounced duties of this sort; thus on that day on which the priests are accustomed to nominate those whom they judge most worthy of the priesthood, he would always nominate me. 9 Nay even in this very last illness, fearing lest perchance he be appointed among the five-men, who were being established by the judgment of the senate for the lessening of public expenditures, although so many friends, elderly and consulars, still remained to him, he chose me, of this age, through whom he might be excused, with these very words: 'Even if I had a son, I would entrust it to you.'

10 Quibus ex causis necesse est tamquam immaturam mortem eius in sinu tuo defleam, si tamen fas est aut flere aut omnino mortem vocare, qua tanti viri mortalitas magis finita quam vita est. 11 Vivit enim vivetque semper, atque etiam latius in memoria hominum et sermone versabitur, postquam ab oculis recessit. 12 Volo tibi multa alia scribere, sed totus animus in hac una contemplatione defixus est.

10 For these reasons it is necessary that I bewail his, as it were, premature death in your bosom—if indeed it is right either to weep or even to call it “death” at all—by which the mortality of so great a man has been rather finished than his life. 11 For he lives and will live forever, and will even be turned more widely in the memory of men and in discourse, after he has withdrawn from the eyes. 12 I wish to write many other things to you, but my whole mind is fixed on this one contemplation.

Verginium cogito, Verginium video, Verginium iam vanis imaginibus, recentibus tamen, audio alloquor teneo; cui fortasse cives aliquos virtutibus pares et habemus et habebimus, gloria neminem. Vale.

I think of Verginius, I see Verginius, now by empty, yet recent, images I hear, address, and hold Verginius; for whom perhaps we both have and shall have some citizens equal in virtues, in glory none. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS PAULINO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS PAULINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Irascor, nec liquet mihi an debeam, sed irascor. Scis, quam sit amor iniquus interdum, impotens saepe, μικραίτιος semper. Haec tamen causa magna est, nescio an iusta; sed ego, tamquam non minus iusta quam magna sit, graviter irascor, quod a te tam diu litterae nullae.

1 I am angry, nor is it clear to me whether I ought to be, but I am angry. You know how love is inequitable sometimes, impotent often, always captious. Yet this cause is great, I know not whether just; but I, as though it were no less just than great, am grievously angry, because from you for so long there have been no letters.

2 Exorare me potes uno modo, si nunc saltem plurimas et longissimas miseris. Haec mihi sola excusatio vera, ceterae falsae videbuntur. Non sum auditurus 'non eram Romae' vel 'occupatior eram'; illud enim nec di sinant, ut 'infirmior'. Ipse ad villam partim studiis partim desidia fruor, quorum utrumque ex otio nascitur.

2 You can appease me in one way only, if now at least you send very many and very long letters. This is to me the sole true excuse; the others will seem false. I am not going to listen to 'I was not at Rome' or 'I was more occupied'; and may the gods not even allow this, that 'I was more infirm.' I myself at the villa enjoy partly studies, partly idleness, both of which are born from leisure.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS NEPOTI SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS NEPOS, GREETINGS.

1 Magna Isaeum fama praecesserat, maior inventus est. Summa est facultas copia ubertas; dicit semper ex tempore, sed tamquam diu scripserit. Sermo Graecus, immo Atticus; praefationes tersae graciles dulces, graves interdum et erectae.

1 A great fame had preceded Isaeus; he was found greater. There is utmost faculty, copiousness, richness; he speaks always ex tempore, but as though he had long written. His speech is Greek—nay, Attic; the prefaces are terse, slender, sweet, at times weighty and elevated.

2 Poscit controversias plures; electionem auditoribus permittit, saepe etiam partes; surgit amicitur incipit; statim omnia ac paene pariter ad manum, sensus reconditi occursant, verba - sed qualia! - quaesita et exculta. Multa lectio in subitis, multa scriptio elucet.

2 He calls for several controversies; he permits the choice to the auditors, often even the sides; he rises, is robed, begins; straightway everything, and almost simultaneously, is at hand, recondite thoughts present themselves, words - but what words! - sought out and polished. Much reading in what is sudden shines forth, much writing likewise.

3 Prohoemiatur apte, narrat aperte, pugnat acriter, colligit fortiter, ornat excelse. Postremo docet delectat afficit; quid maxime, dubites. Crebra ἐνθυμήματα crebri syllogismi, circumscripti et effecti, quod stilo quoque assequi magnum est.

3 He prefaces aptly, narrates plainly, fights keenly, infers stoutly, adorns loftily. Finally he teaches, he delights, he affects; which most of all, you would doubt. Frequent enthymemes, frequent syllogisms, circumscribed and effected, which is a great thing to attain even with the stylus.

Incredibilis memoria: repetit altius quae dixit ex tempore, ne verbo quidem labitur. 4 Ad tantam ἕξιν studio et exercitatione pervenit; nam diebus et noctibus nihil aliud agit nihil audit nihil loquitur. 5 Annum sexagensimum excessit et adhuc scholasticus tantum est: quo genere hominum nihil aut sincerius aut simplicius aut melius.

Incredible memory: he goes back further over what he has said ex tempore, he does not slip even by a single word. 4 He has attained to such a hexis by zeal and exercise; for by day and by night he does nothing else, hears nothing, says nothing. 5 He has passed his sixtieth year and is still only a scholastic: than which kind of men nothing is either more sincere or more simple or better.

Nos enim, qui in foro verisque litibus terimur, multum malitiae quamvis nolimus addiscimus: 6 schola et auditorium et ficta causa res inermis innoxia est, nec minus felix, senibus praesertim. Nam quid in senectute felicius, quam quod dulcissimum est in iuventa? 7 Quare ego Isaeum non disertissimum tantum, verum etiam beatissimum iudico.

For we, who are worn down in the forum and by true litigations, learn much malice, although we do not wish it: 6 the school and auditorium and the fictitious cause is an unarmed, innocuous matter, and no less felicitous, especially for old men. For what in old age is more felicitous than that which is sweetest in youth? 7 Wherefore I judge Isaeus not only most eloquent, but indeed most blessed.

Quem tu nisi cognoscere concupiscis, saxeus ferreusque es. 8 Proinde si non ob alia nosque ipsos, at certe ut hunc audias veni. Numquamne legisti, Gaditanum quendam Titi Livi nomine gloriaque commotum ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse, statimque ut viderat abisse? Ἀφιλόκαλον illitteratum iners ac paene etiam turpe est, non putare tanti cognitionem qua nulla est iucundior, nulla pulchrior, nulla denique humanior.

Unless you long to become acquainted with him, you are stone and iron. 8 Therefore, if not on other accounts and for our own sakes, at least come so that you may hear him. Have you never read that a certain Gaditanian, stirred by the name and glory of Titus Livius, came to see him from the farthest edge of the world, and straightway, as soon as he had seen, went away? Aphilocal, illiterate, inert, and almost even shameful it is, not to reckon as worth so much the acquaintance, than which none is more pleasant, none more beautiful, none, finally, more humane.

9 Dices: 'Habeo hic quos legam non minus disertos.' Etiam; sed legendi semper occasio est, audiendi non semper. Praeterea multo magis, ut vulgo dicitur, viva vox afficit. Nam licet acriora sint quae legas, altius tamen in animo sedent, quae pronuntiatio vultus habitus gestus etiam dicentis affigit; 10 nisi vero falsum putamus illud Aeschinis, qui cum legisset Rhodiis orationem Demosthenis admirantibus cunctis, adiecisse fertur: τί δέ, εἰ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θηρίου ἠκούσατε et erat Aeschines si Demostheni credimus λαμπροφωνότατος. Fatebatur tamen longe melius eadem illa pronuntiasse ipsum qui pepererat.

9 You will say: 'I have here those whom I may read, no less eloquent.' Granted; but there is always an occasion for reading, not always for hearing. Besides, much more, as the common saying goes, the living voice affects. For although the things you read may be sharper, yet those things sit more deeply in the mind which delivery fixes—expression, bearing, gesture—of the speaker as well; 10 unless indeed we think false that saying of Aeschines, who, when he had read to the Rhodians the oration of Demosthenes, all admiring, is said to have added: 'But what then, if you had heard the beast himself?' and Aeschines—if we believe Demosthenes—was most sonorous-voiced. Yet he admitted that the selfsame things were far better delivered by the very man who had produced them.

11 Quae omnia huc tendunt, ut audias Isaeum, vel ideo tantum ut audieris. Vale.

11 All these things tend hither: that you may hear Isaeus, or even for this reason only, that you will have heard him. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CALVINAE SUAE S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CALVINA, GREETINGS.

1 Si pluribus pater tuus vel uni cuilibet alii quam mihi debuisset, fuisset fortasse dubitandum, an adires hereditatem etiam viro gravem. 2 Cum vero ego ductus affinitatis officio, dimissis omnibus qui non dico molestiores sed diligentiores erant, creditor solus exstiterim, cumque vivente eo nubenti tibi in dotem centum milia contulerim, praeter eam summam quam pater tuus quasi de meo dixit - erat enim solvenda de meo -, magnum habes facilitatis meae pignus, cuius fiducia debes famam defuncti pudoremque suscipere. Ad quod te ne verbis magis quam rebus horter, quidquid mihi pater tuus debuit, acceptum tibi fieri iubebo.

1 If your father had owed to several persons, or to any one else rather than to me, there might perhaps have been room to doubt whether you should enter upon the inheritance, a burden even for a man. 2 But since I, led by the duty of affinity, having dismissed all those who—I do not say were more troublesome, but rather more diligent—have stood forth as the sole creditor; and since, while he was alive, when you were marrying, I contributed one hundred thousand into your dowry, besides that sum which your father said was, as it were, from my own—for it was to be discharged from my own—you have a great pledge of my facilitas, in confidence of which you ought to take up the good name of the deceased and his honor. And that I may encourage you to this not more by words than by deeds, I will order whatever your father owed me to be entered as received on your account.

3 Nec est quod verearis ne sit mihi onerosa ista donatio. Sunt quidem omnino nobis modicae facultates, dignitas sumptuosa, reditus propter condicionem agellorum nescio minor an incertior; sed quod cessat ex reditu, frugalitate suppletur, ex qua velut fonte liberalitas nostra decurrit. 4 Quae tamen ita temperanda est, ne nimia profusione inarescat; sed temperanda in aliis, in te vero facile ei ratio constabit, etiamsi modum excesserit.

3 Nor is there any reason for you to fear lest that donation be burdensome to me. Indeed, altogether our faculties are modest, our dignity is costly, our revenues, on account of the condition of the little fields, I know not whether smaller or more uncertain; but what fails from revenue is made up by frugality, from which, as from a fountain, our liberality flows down. 4 Which, however, must be so tempered that it not dry up through excessive profusion; yet tempered in others, whereas in your case the account will easily hold good, even if it has exceeded the measure.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS LUPERCO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS LUPERCUS, GREETINGS.

1 Actionem et a te frequenter efflagitatam, et a me saepe promissam, exhibui tibi, nondum tamen totam; adhuc enim pars eius perpolitur. 2 Interim quae absolutiora mihi videbantur, non fuit alienum iudicio tuo tradi. His tu rogo intentionem scribentis accommodes.

1 The pleading, both frequently demanded by you and often promised by me, I have exhibited to you, not yet, however, in its entirety; for a part of it is still being thoroughly polished. 2 Meanwhile, those portions which seemed to me more complete, it was not unfitting to be handed over to your judgment. To these, I ask, you accommodate the writer’s intention.

Nihil enim adhuc inter manus habui, cui maiorem sollicitudinem praestare deberem. 3 Nam in ceteris actionibus existimationi hominum diligentia tantum et fides nostra, in hac etiam pietas subicietur. Inde et liber crevit, dum ornare patriam et amplificare gaudemus, pariterque et defensioni eius servimus et gloriae.

For up to now I have had nothing in hand to which I ought to render greater solicitude. 3 For in the other actions only our diligence and our faith will be subjected to the estimation of men; in this, even piety will be subjected. Thence also the book has grown, while we rejoice to adorn and to amplify our fatherland, and at the same time we serve both its defense and its glory.

4 Tu tamen haec ipsa quantum ratio exegerit reseca. Quotiens enim ad fastidium legentium deliciasque respicio, intellego nobis commendationem et ex ipsa mediocritate libri petendam. 5 Idem tamen qui a te hanc austeritatem exigo, cogor id quod diversum est postulare, ut in plerisque frontem remittas.

4 You, however, resect these very things as far as reason shall have required. For as often as I look back to the fastidiousness of readers and to their delights, I understand that commendation for us must be sought even from the very mediocrity of the book. 5 Yet I, the same who exact this austerity from you, am compelled to request what is diverse: that in most cases you relax your brow.

Sunt enim quaedam adulescentium auribus danda, praesertim si materia non refragetur; nam descriptiones locorum, quae in hoc libro frequentiores erunt, non historice tantum sed prope poetice prosequi fas est. 6 Quod tamen si quis exstiterit, qui putet nos laetius fecisse quam orationis severitas exigat, huius - ut ita dixerim - tristitiam reliquae partes actionis exorare debebunt. 7 Adnisi certe sumus, ut quamlibet diversa genera lectorum per plures dicendi species teneremus, ac sicut veremur, ne quibusdam pars aliqua secundum suam cuiusque naturam non probetur, ita videmur posse confidere, ut universitatem omnibus varietas ipsa commendet.

For there are certain things to be granted to the ears of adolescents, especially if the material does not gainsay; for the descriptions of places, which in this book will be more frequent, it is permitted to pursue not only historically but almost poetically. 6 Yet if anyone should arise who thinks that we have done things more gaily than the severity of the oration demands, this person’s — so to speak — grimness the remaining parts of the action will have to appease. 7 We have certainly striven to hold however diverse kinds of readers through more species of speaking; and just as we fear lest some part may not be approved by certain persons according to each one’s nature, so we seem able to be confident that variety itself will commend the whole to all.

8 Nam et in ratione conviviorum, quamvis a plerisque cibis singuli temperemus, totam tamen cenam laudare omnes solemus, nec ea quae stomachus noster recusat, adimunt gratiam illis quibus capitur. 9 Atque haec ego sic accipi volo, non tamquam assecutum esse me credam, sed tamquam assequi laboraverim, fortasse non frustra, si modo tu curam tuam admoveris interim istis, mox iis quae sequuntur. 10 Dices te non posse satis diligenter id facere, nisi prius totam actionem cognoveris: fateor.

8 For even in the rationale of banquets, although we as individuals refrain from several foods, yet we all are accustomed to praise the whole dinner, nor do the things which our stomach refuses take away the grace from those by which it is captivated. 9 And I wish these things to be received thus, not as though I should believe that I have attained, but as though I have labored to attain, perhaps not in vain, provided only that you apply your care for the meantime to these, soon to those which follow. 10 You will say that you cannot do that with sufficient diligence unless first you have come to know the whole action: I confess.

In praesentia tamen et ista tibi familiariora fient, et quaedam ex his talia erunt ut per partes emendari possint. 11 Etenim, si avulsum statuae caput aut membrum aliquod inspiceres, non tu quidem ex illo posses congruentiam aequalitatemque deprendere, posses tamen iudicare, an id ipsum satis elegans esset; 12 nec alia ex causa principiorum libri circumferuntur, quam quia existimatur pars aliqua etiam sine ceteris esse perfecta.

For the present, however, even these things will become more familiar to you, and certain of them will be such that they can be emended piece by piece. 11 For indeed, if you were to inspect a head torn from a statue or some limb, you could not, to be sure, from that alone apprehend the congruence and equality, yet you could judge whether that very piece were elegant enough; 12 nor for any other cause are the beginnings of a book circulated, than because some part is thought to be perfect even without the others.

13 Longius me provexit dulcedo quaedam tecum loquendi; sed iam finem faciam ne modum, quem etiam orationi adhibendum puto, in epistula excedam. Vale.

13 A certain sweetness of speaking with you has carried me farther; but now I will make an end, lest I exceed, in an epistle, the measure which I think ought to be applied even to oration. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS AVITO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS AVITUS, GREETING.

1 Longum est altius repetere nec refert, quemadmodum acciderit, ut homo minime familiaris cenarem apud quendam, ut sibi videbatur, lautum et diligentem, ut mihi, sordidum simul et sumptuosum. 2 Nam sibi et paucis opima quaedam, ceteris vilia et minuta ponebat. Vinum etiam parvolis lagunculis in tria genera discripserat, non ut potestas eligendi, sed ne ius esset recusandi, aliud sibi et nobis, aliud minoribus amicis - nam gradatim amicos habet -, aliud suis nostrisque libertis.

1 It would be long to go further back, nor does it matter how it happened that I, with a man hardly familiar, dined at the house of a certain person who, as it seemed to himself, was lavish and diligent, but, as it seemed to me, at once sordid and sumptuous. 2 For he was setting before himself and a few some opulent dishes, for the rest cheap and minute. He had even parceled out the wine in very small little flagons into three kinds, not that there was the power of choosing, but lest there be the right of refusing: one kind for himself and us, another for his lesser friends — for he has friends by grades — another for his and our freedmen.

3 Animadvertit qui mihi proximus recumbebat, et an probarem interrogavit. Negavi. 'Tu ergo' inquit 'quam consuetudinem sequeris?' 'Eadem omnibus pono; ad cenam enim, non ad notam invito cunctisque rebus exaequo, quos mensa et toro aequavi.' 4 'Etiamne libertos?' 'Etiam; convictores enim tunc, non libertos puto.' Et ille: 'Magno tibi constat.' 'Minime.' 'Qui fieri potest?' 'Quia scilicet liberti mei non idem quod ego bibunt, sed idem ego quod liberti.' 5 Et hercule si gulae temperes, non est onerosum quo utaris ipse communicare cum pluribus.

3 The one who was reclining nearest to me noticed, and asked whether I approved. I said no. ‘What custom, then,’ he said, ‘do you follow?’ ‘I set the same for all; for I invite to dinner, not for a rating, and I make equal in all respects those whom I have made equal by table and couch.’ 4 ‘Even freedmen?’ ‘Even; for at that time I consider them fellow-diners, not freedmen.’ And he: ‘That costs you dearly.’ ‘Not at all.’ ‘How can that be?’ ‘Because, of course, my freedmen do not drink the same as I do, but I the same as my freedmen.’ 5 And, by Hercules, if you restrain your gullet, it is not burdensome to share with several what you yourself use.

Illa ergo reprimenda, illa quasi in ordinem redigenda est, si sumptibus parcas, quibus aliquanto rectius tua continentia quam aliena contumelia consulas.

Therefore that must be restrained, that must, as it were, be reduced into order, if you are sparing in expenses—wherein it is considerably more correct to have regard to your own continence rather than to another’s contumely.

6 Quorsus haec? ne tibi, optimae indolis iuveni, quorundam in mensa luxuria specie frugalitatis imponat. Convenit autem amori in te meo, quotiens tale aliquid inciderit, sub exemplo praemonere, quid debeas fugere.

6 To what purpose are these things? Lest the luxury of certain people at table, under the appearance of frugality, impose upon you, a youth of the best natural disposition. Moreover, it is fitting to my love for you, whenever something of this sort shall occur, to forewarn you by way of example what you ought to flee.

7 Igitur memento nihil magis esse vitandum quam istam luxuriae et sordium novam societatem; quae cum sint turpissima discreta ac separata, turpius iunguntur. Vale.

7 Therefore remember that nothing is more to be avoided than that new association of luxury and sordidness; which, although most disgraceful when discrete and separate, are joined more disgracefully. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MACRINO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS MACRINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Here a senatu Vesticio Spurinnae principe auctore triumphalis statua decreta est, non ita ut multis, qui numquam in acie steterunt, numquam castra viderunt, numquam denique tubarum sonum nisi in spectaculis audierunt, verum ut illis, qui decus istud sudore et sanguine et factis assequebantur. 2 Nam Spurinna Bructerum regem vi et armis induxit in regnum, ostentatoque bello ferocissimam gentem, quod est pulcherrimum victoriae genus, terrore perdomuit. 3 Et hoc quidem virtutis praemium, illud solacium doloris accepit, quod filio eius Cottio, quem amisit absens, habitus est honor statuae.

1 Here by the senate, with Vesticius as proposer, a leading man, a triumphal statue was decreed for Spurinna, not as to the many who never stood in the battle-line, never saw a camp, never, in fine, heard the sound of the trumpets except at spectacles, but as to those who attained that honor by sweat and blood and deeds. 2 For Spurinna installed the king of the Bructeri into his kingdom by force and arms, and, war merely displayed, he subdued that most ferocious nation by terror—which is the most beautiful kind of victory. 3 And this indeed he received as a reward of valor; that other as a solace of grief, that to his son Cottius, whom he lost in his absence, the honor of a statue was bestowed.

Rarum id in iuvene; sed pater hoc quoque merebatur, cuius gravissimo vulneri magno aliquo fomento medendum fuit. 4 Praeterea Cottius ipse tam clarum specimen indolis dederat, ut vita eius brevis et angusta debuerit hac velut immortalitate proferri. Nam tanta ei sanctitas gravitas auctoritas etiam, ut posset senes illos provocare virtute, quibus nunc honore adaequatus est.

That is rare in a youth; but the father also deserved this too, whose very grave wound had to be treated with some great fomentation. 4 Moreover, Cottius himself had given so bright a specimen of innate disposition, that his life, brief and narrow, ought to have been prolonged by this as it were immortality. For there was in him such sanctity, gravity, and authority too, that he could challenge those elders in virtue, to whom he has now been equaled in honor.

5 Quo quidem honore, quantum ego interpretor, non modo defuncti memoriae, dolori patris, verum etiam exemplo prospectum est. Acuent ad bonas artes iuventutem adulescentibus quoque, digni sint modo, tanta praemia constituta; acuent principes viros ad liberos suscipiendos et gaudia ex superstitibus et ex amissis tam gloriosa solacia. 6 His ex causis statua Cotti publice laetor, nec privatim minus.

5 By this very honor, so far as I interpret, provision has been made not only for the memory of the deceased and the father’s grief, but also for an example. Let such great rewards, provided only they be worthy, whet the youth—and the adolescents too—to good arts; let them whet leading men to the undertaking of children, and to find from the survivors joys, and from the lost such glorious solaces. 6 For these reasons I rejoice publicly at the statue of Cottius, nor less privately.

Amavi consummatissimum iuvenem, tam ardenter quam nunc impatienter requiro. Erit ergo pergratum mihi hanc effigiem eius subinde intueri subinde respicere, sub hac consistere praeter hanc commeare. 7 Etenim si defunctorum imagines domi positae dolorem nostrum levant, quanto magis hae quibus in celeberrimo loco non modo species et vultus illorum, sed honor etiam et gloria refertur!

I loved a most consummate young man, as ardently as I now impatiently long for him. It will therefore be exceedingly welcome to me to behold this effigy of him again and again, again and again to look back at it, to stand beneath this, to pass by this. 7 For indeed, if the images of the deceased placed at home lighten our grief, how much more these, by which in a most celebrated place not only their aspect and visage, but honor also and glory are brought back!

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CANINIO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS CANINIUS, GREETINGS.

1 Studes an piscaris an venaris an simul omnia? Possunt enim omnia simul fieri ad Larium nostrum. Nam lacus piscem, feras silvae quibus lacus cingitur, studia altissimus iste secessus affatim suggerunt.

1 Do you study, or fish, or hunt, or all at the same time? For all can be done at the same time at our Larius. For the lake supplies fish, the woods with which the lake is girded supply wild game, and that most lofty seclusion supplies studies amply.

2 Sed sive omnia simul sive aliquid facis, non possum dicere 'invideo'; angor tamen non et mihi licere, qui sic concupisco ut aegri vinum balinea fontes. Numquamne hos artissimos laqueos, si solvere negatur, abrumpam? Numquam, puto.

2 But whether you are doing everything at once or something, I cannot say “I envy”; I am anguished, however, that it is not permitted to me as well, I who so lust after it as sick people [do] wine, baths, springs. Shall I never break these most tight nooses, if loosening is refused? Never, I think.

3 Nam veteribus negotiis nova accrescunt, nec tamen priora peraguntur: tot nexibus, tot quasi catenis maius in dies occupationum agmen extenditur. Vale.

3 For to the old businesses new ones accrue, and yet the former are not carried through: with so many nexuses, so many as-it-were chains, the column of occupations grows greater day by day. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS APOLLINARI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS APOLLINARIS, GREETINGS.

1 Anxium me et inquietum habet petitio Sexti Eruci mei. Afficior cura et, quam pro me sollicitudinem non adii, quasi pro me altero patior; et alioqui meus pudor, mea existimatio, mea dignitas in discrimen adducitur. 2 Ego Sexto latum clavum a Caesare nostro, ego quaesturam impetravi; meo suffragio pervenit ad ius tribunatus petendi, quem nisi obtinet in senatu, vereor ne decepisse Caesarem videar.

1 The petition/candidacy of my Sextus Erucius keeps me anxious and restless. I am affected with care, and the solicitude which I did not undergo on my own behalf I suffer as though for a second self; and, moreover, my modesty/honor, my estimation, my dignity are brought into jeopardy. 2 It was I who obtained for Sextus from our Caesar the broad stripe, I who impetrated the quaestorship; by my suffrage he has come to the right of seeking the tribunate, which unless he obtains in the senate, I fear I may seem to have deceived Caesar.

2 Proinde adnitendum est mihi, ut talem eum iudicent omnes, qualem esse princeps mihi credidit. Quae causa si studium meum non incitaret, adiutum tamen cuperem iuvenem probissimum gravissimum eruditissimum, omni denique laude dignissimum, et quidem cum tota domo. 4 Nam pater ei Erucius Clarus, vir sanctus antiquus disertus atque in agendis causis exercitatus, quas summa fide pari constantia nec verecundia minore defendit.

2 Accordingly, I must strive that all may judge him such as the princeps believed him to be on my word. Even if this cause did not incite my zeal, I would nevertheless wish the young man—most upright, most grave, most erudite, in fine most worthy of every praise—to be helped, and indeed together with his whole household. 4 For his father is Erucius Clarus, a man virtuous, old-fashioned, eloquent, and exercised in pleading causes, which he defends with the highest good faith, with equal constancy, and with no less modesty.

Habet avunculum C. Septicium, quo nihil verius nihil simplicius nihil candidius nihil fidelius novi. 5 Omnes me certatim et tamen aequaliter amant, omnibus nunc ego in uno referre gratiam possum. Itaque prenso amicos, supplico, ambio, domos stationesque circumeo, quantumque vel auctoritate vel gratia valeam, precibus experior, teque obsecro ut aliquam oneris mei partem suscipere tanti putes.

He has as an uncle Gaius Septicius, than whom I know nothing more truthful, nothing more simple, nothing more candid, nothing more faithful. 5 All love me in rivalry and yet equally; to all I can now, in one person, return gratitude. And so I take friends by the hand, I supplicate, I canvass, I go around houses and stations, and, to whatever extent I may prevail either by authority or by favor, I try by prayers; and I beseech you to think it worthwhile to undertake some part of my burden.

6 Reddam vicem si reposces, reddam et si non reposces. Diligeris coleris frequentaris: ostende modo velle te, nec deerunt qui quod tu velis cupiant. Vale.

6 I will render the return if you demand it back; I will render it even if you do not demand it back. You are cherished, you are cultivated, you are frequented: only show yourself to be willing, and there will not be lacking those who desire what you wish. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS OCTAVIO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS OCTAVIUS, GREETINGS.

1 Hominem te patientem vel potius durum ac paene crudelem, qui tam insignes libros tam diu teneas! 2 Quousque et tibi et nobis invidebis, tibi maxima laude, nobis voluptate? Sine per ora nominum ferantur isdemque quibus lingua Romana spatiis pervagentur.

1 I count you a patient man—or rather hard and almost cruel—for keeping such distinguished books so long! 2 How long will you begrudge both yourself and us—yourself the greatest praise, us the pleasure? Allow them to be carried from mouth to mouth by name, and to roam through the same spaces as the Roman tongue.

Magna et iam longa exspectatio est, quam frustrari adhuc et differre non debes. 3 Enotuerunt quidam tui versus, et invito te claustra sua refregerunt. Hos nisi retrahis in corpus, quandoque ut errones aliquem cuius dicantur invenient.

Great and already long is the expectation, which you ought not still to frustrate and defer. 3 Some of your verses have leaked out, and, you unwilling, have broken open their own locks. Unless you draw these back into the corpus, someday, as vagabonds, they will find someone to whom they will be said to belong.

4 Habe ante oculos mortalitatem, a qua asserere te hoc uno monimento potes; nam cetera fragilia et caduca non minus quam ipsi homines occidunt desinuntque. 5 Dices, ut soles: 'Amici mei viderint.' Opto equidem amicos tibi tam fideles tam eruditos tam laboriosos, ut tantum curae intentionisque suscipere et possint et velint, sed dispice ne sit parum providum, sperare ex aliis quod tibi ipse non praestes. 6 Et de editione quidem interim ut voles: recita saltem quo magis libeat emittere, utque tandem percipias gaudium, quod ego olim pro te non temere praesumo.

4 Have before your eyes mortality, from which you can secure yourself by this one monument; for the other things, fragile and caducous, die and cease no less than men themselves. 5 You will say, as you are wont: 'Let my friends see to it.' I indeed wish for you friends so faithful, so erudite, so laborious, that they both can and will undertake so much care and intention; but consider lest it be too little provident to hope from others what you do not yourself provide for yourself. 6 And as to the edition, indeed, meanwhile as you wish: give a reading at least, so that it may be the more pleasing to let it out, and that at length you may grasp the joy which I have long since not rashly presumed on your behalf.

7 Imaginor enim qui concursus quae admiratio te, qui clamor quod etiam silentium maneat; quo ego, cum dico vel recito, non minus quam clamore delector, sit modo silentium acre et intentum, et cupidum ulteriora audiendi. 8 Hoc fructu tanto tam parato desine studia tua infinita ista cunctatione fraudare; quae cum modum excedit, verendum est ne inertiae et desidiae vel etiam timiditatis nomen accipiat. Vale.

7 For I imagine what a concourse, what admiration for you, what clamor, and that even silence, will await you; by which silence I, when I speak or recite, am delighted no less than by clamor, provided only that the silence be sharp and intent, and eager to hear further. 8 Of this fruit, so great and so ready, cease to defraud your studies by that endless hesitation; which, when it exceeds measure, it is to be feared lest it take the name of inertia and sloth, or even of timidity. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ARRIANO SUO S.

C. PLINIUS TO HIS ARRIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Solet esse gaudio tibi, si quid acti est in senatu dignum ordine illo. Quamvis enim quietis amore secesseris, insidet tamen animo tuo maiestatis publicae cura. Accipe ergo quod per hos dies actum est, personae claritate famosum, severitate exempli salubre, rei magnitudine aeternum.

1 It is wont to be a joy to you, if anything has been done in the senate worthy of that order. For although you have withdrawn for love of quiet, yet the care of the public majesty sits in your mind. Receive then what has been done during these days—famous through the celebrity of the person, salutary by the severity of the example, eternal by the magnitude of the affair.

2 Marius Priscus accusantibus Afris quibus pro consule praefuit, omissa defensione iudices petiit. Ego et Cornelius Tacitus, adesse provincialibus iussi, existimavimus fidei nostrae convenire notum senatui facere excessisse Priscum immanitate et saevitia crimina quibus dari iudices possent, cum ob innocentes condemnandos, interficiendos etiam, pecunias accepisset. 3 Respondit Fronto Catius deprecatusque est, ne quid ultra repetundarum legem quaereretur, omniaque actionis suae vela vir movendarum lacrimarum peritissimus quodam velut vento miserationis implevit.

2 Marius Priscus, the Africans accusing him, over whom he had presided as proconsul, with his defense omitted, requested judges. I and Cornelius Tacitus, ordered to be present to the provincials, considered it to accord with our fidelity to make it known to the senate that Priscus had exceeded, in monstrosity and savagery, the charges for which judges could be given, since he had received moneys for condemning the innocent, for even putting them to death. 3 Fronto Catius replied and begged that nothing be inquired beyond the law of extortions (repetundae), and this man, most skilled at moving tears, filled all the sails of his action with a kind of, as it were, wind of compassion.

4 Magna contentio, magni utrimque clamores aliis cognitionem senatus lege conclusam, aliis liberam solutamque dicentibus, quantumque admisisset reus, tantum vindicandum. 5 Novissime consul designatus Iulius Ferox, vir rectus et sanctus, Mario quidem iudices interim censuit dandos, evocandos autem quibus diceretur innocentium poenas vendidisse. 6 Quae sententia non praevaluit modo, sed omnino post tantas dissensiones fuit sola frequens, adnotatumque experimentis, quod favor et misericordia acres et vehementes primos impetus habent, paulatim consilio et ratione quasi restincta considunt.

4 Great contention, great clamors on both sides, some saying the senate’s inquiry was closed by law, others that it was free and unfettered, and that punishment should be exacted in proportion to whatever the defendant had committed. 5 Finally the consul-designate Julius Ferox, a man upright and sanctus, judged that judges should meanwhile be assigned to Marius, but that those should be summoned who were said to have sold the punishments of the innocent. 6 This opinion not only prevailed, but after such great dissensions was the only one generally frequent; and it was noted from experience that favor and mercy have sharp and vehement first impulses, but gradually, by counsel and reason, as if quenched, they settle down.

7 Unde evenit ut, quod multi clamore permixto tuentur, nemo tacentibus ceteris dicere velit; patescit enim, cum separaris a turba, contemplatio rerum quae turba teguntur. 8 Venerunt qui adesse erant iussi, Vitellius Honoratus et Flavius Marcianus; ex quibus Honoratus trecentis milibus exsilium equitis Romani septemque amicorum eius ultimam poenam, Marcianus unius equitis Romani septingentis milibus plura supplicia arguebatur emisse; erat enim fustibus caesus, damnatus in metallum, strangulatus in carcere. 9 Sed Honoratum cognitioni senatus mors opportuna subtraxit, Marcianus inductus est absente Prisco.

7 Whence it comes about that what many, with mixed clamor, uphold, no one, the others being silent, wishes to say; for, when you are separated from the crowd, the contemplation of the things which are covered by the crowd lies open. 8 Those who had been ordered to be present came, Vitellius Honoratus and Flavius Marcianus; of these, Honoratus was accused of having bought, for 300,000, the exile of a Roman eques and, for seven of his friends, the ultimate penalty; Marcianus was accused of having bought, for 700,000, the multiple punishments of one Roman eques; for he had been beaten with cudgels, condemned to the mines, strangled in prison. 9 But a timely death removed Honoratus from the senate’s inquest; Marcianus was brought in with Priscus absent.

Itaque Tuccius Cerialis consularis iure senatorio postulavit, ut Priscus certior fieret, sive quia miserabiliorem sive quia invidiosiorem fore arbitrabatur, si praesens fuisset, sive - quod maxime credo - quia aequissimum erat commune crimen ab utroque defendi, et si dilui non potuisset in utroque puniri.

Therefore Tuccius Cerialis, a consular, by senatorial right demanded that Priscus be informed, either because he thought he would be more pitiable or more odious if he had been present, or — which I most believe — because it was most equitable that the common crime be defended by both, and, if it could not be washed away, be punished in both.

10 Dilata res est in proximum senatum, cuius ipse conspectus augustissimus fuit. Princeps praesidebat - erat enim consul -, ad hoc Ianuarius mensis cum cetera tum praecipue senatorum frequentia celeberrimus; praeterea causae amplitudo auctaque dilatione exspectatio et fama, insitumque mortalibus studium magna et inusitata noscendi, omnes undique exciverat. 11 Imaginare quae sollicitudo nobis, qui metus, quibus super tanta re in illo coetu praesente Caesare dicendum erat.

10 The matter was deferred to the next meeting of the senate, the very spectacle of which was most august. The Princeps was presiding - for he was consul -, and in addition the month of January was, as at other times yet especially in the multitude of senators, most thronged; moreover, the magnitude of the case and the expectation and report increased by the postponement, and the zeal implanted in mortals for coming to know great and unusual things, had called everyone forth from all quarters. 11 Imagine what anxiety for us, what fears, upon whom it was incumbent to speak about so great a matter in that assembly with Caesar present.

Equidem in senatu non semel egi, quin immo nusquam audiri benignius soleo: tunc me tamen ut nova omnia novo metu permovebant. 12 Obversabatur praeter illa quae supra dixi causae difficultas: stabat modo consularis, modo septemvir epulonum, iam neutrum. 13 Erat ergo perquam onerosum accusare damnatum, quem ut premebat atrocitas criminis, ita quasi peractae damnationis miseratio tuebatur.

Indeed in the senate I have pleaded not once, nay rather nowhere am I wont to be heard more kindly; yet then, everything, being new, moved me with a new fear. 12 Besides those things which I said above, the difficulty of the case kept presenting itself: he now stood as a consular, now as a septemvir of the Epulones, now as neither. 13 It was therefore exceedingly burdensome to accuse a condemned man, whom, even as the atrocity of the charge was pressing, so a pity as of a condemnation already accomplished was protecting.

14 Utcumque tamen animum cogitationemque collegi, coepi dicere non minore audientium assensu quam sollicitudine mea. Dixi horis paene quinque; nam duodecim clepsydris, quas spatiosissimas acceperam, sunt additae quattuor. Adeo illa ipsa, quae dura et adversa dicturo videbantur, secunda dicenti fuerunt.

14 However, having somehow gathered my mind and cogitation, I began to speak with an assent of the audience no less than my own solicitude. I spoke for almost five hours; for to the 12 clepsydras, which I had received as most spacious, 4 were added. So much so that those very things which had seemed hard and adverse to one about to speak were favorable to one speaking.

15 Caesar quidem tantum mihi studium, tantam etiam curam - nimium est enim dicere sollicitudinem - praestitit, ut libertum meum post me stantem saepius admoneret voci laterique consulerem, cum me vehementius putaret intendi, quam gracilitas mea perpeti posset. Respondit mihi pro Marciano Claudius Marcellinus. 16 Missus deinde senatus et revocatus in posterum; neque enim iam incohari poterat actio, nisi ut noctis interventu scinderetur.

15 Caesar indeed showed me so great zeal, so great even care — for it is too much to say anxiety — that he repeatedly warned my freedman, who was standing behind me, that I should look to my voice and my side, since he thought me to be straining more vehemently than my slenderness could endure. Claudius Marcellinus replied to me on behalf of Marcianus. 16 Then the senate was dismissed and called back for the next day; for by now the action could not be begun, except that it would be broken by the intervention of night.

17 Postero die dixit pro Mario Salvius Liberalis, vir subtilis dispositus acer disertus; in illa vero causa omnes artes suas protulit. Respondit Cornelius Tacitus eloquentissime et, quod eximium orationi eius inest, σεμνῶς. 18 Dixit pro Mario rursus Fronto Catius insigniter, utque iam locus ille poscebat, plus in precibus temporis quam in defensione consumpsit. Huius actionem vespera inclusit, non tamen sic ut abrumperet.

17 On the next day Salvius Liberalis spoke for Marius, a man subtle, methodical, keen, eloquent; indeed in that case he brought forth all his arts. Cornelius Tacitus replied most eloquently and—what is exceptional in his oration—with august gravity. 18 Fronto Catius again spoke for Marius, remarkably, and, as the occasion now demanded, he consumed more of the time in entreaties than in defense. Evening enclosed his pleading, yet not in such a way as to break it off.

Itaque in tertium diem probationes exierunt. Iam hoc ipsum pulchrum et antiquum, senatum nocte dirimi, triduo vocari, triduo contineri. 19 Cornutus Tertullus consul designatus, vir egregius et pro veritate firmissimus, censuit septingenta milia quae acceperat Marius aerario inferenda, Mario urbe Italiaque interdicendum, Marciano hoc amplius Africa.

Accordingly, on the third day the proofs were produced. Now this very thing was fine and old-fashioned: that the senate was dissolved by night, summoned for three days, held for three days. 19 Cornutus Tertullus, consul-designate, a distinguished man and most steadfast for truth, proposed that the seven hundred thousand which Marius had received be paid into the treasury, that Marius be interdicted from the city and from Italy, and that for Marcianus, this further: Africa.

In fine sententiae adiecit, quod ego et Tacitus iniuncta advocatione diligenter et fortiter functi essemus, arbitrari senatum ita nos fecisse ut dignum mandatis partibus fuerit. 20 Assenserunt consules designati, omnes etiam consulares usque ad Pompeium Collegam: ille et septingenta milia aerario inferenda et Marcianum in quinquennium relegandum, Marium repetundarum poenae quam iam passus esset censuit relinquendum. 21 Erant in utraque sententia multi, fortasse etiam plures in hac vel solutiore vel molliore.

At the end of his opinion he added that I and Tacitus, having been enjoined with the advocacy, had performed diligently and bravely, and that he judged the senate to think that we had acted in such a way as to be worthy of the mandated roles. 20 The consuls-designate assented, and all even the consulars up to Pompeius Collega: he judged both that 700,000 be paid into the treasury and that Marcianus be relegated for five years, and that Marius be left to the penalty for extortion which he had already suffered. 21 There were many on each opinion, perhaps even more on this one, whether more unbound or more gentle.

Nam quidam ex illis quoque, qui Cornuto videbantur assensi, hunc qui post ipsos censuerat sequebantur. 22 Sed cum fieret discessio, qui sellis consulum astiterant, in Cornuti sententiam ire coeperunt. Tum illi qui se Collegae adnumerari patiebantur in diversum transierunt; Collega cum paucis relictus.

For certain even of those who had seemed to assent to Cornutus were following the man who had delivered his opinion after them. 22 But when a division was being made, those who had stood by the consuls’ chairs began to go to Cornutus’s side. Then those who allowed themselves to be counted with Collega crossed over to the opposite side; Collega was left with a few.

Multum postea de impulsoribus sis, praecipue de Regulo questus est, qui se in sententia quam ipse dictaverat deseruisset. Est alioqui Regulo tam mobile ingenium, ut plurimum audeat plurimum timeat.

Afterwards he complained much about his instigators, especially about Regulus, who had deserted him in the opinion which he himself had dictated. Otherwise Regulus has so mobile a temperament that he very much dares and very much fears.

23 Hic finis cognitionis amplissimae. Superest tamen λιτούργιον non leve, Hostilius Firminus legatus Mari Prisci, qui permixtus causae graviter vehementerque vexatus est. Nam et rationibus Marciani, et sermone quem ille habuerat in ordine Lepcitanorum, operam suam Prisco ad turpissimum ministerium commodasse, stipulatusque de Marciano quinquaginta milia denariorum probabatur, ipse praeterea accepisse sestertia decem milia foedissimo quidem titulo, nomine unguentarii, qui titulus a vita hominis compti semper et pumicati non abhorrebat.

23 Here is the end of a most ample inquiry. Yet there remains, however, a not light λιτούργιον, Hostilius Firminus, legate of Marius Priscus, who, being mixed up in the case, was grievously and vehemently harassed. For both by Marcianus’s accounts and by the speech which he had delivered in the order of the Lepcitani, it was proved that he had lent his service to Priscus for a most disgraceful ministry, and that he had stipulated from Marcianus 50,000 denarii; he himself, moreover, had received ten thousand sestertia under a most foul title, under the name of a “perfumer”—which title did not ill accord with the life of a man always groomed and pumiced.

24 Placuit censente Cornuto referri de eo proximo senatu; tunc enim, casu an conscientia, afuerat.

24 It was decided, with Cornutus giving his opinion, that the matter concerning him be referred to the next senate; for then, whether by chance or by conscience, he had been absent.

25 Habes res urbanas; invicem rusticas scribe. Quid arbusculae tuae, quid vineae, quid segetes agunt, quid oves delicatissimae? In summa, nisi aeque longam epistulam reddis, non est quod postea nisi brevissimam exspectes.

25 You have the urban affairs; in turn write the rustic ones. How are your little trees, how the vineyards, how the crops doing, how the most delicate sheep? In sum, unless you render an epistle equally long, there is no reason afterward to expect anything except a most brief one.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ARRIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS ARRIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Λιτούργιον illud, quod superesse Mari Prisci causae proxime scripseram, nescio an satis, circumcisum tamen et adrasum est. 2 Firminus inductus in senatum respondit crimini noto. Secutae sunt diversae sententiae consulum designatorum.

1 That Leitourgion, which I had most recently written as remaining for the case of Marius Priscus, I do not know whether sufficiently; nevertheless it has been curtailed and shaved down. 2 Firminus, brought into the senate, replied to the well-known charge. There followed diverse opinions of the consuls-designate.

Cornutus Tertullus censuit ordine movendum, Acutius Nerva in sortitione provinciae rationem eius non habendam. Quae sententia tamquam mitior vicit, cum sit alioqui durior tristiorque. 3 Quid enim miserius quam exsectum et exemptum honoribus senatoriis, labore et molestia non carcere?

Cornutus Tertullus judged that he should be removed from the order; Acutius Nerva, that in the sortition of a province no account should be had of him. This opinion, as if milder, prevailed, although otherwise it is the harsher and sadder. 3 For what is more wretched than, cut out and exempted from senatorial honors, to be punished by labor and vexation, not by prison?

quid gravius quam tanta ignominia affectum non in solitudine latere, sed in hac altissima specula conspiciendum se monstrandumque praebere? 4 Praeterea quid publice minus aut congruens aut decorum? notatum a senatu in senatu sedere, ipsisque illis a quibus sit notatus aequari; summotum a proconsulatu quia se in legatione turpiter gesserat, de proconsulibus iudicare, damnatumque sordium vel damnare alios vel absolvere!

what is more grievous than, afflicted with such ignominy, not to lie hidden in solitude, but to offer oneself on this most lofty watchtower to be looked at and pointed out? 4 Moreover, what publicly is less either congruent or decorous? a man censured by the senate to sit in the senate, and to be equated with those very men by whom he has been censured; removed from the proconsulship because he had conducted himself disgracefully in a legation, to sit in judgment on proconsuls; and, condemned for sordidness, either to condemn others or to absolve!

5 Sed hoc pluribus visum est. Numerantur enim sententiae, non ponderantur; nec aliud in publico consilio potest fieri, in quo nihil est tam inaequale quam aequalitas ipsa. Nam cum sit impar prudentia, par omnium ius est.

5 But this seemed to more. For the votes are counted, not weighed; nor can anything else be done in a public council, in which nothing is so unequal as equality itself. For since prudence is unequal, the right of all is equal.

6 Implevi promissum priorisque epistulae fidem exsolvi, quam ex spatio temporis iam recepisse te colligo; nam et festinanti et diligenti tabellario dedi, nisi quid impedimenti in via passus est. 7 Tuae nunc partes, ut primum illam, deinde hanc remunereris litteris, quales istinc redire uberrimae possunt. Vale.

6 I have fulfilled the promise and discharged the obligation of the earlier letter, which I gather that you have by now received from the lapse of time; for I gave it to a courier both hurrying and diligent, unless he suffered some impediment on the way. 7 Now it is your part to remunerate, first that one, then this one, with letters as most bountiful as can come back from there. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS PRISCO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS PRISCUS, GREETINGS.

1 Et tu occasiones obligandi me avidissime amplecteris, et ego nemini libentius debeo. 2 Duabus ergo de causis a te potissimum petere constitui, quod impetratum maxime cupio. Regis exercitum amplissimum: hinc tibi beneficiorum larga materia, longum praeterea tempus, quo amicos tuos exornare potuisti.

1 And you most eagerly embrace occasions of putting me under obligation, and I owe more gladly to no one. 2 Therefore for two reasons I have decided to request from you particularly that which I most desire to be obtained. You command a most ample army: hence for you a plentiful material for favors, besides a long time, during which you have been able to adorn your friends.

Convertere ad nostros nec hos multos. 3 Malles tu quidem multos; sed meae verecundiae sufficit unus aut alter, ac potius unus. 4 Is erit Voconius Romanus.

Turn to our own, and not to many of them. 3 You indeed would prefer many; but for my modesty one or two suffice, or rather one. 4 That one shall be Voconius Romanus.

Pater ei in equestri gradu clarus, clarior vitricu, immo pater alius - nam huic quoque nomini pietate successit -, mater e primi. Ipse citerioris Hispaniae - scis quod iudicium provinciae illius, quanta sit gravitas - flamen proxime fuit. 5 Hunc ego, cum simul studeremus, arte familiariterque dilexi; ille meus in urbe ille in secessu contubernalis, cum hoc seria cum hoc iocos miscui.

His father was renowned in the equestrian rank, his stepfather more renowned—nay, another father (for to this very name also he succeeded by pietas)—and his mother among the foremost. He himself was lately flamen of Hispania Citerior—you know what the judgment of that province is, how great its gravity. 5 This man, while we studied together, I loved closely and familiarly; he was my companion-in-quarters in the city, he in retirement; with him I mixed serious matters and jokes.

6 Quid enim illo aut fidelius amico aut sodale iucundius? Mira in sermone, mira etiam in ore ipso vultuque suavitas. 7 Ad hoc ingenium excelsum subtile dulce facile eruditum in causis agendis; epistulas quidem scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas.

6 For what man is either a more faithful friend than he, or a more pleasant companion? Marvelous suavity in his speech, marvelous too in his very mouth and countenance. 7 In addition, a lofty, subtle, sweet, facile, erudite genius in conducting causes; indeed he writes letters such that you would believe the Muses themselves to be speaking in Latin.

Amatur a me plurimum nec tamen vincitur. 8 Equidem iuvenis statim iuveni, quantum potui per aetatem, avidissime contuli, et nuper ab optimo principe trium liberorum ius impetravi; quod quamquam parce et cum delectu daret, mihi tamen tamquam eligeret indulsit. 9 Haec beneficia mea tueri nullo modo melius quam ut augeam possum, praesertim cum ipse illa tam grate interpretetur, ut dum priora accipit posteriora mereatur.

He is loved by me very greatly, nor yet is he outdone. 8 Indeed I, being a young man, straightway to a young man, as much as I could for my age, contributed most avidly, and recently I obtained from the best princeps the right of three children; which, although he bestowed sparingly and with selection, yet to me he indulged as if he were choosing. 9 I can in no way better safeguard these my benefits than by increasing them, especially since he himself interprets them so gratefully that, while he receives the former, he deserves the latter.

10 Habes qualis quam probatus carusque sit nobis, quem rogo pro ingenio pro fortuna tua exornes. In primis ama hominem; nam licet tribuas ei quantum amplissimum potes, nihil tamen amplius potes amicitia tua; cuius esse eum usque ad intimam familiaritatem capacem quo magis scires, breviter tibi studia mores omnem denique vitam eius expressi. 11 Extenderem preces nisi et tu rogari diu nolles et ego tota hoc epistula fecissem; rogat enim et quidem efficacissime, qui reddit causas rogandi.

10 You now have of what sort he is, how approved and how dear he is to us, whom I beg you to honor in proportion to your talent and your fortune. First of all, love the man; for though you may grant him as amply as you can, yet you can give nothing greater than your friendship; and that you might the more know him to be capable of this even to the most intimate familiarity, I have briefly expressed to you his pursuits, his character, and, in fine, his whole life. 11 I would prolong my entreaties, were it not both that you are unwilling to be asked at length and that I have done this in this whole epistle; for he asks—and most effectively indeed—who sets forth the reasons for asking.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MAXIMO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS MAXIMUS, GREETINGS.

1 Verum opinaris: distringor centumviralibus causis, quae me exercent magis quam delectant. Sunt enim pleraeque parvae et exiles; raro incidit vel personarum claritate vel negotii magnitudine insignis. 2 Ad hoc pauci cum quibus iuvet dicere; ceteri audaces atque etiam magna ex parte adulescentuli obscuri ad declamandum huc transierunt, tam irreverenter et temere, ut mihi Atilius noster expresse dixisse videatur, sic in foro pueros a centumviralibus causis auspicari, ut ab Homero in scholis.

1 You are right: I am kept busy by centumviral cases, which exercise me more than they delight me. For most are small and meager; rarely does one occur distinguished either by the renown of the persons or the magnitude of the business. 2 Besides, there are few with whom it is a pleasure to speak; the rest, bold and for the most part obscure youngsters, have crossed over hither to declaim so irreverently and rashly that our Atilius seems to me to have said it expressly, that boys in the forum begin from centumviral cases, as from Homer in the schools.

Nam hic quoque ut illic primum coepit esse quod maximum est. 3 At hercule ante memoriam meam - ita maiores natu solent dicere -, ne nobilissimis quidem adulescentibus locus erat nisi aliquo consulari producente: tanta veneratione pulcherrimum opus colebatur. 4 Nunc refractis pudoris et reverentiae claustris, omnia patent omnibus, nec inducuntur sed irrumpunt.

For here too, as there, what is greatest first began to be. 3 But, by Hercules, before my memory — so the elders are wont to say — not even for the most noble youths was there a place unless some consular brought them forward: with such veneration was the most beautiful work cultivated. 4 Now, the barriers of modesty and reverence having been broken, everything lies open to everyone, and they are not introduced but they burst in.

Sequuntur auditores actoribus similes, conducti et redempti. Manceps convenitur; in media basilica tam palam sportulae quam in triclinio dantur; ex iudicio in iudicium pari mercede transitur. 5 Inde iam non inurbane Σοφοκλεῖς vocantur ἀπὸ τοῦ σοφῶς καὶ καλεῖσθαι, isdem Latinum nomen impositum est Laudiceni; 6 et tamen crescit in dies foeditas utraque lingua notata.

The auditors follow, like actors, hired and bought. A contractor is engaged; in the middle of the basilica sportulae are given as openly as in the triclinium; from court to court they pass for equal pay. 5 Hence now, not inelegantly, they are called Σοφοκλεῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ σοφῶς καὶ καλεῖσθαι, and the same Latin name has been imposed, “Laudiceni”; 6 and yet the foulness, marked in both tongues, grows by the day.

Here duo nomenclatores mei - habent sane aetatem eorum qui nuper togas sumpserint - ternis denariis ad laudandum trahebantur. Tanti constat ut sis disertissimus. Hoc pretio quamlibet numerosa subsellia implentur, hoc ingens corona colligitur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur, cum mesochorus dedit signum.

Here two of my nomenclators — indeed they have the age of those who have lately assumed the toga — were being recruited for lauding at three denarii apiece. So much does it cost that you may be most eloquent. At this price benches, however numerous, are filled; at this price a huge ring (corona) is gathered; at this price endless clamors are stirred, when the mesochorus gives the signal.

7 Opus est enim signo apud non intellegentes, ne audientes quidem; 8 nam plerique non audiunt, nec ulli magis laudant. Si quando transibis per basilicam et voles scire, quo modo quisque dicat, nihil est quod tribunal ascendas, nihil quod praebeas aurem; facilis divinatio: scito eum pessime dicere, qui laudabitur maxime.

7 For there is need of a sign among those who do not understand, nor indeed even hear; 8 for most do not listen, nor do any praise more. If ever you pass through the basilica and wish to know how each one speaks, there is no need that you ascend the tribunal, no need that you offer an ear; the divination is easy: know that he speaks the worst who will be lauded the most.

9 Primus hunc audiendi morem induxit Larcius Licinus, hactenus tamen ut auditores corrogaret. Ita certe ex Quintiliano praeceptore meo audisse me memini. 10 Narrabat ille: 'Assectabar Domitium Afrum.

9 Larcius Licinus first introduced this custom of listening, only to this extent, however, that he would corral auditors. So at least I remember to have heard from Quintilian, my preceptor. 10 He used to relate: 'I used to attend Domitius Afer.

Cum apud centumviros diceret graviter et lente - hoc enim illi actionis genus erat -, audit ex proximo immodicum insolitumque clamorem. Admiratus reticuit; ubi silentium factum est, repetit quod abruperat. 11 Iterum clamor, iterum reticuit, et post silentium coepit.

While he was speaking before the centumviral court gravely and slowly - for this was his kind of delivery -, he hears from close at hand an immoderate and unusual clamor. Amazed, he fell silent; when silence was made, he resumed what he had broken off. 11 Again a clamor, again he fell silent, and after the silence he began.

Idem tertio. Novissime quis diceret quaesiit. Responsum est: "Licinus." Tum intermissa causa "Centumviri," inquit, "hoc artificium periit."' 12 Quod alioqui perire incipiebat cum perisse Afro videretur, nunc vero prope funditus exstinctum et eversum est.

The same a third time. At last he asked who was speaking. It was answered: "Licinus." Then, with the case interrupted, he said, "Centumviri, this artifice has perished." 12 Which otherwise was beginning to perish when it seemed to Afer to have perished, now indeed is almost utterly extinguished and overthrown.

Pudet referre quae quam fracta pronuntiatione dicantur, quibus quam teneris clamoribus excipiantur. 13 Plausus tantum ac potius sola cymbala et tympana illis canticis desunt: ululatus quidem - neque enim alio vocabulo potest exprimi theatris quoque indecora laudatio - large supersunt. 14 Nos tamen adhuc et utilitas amicorum et ratio aetatis moratur ac retinet; veremur enim ne forte non has indignitates reliquisse, sed laborem fugisse videamur.

It shames one to report what things are spoken with how broken a pronunciation, and with what tender clamors they are received. 13 Only applause, or rather only the cymbals and tympana are lacking to those canticles: ululations indeed - for by no other word can that praise, disgraceful even to theatres, be expressed - are present in abundance. 14 Yet for the present both the utility of our friends and the reckoning of our age delay and hold us back; for we fear lest perhaps we may seem not to have left these indignities, but to have fled the labor.

Sumus tamen solito rariores, quod initium est gradatim desinendi. Vale.

We are, however, more seldom than usual, which is the beginning of gradually stopping. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VALERIANO SUO S.

G. PLINY TO HIS VALERIAN, GREETINGS.

1 Quo modo te veteres Marsi tui? quo modo emptio nova Placent agri, postquam tui facti sunt? Rarum id quidem nihil enim aeque gratum est adeptis quam concupiscentibus.

1 How do your old Marsi treat you? how does the new purchase of the Placentine fields please you, after they have become yours? That indeed is rare—for nothing is equally gratifying to those who have obtained as to the concupiscent.

2 Me praedia materna parum commode tractant, delectant tamen ut materna, et alioqui longa patientia occallui. Habent hunc finem assiduae querellae, quod queri pudet. Vale.

2 My maternal estates treat me rather incommodiously, yet they delight me as maternal; and otherwise by long patience I have grown calloused. Assiduous complaints have this end: that one is ashamed to complain. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ANNIO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS ANNIUS, GREETINGS.

1 Tu quidem pro cetera tua diligentia admones me codicillos Aciliani, qui me ex parte instituit heredem, pro non scriptis habendos, quia non sint confirmati testamento; 2 quod ius ne mihi quidem ignotum est, cum sit iis etiam notum, qui nihil aliud sciunt. Sed ego propriam quandam legem mihi dixi, ut defunctorum voluntates, etiamsi iure deficerentur, quasi perfectas tuerer. Constat autem codicillos istos Aciliani manu scriptos.

1 You indeed, consistent with your other diligence, admonish me that the codicils of Acilianus, which instituted me heir in part, are to be held as not written, because they are not confirmed by a testament; 2 which law is not unknown even to me, since it is known even to those who know nothing else. But I laid down for myself a certain private law, that I would defend the wishes of the deceased, even if they should fail in law, as though perfected. Moreover, it is established that those codicils were written by the hand of Acilianus.

3 Licet ergo non sint confirmati testamento, a me tamen ut confirmati observabuntur, praesertim cum delatori locus non sit. 4 Nam si verendum esset ne quod ego dedissem populus eriperet, cunctantior fortasse et cautior esse deberem; cum vero liceat heredi donare, quod in hereditate subsedit, nihil est quod obstet illi meae legi, cui publicae leges non repugnant. Vale.

3 Although therefore they are not confirmed by a testament, by me nevertheless they will be observed as if confirmed, especially since there is no place for an informer. 4 For if there were reason to fear lest what I had given the people would seize, I ought perhaps to be more delaying and more cautious; but since it is permitted for an heir to donate what has remained in the inheritance, there is nothing to hinder that law of mine, to which the public laws are not opposed. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS GALLO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS GALLO, GREETINGS.

1 Miraris cur me Laurentinum vel - si ita mavis -, Laurens meum tanto opere delectet; desines mirari, cum cognoveris gratiam villae, opportunitatem loci, litoris spatium. 2 Decem septem milibus passuum ab urbe secessit, ut peractis quae agenda fuerint salvo iam et composito die possis ibi manere. Aditur non una via; nam et Laurentina et Ostiensis eodem ferunt, sed Laurentina a quarto decimo lapide, Ostiensis ab undecimo relinquenda est.

1 You wonder why my Laurentinum—or, if you prefer, my Laurens—pleases me so greatly; you will cease to wonder when you come to know the grace of the villa, the opportuneness of the location, the stretch of the shore. 2 It lies 17 miles from the city, so that, once the things that had to be done have been completed, with the day now safe and composed, you can stay there. It is approached not by a single road; for both the Laurentine and the Ostian lead to the same place, but the Laurentine must be left at the 14th milestone, the Ostian at the 11th.

Utrimque excipit iter aliqua ex parte harenosum, iunctis paulo gravius et longius, equo breve et molle. 3 Varia hinc atque inde facies; nam modo occurrentibus silvis via coartatur, modo latissimis pratis diffunditur et patescit; multi greges ovium, multa ibi equorum boum armenta, quae montibus hieme depulsa herbis et tepore verno nitescunt. Villa usibus capax, non sumptuosa tutela.

On both sides the way is in part sandy, for the yoked somewhat heavier and longer, for a horse short and soft. 3 Varied is the aspect here and there; for now the road is narrowed by woods meeting it, now it is diffused and lies open in very broad meadows; many flocks of sheep, many herds there of horses and oxen, which, driven down from the mountains in winter, grow sleek with the grasses and the vernal warmth. The villa is capacious for uses, not costly in upkeep.

4 Cuius in prima parte atrium frugi, nec tamen sordidum; deinde porticus in D litterae similitudinem circumactae, quibus parvola sed festiva area includitur. Egregium hac adversus tempestates receptaculum; nam specularibus ac multo magis imminentibus rectis muniuntur. 5 Est contra medias cavaedium hilare, mox triclinium satis pulchrum, quod in litus excurrit ac si quando Africo mare impulsum est, fractis iam et novissimis fluctibus leviter alluitur.

4 In its front part there is an atrium frugal, yet not sordid; then porticoes curved around in the likeness of the letter D, by which a small but festive court is enclosed. An excellent refuge here against tempests; for they are fortified by window-glass and, much more, by straight overhanging eaves. 5 Opposite the middle is a cheerful cavaedium, then a triclinium quite handsome, which runs out onto the shore, and, whenever the sea has been driven by the Africus, it is lightly lapped by waves now broken and at their very last.

Undique valvas aut fenestras non minores valvis habet atque ita a lateribus a fronte quasi tria maria prospectat; a tergo cavaedium porticum aream porticum rursus, mox atrium silvas et longinquos respicit montes. 6 Huius a laeva retractius paulo cubiculum est amplum, deinde aliud minus quod altera fenestra admittit orientem, occidentem altera retinet; hac et subiacens mare longius quidem sed securius intuetur. 7 Huius cubiculi et triclinii illius obiectu includitur angulus, qui purissimum solem continet et accendit.

On every side it has doors or windows no smaller than the doors, and thus from the flanks and from the front it looks out upon, as it were, three seas; at the back it looks toward the inner court, a portico, the yard, a portico again, then the atrium, the woods, and far-off mountains. 6 On this one’s left, a little further recessed, there is a spacious bedchamber, then another smaller one, of which one window admits the east, the other holds back the west; and from this one the sea lying below is viewed, more distant indeed but safer. 7 By the projection of this bedchamber and of that triclinium a corner is enclosed, which contains and kindles the purest sun.

Hoc hibernaculum, hoc etiam gymnasium meorum est; ibi omnes silent venti, exceptis qui nubilum inducunt, et serenum ante quam usum loci eripiunt. 8 Annectitur angulo cubiculum in hapsida curvatum, quod ambitum solis fenestris omnibus sequitur. Parieti eius in bibliothecae speciem armarium insertum est, quod non legendos libros sed lectitandos capit.

This is my wintering-place, this also the gymnasium of my household; there all winds are silent, except those which bring in cloudiness, and they steal away the serene sky before the place can be used. 8 To the corner is annexed a bedroom curved in an apse, which with all its windows follows the sun’s ambit. In its wall, in the semblance of a library, a cabinet is set in, which holds not books to be read but to be read and reread.

9 Adhaeret dormitorium membrum transitu interiacente, qui suspensus et tubulatus conceptum vaporem salubri temperamento huc illuc digerit et ministrat. Reliqua pars lateris huius servorum libertorumque usibus detinetur, plerisque tam mundis, ut accipere hospites possint. 10 Ex alio latere cubiculum est politissimum; deinde vel cubiculum grande vel modica cenatio, quae plurimo sole, plurimo mari lucet; post hanc cubiculum cum procoetone, altitudine aestivum, munimentis hibernum; est enim subductum omnibus ventis.

9 A dormitory wing adjoins, with a passage lying between, which, being suspended and tubulated, disperses and supplies the captured heat with a healthful tempering hither and thither. The remaining part of this side is held for the uses of the slaves and freedmen, most of the rooms so clean that they can receive guests. 10 On the other side there is a most polished bedroom; then either a large bedroom or a modest dining-room, which shines with very abundant sun, very abundant sea; after this, a bedroom with a procoeton, summery by its elevation, wintery by its protections; for it is withdrawn from all winds.

Huic cubiculo aliud et procoeton communi pariete iunguntur. 11 Inde balinei cella frigidaria spatiosa et effusa, cuius in contrariis parietibus duo baptisteria velut eiecta sinuantur, abunde capacia si mare in proximo cogites. Adiacet unctorium, hypocauston, adiacet propnigeon balinei, mox duae cellae magis elegantes quam sumptuosae; cohaeret calida piscina mirifica, ex qua natantes mare aspiciunt, 12 nec procul sphaeristerium quod calidissimo soli inclinato iam die occurrit.

To this cubiculum another and a procoeton are joined by a common wall. 11 Thence a frigidarium cell of the bath, spacious and open, in whose opposing walls two plunge-baths curve as if projected forth, amply capacious if you consider the sea close at hand. Adjoining is the anointing-room, the hypocaust, adjoining is the bath’s propnigeon; soon two chambers more elegant than costly; a marvelous warm piscina is connected, from which, while swimming, they look out upon the sea, 12 and not far off a sphaeristerium which meets the hottest sun when the day is already inclining.

Hic turris erigitur, sub qua diaetae duae, totidem in ipsa, praeterea cenatio quae latissimum mare longissimum litus villas amoenissimas possidet. 13 Est et alia turris; in hac cubiculum, in quo sol nascitur conditurque; lata post apotheca et horreum, sub hoc triclinium, quod turbati maris non nisi fragorem et sonum patitur, eumque iam languidum ac desinentem; hortum et gestationem videt, qua hortus includitur. 14 Gestatio buxo aut rore marino, ubi deficit buxus, ambitur; nam buxus, qua parte defenditur tectis, abunde viret; aperto caelo apertoque vento et quamquam longinqua aspergine maris inarescit.

Here a tower is raised, beneath which there are two suites, and just as many within it itself; besides, a dining-room which commands the broadest sea, the longest shore, and the most delightful villas. 13 There is also another tower; in this a bedchamber, in which the sun both rises and is set; behind it a broad apotheca and a horreum; beneath this a triclinium, which suffers from the troubled sea nothing except its crashing and sound, and these already languid and dying away; it looks out upon the garden and the gestation by which the garden is enclosed. 14 The gestation is bordered with box-tree or, where box fails, with sea-dew (rosemary); for the box, in that part where it is sheltered by roofs, is abundantly green; under open sky and open wind, and although the sea’s spray is far off, it dries out.

15 Adiacet gestationi interiore circumitu vinea tenera et umbrosa, nudisque etiam pedibus mollis et cedens. Hortum morus et ficus frequens vestit, quarum arborum illa vel maxime ferax terra est, malignior ceteris. Hac non deteriore quam maris facie Chianti remota a mari fruitur, cingitur diaetis duabus a tergo, quarum fenestris subiacet vestibulum villae et hortus alius pinguis et rusticus.

15 Adjacent to the walk with its inner circuit is a tender and shady vineyard, soft and yielding even to bare feet. The garden is clothed by the mulberry and the frequent fig, trees for which that soil is most of all fertile, more malign to the rest. With an aspect not worse than that of the sea, it enjoys Chianti, removed from the sea, and it is girded at the back by two apartments, beneath whose windows lie the vestibule of the villa and another garden, rich and rustic.

16 Hinc cryptoporticus prope publici operis extenditur. Utrimque fenestrae, a mari plures, ab horto singulae sed alternis pauciores. Hae cum serenus dies et immotus, omnes, cum hinc vel inde ventis inquietus, qua venti quiescunt sine iniuria patent.

16 From here a cryptoporticus extends, almost a public work. On both sides there are windows, more on the side toward the sea, on the garden side single ones but fewer by alternation. These, when the day is serene and motionless, all stand open; when it is troubled by winds from this side or that, they stand open without injury where the winds fall quiet.

17 Ante cryptoporticum xystus violis odoratus. Teporem solis infusi repercussu cryptoporticus auget, quae ut tenet solem sic aquilonem inhibet summovetque, quantumque caloris ante tantum retro frigoris; similiter africum sistit, atque ita diversissimos ventos alium alio latere frangit et finit. Haec iucunditas eius hieme, maior aestate.

17 Before the cryptoporticus a xystus, fragrant with violets. By the repercussion (reflection) of the sun poured in, the cryptoporticus augments the warmth; which, just as it holds the sun, so it inhibits and removes the north wind, and there is as much warmth in front as cold behind; similarly it checks the Africus (southwest wind), and thus it breaks and limits very diverse winds, one on one side, another on the other. This is its pleasantness in winter, greater in summer.

18 Nam ante meridiem xystum, post meridiem gestationis hortique proximam partem umbra sua temperat, quae, ut dies crevit decrevitve, modo brevior modo longior hac vel illa cadit. 19 Ipsa vero cryptoporticus tum maxime caret sole, cum ardentissimus culmini eius insistit. Ad hoc patentibus fenestris favonios accipit transmittitque nec umquam aere pigro et manente ingravescit.

18 For before midday its own shadow tempers the xystus, after midday the part nearest to the gestation and the garden, which, as the day has grown or diminished, falls now shorter now longer this way or that. 19 The cryptoporticus itself, however, is most free from sun precisely when the most burning sun stands upon its roof; in addition, with the windows open it both receives and lets pass the Favonian breezes, and it never grows oppressive with sluggish and lingering air.

20 In capite xysti, deinceps cryptoporticus horti, diaeta est amores mei, re vera amores: ipse posui. In hac heliocaminus quidem alia xystum, alia mare, utraque solem, cubiculum autem valvis cryptoporticum, fenestra prospicit mare. 21 Contra parietem medium zotheca perquam eleganter recedit, quae specularibus et velis obductis reductisve modo adicitur cubiculo modo aufertur.

20 At the head of the xystus, next the garden’s cryptoporticus, there is a suite, the darling of my affections, in truth a darling: I myself sited it. In this, the heliocaminus looks one way toward the xystus, another toward the sea—both toward the sun; the bedroom, however, by its doors looks toward the cryptoporticus, by its window looks out upon the sea. 21 Opposite the middle wall a zotheca recedes very elegantly, which, with the windowpanes and curtains drawn over or drawn back, is now added to the bedroom, now taken away.

Lectum et duas cathedras capit; a pedibus mare, a tergo villae, a capite silvae: tot facies locorum totidem fenestris et distinguit et miscet. 22 Iunctum est cubiculum noctis et somni. Non illud voces servolorum, non maris murmur, non tempestatum motus non fulgurum lumen, ac ne diem quidem sentit, nisi fenestris apertis.

It holds a bed and two chairs; at its feet, the sea, at its back, the villa, at its head, the woods: so many faces of places, with just as many windows, it both distinguishes and mixes. 22 Adjoining is the bedchamber of night and sleep. Not to it do the voices of the servants, nor the murmur of the sea, nor the motions of tempests, nor the light of lightnings reach, and not even the day does it sense, unless the windows are opened.

Tam alti abditique secreti illa ratio, quod interiacens andron parietem cubiculi hortique distinguit atque ita omnem sonum media inanitate consumit. 23 Applicitum est cubiculo hypocauston perexiguum, quod angusta fenestra suppositum calorem, ut ratio exigit, aut effundit aut retinet. Procoeton inde et cubiculum porrigitur in solem, quem orientem statim exceptum ultra meridiem oblicum quidem sed tamen servat.

So deep and hidden a seclusion is achieved by that plan, that the intervening andron separates the wall of the bedroom and of the garden, and thus consumes every sound by the emptiness in the middle. 23 A very small hypocaust is attached to the bedroom, which, by a narrow window, as the plan requires, either releases or retains the heat set beneath. From there the procoeton and the bedroom stretch out into the sun, which, once received as it is rising, it keeps beyond midday—oblique indeed, yet still.

24 In hanc ego diaetam cum me recepi, abesse mihi etiam a villa mea videor, magnamque eius voluptatem praecipue Saturnalibus capio, cum reliqua pars tecti licentia dierum festisque clamoribus personat; nam nec ipse meorum lusibus nec illi studiis meis obstrepunt. 25 Haec utilitas haec amoenitas deficitur aqua salienti, sed puteos ac potius fontes habet; sunt enim in summo. Et omnino litoris illius mira natura: quacumque loco moveris humum, obvius et paratus umor occurrit, isque sincerus ac ne leviter quidem tanta maris vicinitate corruptus.

24 When I withdraw into this apartment, I seem to be away even from my own villa, and I take great pleasure in it especially at the Saturnalia, when the remaining part of the house resounds with the license of the days and with festive clamors; for neither do I, by my studies, make a din against my household’s games, nor do they, by their games, against my studies. 25 This convenience, this pleasantness, lacks springing water, but it has wells, or rather fountains; for they are near the surface. And in general the nature of that shore is marvelous: in whatever place you move the soil, moisture meets you, ready at hand, and it is pure and not even slightly corrupted by the nearness of so great a sea.

26 Suggerunt affatim ligna proximae silvae; ceteras copias ostiensis colonia ministrat. Frugi quidem homini sufficit etiam vicus, quem una villa discernit. In hoc balinea meritoria tria, magna commoditas, si forte balineum domi vel subitus adventus vel brevior mora calfacere dissuadeat.

26 The nearest woods supply wood in abundance; the Ostian colony provides the other provisions. For a frugal man even the village, which a single villa separates, suffices. In it there are three baths for hire, a great convenience, if perchance either a sudden arrival or a shorter stay should dissuade heating the bath at home.

27 Litus ornant varietate gratissima nunc continua nunc intermissa tecta villarum, quae praestant multarum urbium faciem, sive mari sive ipso litore utare; quod non numquam longa tranquillitas mollit, saepius frequens et contrarius fluctus indurat. 28 Mare non sane pretiosis piscibus abundat, soleas tamen et squillas optimas egerit. Villa vero nostra etiam mediterraneas copias praestat, lac in primis; nam illuc e pascuis pecora conveniunt, si quando aquam umbramve sectantur.

27 The shore is adorned with a most pleasing variety by the roofs of villas, now continuous, now interspersed, which present the face of many cities, whether you make use of the sea or the shore itself; which sometimes a long tranquility softens, more often a frequent and contrary swell hardens. 28 The sea, to be sure, does not abound in precious fishes, yet it yields excellent soles and shrimps. Our villa, however, also provides inland supplies, milk above all; for to that place from the pastures the herds gather, whenever they seek water or shade.

29 Iustisne de causis iam tibi videor incolere inhabitare diligere secessum? quem tu nimis urbanus es nisi concupiscis. Atque utinam concupiscas!

29 Do I now seem to you, on just causes, to dwell in, to inhabit, to cherish this retreat? which you are too urbane if you do not covet. And would that you covet it!

ut tot tantisque dotibus villulae nostrae maxima commendatio ex tuo contubernio accedat. Vale.

so that to the so many and so great endowments of our little villa the greatest commendation may be added by your companionship. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MAURICO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MAURICUS, GREETING.

1 Quid a te mihi iucundius potuit iniungi, quam ut praeceptorem fratris tui liberis quaererem? Nam beneficio tuo in scholam redeo, et illam dulcissimam aetatem quasi resumo: sedeo inter iuvenes ut solebam, atque etiam experior quantum apud illos auctoritatis ex studiis habeam. 2 Nam proxime frequenti auditorio inter se coram multis ordinis nostri clare iocabantur; intravi, conticuerunt; quod non referrem, nisi ad illorum magis laudem quam ad meam pertineret, ac nisi sperare te vellem posse fratris tui filios probe discere.

1 What could have been more pleasant to be enjoined upon me by you than that I should seek a preceptor for your brother’s children? For by your kindness I return to the school, and, as it were, I resume that most sweet age: I sit among the youths as I used to, and I even experience how much authority among them I have from my studies. 2 For recently, in a crowded auditorium, men of our order were openly jesting among themselves before many; I entered, they fell silent; which I would not relate, unless it pertained more to their praise than to mine, and unless I wished you to hope that your brother’s sons could learn properly.

3 Quod superest, cum omnes qui profitentur audiero, quid de quoque sentiam scribam, efficiamque quantum tamen epistula consequi potero, ut ipse omnes audisse videaris. 4 Debeo enim tibi, debeo memoriae fratris tui hanc fidem hoc studium, praesertim super tanta re. Nam quid magis interest vestra, quam ut liberi - dicerem tui, nisi nunc illos magis amares - digni illo patre, te patruo reperiantur? quam curam mihi etiam si non mandasses vindicassem.

3 What remains: when I shall have heard all who profess, I will write what I think about each, and I will bring it about, as far however as a letter can achieve, that you yourself seem to have heard them all. 4 I owe to you, I owe to the memory of your brother this faith, this zeal, especially over so great a matter. For what more concerns yours, than that the children — I would say yours, did you not now love those more — be found worthy of that father, with you as uncle? a care which, even if you had not entrusted it, I would have claimed for myself.

5 Nec ignoro suscipiendas offensas in eligendo praeceptore, sed oportet me non modo offensas, verum etiam simultates pro fratris tui filiis tam aequo animo subire quam parentes pro suis. Vale.

5 Nor do I ignore that offenses are to be incurred in choosing a preceptor, but it behooves me to undergo not only offenses, but even enmities, for your brother’s sons with as even a mind as parents for their own. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CERIALI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CERIALIS, GREETINGS.

1 Hortaris ut orationem amicis pluribus recitem. Faciam quia hortaris, quamvis vehementer addubitem. 2 Neque enim me praeterit actiones, quae recitantur, impetum omnem caloremque ac prope nomen suum perdere, ut quas soleant commendare simul et accendere iudicum consessus, celebritas advocatorum, exspectatio eventus, fama non unius actoris, diductumque in partes audientium studium, ad hoc dicentis gestus incessus, discursus etiam omnibusque motibus animi consentaneus vigor corporis.

1 You urge me to recite the oration to more friends. I shall do it because you urge me, although I strongly hesitate. 2 For it does not escape me that actions (forensic pleadings) which are recited lose all their impetus and heat and almost their very name, since the things that are wont both to commend and to enkindle them are missing: the bench of judges, the celebrity of advocates, the expectation of the outcome, the renown not of a single actor (pleader), and the zeal of the listeners drawn apart into parties; in addition, the speaker’s gestures, gait, even his running about, and a vigor of body consonant with all the motions of the mind.

3 Unde accidit ut ii qui sedentes agunt, quamvis illis maxima ex parte supersint eadem illa quae stantibus, tamen hoc quod sedent quasi debilitentur et deprimantur. 4 Recitantium vero praecipua pronuntiationis adiumenta, oculi manus, praepediuntur. Quo minus mirum est, si auditorum intentio relanguescit, nullis extrinsecus aut blandimentis capta aut aculeis excitata.

3 Whence it happens that those who plead while sitting, although for the greatest part those same things remain to them as to those standing, nevertheless by the fact that they sit they are, as it were, debilitated and depressed. 4 But for reciters the chief aids of delivery, the eyes and hands, are hampered. Hence it is all the less a marvel if the hearers’ attention grows slack, captured by no extrinsic blandishments nor stirred by goads.

5 Accedit his quod oratio de qua loquor pugnax et quasi contentiosa est. Porro ita natura comparatum est, ut ea quae scripsimus cum labore, cum labore etiam audiri putemus. 6 Et sane quotus quisque tam rectus auditor, quem non potius dulcia haec et sonantia quam austera et pressa delectent?

5 Added to these is that the oration of which I speak is pugnacious and, as it were, contentious. Moreover it is so arranged by nature, that those things which we have written with labor, we suppose also to be heard with labor. 6 And indeed how very few are so upright a listener, whom not rather these sweet and sonorous things delight than the austere and compressed?

Est quidem omnino turpis ista discordia, est tamen, quia plerumque evenit ut aliud auditores aliud iudices exigant, cum alioqui iis praecipue auditor affici debeat, quibus idem si foret iudex, maxime permoveretur. 7 Potest tamen fieri ut quamquam in his difficultatibus libro isti novitas lenocinetur, novitas apud nostros; apud Graecos enim est quiddam quamvis ex diverso, non tamen omnino dissimile. 8 Nam ut illis erat moris, leges quas ut contrarias prioribus legibus arguebant, aliarum collatione convincere, ita nobis inesse repetundarum legi quod postularemus, cum hac ipsa lege tum aliis colligendum fuit; quod nequaquam blandum auribus imperitorum, tanto maiorem apud doctos habere gratiam debet, quanto minorem apud indoctos habet.

That discord is indeed altogether disgraceful; yet it exists, because it very often happens that the auditors require one thing, the judges another—whereas otherwise the hearer ought especially to be affected by those things by which, if he were likewise a judge, he would be most moved. 7 Yet it may happen that, although amid these difficulties, novelty may play the pander to that book—novelty among our own; for among the Greeks there is something, although from a different quarter, yet not altogether dissimilar. 8 For just as it was their custom to convict by the collation of other laws those laws which they charged as contrary to prior laws, so for us it had to be gathered—both from this very law and from others—that there was contained in the law of extortions what we were demanding; which, by no means bland to the ears of the unskilled, ought to have so much the greater favor among the learned, as it has the less among the unlearned.

9 Nos autem si placuerit recitare adhibituri sumus eruditissimum quemque. Sed plane adhuc an sit recitandum examina tecum, omnesque quos ego movi in utraque parte calculos pone, idque elige in quo vicerit ratio. A te enim ratio exigetur, nos excusabit obsequium.

9 We, however, if it shall please to give a recitation, will call in every most erudite person. But plainly, for now, examine with yourself whether it ought to be recited, and set down all the counters which I have moved on either side, and choose that in which reason has prevailed. For from you reason will be demanded; obedience will excuse us.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CALCISIO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CALCISIO, GREETINGS.

1 Assem para et accipe auream fabulam, fabulas immo; nam me priorum nova admonuit, nec refert a qua potissimum incipiam. 2 Verania Pisonis graviter iacebat, huius dico Pisonis, quem Galba adoptavit. Ad hanc Regulus venit.

1 Get out an as and receive a golden fable—nay, fables; for something new has reminded me of former ones, and it does not matter from which I should most especially begin. 2 Verania, of Piso, was lying gravely ill—I mean this Piso, whom Galba adopted. To her Regulus came.

Primum impudentiam hominis, qui venerit ad aegram, cuius marito inimicissimus, ipsi invisissimus fuerat! 3 Esto, si venit tantum; at ille etiam proximus toro sedit, quo die qua hora nata esset interrogavit. Ubi audiit, componit vultum intendit oculos movet labra, agitat digitos computat.

First, the impudence of the man, who came to a sick woman, of whose husband he had been most inimical, and to herself most odious! 3 Granted, if he only came; but he even sat right next to the bed, asked on what day, at what hour she had been born. When he heard, he composes his countenance, fixes his eyes, moves his lips, agitates his fingers, computes.

Nihil. Ut diu miseram exspectatione suspendit, 'habes' inquit 'climacterium tempus sed evades. 4 Quod ut tibi magis liqueat, haruspicem consulam, quem sum frequenter expertus.' 5 Nec mora, sacrificium facit, affirmat exta cum siderum significatione congruere.

Nothing. How long he kept the wretched woman suspended in expectation: 'you have,' he says, 'a climacteric time, but you will come through.' 4 So that it may be more clear to you, I will consult a haruspex, whom I have frequently put to the test.' 5 No delay: he performs a sacrifice, and affirms that the entrails concur with the signification of the stars.

Illa ut in periculo credula poscit codicillos, legatum Regulo scribit. Mox ingravescit, clamat moriens hominem nequam perfidum ac plus etiam quam periurum, qui sibi per salutem filii peierasset. 6 Facit hoc Regulus non minus scelerate quam frequenter, quod iram deorum, quos ipse cotidie fallit, in caput infelicis pueri detestatur.

She, credulous in peril, asks for the codicils, and writes a legacy to Regulus. Soon she grows worse; dying, she cries out that he is a worthless man, perfidious and even more than perjured, who had forsworn himself to her by the safety of his son. 6 Regulus does this no less wickedly than frequently, in that he calls down the wrath of the gods—whom he himself deceives daily—upon the head of the unhappy boy.

7 Velleius Blaesus ille locuples consularis novissima valetudine conflictabatur: cupiebat mutare testamentum. Regulus qui speraret aliquid ex novis tabulis, quia nuper captare eum coeperat, medicos hortari rogare, quoquo modo spiritum homini prorogarent. 8 Postquam signatum est testamentum, mutat personam, vertit allocutionem isdemque medicis: 'Quousque miserum cruciatis?

7 That wealthy consular Velleius Blaesus was afflicted with a terminal illness: he wanted to change his testament. Regulus, who hoped for something from the new tablets, since he had lately begun to court him, urged and begged the physicians to prolong the man’s breath by any means whatsoever. 8 After the testament was sealed, he changes his persona, turns his allocution, and to the same physicians: 'How long will you torture the wretch?

quid invidetis bona morte, cui dare vitam non potestis?' Moritur Blaesus et, tamquam omnia audisset, Regulo ne tantulum quidem.

'why do you begrudge a good death, to whom you cannot give life?' Blaesus dies, and, as though he had heard everything, he left to Regulus not even the least little bit.

9 Sufficiunt duae fabulae, an scholastica lege tertiam poscis? est unde fiat. 10 Aurelia ornata femina signatura testamentum sumpserat pulcherrimas tunicas.

9 Are two fables sufficient, or by scholastic law do you demand a third? There is the wherewithal for it to be made. 10 Aurelia, an ornate lady, about to sign a will, had put on her most beautiful tunics.

Regulus cum venisset ad signandum, 'Rogo' inquit 'has mihi leges.' 11 Aurelia ludere hominem putabat, ille serio instabat; ne multa, coegit mulierem aperire tabulas ac sibi tunicas quas erat induta legare; observavit scribentem, inspexit an scripsisset. Et Aurelia quidem vivit, ille tamen istud tamquam morituram coegit. Et hic hereditates, hic legata quasi mereatur accipit.

When Regulus had come to sign, he said, 'I ask: bequeath these to me.' 11 Aurelia thought the man was playing, but he pressed in earnest; in short, he forced the woman to open the tablets and to bequeath to him the tunics which she was wearing; he watched her writing, he inspected whether she had written it. And Aurelia indeed lives, yet he forced that as though she were about to die. And this man receives inheritances, this man legacies, as if he merited them.

12 Ἀλλὰ τί διατείνομαι in ea civitate, in qua iam pridem non minora praemia, immo maiora nequitia et improbitas quam pudor et virtus habent? 13 Aspice Regulum, qui ex paupere et tenui ad tantas opes per flagitia processit, ut ipse mihi dixerit, cum consuleret quam cito sestertium sescentiens impleturus esset, invenisse se exta duplicia, quibus portendi miliens et ducentiens habiturum. 14 Et habebit, si modo ut coepit, aliena testamenta, quod est improbissimum genus falsi, ipsis quorum sunt illa dictaverit.

12 But why do I strain myself in that city, in which long since worthlessness and depravity have had no smaller prizes—nay, greater—than modesty and virtue? 13 Behold Regulus, who from poverty and meagerness advanced to such riches through flagitious acts, that he himself told me, when he was consulting how quickly he would make up 60,000,000 sesterces, that he had found double entrails, by which it was portended that he would have 120,000,000. 14 And he will have it, if only, as he has begun, he dictates others’ testaments—the most unscrupulous kind of forgery—to the very persons whose they are.

Vale.

Farewell.