Pliny the Younger: EPISTVLARVM LIBRI DECEM

1 Nescio an ullum iucundius tempus exegerim, quam quo nuper apud Spurinnam fui, adeo quidem ut neminem magis in senectute, si modo senescere datum est, aemulari velim; nihil est enim illo vitae genere distinctius. 2 Me autem ut certus siderum cursus ita vita hominum disposita delectat. Senum praesertim: nam iuvenes confusa adhuc quaedam et quasi turbata non indecent, senibus placida omnia et ordinata conveniunt, quibus industria sera turpis ambitio est.

1 I do not know whether I have spent any time more pleasant than that during which I was lately with Spurinna, indeed to such a degree that in old age—if only it is granted to grow old—I would wish to emulate no one more; for nothing is more well-arranged than that kind of life. 2 And for my part, just as the certain course of the stars delights me, so too does a human life disposed in order. Especially of old men: for in the young, certain things still confused and, as it were, disturbed are not unbecoming; for the old, all things calm and ordered are fitting, for whom belated industry is base ambition.

3 Hanc regulam Spurinna constantissime servat; quin etiam parva haec - parva si non cotidie fiant - ordine quodam et velut orbe circumagit. 4 Mane lectulo continetur, hora secunda calceos poscit, ambulat milia passuum tria nec minus animum quam corpus exercet. Si adsunt amici, honestissimi sermones explicantur; si non, liber legitur, interdum etiam praesentibus amicis, si tamen illi non gravantur.

3 Spurinna observes this rule most consistently; indeed he even puts these small things - small, if they were not done every day - through a certain order and as it were an orbit. 4 In the morning he keeps to his couch; at the second hour he calls for his shoes; he walks three miles and exercises his mind no less than his body. If friends are present, most honorable conversations are unfolded; if not, a book is read, sometimes even with friends present, provided they are not burdened.

5 Deinde considit, et liber rursus aut sermo libro potior; mox vehiculum ascendit, assumit uxorem singularis exempli vel aliquem amicorum, ut me proxime. 6 Quam pulchrum illud, quam dulce secretum! quantum ibi antiquitatis!

5 Then he sits down, and again a book, or a conversation better than a book; soon he mounts the vehicle, he takes along his wife, a singular example, or one of his friends, as myself most recently. 6 How beautiful that, how sweet the privacy! how much antiquity there!

quae facta, quos viros audias! quibus praeceptis imbuare! quamvis ille hoc temperamentum modestiae suae indixerit, ne praecipere videatur.

what deeds, what men you would hear! with what precepts you would be imbued! although he has imposed this tempering of his modesty, lest he seem to be laying down precepts.

7 Peractis septem milibus passuum iterum ambulat mille, iterum residit vel se cubiculo ac stilo reddit. Scribit enim et quidem utraque lingua lyrica doctissima; mira illis dulcedo, mira suavitas, mira hilaritas, cuius gratiam cumulat sanctitas scribentis. 8 Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est - est autem hieme nona, aestate octava -, in sole, si caret vento, ambulat nudus.

7 With seven miles completed, he again walks 1,000, again he sits down or returns himself to his chamber and stylus. For he writes—and indeed in both languages—most learned lyrics; wondrous is their sweetness, wondrous their suavity, wondrous their hilarity, the grace of which is augmented by the sanctity of the writer. 8 When the hour of the bath has been announced — and it is the 9th in winter, the 8th in summer — he walks naked in the sun, if it is free of wind.

Deinde movetur pila vehementer et diu; nam hoc quoque exercitationis genere pugnat cum senectute. Lotus accubat et paulisper cibum differt; interim audit legentem remissius aliquid et dulcius. Per hoc omne tempus liberum est amicis vel eadem facere vel alia si malint.

Then he plays ball vigorously and for a long time; for by this kind of exercise he also fights against old age. Bathed, he reclines and defers food for a little while; in the meantime he listens to someone reading something more relaxed and sweeter. During all this time his friends are free either to do the same things or other things, if they prefer.

9 Apponitur cena non minus nitida quam frugi, in argento puro et antiquo; sunt in usu et Corinthia, quibus delectatur nec afficitur. Frequenter comoedis cena distinguitur, ut voluptates quoque studiis condiantur. Sumit aliquid de nocte et aestate; nemini hoc longum est; tanta comitate convivium trahitur.

9 Dinner is served no less polished than frugal, on pure and ancient silver; Corinthian wares too are in use, which he delights in yet is not affected by. Frequently dinner is distinguished by comic actors, so that pleasures too may be seasoned with studies. He takes a little from the night even in summer; to no one is this long; with such affability the banquet is drawn out.

10 Inde illi post septimum et septuagensimum annum aurium oculorum vigor integer, inde agile et vividum corpus solaque ex senectute prudentia. 11 Hanc ego vitam voto et cogitatione praesumo, ingressurus avidissime, ut primum ratio aetatis receptui canere permiserit. Interim mille laboribus conteror, quorum mihi et solacium et exemplum est idem Spurinna; 12 nam ille quoque, quoad honestum fuit, obiit officia, gessit magistratus, provincias rexit, multoque labore hoc otium meruit.

10 Thence for him, after the seventy-seventh year, the vigor of hearing and of eyes remained intact; thence an agile and vivid body, and the sole thing he had from old age was prudence. 11 This life I anticipate by vow and by cogitation, about to enter upon it most eagerly, as soon as the reckoning of age will have permitted me to sound the retreat. Meanwhile I am worn down by a thousand labors, in which the same Spurinna is to me both consolation and example; 12 for he too, so long as it was honorable, performed duties, held magistracies, governed provinces, and by much labor merited this leisure.

Igitur eundem mihi cursum, eundem terminum statuo, idque iam nunc apud te subsigno ut, si me longius evehi videris, in ius voces ad hanc epistulam meam et quiescere iubeas, cum inertiae crimen effugero. Vale.

Therefore I set for myself the same course, the same terminus, and I now countersign this with you, that, if you should see me carried farther, you may call me into court on the strength of this my epistle and order me to rest, when I have escaped the charge of inertia. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VIBIO MAXIMO SUO S.

Gaius Pliny to his Vibius Maximus, greetings.

1 Quod ipse amicis tuis obtulissem, si mihi eadem materia suppeteret, id nunc iure videor a te meis petiturus. 2 Arrianus Maturus Altinatium est princeps; cum dico princeps, non de facultatibus loquor, quae illi large supersunt, sed de castitate iustitia, gravitate prudentia. 3 Huius ego consilio in negotiis, iudicio in studiis utor; nam plurimum fide, plurimum veritate, plurimum intellegentia praestat.

1 What I myself would have offered to your friends, if the same material were at hand to me, that I now seem by right about to ask from you for my own. 2 Arrianus Maturus is the principal man of the Altinates; when I say principal man, I do not speak of means, which are to him in ample surplus, but of chastity and justice, gravity and prudence. 3 I make use of this man’s counsel in affairs, his judgment in studies; for he stands out most in fidelity, most in truth, most in intelligence.

4 Amat me - nihil possum ardentius dicere - ut tu. Caret ambitu; ideo se in equestri gradu tenuit, cum facile possit ascendere altissimum. Mihi tamen ornandus excolendusque est. 5 Itaque magni aestimo dignitati eius aliquid astruere inopinantis nescientis, immo etiam fortasse nolentis; astruere autem quod sit splendidum nec molestum.

4 He loves me - I can say nothing more ardently - as you. He is free from ambition; therefore he has kept himself in the equestrian rank, though he could easily ascend to the highest. Yet, for my part, he must be honored and advanced. 5 And so I greatly value adding something to his dignity while he is unexpecting, unknowing, indeed perhaps even unwilling; adding, however, something that is splendid and not troublesome.

6 Cuius generis quae prima occasio tibi, conferas in eum rogo; habebis me, habebis ipsum gratissimum debitorem. Quamvis enim ista non appetat, tam grate tamen excipit, quam si concupiscat. Vale.

6 Whatever first occasion of this kind you have, I ask that you confer upon him; you will have me, you will have himself, as a most grateful debtor. For although he does not appetite such things, yet he receives them as gratefully as if he desired them. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CORELLIAE HISPULLAE SUAE S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CORELLIA HISPULLA, GREETINGS.

1 Cum patrem tuum gravissimum et sanctissimum virum suspexerim magis an amaverim dubitem, teque et in memoriam eius et in honorem tuum unice diligam, cupiam necesse est atque etiam quantum in me fuerit enitar, ut filius tuus avo similis exsistat; equidem malo materno, quamquam illi paternus etiam clarus spectatusque contigerit, pater quoque et patruus illustri laude conspicui. 2 Quibus omnibus ita demum similis adolescet, si imbutus honestis artibus fuerit, quas plurimum refert a quo potissimum accipiat. 3 Adhuc illum pueritiae ratio intra contubernium tuum tenuit, praeceptores domi habuit, ubi est erroribus modica vel etiam nulla materia.

1 Since I am in doubt whether I have looked up to your father, a most grave and most holy man, more, or loved him, and since I uniquely cherish you both in his memory and in your honor, it is necessary that I wish, and I will even strive, so far as is in me, that your son may come forth like his grandfather; indeed I prefer the maternal grandfather, although there befell to him also a paternal one, famous and approved, and his father too and his uncle were conspicuous with illustrious praise. 2 To all of these he will only then grow up similar, if he shall have been imbued with honorable arts, which it matters very much from whom most especially he receives. 3 Hitherto the regimen of boyhood has kept him within your household, he has had preceptors at home, where there is scant or even no material for errors.

Iam studia eius extra limen proferenda sunt, iam circumspiciendus rhetor Latinus, cuius scholae severitas pudor in primis castitas constet. 4 Adest enim adulescenti nostro cum ceteris naturae fortunaeque dotibus eximia corporis pulchritudo, cui in hoc lubrico aetatis non praeceptor modo sed custos etiam rectorque quaerendus est. 5 Videor ergo demonstrare tibi posse Iulium Genitorem.

Now his studies must be brought beyond the threshold; now a Latin rhetor must be looked for, one whose school’s severity, modesty, and above all chastity stand firm. 4 For along with the other endowments of nature and fortune, there is present to our adolescent an exceptional bodily beauty, for which, in this slippery age, there must be sought not only a preceptor but also a guardian and even a rector. 5 I seem therefore able to point out to you Julius Genitor.

Amatur a me; iudicio tamen meo non obstat caritas hominis, quae ex iudicio nata est. Vir est emendatus et gravis, paulo etiam horridior et durior, ut in hac licentia temporum. 6 Quantum eloquentia valeat, pluribus credere potes, nam dicendi facultas aperta et exposita statim cernitur; vita hominum altos recessus magnasque latebras habet, cuius pro Genitore me sponsorem accipe.

He is loved by me; yet in my judgment the love of the man, which was born from judgment, does not stand in its way. He is a corrected and weighty man, even a little rougher and harder, as in this license of the times. 6 How much his eloquence avails, you can believe from many, for the faculty of speaking, open and displayed, is seen at once; the life of men has deep recesses and great hiding-places—of which, on behalf of Genitor, accept me as guarantor.

Nihil ex hoc viro filius tuus audiet nisi profuturum, nihil discet quod nescisse rectius fuerit, nec minus saepe ab illo quam a te meque admonebitur, quibus imaginibus oneretur, quae nomina et quanta sustineat. 7 Proinde faventibus dis trade eum praeceptori, a quo mores primum mox eloquentiam discat, quae male sine moribus discitur. Vale.

From this man your son will hear nothing except what will be beneficial; he will learn nothing that it would have been more proper not to know; nor less often by him than by you and me will he be admonished, with what images he is burdened, what names and how great a weight he sustains. 7 Therefore, with the gods favoring, hand him over to the preceptor, from whom he may learn morals first, soon eloquence— which is ill learned without morals. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CAECILIO MACRINO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CAECILIUS MACRINUS, GREETING.

1 Quamvis et amici quos praesentes habebam, et sermones hominum factum meum comprobasse videantur, magni tamen aestimo scire quid sentias tu. 2 Nam cuius integra re consilium exquirere optassem, huius etiam peracta iudicium nosse mire concupisco. Cum publicum opus mea pecunia incohaturus in Tuscos excucurrissem, accepto ut praefectus aerari commeatu, legati provinciae Baeticae, questuri de proconsulatu Caecili Classici, advocatum me a senatu petiverunt. 3 Collegae optimi meique amantissimi, de communis officii necessitatibus praelocuti, excusare me et eximere temptarunt.

1 Although both the friends whom I had present and the talk of men seem to have approved my deed, yet I greatly value knowing what you think. 2 For from one whose counsel I would have wished to seek while the matter was intact, I am exceedingly eager to know his judgment even after it has been completed. When I had hurried into Etruria, about to begin a public work at my own expense, having obtained leave as prefect of the treasury, the envoys of the province Baetica, about to lodge a complaint concerning the proconsulate of Caecilius Classicus, requested me from the senate as an advocate. 3 My excellent and most affectionate colleagues, having first spoken of the necessities of our common office, tried to excuse me and to exempt me.

Factum est senatus consultum perquam honorificum, ut darer provincialibus patronus si ab ipso me impetrassent. 4 Legati rursus inducti iterum me iam praesentem advocatum postulaverunt, implorantes fidem meam quam essent contra Massam Baebium experti, allegantes patrocini foedus. Secuta est senatus clarissima assensio, quae solet decreta praecurrere.

A most honorific senatorial decree was passed, that I be given to the provincials as patron if they should obtain me from him in person. 4 The legates, introduced again, demanded me anew, now present, as advocate, imploring my good faith which they had experienced against Massa Baebius, alleging the compact of patronage. There followed the most illustrious assent of the senate, which is wont to precede the decrees.

Tum ego 'Desino' inquam, 'patres conscripti, putare me iustas excusationis causas attulisse.' Placuit et modestia sermonis et ratio. 5 Compulit autem me ad hoc consilium non solum consensus senatus, quamquam hic maxime, verum et alii quidam minores, sed tamen numeri. Veniebat in mentem priores nostros etiam singulorum hospitum iniurias voluntariis accusationibus exsecutos, quo deformius arbitrabar publici hospitii iura neglegere.

Then I said, 'I cease, Conscript Fathers, to think that I have brought forward just causes of excuse.' Both the modesty of the speech and the reason pleased. 5 But what compelled me to this counsel was not only the consensus of the senate—though this most of all—but also certain other considerations, lesser indeed, yet by their numbers. It came to mind that our forefathers had even pursued the injuries of individual guests with voluntary accusations, wherefore I judged it the more disgraceful to neglect the rights of public hospitality.

6 Praeterea cum recordarer, quanta pro isdem Baeticis superiore advocatione etiam pericula subissem, conservandum veteris officii meritum novo videbatur. Est enim ita comparatum ut antiquiora beneficia subvertas, nisi illa posterioribus cumules. Nam quamlibet saepe obligati, si quid unum neges, hoc solum meminerunt quod negatum est.

6 Moreover, when I recalled how great dangers I had undergone on behalf of these same Baeticans in the prior advocacy, it seemed that the merit of the old service should be conserved by a new one. For it is so arranged that you subvert earlier benefactions unless you cumulate them with later ones. For however often men are obligated, if you deny one single thing, this alone do they remember—that which was denied.

7 Ducebar etiam quod decesserat Classicus, amotumque erat quod in eiusmodi causis solet esse tristissimum, periculum senatoris. Videbam ergo advocationi meae non minorem gratiam quam si viveret ille propositam, invidiam nullam. 8 In summa computabam, si munere hoc iam tertio fungerer, faciliorem mihi excusationem fore, si quis incidisset, quem non deberem accusare.

7 I was also being led by the fact that Classicus had deceased, and removed was that which in cases of this kind is wont to be most grievous—the peril of a senator. I saw, therefore, for my advocacy no less gratitude proposed than if he were alive, and no envy. 8 In sum, I was reckoning that, if I discharged this office now for the third time, an easier excuse would be mine, if someone should occur whom I ought not to accuse.

Nam cum est omnium officiorum finis aliquis, tum optime libertati venia obsequio praeparatur. 9 Audisti consilii mei motus: superest alterutra ex parte iudicium tuum, in quo mihi aeque iucunda erit simplicitas dissentientis quam comprobantis auctoritas. Vale.

For since there is some end to all offices, then indulgence for liberty is best prepared by compliance. 9 You have heard the motives of my counsel: what remains is your judgment on either side, in which the candor of one dissenting will be equally pleasant to me as the authority of one approving. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS BAEBIO MACRO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS BAEBIUS MACRO, GREETING.

1 Pergratum est mihi quod tam diligenter libros avunculi mei lectitas, ut habere omnes velis quaerasque qui sint omnes. 2 Fungar indicis partibus, atque etiam quo sint ordine scripti notum tibi faciam; est enim haec quoque studiosis non iniucunda cognitio. 3 'De iaculatione equestri unus'; hunc cum praefectus alae militaret, pari ingenio curaque composuit.

1 It is very pleasing to me that you so diligently keep reading my uncle’s books that you wish to have them all and ask which they all are. 2 I will discharge the functions of an index, and I will also make known to you in what order they were written; for this knowledge too is not unpleasant to the studious. 3 ‘On equestrian javelin-throwing, one’; this one he composed, when he was serving as prefect of an ala, with equal talent and care.

'De vita Pomponi Secundi duo'; a quo singulariter amatus hoc memoriae amici quasi debitum munus exsolvit. 4 'Bellorum Germaniae viginti'; quibus omnia quae cum Germanis gessimus bella collegit. Incohavit cum in Germania militaret, somnio monitus: astitit ei quiescenti Drusi Neronis effigies, qui Germaniae latissime victor ibi periit, commendabat memoriam suam orabatque ut se ab iniuria oblivionis assereret.

'On the Life of Pomponius Secundus, two'; by whom he was singularly loved, he discharged this, as it were, owed gift to a friend's memory. 4 'Of the Wars of Germany, twenty'; in which he collected all the wars which we waged with the Germans. He began it when he was soldiering in Germany, admonished by a dream: the effigy of Drusus Nero stood by him as he was resting—who, the most widely victorious in Germany, perished there—he was commending his own memory and was beseeching that he be defended from the injury of oblivion.

5 'Studiosi tres', in sex volumina propter amplitudinem divisi, quibus oratorem ab incunabulis instituit et perficit. 'Dubii sermonis octo': scripsit sub Nerone novissimis annis, cum omne studiorum genus paulo liberius et erectius periculosum servitus fecisset. 6 'A fine Aufidi Bassi triginta unus.' 'Naturae historiarum triginta septem', opus diffusum eruditum, nec minus varium quam ipsa natura.

5 'The Studious, three', divided into six volumes on account of its amplitude, by which he institutes an orator from the cradle and perfects him. 'Of Doubtful Discourse, eight': he wrote under Nero in the very latest years, when servitude had made every kind of pursuit of studies, a little freer and more upright, dangerous. 6 'From the End of Aufidius Bassus, thirty-one.' 'Natural Histories, thirty-seven', a work diffuse and erudite, and no less various than Nature herself.

7 Miraris quod tot volumina multaque in his tam scrupulosa homo occupatus absolverit? Magis miraberis si scieris illum aliquamdiu causas actitasse, decessisse anno sexto et quinquagensimo, medium tempus distentum impeditumque qua officiis maximis qua amicitia principum egisse. 8 Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa vigilantia.

7 Do you marvel that a busy man completed so many volumes, and in these many things so scrupulous? You will marvel more if you know that he for some time pleaded causes, that he died in his fifty-sixth year, that the intervening time he spent stretched and hampered both by the greatest offices and by the friendship of princes. 8 But his ingenium was keen, his studium incredible, his vigilance utmost.

Lucubrare Vulcanalibus incipiebat non auspicandi causa sed studendi statim a nocte multa, hieme vero ab hora septima vel cum tardissime octava, saepe sexta. Erat sane somni paratissimi, non numquam etiam inter ipsa studia instantis et deserentis. 9 Ante lucem ibat ad Vespasianum imperatorem - nam ille quoque noctibus utebatur -, inde ad delegatum sibi officium.

He used to begin to lucubrate on the Vulcanalia, not for the sake of auspication but of studying, straightway from deep night; in winter, indeed, from the seventh hour or, when at the latest, the eighth, often the sixth. He was, to be sure, of most ready sleep, sometimes even in the very midst of the studies themselves, as it pressed upon him and left him. 9 Before light he would go to the emperor Vespasian - for he too made use of the nights -, then to the duty delegated to him.

Reversus domum quod reliquum temporis studiis reddebat. 10 Post cibum saepe - quem interdiu levem et facilem veterum more sumebat - aestate si quid otii iacebat in sole, liber legebatur, adnotabat excerpebatque. Nihil enim legit quod non excerperet; dicere etiam solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset.

Having returned home, he would render to studies what remained of time. 10 After food, often - which by day he would take light and easy in the mode of the ancients - in summer, if there was any leisure, he used to lie in the sun; a book was read, he annotated and excerpted. For he read nothing which he did not excerpt; he also used to say that there is no book so bad as not to be of some profit in some part.

11 Post solem plerumque frigida lavabatur, deinde gustabat dormiebatque minimum; mox quasi alio die studebat in cenae tempus. Super hanc liber legebatur adnotabatur, et quidem cursim. 12 Memini quendam ex amicis, cum lector quaedam perperam pronuntiasset, revocasse et repeti coegisse; huic avunculum meum dixisse: 'Intellexeras nempe?' Cum ille adnuisset, 'Cur ergo revocabas?

11 After the sun he generally bathed in cold water, then he would take a snack and sleep the very least; soon, as if on another day, he studied up to dinner-time. Over this a book was read and annotated, and indeed rapidly. 12 I remember that one of his friends, when the reader had pronounced certain things wrongly, called him back and forced him to repeat; to this my uncle said: 'You had understood, hadn’t you?' When he had nodded assent, 'Why then were you calling him back?

decem amplius versus hac tua interpellatione perdidimus.' 13 Tanta erat parsimonia temporis. Surgebat aestate a cena luce, hieme intra primam noctis et tamquam aliqua lege cogente.

'we have lost more than ten verses by this your interruption.' 13 Such was his parsimony of time. In summer he would rise from dinner by daylight, in winter within the first part of the night, and as if some law were compelling him.

14 Haec inter medios labores urbisque fremitum. In secessu solum balinei tempus studiis eximebatur - cum dico balinei, de interioribus loquor; nam dum destringitur tergiturque, audiebat aliquid aut dictabat -. 15 In itinere quasi solutus ceteris curis, huic uni vacabat: ad latus notarius cum libro et pugillaribus, cuius manus hieme manicis muniebantur, ut ne caeli quidem asperitas ullum studii tempus eriperet; qua ex causa Romae quoque sella vehebatur. 16 Repeto me correptum ab eo, cur ambularem: 'poteras' inquit 'has horas non perdere'; nam perire omne tempus arbitrabatur, quod studiis non impenderetur.

14 This amid the very labors and the city’s roar. In retreat only the time of the bath was taken away from studies - when I say “of the bath,” I speak of the inner rooms; for while he was being scraped and rubbed down, he would listen to something or dictate -. 15 On a journey, as if released from the other cares, he devoted himself to this one alone: at his side a notary with a book and writing-tablets, whose hands in winter were fortified with sleeves, so that not even the harshness of the sky might snatch away any time for study; for which cause at Rome as well he was conveyed in a chair. 16 I recall that I was rebuked by him for walking: 'you could' he said 'have not lost these hours'; for he deemed all time to perish which was not expended on studies.

17 Hac intentione tot ista volumina peregit electorumque commentarios centum sexaginta mihi reliquit, opisthographos quidem et minutissimis scriptos; qua ratione multiplicatur hic numerus. Referebat ipse potuisse se, cum procuraret in Hispania, vendere hos commentarios Larcio Licino quadringentis milibus nummum; et tunc aliquanto pauciores erant. 18 Nonne videtur tibi recordanti, quantum legerit quantum scripserit, nec in officiis ullis nec in amicitia principis fuisse; rursus cum audis quid studiis laboris impenderit, nec scripsisse satis nec legisse?

17 With this intensity he carried through all those volumes and left to me one hundred sixty commentaries of selections, written indeed opisthographic and in the tiniest script; by which method this number is multiplied. He himself used to report that, when he was procurator in Spain, he could have sold these commentaries to Larcius Licinus for 400,000 coins; and then they were somewhat fewer. 18 Does it not seem to you, as you recall how much he read and how much he wrote, that he was in no public offices and not in the friendship of the princeps; again, when you hear what labor he expended on studies, that he neither wrote enough nor read enough?

Quid est enim quod non aut illae occupationes impedire aut haec instantia non possit efficere? 19 Itaque soleo ridere cum me quidam studiosum vocant, qui si comparer illi sum desidiosissimus. Ego autem tantum, quem partim publica partim amicorum officia distringunt?

For what is there, indeed, that those occupations cannot impede, or that this instancy cannot effect? 19 And so I am wont to laugh when certain people call me “studious,” since, if I be compared with him, I am most idle. But I—who am distracted partly by public duties and partly by the duties of friends—how much, after all?

quis ex istis, qui tota vita litteris assident, collatus illi non quasi somno et inertiae deditus erubescat?

Who of those, who sit by letters for their whole life, when set beside him, would not blush as if given over to sleep and inertia?

20 Extendi epistulam cum hoc solum quod requirebas scribere destinassem, quos libros reliquisset; confido tamen haec quoque tibi non minus grata quam ipsos libros futura, quae te non tantum ad legendos eos verum etiam ad simile aliquid elaborandum possunt aemulationis stimulis excitare. Vale.

20 I have extended the epistle, though I had intended to write only this which you required—what books he had left; yet I trust that these things too will be to you no less pleasing than the books themselves, things which can, by the spurs of emulation, rouse you not only to read them but even to elaborate something similar. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ANNIO SEVERO SUO S.

G. PLINY TO HIS ANNIUS SEVERUS, GREETINGS.

1 Ex hereditate quae mihi obvenit, emi proxime Corinthium signum, modicum quidem sed festivum et expressum, quantum ego sapio, qui fortasse in omni re, in hac certe perquam exiguum sapio: hoc tamen signum ego quoque intellego. 2 Est enim nudum, nec aut vitia si qua sunt celat, aut laudes parum ostentat. Effingit senem stantem; ossa musculi nervi, venae rugae etiam ut spirantis apparent; rari et cedentes capilli, lata frons, contracta facies, exile collum; pendent lacerti, papillae iacent, venter recessit; 3 a tergo quoque eadem aetas ut a tergo.

1 From the inheritance that fell to me, I lately bought a Corinthian statue, modest indeed but charming and well-expressed, so far as I have discernment—I who perhaps in every matter, certainly in this one, have very scant discernment: yet this statue even I understand. 2 For it is nude, and neither hides, if there are any, its faults, nor too sparingly displays its praises. It portrays an old man standing; bones, muscles, sinews, veins, even wrinkles appear as if of one breathing; sparse and receding hair, a broad forehead, a drawn face, a slender neck; the upper arms hang, the nipples lie low, the belly has receded; 3 from the back too, the same age as from the back.

Aes ipsum, quantum verus color indicat, vetus et antiquum; talia denique omnia, ut possint artificum oculos tenere, delectare imperitorum. 4 Quod me quamquam tirunculum sollicitavit ad emendum. Emi autem non ut haberem domi - neque enim ullum adhuc Corinthium domi habeo -, verum ut in patria nostra celebri loco ponerem, ac potissimum in Iovis templo; 5 videtur enim dignum templo dignum deo donum.

The bronze itself, so far as the true color indicates, is old and antique; in short, everything about it is such that it can hold the eyes of artificers and delight the unskilled. 4 Which, although I am a tyro, has urged me to purchase. I bought it, however, not to have it at home - for I do not yet have any Corinthian at home -, but in order to set it in our fatherland in a celebrated place, and most especially in the temple of Jove; 5 for it seems a gift worthy of the temple, worthy of the god.

Tu ergo, ut soles omnia quae a me tibi iniunguntur, suscipe hanc curam, et iam nunc iube basim fieri, ex quo voles marmore, quae nomen meum honoresque capiat, si hos quoque putabis addendos. 6 Ego signum ipsum, ut primum invenero aliquem qui non gravetur, mittam tibi vel ipse - quod mavis - afferam mecum. Destino enim, si tamen officii ratio permiserit, excurrere isto.

You therefore, as you are wont with all the things that are enjoined by me upon you, take up this care, and right now order a base to be made, from whatever marble you wish, which may bear my name and honors, if you will think these also should be added. 6 I will send the statue itself to you as soon as I find someone who is not burdened by it, or I myself - whichever you prefer - will bring it with me. For I intend, if however the demands of duty permit, to run out thither.

7 Gaudes quod me venturum esse polliceor, sed contrahes frontem, cum adiecero 'ad paucos dies': neque enim diutius abesse me eadem haec quae nondum exire patiuntur. Vale.

7 You rejoice that I promise I will come, but you will contract your brow when I shall have added 'for a few days': for the same things which do not yet permit me to depart do not allow me to be away longer. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CANINIO RUFO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CANINIUS RUFUS, GREETINGS.

1 Modo nuntiatus est Silius Italicus in Neapolitano suo inedia finisse vitam. 2 Causa mortis valetudo. Erat illi natus insanabilis clavus, cuius taedio ad mortem irrevocabili constantia decucurrit usque ad supremum diem beatus et felix, nisi quod minorem ex liberis duobus amisit, sed maiorem melioremque florentem atque etiam consularem reliquit.

1 Just now it has been announced that Silius Italicus at his Neapolitan residence finished his life by starvation. 2 The cause of death was ill-health. An incurable tumor had arisen for him, from the weariness of which he ran down to death with irrevocable constancy, happy and fortunate up to his last day, except that he lost the younger of his two children, but he left the elder, the better one, flourishing and even consular.

3 Laeserat famam suam sub Nerone - credebatur sponte accusasse -, sed in Vitelli amicitia sapienter se et comiter gesserat, ex proconsulatu Asiae gloriam reportaverat, maculam veteris industriae laudabili otio abluerat. 4 Fuit inter principes civitatis sine potentia, sine invidia: salutabatur colebatur, multumque in lectulo iacens cubiculo semper, non ex fortuna frequenti, doctissimis sermonibus dies transigebat, eum a scribendo vacaret. 5 Scribebat carmina maiore cura quam ingenio, non numquam iudicia hominum recitationibus experiebatur.

3 He had injured his reputation under Nero - it was believed that he had accused of his own accord -, but in the friendship of Vitellius he had borne himself wisely and courteously; from the proconsulship of Asia he had brought back glory; he had washed away the stain of his former industry by praiseworthy leisure. 4 He was among the foremost of the state without power, without envy: he was greeted, he was cultivated, and, lying much on his couch, always in a chamber not crowded in proportion to his fortune, he would spend his days in most learned conversations, when he was free from writing. 5 He wrote poems with greater care than with talent, and sometimes tested the judgments of men by recitations.

6 Novissime ita suadentibus annis ab urbe secessit, seque in Campania tenuit, ac ne adventu quidem novi principis inde commotus est: 7 magna Caesaris laus sub quo hoc liberum fuit, magna illius qui hac libertate ausus est uti. 8 Erat φιλόκαλος usque ad emacitatis reprehensionem. Plures isdem in locis villas possidebat, adamatisque novis priores neglegebat.

6 Most recently, with the years so advising, he withdrew from the city, and kept himself in Campania, and not even by the arrival of the new princeps was he moved from there: 7 great the praise of Caesar under whom this was free, great of him who dared to use this liberty. 8 He was a lover of beauty to the point of censure for emacity. He possessed several villas in the same places, and, when he fell in love with new ones, he neglected the former.

Multum ubique librorum, multum statuarum, multum imaginum, quas non habebat modo, verum etiam venerabatur, Vergili ante omnes, cuius natalem religiosius quam suum celebrabat, Neapoli maxime, ubi monimentum eius adire ut templum solebat. 9 In hac tranquillitate annum quintum et septuagensimum excessit, delicato magis corpore quam infirmo; utque novissimus a Nerone factus est consul, ita postremus ex omnibus, quos Nero consules fecerat, decessit.

Much everywhere of books, much of statues, much of images, which he not only possessed, but even venerated, Vergil before all, whose birthday he celebrated more religiously than his own, especially at Naples, where he was accustomed to approach his monument as a temple. 9 In this tranquillity he departed in his seventy-fifth year, with a body more delicate than infirm; and just as he was the latest to be made consul by Nero, so he died the last of all those whom Nero had made consuls.

10 Illud etiam notabile: ultimus ex Neronianis consularibus obiit, quo consule Nero periit. Quod me recordantem fragilitatis humanae miseratio subit. 11 Quid enim tam circumcisum tam breve quam hominis vita longissima?

10 That too is notable: he died the last of the Neronian consulars, in whose consulship Nero perished. As I, recalling human fragility, am moved by pity. 11 For what is so cut-off, so brief, as the longest life of man?

An non videtur tibi Nero modo modo fuisse? cum interim ex iis, qui sub illo gesserant consulatum, nemo iam superest. 12 Quamquam quid hoc miror?

Does it not seem to you that Nero was only just now? Meanwhile, of those who had held the consulship under him, no one now survives. 12 And yet why do I marvel at this?

Nuper L. Piso, pater Pisonis illius, qui Valerio Festo per summum facinus in Africa occisus est, dicere solebat neminem se videre in senatu, quem consul ipse sententiam rogavisset. 13 Tam angustis terminis tantae multitudinis vivacitas ipsa concluditur, ut mihi non venia solum dignae, verum etiam laude videantur illae regiae lacrimae; nam ferunt Xersen, cum immensum exercitum oculis obisset, illacrimasse, quod tot milibus tam brevis immineret occasus. 14 Sed tanto magis hoc, quidquid est temporis futilis et caduci, si non datur factis - nam horum materia in aliena manu -, certe studiis proferamus, et quatenus nobis denegatur diu vivere, relinquamus aliquid, quo nos vixisse testemur.

Lately Lucius Piso, the father of that Piso who was slain in Africa by Valerius Festus through a most heinous crime, used to say that he saw no one in the senate whom, he himself being consul, he had asked for an opinion. 13 Within such narrow termini the very vivacity of so great a multitude is confined, that those royal tears seem to me worthy not only of pardon but even of praise; for they say Xerxes, when he had surveyed with his eyes that immense army, wept because so brief an end was impending for so many thousands. 14 But so much the more let us extend this—whatever there is of futile and falling time—if it is not given to deeds (for the materia of these is in another’s hand), certainly by studies; and inasmuch as it is denied us to live long, let us leave behind something by which we may bear witness that we have lived.

15 Scio te stimulis non egere: me tamen tui caritas evocat, ut currentem quoque instigem, sicut tu soles me. Ἀγαθὴ δ᾽ ἔρις cum invicem se mutuis exhortationibus amici ad amorem immortalitatis exacuunt. Vale.

15 I know you do not need goads: yet my affection for you calls me forth to instigate even one who is running, just as you are wont to do me. “Good is the strife,” when friends, by mutual exhortations, sharpen one another to the love of immortality. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS SUETONIO TRANQUILLO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, GREETING.

1 Facis pro cetera reverentia quam mihi praestas, quod tam sollicite petis ut tribunatum, quem a Neratio Marcello clarissimo viro impetravi tibi, in Caesennium Silvanum propinquum tuum transferam. 2 Mihi autem sicut iucundissimum ipsum te tribunum, ita non minus gratum alium per te videre. Neque enim esse congruens arbitror, quem augere honoribus cupias, huic pietatis titulis invidere, qui sunt omnibus honoribus pulchriores.

1 You act in keeping with the rest of the reverence you show me, in that you so anxiously request that I transfer to Caesennius Silvanus, your kinsman, the tribunate which I obtained for you from Neratius Marcellus, a most illustrious man. 2 For me, however, just as it would be most delightful to see you yourself as tribune, so it would be no less welcome to see another through you. For I do not think it congruent, in the case of one whom you wish to augment with honors, to begrudge him the titles of piety, which are more beautiful than all honors.

3 Video etiam, cum sit egregium et mereri beneficia et dare, utramque te laudem simul assecuturum, si quod ipse meruisti alii tribuas. Praeterea intellego mihi quoque gloriae fore, si ex hoc tuo facto non fuerit ignotum amicos meos non gerere tantum tribunatus posse verum etiam dare. 4 Quare ego vero honestissimae voluntati tuae pareo.

3 I see also that, since it is exceptional both to merit benefactions and to give them, you will attain both praises at once, if you bestow upon another that which you yourself have merited. Moreover, I understand that there will be glory for me as well, if from this your deed it be not unknown that my friends are able not only to bear tribunates but also to give them. 4 Wherefore indeed I comply with your most honorable will.

Neque enim adhuc nomen in numeros relatum est, ideoque liberum est nobis Silvanum in locum tuum subdere; cui cupio tam gratum esse munus tuum, quam tibi meum est. Vale.

For the name has not yet been entered on the rolls, and so it is free for us to substitute Silvanus in your place; and I wish your gift to be as welcome to him as mine is to you. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CORNELIO MINICIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CORNELIUS MINICIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Possum iam perscribere tibi quantum in publica provinciae Baeticae causa laboris exhauserim. 2 Nam fuit multiplex, actaque est saepius cum magna varietate. Unde varietas, unde plures actiones?

1 I can now write out for you how much labor I have expended in the public case of the province Baetica. 2 For it was manifold, and it was pleaded rather often with great variety. Whence the variety, whence the several actions?

Caecilius Classicus, homo foedus et aperte malus, proconsulatum in ea non minus violenter quam sordide gesserat, eodem anno quo in Africa Marius Priscus. 3 Erat autem Priscus ex Baetica, ex Africa Classicus. Inde dictum Baeticorum, ut plerumque dolor etiam venustos facit, non illepidum ferebatur: 'Dedi malum et accepi.' 4 Sed Marium una civitas publice multique privati reum peregerunt, in Classicum tota provincia incubuit.

Caecilius Classicus, a foul man and openly evil, had conducted the proconsulship there no less violently than sordidly, in the same year in which Marius Priscus (did so) in Africa. 3 Priscus, moreover, was from Baetica, Classicus from Africa. Thence a saying of the Baeticans—since pain, as often, even makes men witty—was bandied about, not ungraceful: 'I gave a bad man and I received one.' 4 But Marius was prosecuted and convicted by one city in its public capacity and by many private individuals, whereas upon Classicus the whole province bore down.

Ille accusationem vel fortuita vel voluntaria morte praevertit. Nam fuit mors eius infamis, ambigua tamen: ut enim credibile videbatur voluisse exire de vita, Cum defendi non posset, ita mirum pudorem damnationis morte fugisse, quem non puduisset damnanda committere. 6 Nihilo minus Baetica etiam in defuncti accusatione perstabat.

He forestalled the accusation by a death either fortuitous or voluntary. For his death was infamous, yet ambiguous: for just as it seemed believable that he had wished to depart from life, since he could not be defended, so it is strange that, out of shame for condemnation, he fled it by death—he whom it had not shamed to commit things to be condemned. 6 Nonetheless, Baetica persisted even in the accusation of the deceased.

Provisum hoc legibus, intermissum tamen et post longam intercapedinem tunc reductum. Addiderunt Baetici, quod simul socios ministrosque Classici detulerunt, nominatimque in eos inquisitionem postulaverunt. 7 Aderam Bacticis mecumque Lucceius Albinus, vir in dicendo copiosus ornatus; quem ego cum olim mutuo diligerem, ex hac officii societate amare ardentius coepi.

This was provided for by the laws, yet had been discontinued, and after a long interval was then brought back. The Baeticans added that at the same time they denounced the associates and attendants of Classicus, and requested an inquisition against them by name. 7 I was present for the Bacticis, and with me was Lucceius Albinus, a man copious and adorned in speaking; whom I, since I had long loved with mutual affection, from this partnership of duty began to love more ardently.

8 Habet quidem gloria, in studiis praesertim, quiddam ἀκοινώνητον nobis tamen nullum certamen nulla contentio, cum uterque pari iugo non pro se sed pro causa niteretur, cuius et magnitudo et utilitas visa est postulare, ne tantum oneris singulis actionibus subiremus. 9 Verebamur ne nos dies ne vox ne latera deficerent, si tot crimina tot reos uno velut fasce complecteremur; deinde ne iudicum intentio multis nominibus multisque causis non lassaretur modo verum etiam confunderetur; mox ne gratia singulorum collata atque permixta pro singulis quoque vires omnium acciperet; postremo ne potentissimi vilissimo quoque quasi piaculari dato alienis poenis elaberentur. 10 Etenim tum maxime favor et ambitio dominatur, cum sub aliqua specie severitatis delitescere potest.

8 Glory does indeed have, especially in studies, something incommunicable; yet for us there was no rivalry, no contention, since each, under an equal yoke, strove not for himself but for the cause, whose magnitude and utility seemed to demand that we not undergo so great a burden in single actions. 9 We were afraid lest the day, lest the voice, lest the very flanks (lungs) should fail us, if we were to embrace so many crimes and so many defendants in one bundle, as it were; then, lest the attention of the judges, by many names and many causes, not only be wearied but even be confounded; next, lest the favor toward individuals, gathered and commingled, should for individuals as well receive the forces of all; finally, lest the most powerful should slip away through others’ penalties, with the very vilest, as a sort of piacular offering being given. 10 For favor and ambition then most of all dominate, when they can skulk beneath some appearance of severity.

11 Erat in consilio Sertorianum illud exemplum, qui robustissimum et infirmissimum militem iussit caudam equi - reliqua nosti. Nam nos quoque tam numerosum agmen reorum ita demum videbamus posse superari, si per singulos carperetur.

11 There was in our counsel that Sertorian example, who ordered the most robust and the most infirm soldier to pull the tail of a horse - the rest you know. For we too saw that so numerous a column of defendants could only then be overcome, if it were picked off one by one.

12 Placuit in primis ipsum Classicum ostendere nocentem: hic aptissimus ad socios eius et ministros transitus erat, quia socii ministrique probari nisi illo nocente non poterant. Ex quibus duos statim Classico iunximus, Baebium Probum et Fabium Hispanum, utrumque gratia, Hispanum etiam facundia validum. Et circa Classicum quidem brevis et expeditus labor.

12 It pleased us first of all to show Classicus himself guilty: this was the most apt transition to his associates and ministers, because the associates and ministers could not be proved unless he was guilty. Of these we immediately joined two to Classicus, Baebius Probus and Fabius Hispanus, each strong in favor, and Hispanus strong also in eloquence. And as to Classicus, indeed, the work was brief and expeditious.

13 Sua manu reliquerat scriptum, quid ex quaque re, quid ex quaque causa accepisset; miserat etiam epistulas Romam ad amiculam quandam, iactantes et gloriosas, his quidem verbis: 'Io io, liber ad te venio; iam sestertium quadragiens redegi parte vendita Baeticorum.' 14 Circa Hispanum et Probum multum sudoris. Horum ante quam crimina ingrederer, necessarium credidi elaborare, ut constaret ministerium crimen esse: quod nisi fecissem, frustra ministros probassem. 15 Neque enim ita defendebantur, ut negarent, sed ut necessitati veniam precarentur; esse enim se provinciales et ad omne proconsulum imperium metu cogi.

13 He had left written in his own hand what he had received from each thing, what from each cause; he had even sent epistles to Rome to a certain lady-friend, vaunting and glorious, in these very words: 'Io io, free I come to you; already I have realized 4,000,000 sesterces, with a part of the Baeticans’ estates sold.' 14 As to Hispanus and Probus, much sweat. Before I entered upon the crimes of these men, I judged it necessary to work out that the ministration itself was the crime: which unless I had done, I would in vain have proved the ministers. 15 For they were not so defending themselves as to deny, but to beg pardon for necessity; for that they were provincials and were compelled by fear to every command of the proconsuls.

16 Solet dicere Claudius Restitutus, qui mihi respondit, vir exercitatus et vigilans et quamlibet subitis paratus, numquam sibi tantum caliginis tantum perturbationis offusum, quam cum praerepta et extorta defensioni suae cerneret, in quibus omnem fiduciam reponebat. 17 Consilii nostri exitus fuit: bona Classici, quae habuisset ante provinciam, placuit senatui a reliquis separari, illa filiae haec spoliatis relinqui. Additum est, ut pecuniae quas creditoribus solverat revocarentur.

16 Claudius Restitutus, who replied to me, a man exercised and vigilant and prepared for however sudden emergencies, is wont to say that never had so much gloom, so much perturbation been cast over him as when he perceived things snatched away and extorted from his defense, in which he was reposing all confidence. 17 The issue of our counsel was this: it pleased the senate that the goods of Classicus which he had had before the province be separated from the rest; the former to be left to his daughter, the latter to the despoiled. It was added that the monies which he had paid to creditors be recalled.

Hispanus et Probus in quinquennium relegati; adeo grave visum est, quod initio dubitabatur an omnino crimen esset.

Hispanus and Probus were relegated for five years; so grave did it seem, though at the beginning it had been doubted whether it was a crime at all.

18 Post paucos dies Claudium Fuscum, Classici generum, et Stilonium Priscum, qui tribunus cohortis sub Classico fuerat, accusavimus dispari eventu: Prisco in biennium Italia interdictum, absolutus est Fuscus.

18 After a few days we accused Claudius Fuscus, the son-in-law of Classicus, and Stilonius Priscus, who had been tribune of a cohort under Classicus, with a disparate outcome: Priscus was interdicted from Italy for two years, Fuscus was acquitted.

19 Actione tertia commodissimum putavimus plures congregare, ne si longius esset extracta cognitio, satietate et taedio quodam iustitia cognoscentium severitasque languesceret; et alioqui supererant minores rei data opera hunc in locum reservati, excepta tamen Classici uxore, quae sicut implicita suspicionibus ita non satis convinci probationibus visa est; 20 nam Classici filia, quae et ipsa inter reos erat, ne suspicionibus quidem haerebat. Itaque, cum ad nomen eius in extrema actione venissem - neque enim ut initio sic etiam in fine verendum erat, ne per hoc totius accusationis auctoritas minueretur -, honestissimum credidi non premere immerentem, idque ipsum dixi et libere et varie. 21 Nam modo legatos interrogabam, docuissentne me aliquid quod re probari posse confiderent; modo consilium a senatu petebam, putaretne debere me, si quam haberem in dicendo facultatem, in iugulum innocentis quasi telum aliquod intendere; postremo totum locum hoc fine conclusi: 'Dicet aliquis: Iudicas ergo?

19 At the third action we thought it most expedient to gather more people, lest, if the inquiry were drawn out longer, through a certain satiety and tedium the justice of those judging and their severity should grow languid; and besides, lesser defendants remained, by deliberate design reserved for this point, with the exception, however, of Classicus’s wife, who, just as she was entangled in suspicions, so seemed not sufficiently to be convicted by proofs; 20 for Classicus’s daughter, who also was among the accused, did not even cling to suspicions. And so, when I came to her name at the close of the action - for it had to be feared not only at the beginning but also at the end, lest by this the authority of the whole accusation be diminished - I judged it most honorable not to press one undeserving, and this very thing I said both freely and variously. 21 For now I was asking the legates whether they had instructed me in anything which they were confident could be proved in fact; now I was seeking counsel from the senate, whether it thought I ought, if I had any faculty in speaking, to aim it as some sort of weapon at the throat of an innocent person; finally I concluded the whole passage with this ending: ‘Someone will say: Do you judge then?

Ego vero non iudico, memini tamen me advocatum ex iudicibus datum.'

I indeed do not judge, yet I remember that I was appointed as advocate by the judges.'

22 Hic numerosissimae causae terminus fuit quibusdam absolutis, pluribus damnatis atque etiam relegatis, aliis in tempus aliis in perpetuum. 23 Eodem senatus consulto industria fides constantia nostra plenissimo testimonio comprobata est, dignum solumque par pretium tanti laboris. 24 Concipere animo potes quam simus fatigati, quibus totiens agendum totiens altercandum, tam multi testes interrogandi sublevandi refutandi.

22 Here was the terminus of exceedingly numerous cases, some acquitted, more condemned and even relegated, some for a time, others in perpetuity. 23 By the same senatorial decree our industry, faith, and constancy were approved by the fullest testimony—a worthy and the only equal recompense of so great a labor. 24 You can conceive in your mind how fatigued we are, who so often had to plead, so often to engage in altercation, with so many witnesses to be interrogated, supported, refuted.

25 Iam illa quam ardua quam molesta, tot reorum amicis secreto rogantibus negare, adversantibus palam obsistere! Referam unum aliquid ex iis quae dixi. Cum mihi quidam e iudicibus ipsis pro reo gratiosissimo reclamarent, 'Non minus' inquam 'hic innocens erit, si ego omnia dixero.' 26 Coniectabis ex hoc quantas contentiones, quantas etiam offensas subierimus dumtaxat ad breve tempus; nam fides in praesentia eos quibus resistit offendit, deinde ab illis ipsis suspicitur laudaturque.

25 Now how arduous, how vexatious it was, with so many friends of the accused asking in secret, to refuse them, and to withstand openly those opposing! I will relate one thing from those which I said. When certain of the judges themselves were protesting on behalf of a most-favored defendant, “He will be no less innocent,” I said, “if I say everything.” 26 From this you may conjecture what great contentions, what great offenses too, we underwent—only for a brief time; for fidelity in the present offends those whom it resists, then by those very persons it is looked up to and praised.

Non potui magis te in rem praesentem perducere. 27 Dices: 'Non fuit tanti; quid enim mihi cum tam longa epistula?' Nolito ergo identidem quaerere, quid Romae geratur. Et tamen memento non esse epistulam longam, quae tot dies tot cognitiones tot denique reos causasque complexa sit.

I could not have brought you more into the matter at hand. 27 You will say: 'It was not worth so much; for what concern have I with so long an epistle?' So then, do not again and again ask what is going on at Rome. And yet remember that it is not a long epistle, which has encompassed so many days, so many hearings, and, in the end, so many defendants and cases.

28 Quae omnia videor mihi non minus breviter quam diligenter persecutus.

28 All of which I seem to myself to have prosecuted no less briefly than diligently.

Temere dixi 'diligenter': succurrit quod praeterieram et quidem sero, sed quamquam praepostere reddetur. Facit hoc Homerus multique illius exemplo; est alioqui perdecorum, a me tamen non ideo fiet. 29 E testibus quidam, sive iratus quod evocatus esset invitus, sive subornatus ab aliquo reorum, ut accusationem exarmaret, Norbanum Licinianum, legatum et inquisitorem, reum postulavit, tamquam in causa Castae - uxor haec Classici - praevaricaretur.

I rashly said “diligently”: there occurs to me what I had passed over, and indeed late, but although it will be rendered out of order. Homer does this, and many by his example; it is otherwise very decorous, yet for that reason it will not be done by me. 29 One of the witnesses, either angry because he had been summoned unwillingly, or suborned by someone among the defendants, in order to disarm the accusation, demanded that Norbanus Licinianus, the legate and inquisitor, be prosecuted as a defendant, on the ground that in the case of Casta—this is the wife of Classicus—he was prevaricating.

30 Est lege cautum ut reus ante peragatur, tunc de praevaricatore quaeratur, videlicet quia optime ex accusatione ipsa accusatoris fides aestimatur. 31 Norbano tamen non ordo legis, non legati nomen, non inquisitionis officium praesidio fuit; tanta conflagravit invidia homo alioqui flagitiosus et Domitiani temporibus usus ut multi, electusque tunc a provincia ad inquirendum non tamquam bonus et fidelis, sed tamquam Classici inimicus - erat ab illo relegatus -. 32 Dari sibi diem, edi crimina postulabat; neutrum impetravit, coactus est statim respondere. Respondit, malum pravumque ingenium hominis facit ut dubitem, confidenter an constanter, certe paratissime.

30 It is provided by law that the defendant be first proceeded with, then inquiry be made about the prevaricator, namely because the accuser’s trustworthiness is best assessed from the accusation itself. 31 For Norbanus, however, neither the order of the law, nor the name of legate, nor the office of inquisition was a protection; so great a blaze of odium flared up against a man otherwise scandalous and inured to the times of Domitian, that many [thought], and that he had then been chosen by the province to conduct the inquiry not as a good and faithful man, but as an enemy of Classicus — he had been relegated by him —. 32 He demanded that a day be granted to him, that the crimes be published; he obtained neither, he was forced to answer immediately. He answered — the evil and crooked disposition of the man makes me doubt whether confidently or constantly — certainly most readily.

33 Obiecta sunt multa, quae magis quam praevaricatio nocuerunt; quin etiam duo consulares, Pomponius Rufus et Libo Frugi, laeserunt eum testimonio, tamquam apud iudicem sub Domitiano Salvi Liberalis accusatoribus adfuisset. 34 Damnatus et in insulam relegatus est. Itaque cum Castam accusarem nihil magis pressi, quam quod accusator eius praevaricationis crimine corruisset; pressi tamen frustra; accidit enim res contraria et nova, ut accusatore praevaricationis damnato rea absolveretur.

33 Many things were alleged, which harmed him more than the prevarication; indeed even two consulars, Pomponius Rufus and Libo Frugi, wounded him by their testimony, as though before a judge under Domitian he had been present to the accusers in the case against Salvius Liberalis. 34 He was condemned and relegated to an island. And so, when I was accusing Casta, nothing did I press more than that her accuser had collapsed under the charge of prevarication; yet I pressed in vain; for a contrary and novel thing befell, that, the accuser of prevarication having been condemned, the defendant was acquitted.

35 Quaeris, quid nos, dum haec aguntur? Indicavimus senatui ex Norbano didicisse nos publicam causam, rursusque debere ex integro discere, si ille praevaricator probaretur, atque ita, dum ille peragitur reus, sedimus. Postea Norbanus omnibus diebus cognitionis interfuit eandemque usque ad extremum vel constantiam vel audaciam pertulit.

35 You ask what we were doing while these things were going on? We indicated to the senate that from Norbanus we had learned the public cause, and that we ought to learn it anew from the beginning if he should be approved as a prevaricator; and so, while he was being proceeded against as a defendant, we sat. Thereafter Norbanus was present on all the days of the hearing and bore the same—whether you call it constancy or audacity—right to the end.

36 Interrogo ipse me, an aliquid omiserim rursus, et rursus paene omisi. Summo die Salvius Liberalis reliquos legatos graviter increpuit, tamquam non omnes quos mandasset provincia reos peregissent, atque, ut est vehemens et disertus, in discrimen adduxit. Protexi viros optimos eosdemque gratissimos: mihi certe debere se praedicant, quod illum turbinem evaserint.

36 I question myself whether I have omitted something again, and again I had almost omitted it. On the final day Salvius Liberalis severely rebuked the other legates, as if they had not prosecuted all the defendants whom the province had mandated, and, as he is vehement and disert (eloquent), he brought them into peril. I protected men most excellent and at the same time most agreeable; they certainly proclaim that they owe it to me that they escaped that whirlwind.

37 Hic erit epistulae finis, re vera finis; litteram non addam, etiamsi adhuc aliquid praeterisse me sensero. Vale.

37 Here will be the end of the letter, in truth the end; I will not add a letter, even if I perceive that I have still omitted something. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VESTRICIO SPURINNAE SUO ET COTTIAE S.

C. PLINY TO HIS VESTRICIUS SPURINNA AND TO COTTIA, GREETINGS.

1 Composuisse me quaedam de filio vestro non dixi vobis, eum proxime apud vos fui, primum quia non ideo scripseram ut dicerem, sed ut meo amori meo dolori satisfacerem; deinde quia te, Spurinna, cum audisses recitasse me, ut mihi ipse dixisti, quid recitassem simul audisse credebam. 2 Praeterea veritus sum ne vos festis diebus confunderem, si in memoriam gravissimi luctus reduxissem. Nunc quoque paulisper haesitavi, id solum, quod recitavi, mitterem exigentibus vobis, an adicerem quae in aliud volumen cogito reservare.

1 I did not tell you that I had composed certain things about your son when I was most recently with you, first because I had not written for that reason—that I might say it—but to satisfy my love, my sorrow; then because you, Spurinna, when you had heard that I had recited—as you yourself told me—I believed that at the same time you had heard what I had recited. 2 Besides, I was afraid I might confound you on festive days, if I had called back into memory the gravest grief. Now too I hesitated for a little while whether I should send only that which I recited, at your demand, or add those things which I am thinking to reserve for another volume.

3 Neque enim affectibus meis uno libello carissimam mihi et sanctissimam memoriam prosequi satis est, cuius famae latius consuletur, si dispensata et digesta fuerit. 4 Verum haesitanti mihi, omnia quae iam composui vobis exhiberem, an adhuc aliqua differrem, simplicius et amicius visum est omnia, praecipue cum affirmetis intra vos futura, donec placeat emittere. 5 Quod superest, rogo ut pari simplicitate, si qua existimabitis addenda commutanda omittenda, indicetis mihi.

3 Nor indeed is it enough for my affections to pursue, in a single little book, the memory most dear and most sacred to me, whose renown will be more widely cared for, if it shall have been dispensed and digested. 4 But as I was hesitating whether I should exhibit to you all that I have already composed, or still defer some things, it seemed more simple and more friendly to send everything, especially since you affirm that they will remain among yourselves, until it may please to issue them. 5 What remains, I ask that with equal simplicity, if you judge there are things to be added, changed, or omitted, you indicate them to me.

6 Difficile est huc usque intendere animum in dolore; difficile, sed tamen, ut scalptorem, ut pictorem, qui filii vestri imaginem faceret, admoneretis, quid exprimere quid emendare deberet, ita me quoque formate regite, qui non fragilem et caducam, sed immortalem, ut vos putatis, effigiem conor efficere: quae hoc diuturnior erit, quo verior melior absolutior fuerit. Valete.

6 It is difficult to keep the mind strained in grief up to this point; difficult, yet nevertheless, just as you would admonish a sculptor, a painter, who would make the image of your son, what he ought to express and what to emend, so too form and guide me, who strive to fashion not a fragile and perishable but an immortal effigy, as you suppose: which will be the more enduring, the truer, better, more complete it shall have been. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS IULIO GENITORI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS JULIUS GENITOR, GREETINGS.

1 Est omnino Artemidori nostri tam benigna natura, ut officia amicorum in maius extollat. Inde etiam meum meritum ut vera ita supra meritum praedicatione circumfert. 2 Equidem, cum essent philosophi ab urbe summoti, fui apud illum in suburbano, et quo notabilius - hoc est, periculosius - esset fui praetor.

1 Altogether, our Artemidorus has so benign a nature that he extols the offices of friends into the greater. Hence too he circulates a proclamation of my merit as true, yet beyond my desert. 2 Indeed, when the philosophers had been removed from the city, I was with him at his suburban estate, and, that it might be the more notable - that is, more perilous - I was praetor.

Pecuniam etiam, qua tunc illi ampliore opus erat, ut aes alienum exsolveret contractum ex pulcherrimis causis, mussantibus magnis quibusdam et locupletibus amicis mutuatus ipse gratuitam dedi. 3 Atque haec feci, cum septem amicis meis aut occisis aut relegatis, occisis Senecione Rustico Helvidio, relegatis Maurico Gratilla Arria Fannia, tot circa me iactis fulminibus quasi ambustus mihi quoque impendere idem exitium certis quibusdam notis augurarer. 4 Non ideo tamen eximiam gloriam meruisse me, ut ille praedicat, credo, sed tantum effugisse flagitium.

I also gave money—of which at that time he had need in ampler measure, so that he might discharge the debt contracted from the most noble causes—while certain great and opulent friends were muttering; having myself borrowed it, I gave it gratis. 3 And I did these things when seven of my friends had been either slain or relegated—slain, Senecio, Rusticus, Helvidius; relegated, Mauricus, Gratilla, Arria, Fannia—so many thunderbolts having been hurled around me that, as if scorched, I augured from certain sure signs that the same destruction was hanging over me too. 4 I do not therefore believe that I have deserved extraordinary glory, as he proclaims, but only that I have escaped disgrace.

5 Nam et C. Musonium socerum eius, quantum licitum est per aetatem, cum admiratione dilexi et Artemidorum ipsum iam tum, cum in Syria tribunus militarem, arta familiaritate complexus sum, idque primum non nullius indolis dedi specimen, quod virum aut sapientem aut proximum simillimumque sapienti intellegere sum visus. 6 Nam ex omnibus, qui nunc se philosophos vocant, vix unum aut alterum invenies tanta sinceritate, tanta veritate. Mitto, qua patientia corporis hiemes iuxta et aestates ferat, ut nullis laboribus cedat, ut nihil in cibo in potu voluptatibus tribuat, ut oculos animumque contineat.

5 For I also cherished with admiration Gaius Musonius, his father-in-law, so far as was permitted by my age, and Artemidorus himself even then, when I was serving in Syria as a military tribune, I embraced with close familiarity; and in this I first gave a specimen of no mean disposition, that I seemed to discern a man either wise, or nearest and most similar to the wise. 6 For out of all who now call themselves philosophers, you will scarcely find one or two with such sincerity, such truth. I pass over with what endurance of body he bears winters and summers alike, that he yields to no labors, that he assigns nothing to pleasures in food and drink, that he restrains his eyes and his mind.

7 Sunt haec magna, sed in alio; in hoc vero minima, si ceteris virtutibus comparentur, quibus meruit, ut a C. Musonio ex omnibus omnium ordinum assectatoribus gener assumeretur. 8 Quae mihi recordanti est quidem iucundum, quod me cum apud alios tum apud te tantis laudibus cumulat; vereor tamen ne modum excedat, quem benignitas eius - illuc enim unde coepi revertor - solet non tenere. 9 Nam in hoc uno interdum vir alioqui prudentissimus honesto quidem sed tamen errore versatur, quod pluris amicos suos quam sunt arbitratur.

7 These things are great, but in another; in this man indeed very small, if they be compared with the other virtues by which he deserved to be assumed as a son-in-law by C. Musonius from among all the followers of every order. 8 Which, as I recall it, is indeed pleasant to me, because it heaps me with such praises both among others and with you; I fear, however, lest it exceed the measure, which his benignity - for thither indeed whence I began I return - is wont not to keep. 9 For in this one matter at times the man otherwise most prudent is engaged in an error, honorable indeed yet still an error, namely that he esteems his friends at a higher rate than they are.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CATILIO SEVERO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS CATILIUS SEVERUS, GREETINGS.

1 Veniam ad cenam, sed iam nunc paciscor, sit expedita sit parca, Socraticis tantum sermonibus abundet, in his quoque teneat modum. 2 Erunt officia antelucana, in quae incidere impune ne Catoni quidem licuit, quem tamen C. Caesar ita reprehendit ut laudet. 3 Describit enim eos, quibus obvius fuerit, cum caput ebrii retexissent, erubuisse; deinde adicit: 'Putares non ab illis Catonem, sed illos a Catone deprehensos.' Potuitne plus auctoritatis tribui Catoni, quam si ebrius quoque tam venerabilis erat?

1 I will come to dinner, but even now I stipulate: let it be expeditious, let it be sparing; let it abound only in Socratic conversations, yet in these too let it keep measure. 2 There will be pre-dawn duties, into which to fall with impunity was permitted not even to Cato, whom, however, C. Caesar so censures that he praises. 3 For he describes that those whom he met, when they had uncovered the head of the drunkard, blushed; then he adds: 'You would have thought not that Cato had been detected by them, but that they had been detected by Cato.' Could more authority have been attributed to Cato than if, even drunk, he was so venerable?

4 Nostrae tamen cenae, ut apparatus et impendii, sic temporis modus constet. Neque enim ii sumus quos vituperare ne inimici quidem possint, nisi ut simul laudent. Vale.

4 Yet let there be for our dinner, as for the apparatus and the expense, so also a measure of time. For we are not the sort whom not even enemies could vituperate, except in such a way as to praise at the same time. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VOCONIO ROMANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS VOCONIUS ROMANUS, HIS OWN, GREETINGS.

1 Librum, quo nuper optimo principi consul gratias egi, misi exigenti tibi, missurus etsi non exegisses. 2 In hoc consideres velim ut pulchritudinem materiae ita difficultatem. In ceteris enim lectorem novitas ipsa intentum habet, in hac nota vulgata dicta sunt omnia; quo fit ut quasi otiosus securusque lector tantum elocutioni vacet, in qua satisfacere difficilius est cum sola aestimatur.

1 I have sent to you, at your demand, the book in which I recently, as consul, gave thanks to the best princeps; I would have sent it even if you had not demanded it. 2 In this I would like you to consider, as the beauty of the matter, so also its difficulty. For in other cases novelty itself keeps the reader intent; in this one, all has been said that is familiar and common; whence it comes about that the reader, as if at leisure and secure, gives attention only to the elocution, in which it is harder to satisfy when it alone is being appraised.

3 Atque utinam ordo saltem et transitus et figurae simul spectarentur! Nam invenire praeclare, enuntiare magnifice interdum etiam barbari solent, disponere apte, figurare varie nisi eruditis negatum est. 4 Nec vero affectanda sunt semper elata et excelsa.

3 And would that order at least and transitions and figures were considered together! For to invent excellently, to enunciate magnificently even barbarians are sometimes wont; to dispose aptly, to figure with variety has been denied to any save the learned. 4 Nor indeed are lofty and exalted things always to be aimed at.

Nam ut in pictura lumen non alia res magis quam umbra commendat, ita orationem tam summittere quam attollere decet. 5 Sed quid ego haec doctissimo viro? Quin potius illud: adnota, quae putaveris corrigenda.

For as in a painting light is commended by nothing more than shadow, so it befits an oration to lower as well as to lift. 5 But why am I saying these things to a most learned man? Nay rather this: note down what you think should be corrected.

Ita enim magis credam cetera tibi placere, si quaedam displicuisse cognovero. Vale.

For thus I shall the more believe that the rest pleases you, if I shall have learned that certain things have displeased. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ACILIO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS ACILIUS, GREETINGS.

1 Rem atrocem nec tantum epistula dignam Larcius Macedo vir praetorius a servis suis passus est, superbus alioqui dominus et saevus, et qui servisse patrem suum parum, immo nimium meminisset. 2 Lavabatur in villa Formiana. Repente eum servi circumsistunt.

1 An atrocious affair, and one not only worthy of a letter, did Larcius Macedo, a man of praetorian rank, suffer at the hands of his own slaves—an otherwise haughty and savage master, who remembered too little, or rather too well, that his father had been a slave. 2 He was bathing at his Formian villa. Suddenly his slaves surround him.

Alius fauces invadit, alius os verberat, alius pectus et ventrem, atque etiam - foedum dictu - verenda contundit; et cum exanimem putarent, abiciunt in fervens pavimentum, ut experirentur an viveret. Ille sive quia non sentiebat, sive quia se non sentire simulabat, immobilis et extentus fidem peractae mortis implevit. 3 Tum demum quasi aestu solutus effertur; excipiunt servi fideliores, concubinae cum ululatu et clamore concurrunt.

One attacks his throat, another strikes his face, another his chest and belly, and even - foul to say - bruises his privy parts; and when they thought him lifeless, they throw him onto the boiling pavement, to test whether he was alive. He, either because he did not feel it or because he pretended not to feel it, motionless and stretched out, made good the impression of an accomplished death. 3 Then at last, as if released by the heat, he is carried out; the more faithful slaves receive him, the concubines run together with ululation and clamor.

Ita et vocibus excitatus et recreatus loci frigore sublatis oculis agitatoque corpore vivere se - et iam tutum erat - confitetur. 4 Diffugiunt servi; quorum magna pars comprehensa est, ceteri requiruntur. Ipse paucis diebus aegre focilatus non sine ultionis solacio decessit ita vivus vindicatus, ut occisi solent.

Thus both roused by the voices and refreshed by the chill of the place, with his eyes lifted and his body stirred, he confesses that he is alive — and by now it was safe. 4 The slaves scatter; a great part of them is apprehended, the rest are sought. He himself, with difficulty reanimated in a few days, died not without the solace of vengeance, thus avenged while alive, as the slain are wont.

5 Vides quot periculis quot contumeliis quot ludibriis simus obnoxii; nec est quod quisquam possit esse securus, quia sit remissus et mitis; non enim iudicio domini sed scelere perimuntur.

5 You see to how many perils, to how many contumelies, to how many mockeries we are subject; nor is there any reason that anyone can be secure because he is remiss and mild; for they are put to death not by a master’s judgment but by crime.

6 Verum haec hactenus. Quid praeterea novi? Quid?

6 But so much for these things thus far. What, moreover, is new? What?

Nihil, alioqui subiungerem; nam et charta adhuc superest, et dies feriatus patitur plura contexi. Addam quod opportune de eodem Macedone succurrit. Cum in publico Romae lavaretur, notabilis atque etiam, ut exitus docuit, ominosa res accidit.

Nihil; otherwise I would subjoin; for both paper still remains, and the holiday allows more to be woven together. I will add what opportunely occurs to me about that same Macedonian. When he was bathing in public at Rome, a notable and also, as the outcome taught, ominous thing happened.

7 Eques Romanus a servo eius, ut transitum daret, manu leviter admonitus convertit se nec servum, a quo erat tactus, sed ipsum Macedonem tam graviter palma percussit ut paene concideret. 8 Ita balineum illi quasi per gradus quosdam primum contumeliae locus, deinde exitii fuit. Vale.

7 A Roman equestrian, lightly admonished with the hand by his slave to grant passage, turned and struck not the slave by whom he had been touched, but Macedon himself so heavily with his palm that he almost fell. 8 Thus the bathhouse was to him, as it were by certain steps, first a place of contumely, then of destruction. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS SILIO PROCULO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS SILIUS PROCULUS, GREETING.

1 Petis ut libellos tuos in secessu legam examinem, an editione sint digni; adhibes preces, allegas exemplum: rogas enim, ut aliquid subsicivi temporis studiis meis subtraham, impertiam tuis, adicis M. Tullium mira benignitate poetarum ingenia fovisse. 2 Sed ego nec rogandus sum nec hortandus; nam et poeticen ipsam religiosissime veneror et te valdissime diligo. Faciam ergo quod desideras tam diligenter quam libenter.

1 You ask that I read and examine your little books in seclusion, whether they are worthy of an edition; you employ prayers, you allege an example: for you ask that I subtract something of my spare time from my studies and impart it to yours, you add that M. Tullius with wondrous benignity fostered the talents of poets. 2 But I am neither to be asked nor exhorted; for I most religiously venerate the poetic art itself and I love you most strongly. I will therefore do what you desire as diligently as gladly.

3 Videor autem iam nunc posse rescribere esse opus pulchrum nec supprimendum, quantum aestimare licuit ex iis quae me praesente recitasti, si modo mihi non imposuit recitatio tua; legis enim suavissime et peritissime. 4 Confido tamen me non sic auribus duci, ut omnes aculei iudicii mei illarum delenimentis refringantur: hebetentur fortasse et paulum retundantur, evelli quidem extorquerique non possunt. 5 Igitur non temere iam nunc de universitate pronuntio, de partibus experiar legendo.

3 I seem, however, already now to be able to write back that the work is handsome and not to be suppressed, so far as it was permitted to appraise from those pieces which you recited with me present, if only your recitation did not impose upon me; for you read most suavely and most expertly. 4 I trust, nevertheless, that I am not so led by my ears that all the stings of my judgment are broken by their blandishments: they may perhaps be dulled and somewhat blunted, but indeed they cannot be plucked out and wrenched away. 5 Therefore I do not rashly already now pronounce concerning the whole; about the parts I shall make trial by reading.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS NEPOTI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS NEPOS, GREETINGS.

1 Adnotasse videor facta dictaque virorum feminarumque alia clariora esse alia maiora. Confirmata est opinio mea hesterno Fanniae sermone. Neptis haec Arriae illius, quae marito et solacium mortis et exemplum fuit.

1 I seem to have noted that the deeds and sayings of men and women are, some more illustrious, others greater. My opinion was confirmed by yesterday’s conversation with Fannia. She is the granddaughter of that Arria, who to her husband was both a solace in death and an exemplar.

Multa referebat aviae suae non minora hoc sed obscuriora; quae tibi existimo tam mirabilia legenti fore, quam mihi audienti fuerunt. 3 Aegrotabat Caecina Paetus maritus eius, aegrotabat et filius, uterque mortifere, ut videbatur. Filius decessit eximia pulchritudine pari verecundia, et parentibus non minus ob alia carus quam quod filius erat.

She was relating many things about her grandmother, not less than this but more obscure; which I think will be just as marvelous for you reading as they were for me hearing. 3 Caecina Paetus, her husband, was ailing, and her son was ailing as well, each mortally, as it seemed. The son departed, of exceptional beauty with equal modesty, and was no less dear to his parents on account of other things than because he was their son.

Huic illa ita funus paravit, ita duxit exsequias, ut ignoraret maritus; quin immo quotiens cubiculum eius intraret, vivere filium atque etiam commodiorem esse simulabat, ac persaepe interroganti, quid ageret puer, respondebat; 'Bene quievit, libenter cibum sumpsit.' Deinde, cum diu cohibitae lacrimae vincerent prorumperentque, egrediebatur; tunc se dolori dabat; satiata siccis oculis composito vultu redibat, tamquam orbitatem foris reliquisset. Praeclarum quidem illud eiusdem, ferrum stringere, perfodere pectus, extrahere pugionem, porrigere marito, addere vocem immortalem ac paene divinam: 'Paete, non dolet.' Sed tamen ista facienti, ista dicenti, gloria et aeternitas ante oculos erant; quo maius est sine praemio aeternitatis, sine praemio gloriae, abdere lacrimas operire luctum, amissoque filio matrem adhuc agere.

For him she thus prepared the funeral, thus conducted the exequies, that the husband was unaware; nay rather, whenever she entered his chamber, she pretended that the son was alive and even was more comfortable, and very often, when he asked how the boy was doing, she would answer: 'He has rested well; he has taken food willingly.' Then, when the tears long restrained overcame her and broke forth, she would go out; then she gave herself to grief; when sated, with dry eyes and a composed face she returned, as though she had left her bereavement outside. Illustrious indeed was that deed of the same woman, to draw the steel, to pierce her breast, to pull out the dagger, to offer it to her husband, to add an immortal and almost divine utterance: 'Paetus, it does not hurt.' But yet, for one doing these things, for one saying these things, glory and eternity were before her eyes; wherefore it is greater, without the reward of eternity, without the reward of glory, to hide tears, to cover mourning, and, with a son lost, still to act the mother.

7 Scribonianus arma in Illyrico contra Claudium moverat; fuerat Paetus in partibus, et occiso Scriboniano Romam trahebatur. Erat ascensurus navem; Arria milites orabat, ut simul imponeretur. 'Nempe enim' inquit 'daturi estis consulari viro servolos aliquos, quorum e manu cibum capiat, a quibus vestiatur, a quibus calcietur; omnia sola praestabo.' Non impetravit: conduxit piscatoriam nauculam, ingensque navigium minimo secuta est.

7 Scribonianus had raised arms in Illyricum against Claudius; Paetus had been in the party, and, Scribonianus having been killed, he was being dragged to Rome. He was about to board a ship; Arria was begging the soldiers that she be put on together. 'Surely indeed,' she says, 'you will give to a consular man some little slaves, from whose hand he may take food, by whom he may be clothed, by whom he may be shod; I alone will provide everything.' She did not obtain it: she hired a fishing skiff, and she followed the huge ship with the tiniest craft.

Eadem apud Claudium uxori Scriboniani, cum illa profiteretur indicium, 'Ego' inquit 'te audiam, cuius in gremio Scribonianus occisus est, et vivis?' Ex quo manifestum est ei consilium pulcherrimae mortis non subitum fuisse. Quin etiam, cum Thrasea gener eius deprecaretur, ne mori pergeret, interque alia dixisset: 'Vis ergo filiam tuam, si mihi pereundum fuerit, mori mecum?', respondit: 'Si tam diu tantaque concordia vixerit tecum quam ego cum Paeto, volo.' Auxerat hoc responso curam suorum; attentius custodiebatur; sensit et 'Nihil agitis' inquit; 'potestis enim efficere ut male moriar, ut non moriar non potestis.' Dum haec dicit, exsiluit cathedra adversoque parieti caput ingenti impetu impegit et corruit. Focilata 'Dixeram' inquit 'vobis inventuram me quamlibet duram ad mortem viam, si vos facilem negassetis.' Videnturne haec tibi maiora illo 'Paete, non dolet', ad quod per haec perventum est?

The same woman, in the presence of Claudius, said to Scribonianus’s wife, when that woman was professing information: 'Am I to listen to you, in whose lap Scribonianus was slain, and you live?' From which it is manifest that her counsel of a most beautiful death was not sudden. Nay even, when Thrasea, her son-in-law, was pleading that she not persist in dying, and among other things had said: 'Do you then want your daughter, if I must perish, to die with me?', she replied: 'If she shall have lived with you for so long and with such great concord as I with Paetus, I do.' By this response she had increased the anxiety of her own; she was guarded more attentively; she perceived it and said: 'You accomplish nothing; for you can bring it about that I die badly; that I not die you cannot.' While she says this, she sprang from her chair and dashed her head with huge force against the opposite wall and fell. Revived, she said: 'I had told you I would find however hard a way to death, if you had denied me an easy one.' Do these things seem to you greater than that 'Paetus, it does not hurt,' to which through these things it was brought?

cum interim illud quidem ingens fama, haec nulla circumfert. Unde colligitur, quod initio dixi, alia esse clariora alia maiora. Vale.

while meanwhile that deed indeed is carried around by immense fame, this one by none. Whence it is inferred, as I said at the beginning, that some things are more illustrious, others greater. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS IULIO SERVIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS JULIUS SERVIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Rectene omnia, quod iam pridem epistulae tuae cessant? An omnia recte, sed occupatus es tu? An tu non occupatus, sed occasio scribendi vel rara vel nulla? 2 Exime hunc mihi scrupulum, cui par esse non possum, exime autem vel data opera tabellario misso.

1 Are all things right, since your letters have for a long time now ceased? Or are all things right, but you are occupied? Or are you not occupied, but the occasion of writing is either rare or none? 2 Remove this scruple for me, to which I cannot be equal; remove it, moreover, even on purpose by sending a courier.

Ego viaticum, ego etiam praemium dabo, nuntiet modo quod opto. 3 Ipse valeo, si valere est suspensum et anxium vivere, exspectantem in horas timentemque pro capite amicissimo, quidquid accidere homini potest. Vale.

I will provide the viaticum; I will even give a premium, only let him report what I desire. 3 For my part I am well—if it is being well to live in suspense and in anxiety, waiting from hour to hour and fearing for the life of a dearest friend, whatever can befall a man. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VIBIO SEVERO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS VIBIUS SEVERUS, SENDS GREETINGS.

1 Officium consulatus iniunxit mihi, ut rei publicae nomine principi gratias agerem. Quod ego in senatu cum ad rationem et loci et temporis ex more fecissem, bono civi convenientissimum credidi eadem illa spatiosius et uberius volumine amplecti, 2 primum ut imperatori nostro virtutes suae veris laudibus commendarentur, deinde ut futuri principes non quasi a magistro sed tamen sub exemplo praemonerentur, qua potissimum via possent ad eandem gloriam niti. 3 Nam praecipere qualis esse debeat princeps, pulchrum quidem sed onerosum ac prope superbum est; laudare vero optimum principem ac per hoc posteris velut e specula lumen quod sequantur ostendere, idem utilitatis habet arrogantiae nihil.

1 The office of the consulship enjoined upon me that, in the name of the republic, I should give thanks to the emperor. Which I, in the senate, when I had done in accordance with the propriety of both place and time, according to custom, I believed most fitting for a good citizen to embrace those same things more expansively and more abundantly in a volume, 2 first, so that our emperor’s virtues might be commended by true praises, then so that future emperors might be forewarned not as if by a master but yet by way of example, by what road especially they might be able to strive toward the same glory. 3 For to prescribe what the emperor ought to be is indeed fine, but burdensome and almost arrogant; but to praise the best emperor, and through this to show to posterity, as if from a watchtower, a light which they may follow, has the same usefulness, and nothing of arrogance.

4 Cepi autem non mediocrem voluptatem, quod hunc librum cum amicis recitare voluissem, non per codicillos, non per libellos, sed 'si commodum' et 'si valde vacaret' admoniti - numquam porro aut valde vacat Romae aut commodum est audire recitantem -, foedissimis insuper tempestatibus per biduum convenerunt, cumque modestia mea finem recitationi facere voluisset, ut adicerem tertium diem exegerunt. 5 Mihi hunc honorem habitum putem an studiis? studiis malo, quae prope exstincta refoventur.

4 I took, moreover, no mediocre pleasure, that when I had wished to give a reading of this book with my friends—not by little notes, not by pamphlets, but, being told “if it were convenient” and “if they had very much leisure” - never, moreover, does one in Rome either have very much leisure or is it convenient to listen to a reciter -, they assembled, despite the foulest tempests, for two days; and when my modesty had wished to put an end to the recitation, they insisted that I add a third day. 5 Should I think this honor was paid to me or to studies? To studies, I prefer, which, almost extinguished, are being revived.

6 At cui materiae hanc sedulitatem praestiterunt? nempe quam in senatu quoque, ubi perpeti necesse erat, gravari tamen vel puncto temporis solebamus, eandem nunc et qui recitare et qui audire triduo velint inveniuntur, non quia eloquentius quam prius, sed quia liberius ideoque etiam libentius scribitur. 7 Accedet ergo hoc quoque laudibus principis nostri, quod res antea tam invisa quam falsa, nunc ut vera ita amabilis facta est.

6 But to what subject-matter did they render this sedulity? namely that which even in the senate, where it was necessary to endure it, we were nevertheless wont to be burdened by even for a point of time; now for this same thing there are found both those who wish to recite and those who wish to listen for three days, not because it is written more eloquently than before, but because it is written more freely and therefore also more willingly. 7 This too will be added to the praises of our prince, that a matter formerly as odious as it was false has now, inasmuch as true, been made lovable.

8 Sed ego cum studium audientium tum iudicium mire probavi: animadverti enim severissima quaeque vel maxime satisfacere. 9 Memini quidem me non multis recitasse quod omnibus scripsi, nihilo minus tamen, tamquam sit eadem omnium futura sententia, hac severitate aurium laetor, ac sicut olim theatra male musicos canere docuerunt, ita nunc in spem adducor posse fieri, ut eadem theatra bene canere musicos doceant. 10 Omnes enim, qui placendi causa scribunt, qualia placere viderint scribent.

8 But I marveled at and thoroughly approved both the zeal of the hearers and their judgment: for I observed that the most severe pieces in particular gave the greatest satisfaction. 9 I do remember, indeed, that I recited to not many what I wrote for all; nonetheless, as though the same judgment of everyone were going to be forthcoming, I rejoice in this severity of ears; and just as once the theaters taught musicians to sing badly, so now I am led into hope that it may come to pass that the same theaters teach musicians to sing well. 10 For all who write for the sake of pleasing will write the kinds of things which they have seen to please.

Ac mihi quidem confido in hoc genere materiae laetioris stili constare rationem, cum ea potius quae pressius et astrictius, quam illa quae hilarius et quasi exsultantius scripsi, possint videri accersita et inducta. Non ideo tamen segnius precor, ut quandoque veniat dies - utinamque iam venerit! -, quo austeris illis severisque dulcia haec blandaque vel iusta possessione decedant.

And for my part I am confident that in this kind of subject-matter the rationale of a more cheerful style holds good, since it is rather those pieces which I wrote more compressed and more constrained than those which I wrote more merrily and, as it were, more exultantly, that can seem affected and forced. Not on that account, however, do I pray the more slackly, that some day there may come a day - would that it had already come! -, when to those austere and severe things these sweet and blandishing ones give way, even by right of just possession.

11 Habes acta mea tridui; quibus cognitis volui tantum te voluptatis absentem et studiorum nomine et meo capere, quantum praesens percipere potuisses. Vale.

11 You have the acts of my three days; upon these being known I wished you, absent, to take as much pleasure, in the name of my studies and my own, as you could have perceived if present. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CALVISIO RUFO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS CALVISIUS RUFUS, SENDS GREETINGS.

1 Assumo te in consilium rei familiaris, ut soleo. Praedia agris meis vicina atque etiam inserta venalia sunt. In his me multa sollicitant, aliqua nec minora deterrent.

1 I take you into counsel for my household estate, as I am wont. Estates neighboring to my fields and even inserted among them are for sale. In these many things solicit me; some, no less, deter.

2 Sollicitat primum ipsa pulchritudo iungendi; deinde, quod non minus utile quam voluptuosum, posse utraque eadem opera eodem viatico invisere, sub eodem procuratore ac paene isdem actoribus habere, unam villam colere et ornare, alteram tantum tueri. 3 Inest huic computationi sumptus supellectilis, sumptus atriensium topiariorum fabrorum atque etiam venatorii instrumenti; quae plurimum refert unum in locum conferas an in diversa dispergas. 4 Contra vereor ne sit incautum, rem tam magnam isdem tempestatibus isdem casibus subdere; tutius videtur incerta fortunae possessionum varietatibus experiri.

2 First, the very beauty of conjoining entices me; then, what is no less useful than voluptuous, to be able to visit both with the same effort and the same travel-stake, to have them under the same procurator and almost the same actors (i.e., agents), to cultivate and adorn one villa, to guard only the other. 3 In this computation is the expense of furniture, the expense of atrienses (hall-servants), topiary-gardeners, craftsmen, and even venatory equipment; and it makes a very great difference whether you bring these together into one place or disperse them into different places. 4 On the other hand, I fear it may be incautious to subject so great a matter to the same seasons and the same chances; it seems safer to test the uncertainties of Fortune by the diversities of holdings.

Habet etiam multum iucunditatis soli caelique mutatio, ipsaque illa peregrinatio inter sua. 5 Iam, quod deliberationis nostrae caput est, agri sunt fertiles pingues aquosi; constant campis vineis silvis, quae materiam et ex ea reditum sicut modicum ita statum praestant. 6 Sed haec felicitas terrae imbecillis cultoribus fatigatur.

There is also much delight in the mutation of soil and sky, and that very peregrination among one’s own estates. 5 Now, the chief point of our deliberation is this: the fields are fertile, rich, and well-watered; they are composed of plains, vineyards, and woods, which provide material (timber) and from it a revenue, as modest so steady. 6 But this felicity of the land is wearied by feeble cultivators.

Nam possessor prior saepius vendidit pignora, et dum reliqua colonorum minuit ad tempus, vires in posterum exhausit, quarum defectione rursus reliqua creverunt. 7 Sunt ergo instruendi, eo pluris quod frugi, mancipiis; nam nec ipse usquam vinctos habeo nec ibi quisquam. Superest ut scias quanti videantur posse emi.

For the prior possessor more often sold pledges, and while he diminished the arrears of the tenant-farmers for a time, he exhausted their forces for the future, at the failure of which the arrears again increased. 7 They must therefore be equipped with slaves, all the more valuable because frugal; for neither do I myself have chained men anywhere, nor does anyone there. It remains for you to know for how much they seem able to be bought.

Sestertio triciens, non quia non aliquando quinquagiens fuerint, verum et hac penuria colonorum et communi temporis iniquitate ut reditus agrorum sic etiam pretium retro abiit. 8 Quaeris an hoc ipsum triciens facile colligere possimus. Sum quidem prope totus in praediis, aliquid tamen fenero, nec molestum erit mutuari; accipiam a socru, cuius arca non secus ac mea utor.

For three million sesterces, not because they have not at some time been five million, but both by this penury of colonists and by the common iniquity of the time, just as the returns of the fields, so also the price has gone backward. 8 You ask whether we can easily raise this very three million. I am indeed almost wholly in landed estates; nevertheless I do lend some money at interest, nor will it be troublesome to borrow; I shall take it from my mother-in-law, whose strongbox I use no otherwise than as my own.

9 Proinde hoc te non moveat, si cetera non refragantur, quae velim quam diligentissime examines. Nam cum in omnibus rebus tum in disponendis facultatibus plurimum tibi et usus et providentiae superest. Vale.

9 Accordingly, let this not move you, if the rest do not gainsay it, which I would wish you to examine as most diligently as possible. For as in all matters, so too in the disposition of resources, there remains to you a very great measure of both experience and providence. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MAESIO MAXIMO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MAESIUS MAXIMUS, GREETING.

1 Meministine te saepe legisse, quantas contentiones excitarit lex tabellaria, quantumque ipsi latori vel gloriae vel reprehensionis attulerit? 2 At nunc in senatu sine ulla dissensione hoc idem ut optimum placuit: omnes comitiorum die tabellas postulaverunt. 3 Excesseramus sane manifestis illis apertisque suffragiis licentiam contionum.

1 Do you remember having often read how great contentions the tabellary law (ballot-law) stirred up, and how much either glory or reproach it brought to the proposer himself? 2 But now in the senate, without any dissension, this same thing was approved as the best course: on the day of the elections all demanded the ballots. 3 We had, to be sure, by those manifest and open suffrages, passed over into the license of the public assemblies.

Non tempus loquendi, non tacendi modestia, non denique sedendi dignitas custodiebatur. 4 Magni undique dissonique clamores, procurrebant omnes cum suis candidatis, multa agmina in medio multique circuli et indecora confusio; adeo desciveramus a consuetudine parentum, apud quos omnia disposita moderata tranquilla maiestatem loci pudoremque retinebant. 5 Supersunt senes ex quibus audire soleo hunc ordinem comitiorum: citato nomine candidati silentium summum; dicebat ipse pro se; explicabat vitam suam, testes et laudatores dabat vel eum sub quo militaverat, vel eum cui quaestor fuerat, vel utrumque si poterat; addebat quosdam ex suffragatoribus; illi graviter et paucis loquebantur.

Neither the time for speaking, nor the modesty of keeping silence, nor, finally, the dignity of sitting was being observed. 4 Great and dissonant shouts from all sides; all were running forward with their candidates; many ranks in the middle and many circles, and an indecorous confusion; to such a degree had we defected from the custom of our forefathers, among whom all things, disposed, moderated, tranquil, retained the majesty of the place and modesty. 5 There survive elders from whom I am accustomed to hear this order of the elections: with the candidate’s name called, the utmost silence; he himself would speak on his own behalf; he would explicate his life, he would produce witnesses and laudators—either the one under whom he had served as a soldier, or the one to whom he had been quaestor, or both if he could; he would add certain of the suffragators; they would speak gravely and in few words.

Plus hoc quam preces proderat. 6 Non numquam candidatus aut natales competitoris aut annos aut etiam mores arguebat. Audiebat senatus gravitate censoria.

This availed more than prayers. 6 Sometimes the candidate would arraign the competitor’s lineage, or his years, or even his morals. The senate listened with censorial gravity.

Ita saepius digni quam gratiosi praevalebant. 7 Quae nunc immodico favore corrupta ad tacita suffragia quasi ad remedium decucurrerunt; quod interim plane remedium fuit - erat enim novum et subitum -, 8 sed vereor ne procedente tempore ex ipso remedio vitia nascantur. Est enim periculum ne tacitis suffragiis impudentia irrepat.

Thus more often the worthy prevailed rather than the favorites. 7 Which things, now corrupted by immoderate favor, have run to silent suffrages as if to a remedy; which meanwhile was plainly a remedy—for it was new and sudden—, 8 but I fear lest, as time goes on, from the remedy itself vices may be born. For there is danger lest, with silent suffrages, impudence creep in.

Nam quoto cuique eadem honestatis cura secreto quae palam? 9 Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur. Sed nimis cito de futuris: interim beneficio tabellarum habebimus magistratus, qui maxime fieri debuerunt.

For to how many is there the same care for honesty in secret as openly? 9 Many revere reputation, few conscience. But too quickly about future things: meanwhile, by the benefit of the ballots we shall have magistrates who most ought to have been made.

Nam ut in reciperatoriis iudiciis, sic nos in his comitiis quasi repente apprehensi sinceri iudices fuimus.

For as in recuperatory trials, so in these elections we were, as if suddenly seized, sincere judges.

10 Haec tibi scripsi, primum ut aliquid novi scriberem, deinde ut non numquam de re publica loquerer, cuius materiae nobis quanto rarior quam veteribus occasio, tanto minus omittenda est. 11 Et hercule quousque illa vulgaria? 'Quid agis?

10 I have written these things to you, first so that I might write something new, then so that I might speak now and then about the commonwealth, the subject of which, the rarer the occasion for us than for the ancients, by so much the less is to be omitted. 11 And by Hercules, how long those commonplaces? 'How are you?

ecquid commode vales?' Habeant nostrae quoque litterae aliquid non humile nec sordidum, nec privatis rebus inclusum. 12 Sunt quidem cuncta sub unius arbitrio, qui pro utilitate communi solus omnium curas laboresque suscepit; quidam tamen salubri temperamento ad nos quoque velut rivi ex illo benignissimo fonte decurrunt, quos et haurire ipsi et absentibus amicis quasi ministrare epistulis possumus. Vale.

'Are you tolerably well?' Let our letters too have something not humble nor sordid, nor enclosed in private matters. 12 Indeed all things are under the arbitration of one, who for the common utility alone of all has undertaken cares and labors; yet by a healthful tempering certain things also flow down to us like rivulets from that most benignant fountain, which we ourselves can both draw and, as it were, minister by letters to absent friends. Farewell.

C. Plinius Cornelio Prisco suo s.

Gaius Pliny to his own Cornelius Priscus, greetings.

1 Audio Valerium Martialem decessisse et moleste fero. Erat homo ingeniosus acutus acer, et qui plurimum in scribendo et salis haberet et fellis nec candoris minus. 2 Prosecutus eram viatico secedentem; dederam hoc amicitiae, dederam etiam versiculis, quos de me composuit.

1 I hear that Valerius Martial has died, and I take it hard. He was a man ingenious, acute, keen, and one who in writing had very much both of salt and of gall, nor less of candor. 2 I had seen him off with a viaticum as he was retiring; I gave this to friendship, I gave it also to the little verses which he composed about me.

3 Fuit moris antiqui eos, qui vel singulorum laudes vel urbium scripserant, aut honoribus aut pecunia honorare; nostris vero temporibus ut alia speciosa et egregia ita hoc in primis exolevit. Nam postquam desiimus facere laudanda, laudari quoque ineptum putamus. 4 Quaeris, qui sint versiculi, quibus gratiam rettuli?

3 It was the custom of antiquity to honor those who had written either the praises of individuals or of cities, either with honors or with money; but in our times, as other splendid and excellent things, so this in particular has died out. For after we ceased to do praiseworthy things, we also think it inept to be praised. 4 You ask what the little verses are, with which I returned thanks?

Remitterem te ad ipsum volumen, nisi quosdam tenerem; tu, si placuerint hi, ceteros in libro requires. 5 Alloquitur Musam, mandat, ut domum meam Esquiliis quaerat, adeat reverenter:

I would send you back to the volume itself, if I did not have some on hand; you, if these please you, will look up the others in the book. 5 He addresses the Muse, he bids her to seek my house on the Esquiline, to approach it reverently:

Sed ne tempore non tuo disertam
pulses ebria ianuam videto;
totos dat tetricae dies Minervae,
dum centum studet auribus virorum
hoc, quod saecula posterique possint
Arpinis quoque comparare chartis.
Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas;
haec hora est tua, cum furit Lyaeus,
cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli.
Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.

But see to it that, drunk, you do not knock
at the eloquent door at a time not yours;
he gives whole days to dour Minerva,
while with the ears of a hundred men he studies
this which ages and posterity can even compare
to the Arpinate’s pages.
Later you will go safer by lamplight;
this is your hour, when Lyaeus rages,
when the rose reigns, when the hair is dripping.
Then let even the rigid Catos read me.

6 Meritone eum, qui haec de me scripsit, et tunc dimisi amicissime et nunc ut amicissimum defunctum esse doleo? Dedit enim mihi, quantum maximum potuit, daturus amplius, si potuisset. Tametsi, quid homini potest dari maius quam gloria et laus et aeternitas?

6 With good reason did I both then dismiss most amicably the man who wrote these things about me, and now grieve that a most dear friend is deceased? For he gave to me as much as he most could, and would have given more, if he had been able. And yet, what can be given to a man greater than glory and laud and eternity?

At non erunt aeterna, quae scripsit; non erunt fortasse, ille tamen scripsit, tamquam essent futura. Vale.

But the things which he wrote will not be eternal; perhaps they will not be, yet he wrote as if they were going to be. Farewell.