Pliny the Younger: EPISTVLARVM LIBRI DECEM

1 Cupis post longum tempus neptem tuam meque una videre. Gratum est utrique nostrum quod cupis, mutuo mehercule. 2 Nam invicem nos incredibili quodam desiderio vestri tenemur, quod non ultra differemus.

1 You desire, after a long time, to see your granddaughter and me together. What you desire is pleasing to each of us, mutually, by Hercules. 2 For in turn we are held by an incredible sort of longing for you, which we shall not defer any longer.

Atque adeo iam sarcinulas alligamus, festinaturi quantum itineris ratio permiserit. 3 Erit una sed brevis mora: deflectemus in Tuscos, non ut agros remque familiarem oculis subiciamus - id enim postponi potest -, sed ut fungamur necessario officio. 4 Oppidum est praediis nostris vicinum - nomen Tiferni Tiberini -, quod me paene adhuc puerum patronum cooptavit, tanto maiore studio quanto minore iudicio.

And indeed now we are already tying up our little packs, about to hasten as much as the plan of the itinerary will have allowed. 3 There will be one but brief delay: we shall turn aside into Tuscany, not to set before our eyes the fields and the family property—that indeed can be postponed—but to discharge a necessary office. 4 There is a town neighboring our estates—the name is Tifernum Tiberinum—which co-opted me, almost still a boy, as its patron, with so much the greater zeal as with the less judgment.

Adventus meos celebrat, profectionibus angitur, honoribus gaudet. 5 In hoc ego, ut referrem gratiam - nam vinci in amore turpissimum est -, templum pecunia mea exstruxi, cuius dedicationem, cum sit paratum, differre longius irreligiosum est. 6 Erimus ergo ibi dedicationis die, quem epulo celebrare constitui.

It celebrates my arrivals, is distressed by my departures, rejoices in honors. 5 In this, that I might return gratitude - for to be vanquished in love is most disgraceful -, I have constructed a temple at my own expense, the dedication of which, since it is ready, to defer longer is irreligious. 6 We shall therefore be there on the day of the dedication, which I have resolved to celebrate with a banquet.

Subsistemus fortasse et sequenti, sed tanto magis viam ipsam corripiemus. 7 Contingat modo te filiamque tuam fortes invenire! nam continget hilares, si nos incolumes receperitis.

We shall perhaps also halt on the following, but all the more we will hasten along the road itself. 7 Only may it befall that we find you and your daughter strong! for we shall be cheerful, if you receive us safe and sound.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ATTIO CLEMENTI SUO S.

Gaius Pliny to his Attius Clemens, greetings.

1 Regulus filium amisit, hoc uno malo indignus, quod nescio an malum putet. Erat puer acris ingenii sed ambigui, qui tamen posset recta sectari, si patrem non referret. 2 Hunc Regulus emancipavit, ut heres matris exsisteret; mancipatum - ita vulgo ex moribus hominis loquebantur - foeda et insolita parentibus indulgentiae simulatione captabat.

1 Regulus lost his son, undeserving of this one misfortune—if indeed he considers it a misfortune, which I am not sure. He was a boy of acute but ambiguous talent, who nevertheless could pursue the straight path, if he did not resemble his father. 2 This son Regulus emancipated, so that he might become heir of his mother; the mancipated boy—thus people commonly said, judging from the man’s character—he was trying to ensnare with a foul and unusual-in-parents pretense of indulgence.

Incredibile, sed Regulum cogita. 3 Amissum tamen luget insane. Habebat puer mannulos multos et iunctos et solutos, habebat canes maiores minoresque, habebat luscinias psittacos merulas: omnes Regulus circa rogum trucidavit.

Incredible, but consider Regulus. 3 Yet he laments the lost one insanely. The boy had many ponies, both yoked and unyoked; he had dogs both greater and lesser; he had nightingales, parrots, blackbirds: Regulus butchered them all around the pyre.

4 Nec dolor erat ille, sed ostentatio doloris. Convenitur ad eum mira celebritate. Cuncti detestantur oderunt, et quasi probent quasi diligant, cursant frequentant, utque breviter quod sentio enuntiem, in Regulo demerendo Regulum imitantur.

4 That was not grief, but an ostentation of grief. People resort to him with a marvelous concourse. All detest and hate him, and, as if they approved, as if they loved, they run about and frequent him; and, to state briefly what I feel, in winning over Regulus they imitate Regulus.

5 Tenet se trans Tiberim in hortis, in quibus latissimum solum porticibus immensis, ripam statuis suis occupavit, ut est in summa avaritia sumptuosus, in summa infamia gloriosus. 6 Vexat ergo civitatem insaluberrimo tempore et, quod vexat, solacium putat. Dicit se velle ducere uxorem, hoc quoque sicut alia perverse.

5 He keeps himself across the Tiber in his gardens, in which he has occupied the very broad ground with immense porticoes, and the bank with his own statues, as he is sumptuous in the height of avarice, vainglorious in the height of infamy. 6 He therefore vexes the city at a most unwholesome time and, that he vexes it, he thinks a solace. He says he wishes to take a wife—this too, like the others, perversely.

7 Audies brevi nuptias lugentis nuptias senis; quorum alterum immaturum alterum serum est. Unde hoc augurer quaeris? 8 Non quia affirmat ipse, quo mendacius nihil est, sed quia certum est Regulum esse facturum, quidquid fieri non oportet.

7 You will shortly hear of the nuptials of a mourner, the nuptials of an old man; of which the one is premature, the other belated. Whence I augur this, you ask? 8 Not because he himself affirms it, than whom nothing is more mendacious, but because it is certain that Regulus will do whatever ought not to be done.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ARRIO ANTONINO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS ARRIUS ANTONINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Quod semel atque iterum consul fuisti similis antiquis, quod proconsul Asiae qualis ante te qualis post te vix unus aut alter - non sinit enim me verecundia tua dicere nemo -, quod sanctitate quod auctoritate, aetate quoque princeps civitatis, est quidem venerabile et pulchrum; ego tamen te vel magis in remissionibus miror. 2 Nam severitatem istam pari iucunditate condire, summaeque gravitati tantum comitatis adiungere, non minus difficile quam magnum est. Id tu cum incredibili quadam suavitate sermonum, tum vel praecipue stilo assequeris.

1 That you have been consul once and again, like the ancients; that as proconsul of Asia you were such that before you and after you scarcely one or two—your modesty, indeed, does not allow me to say no one—; that by sanctity and by authority, and by age too, the princeps of the state, is indeed venerable and beautiful; yet I marvel at you even more in your remissions. 2 For to season that severity with an equal pleasantness, and to add so much comity to the highest gravity, is no less difficult than great. This you achieve both with an incredible kind of suavity of speeches, and, most of all, with your stylus.

3 Nam et loquenti tibi illa Homerici senis mella profluere et, quae scribis, complere apes floribus et innectere videntur. Ita certe sum affectus ipse, cum Graeca epigrammata tua, cum mimiambos proxime legerem. 4 Quantum ibi humanitatis venustatis, quam dulcia illa quam amantia quam arguta quam recta!

3 For even as you speak, those honeys of the Homeric old man pour forth for you, and what you write seems to have the bees fill themselves with flowers and to interweave them. I am certainly thus affected myself, when most recently I was reading your Greek epigrams and your mimiambs. 4 How much humanity, how much charm there, how sweet those, how loving, how witty, how upright!

Callimachum me vel Heroden, vel si quid his melius, tenere credebam; quorum tamen neuter utrumque aut absolvit aut attigit. 5 Hominemne Romanum tam Graece loqui? Non medius fidius ipsas Athenas tam Atticas dixerim.

I believed that I held Callimachus or Herodas, or, if anything better than these; yet neither of them has either accomplished both or even so much as touched them. 5 A Roman man to speak so Greek? By my good faith, I would not call even Athens herself so Attic.

Quid multa? Invideo Graecis quod illorum lingua scribere maluisti. Neque enim coniectura eget, quid sermone patrio exprimere possis, Cum hoc insiticio et inducto tam praeclara opera perfeceris.

Why say more? I am envious of the Greeks because you preferred to write in their language. For it has no need of conjecture, what you could express in the native speech, since with this grafted and introduced one you have accomplished such preeminent works.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS SOSIO SENECIONI SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS SOSIUS SENECIO, GREETINGS.

1 Varisidium Nepotem valdissime diligo, virum industrium rectum disertum, quod apud me vel potentissimum est. Idem C. Calvisium, contubernalem meum amicum tuum, arta propinquitate complectitur; est enim filius sororis. 2 Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem et sibi et avunculo suo facias.

1 I am most devoted to Varisidius Nepos, an industrious, upright, eloquent man—a recommendation which with me is even the most powerful. The same man embraces Gaius Calvisius, my companion-in-quarters and your friend, with close kinship; for he is the son of his sister. 2 I ask that you make this man more splendid by a six-month tribunate, both for himself and for his maternal uncle.

Obligabis me, obligabis Calvisium nostrum, obligabis ipsum, non minus idoneum debitorem quam nos putas. 3 Multa beneficia in multos contulisti: ausim contendere nullum te melius, aeque bene unum aut alterum collocasse. Vale.

You will oblige me, you will oblige our Calvisius, you will oblige him himself, a no less fit debtor than you suppose us to be. 3 You have conferred many benefactions upon many: I would dare to contend that you have collocated none better, and equally well one or two. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS IULIO SPARSO SUO S.

G. PLINY TO HIS JULIUS SPARSUS, GREETINGS.

1 Aeschinen aiunt petentibus Rhodiis legisse orationem suam, deinde Demosthenis, summis utramque clamoribus. 2 Quod tantorum virorum scriptis contigisse non miror, cum orationem meam proxime doctissimi homines hoc studio, hoc assensu, hoc etiam labore per biduum audierint, quamvis intentionem eorum nulla hinc et inde collatio, nullum quasi certamen accenderet. 3 Nam Rhodii cum ipsis orationum virtutibus tum etiam comparationis aculeis excitabantur, nostra oratio sine aemulationis gratia probabatur.

1 They say that Aeschines, at the request of the Rhodians, read his own oration, then Demosthenes’s, both with the highest shouts of applause. 2 I do not marvel that this befell the writings of men so great, since most learned men most recently listened to my oration with this zeal, this assent, even with this exertion, for two days, although no back-and-forth comparison, no as-it-were contest, kindled their attention. 3 For the Rhodians were stirred both by the very virtues of the orations and also by the goads of comparison, whereas our oration was approved without the favor of emulation.

An merito, scies cum legeris librum, cuius amplitudo non sinit me longiore epistula praeloqui. 4 Oportet enim nos in hac certe in qua possumus breves esse, quo sit excusatius quod librum ipsum, non tamen ultra causae amplitudinem, extendimus. Vale.

Whether deservedly, you will know when you have read the book, whose amplitude does not allow me to preface at greater length in a letter. 4 For it behooves us, at least in this in which we can, to be brief, so that it may be the more excusable that we have extended the book itself, yet not beyond the amplitude of the cause. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS IULIO NASONI SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS JULIUS NASO, GREETING.

1 Tusci grandine excussi, in regione Transpadana summa abundantia, sed par vilitas nuntiatur: solum mihi Laurentinum meum in reditu. 2 Nihil quidem ibi possideo praeter tectum et hortum statimque harenas, solum tamen mihi in reditu. Ibi enim plurimum scribo, nec agrum quem non habeo sed ipsum me studiis excolo; ac iam possum tibi ut aliis in locis horreum plenum, sic ibi scrinium ostendere.

1 The Tuscans, beaten out by hail; in the Transpadane region a very great abundance, but an equal cheapness, is reported: only my Laurentine place is in revenue for me. 2 I own indeed nothing there except a roof and a garden and immediately the sands; yet only that is yielding me returns. For there I write the most, and I cultivate not a field which I do not have but myself with studies; and now I can show you, as in other places a granary full, so there a book-chest full.

3 Igitur tu quoque, si certa et fructuosa praedia concupiscis, aliquid in hoc litore para. Vale.

3 Therefore you too, if you desire sure and fruitful estates, procure something on this shore. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CATIO LEPIDO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CATIUS LEPIDUS, GREETINGS.

1 Saepe tibi dico inesse vim Regulo. Mirum est quam efficiat in quod incubuit. Placuit ei lugere filium: luget ut nemo.

1 I often tell you that there is a force in Regulus. It is marvelous how he effects whatever he has set his mind upon. It pleased him to mourn his son: he mourns as no one.

Placuit statuas eius et imagines quam plurimas facere: hoc omnibus officinis agit, illum coloribus illum cera illum aere illum argento illum auro ebore marmore effingit. 2 Ipse vero nuper adhibito ingenti auditorio librum de vita eius recitavit; de vita pueri, recitavit tamen. Eundem in exemplaria mille transcriptum per totam Italiam provinciasque dimisit.

It pleased him to make as many statues and images of him as possible: he pursues this in all the workshops; he fashions him in colors, him in wax, him in bronze, him in silver, him in gold, in ivory, in marble. 2 He himself indeed recently, with a huge audience brought in, recited a book about his life; about the life of a boy, yet he recited it. The same book, transcribed into a thousand exemplars, he sent out through all Italy and the provinces.

Scripsit publice, ut a decurionibus eligeretur vocalissimus aliquis ex ipsis, qui legeret eum populo: factum est. 3 Hanc ille vim, seu quo alio nomine vocanda est intentio quidquid velis optinendi, si ad potiora vertisset, quantum boni efficere potuisset! Quamquam minor vis bonis quam malis inest, ac sicut ἀμαθία μὲν θράσος, λογισμὸς δὲ ὄκνον φέρει, ita recta ingenia debilitat verecundia, perversa confirmat audacia.

He wrote publicly that from the decurions someone most vocal be chosen from among themselves, to read it to the people: it was done. 3 This force— or by whatever other name the intention of obtaining whatever you want is to be called— if he had turned it to better things, how much good he could have effected! Although a lesser force resides in the good than in the bad, and just as ἀμαθία μὲν θράσος, λογισμὸς δὲ ὄκνον φέρει (“ignorance brings rashness, but calculation brings hesitation”), so modesty debilitates upright talents, audacity strengthens perverse ones.

4 Exemplo est Regulus. Imbecillum latus, os confusum, haesitans lingua, tardissima inventio, memoria nulla, nihil denique praeter ingenium insanum, et tamen eo impudentia ipsoque illo furore pervenit, ut orator habeatur. 5 Itaque Herennius Senecio mirifice Catonis illud de oratore in hunc e contrario vertit: 'Orator est vir malus dicendi imperitus.' Non mehercule Cato ipse tam bene verum oratorem quam hic Regulum expressit.

4 Regulus is the example. A feeble chest, a confused mouth, a halting tongue, the slowest invention, no memory, nothing, in fine, except an insane genius—and yet by that impudence and by that very fury he has attained to be held an orator. 5 And so Herennius Senecio wonderfully turned that saying of Cato about the orator, conversely, against this man: ‘An orator is a bad man unskilled in speaking.’ Not, by Hercules, did Cato himself express the true orator so well as this man expressed Regulus.

6 Habesne quo tali epistulae parem gratiam referas? Habes, si scripseris num aliquis in municipio vestro ex sodalibus meis, num etiam ipse tu hunc luctuosum Reguli librum ut circulator in foro legeris, ἐπάρας scilicet, ut ait Demosthenes, τὴν φωνὴν καὶ γεγηθὼς καὶ λαρυγγίζων. 7 Est enim tam ineptus ut risum magis possit exprimere quam gemitum: credas non de puero scriptum sed a puero. Vale.

6 Have you any way to repay such an epistle with an equal favor? You have, if you will write whether anyone in your municipality from among my associates, whether even you yourself, have read this lugubrious book of Regulus like a mountebank in the forum, ἐπάρας, of course, as Demosthenes says, τὴν φωνὴν καὶ γεγηθὼς καὶ λαρυγγίζων. 7 For it is so inept that it can draw forth laughter rather than a groan: you would think it written not about a boy but by a boy. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MATURO ARRIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MATURUS ARRIANUS, GREETING.

1 Gratularis mihi quod acceperim auguratum: iure, gratularis, primum quod gravissimi principis iudicium in minoribus etiam rebus consequi pulchrum est, deinde quod sacerdotium ipsum cum priscum et religiosum tum hoc quoque sacrum plane et insigne est, quod non adimitur viventi. 2 Nam alia quamquam dignitate propemodum paria ut tribuuntur sic auferuntur; in hoc fortunae hactenus licet ut dari possit. 3 Mihi vero illud etiam gratulatione dignum videtur, quod successi Iulio Frontino principi viro, qui me nominationis die per hos continuos annos inter sacerdotes nominabat, tamquam in locum suum cooptaret; quod nunc eventus ita comprobavit, ut non fortuitum videretur.

1 You congratulate me that I have received the augurate: rightly you congratulate, first because it is fine to attain the judgment of a most grave prince even in lesser matters, then because the priesthood itself, both ancient and religious, and in this respect also plainly sacred and eminent, is such that it is not taken away from one while living. 2 For other honors, although nearly equal in dignity, are granted only to be taken away likewise; in this one fortune is permitted thus far, that it can be given. 3 To me indeed this also seems worthy of congratulation, that I have succeeded Julius Frontinus, a man of first rank, who on the day of nomination through these successive years used to nominate me among the priests, as though he were co‑opting me into his own place; which outcome has now so confirmed that it did not seem fortuitous.

4 Te quidem, ut scribis, ob hoc maxime delectat auguratus meus, quod M. Tullius augur fuit. Laetaris enim quod honoribus eius insistam, quem aemulari in studiis cupio. 5 Sed utinam ut sacerdotium idem, ut consulatum multo etiam iuvenior quam ille sum consecutus, ita senex saltem ingenium eius aliqua ex parte assequi possim!

4 You indeed, as you write, are especially delighted at my augurship, because M. Tullius was an augur. For you rejoice that I shall tread in the honors of him whom I desire to emulate in studies. 5 But would that, as I have obtained the same priesthood, and the consulate even much younger than he, so at least as an old man I might be able to attain his genius in some part!

6 Sed nimirum quae sunt in manu hominum et mihi et multis contigerunt; illud vero ut adipisci arduum sic etiam sperare nimium est, quod dari non nisi a dis potest. Vale.

6 But assuredly the things that are in the hand of men have befallen both me and many; that, however, is as arduous to acquire as even to hope for is too much, since it can be given by none save the gods. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CORNELIO URSO SUO S.

Gaius Pliny to his Cornelius Ursus, greeting.

1 Causam per hos dies dixit Iulius Bassus, homo laboriosus et adversis suis clarus. Accusatus est sub Vespasiano a privatis duobus; ad senatum remissus diu pependit, tandem absolutus vindicatusque. 2 Titum timuit ut Domitiani amicus, a Domitiano relegatus est; revocatus a Nerva sortitusque Bithyniam rediit reus, accusatus non minus acriter quam fideliter defensus.

1 During these days Julius Bassus pleaded his case, a hardworking man and renowned for his adversities. He was accused under Vespasian by two private individuals; remanded to the senate, he long hung in the balance, at last acquitted and vindicated. 2 He feared Titus, as a friend of Domitian; he was relegated by Domitian; recalled by Nerva and allotted Bithynia, he returned as a defendant, accused no less acrimoniously than he was faithfully defended.

Varias sententias habuit, plures tamen quasi mitiores. 3 Egit contra eum Pomponius Rufus, vir paratus et vehemens; Rufo successit Theophanes, unus ex legatis, fax accusationis et origo. 4 Respondi ego.

He had various opinions, yet more, as it were, the milder ones. 3 Pomponius Rufus, a prepared and vehement man, acted against him; to Rufus there succeeded Theophanes, one of the legates, the torch and origin of the accusation. 4 I replied.

Nam mihi Bassus iniunxerat, totius defensionis fundamenta iacerem, dicerem de ornamentis suis quae illi et ex generis claritate et ex periculis ipsis magna erant, 5 dicerem de conspiratione delatorum quam in quaestu habebant, dicerem causas quibus factiosissimum quemque ut illum ipsum Theophanen offendisset. Eundem me volverat occurrere crimini quo maxime premebatur. In aliis enim quamvis auditu gravioribus non absolutionem modo verum etiam laudem merebatur; 6 hoc illum onerabat quod homo simplex et incautus quaedam a provincialibus ut amicus acceperat - nam fuerat in eadem provincia quaestor -. Haec accusatores furta ac rapinas, ipse munera vocabat.

For Bassus had enjoined upon me that I lay the foundations of the whole defense, that I speak about his ornaments, which were great to him both from the distinction of his lineage and from the dangers themselves, 5 that I speak about the conspiracy of the delators, which they held as a source of profit, that I speak of the causes whereby he had offended each of the most factious men, even that Theophanes himself. He had likewise wished me to forestall the charge by which he was most pressed. For in the others, although heavier to hear, he deserved not only acquittal but even praise; 6 this weighed upon him, that, being a simple and incautious man, he had received certain things from provincials as a friend — for he had been quaestor in the same province. These the accusers called thefts and rapine; he himself called them gifts.

Sed lex munera quoque accipi vetat. 7 Hic ego quid agerem, quod iter defensionis ingrederer? Negarem?

But the law also forbids gifts to be accepted. 7 Here, what was I to do, by what path of defense should I enter? Should I deny it?

Verebar ne plane furtum videretur, quod confiteri timerem. Praeterea rem manifestam infitiari augentis erat crimen non diluentis, praesertim cum reus ipse nihil integrum advocatis reliquisset. Multis enim atque etiam principi dixerat, sola se munuscula dumtaxat natali suo aut Saturnalibus accepisse et plerisque misisse.

I was afraid lest that which I feared to confess would seem plainly theft. Moreover, to deny a manifest matter was the part of one augmenting the charge, not diluting it, especially since the defendant himself had left nothing intact for the advocates. For he had said to many, and even to the emperor, that he had accepted only little gifts, merely on his birthday or at the Saturnalia, and had sent to many.

8 Veniam ergo peterem? Iugulassem reum, quem ita deliquisse concederem, ut servari nisi venia non posset. Tamquam recte factum tuerer?

8 Should I then seek pardon? I would have cut the defendant’s throat, whom I would concede to have delinquented to such a degree that he could not be preserved except by pardon. Should I defend it as rightly done?

Non illi profuissem, sed ipse impudens exstitissem. 9 In hac difficultate placuit medium quiddam tenere: videor tenuisse.

I would not have been of use to him, but I myself would have stood forth as impudent. 9 In this difficulty it pleased me to hold a certain middle course: I seem to have held it.

Actionem meam, ut proelia solet, nox diremit. Egeram horis tribus et dimidia, supererat sesquihora. Nam cum e lege accusator sex horas, novem reus accepisset, ita diviserat tempora reus inter me et eum qui dicturus post erat, ut ego quinque horis ille reliquis uteretur.

Night sundered my action, as it is wont to do battles. I had carried it on for three and a half hours; there remained an hour and a half. For since by law the accuser had received 6 hours, the defendant 9, the defendant had thus divided the times between me and the one who was to speak afterward, that I should use 5 hours, and he the remaining.

10 Mihi successus actionis silentium finemque suadebat; temerarium est enim secundis non esse contentum. Ad hoc verebar ne me corporis vires iterato labore desererent, quem difficilius est repetere quam iungere. 11 Erat etiam periculum ne reliqua actio mea et frigus ut deposita et taedium ut resumpta pateretur.

10 The success of the action urged me to silence and to an end; for it is rash not to be content with favorable things. In addition I was afraid lest the strength of my body should desert me under repeated labor, which is harder to resume than to join. 11 There was also a danger lest the remaining part of my action suffer both a chill, as having been laid aside, and a tedium, as having been taken up again.

UT enim faces ignem assidua concussione custodiunt, dimissum aegerrime reparant, sic et dicentis calor et audientis intentio continuatione servatur, intercapedine et quasi remissione languescit. 12 Sed Bassus multis precibus, paene etiam lacrimis obsecrabat, implerem meum tempus. Parui utilitatemque eius praetuli meae.

FOR just as torches keep the fire by assiduous shaking, and, once let go, they with the utmost difficulty restore it, so too the speaker’s heat and the hearer’s attention are preserved by continuation, but by an interval and, as it were, a remission they grow languid. 12 But Bassus with many entreaties, almost even with tears, was beseeching that I fill my allotted time. I obeyed and preferred his utility to my own.

Bene cessit: inveni ita erectos animos senatus, ita recentes, ut priore actione incitati magis quam satiati viderentur. 13 Successit mihi Lucceius Albinus, tam apte ut orationes nostrae varietatem duarum, contextum unius habuisse credantur. 14 Respondit Herennius Pollio instanter et graviter, deinde Theophanes rursus.

It turned out well: I found the spirits of the senate so raised, so fresh, that by the earlier action they seemed to be incited rather than satiated. 13 Lucceius Albinus succeeded me, so aptly that our speeches are believed to have had the variety of two, the contexture of one. 14 Herennius Pollio replied insistently and gravely, then Theophanes in turn.

Fecit enim hoc quoque ut cetera impudentissime, quod post duos et consulares et disertos tempus sibi et quidem laxius vindicavit. Dixit in noctem atque etiam nocte illatis lucernis. 15 Postero die egerunt pro Basso Homullus et Fronto mirifice; quartum diem probationes occuparunt.

For he did this too, like the rest, most impudently: after two men both consular and eloquent, he claimed time for himself—and indeed a more ample one. He spoke into the night, and even at night, with lamps brought in. 15 On the following day Homullus and Fronto pleaded marvelously for Bassus; the proofs occupied the fourth day.

16 Censuit Baebius Macer consul designatus lege repetundarum Bassum teneri, Caepio Hispo salva dignitate iudices dandos; uterque recte. 17 'Qui fieri potest' inquis, 'cum tam diversa censuerint?' Quia scilicet et Macro legem intuenti consentaneum fuit damnare eum qui contra legem munera acceperat, et Caepio cum putaret licere senatui - sicut licet - et mitigare leges et intendere, non sine ratione veniam dedit facto vetito quidem, non tamen inusitato. 18 Praevaluit sententia Caepionis, quin immo consurgenti ei ad censendum acclamatum est, quod solet residentibus.

16 Baebius Macer, consul-designate, opined that Bassus was held by the law of extortions; Caepio Hispo that judges should be appointed, with his dignity preserved: each rightly. 17 'How can that be,' you ask, 'since they delivered such diverse opinions?' Because, plainly, for Macer, looking to the law, it was congruent to condemn him who had accepted gifts contrary to the law; and for Caepio, since he thought it was permitted to the senate—as it is—to both mitigate laws and tighten them, he not without reason granted pardon to an act indeed forbidden, yet not unprecedented. 18 The opinion of Caepio prevailed; nay rather, as he rose to give his opinion, there was an acclamation for him, which is usually accorded to those who are sitting.

Ex quo potes aestimare, quanto consensu sit exceptum, cum diceret, quod tam favorabile fuit cum dicturus videretur. 19 Sunt tamen ut in senatu ita in civitate in duas partes hominum iudicia divisa. Nam quibus sententia Caepionis placuit, sententiam Macri ut rigidam duramque reprehendunt; quibus Macri, illam alteram dissolutam atque etiam incongruentem vocant; negant enim congruens esse retinere in senatu, cui iudices dederis.

From this you can estimate with what consensus it was received, when he spoke, a thing that was so favorable even when he merely seemed about to speak. 19 Nevertheless, as in the senate so in the citizenry, men’s judgments are divided into two parties. For those to whom Caepio’s opinion was pleasing criticize Macer’s opinion as rigid and hard; those to whom Macer’s was pleasing call the other one loose and even incongruent; for they say it is not congruent to retain in the senate the man to whom you have given judges.

20 Fuit et tertia sententia: Valerius Paulinus assensus Caepioni hoc amplius censuit, referendum de Theophane cum legationem renuntiasset. Arguebatur enim multa in accusatione fecisse, quae illa ipsa lege qua Bassum accusaverat tenerentur. 21 Sed hanc sententiam consules, quamquam maximae parti senatus mire probabatur, non sunt persecuti.

20 There was also a third opinion: Valerius Paulinus, assenting to Caepio, judged this further, that it should be referred concerning Theophanes once he had renounced his legation. For he was being charged with having done many things in the accusation which would be subject to that very law by which he had accused Bassus. 21 But this opinion the consuls did not pursue, although it was marvelously approved by the greatest part of the senate.

22 Paulinus tamen et iustitiae famam et constantiae tulit. Misso senatu Bassus magna hominum frequentia, magno clamore, magno gaudio exceptus est. Fecerat eum favorabilem renovata discriminum vetus fama, notumque periculis nomen, et in procero corpore maesta et squalida senectus.

22 Paulinus, nevertheless, won both a reputation for justice and for constancy. With the senate dismissed, Bassus was received with a great throng of people, with great clamor, with great joy. The old fame of his crises, renewed, and a name made known by dangers, and, in a tall frame, a mournful and squalid old age, had made him a favorite.

23 Habebis hanc interim epistulam ut πρόδρομον, exspectabis orationem plenam onustamque. Exspectabis diu; neque enim leviter et cursim, ut de re tanta retractanda est. Vale.

23 You will have this epistle for the time being as a forerunner; you will await an oration full and laden. You will wait long; for it is not to be treated lightly and cursorily, since so great a matter must be taken up again. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS STATIO SABINO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS STATIUS SABINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Scribis mihi Sabinam, quae nos reliquit heredes, Modestum servum suum nusquam liberum esse iussisse, eidem tamen sic ascripsisse legatum: 'Modesto quem liberum esse iussi'. 2 Quaeris quid sentiam. Contuli cum peritis iuris. Convenit inter omnes nec libertatem deberi quia non sit data, nec legatum quia servo suo dederit.

1 You write to me that Sabina, who left us as heirs, ordered that Modestus, her slave, be free nowhere; yet to the same man she thus appended a legacy: 'To Modestus, whom I ordered to be free.' 2 You ask what I think. I have conferred with experts of law. It is agreed among all that neither is freedom owed, because it was not granted, nor the legacy, because she gave it to her own slave.

Sed mihi manifestus error videtur, ideoque puto nobis quasi scripserit Sabina faciendum, quod ipsa scripsisse se credidit. 3 Confido accessurum te sententiae meae, cum religiosissime soleas custodire defunctorum voluntatem, quam bonis heredibus intellexisse pro iure est. Neque enim minus apud nos honestas quam apud alios necessitas valet.

But to me a manifest error appears, and therefore I think we must do, as though Sabina had written, what she believed herself to have written. 3 I am confident you will come over to my opinion, since you are most religiously accustomed to guard the will of the deceased, which, for good heirs, to have understood is as law. For among us honor has no less force than necessity has among others.

4 Moretur ergo in libertate sinentibus nobis, fruatur legato quasi omnia diligentissime caverit. Cavit enim, quae heredes bene elegit. Vale.

4 Let him therefore remain in liberty, we permitting; let him enjoy the legacy as if she had most diligently provided for everything. For she did provide, who chose heirs well. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CORNELIO MINICIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CORNELIUS MINICIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Audistine Valerium Licinianum in Sicilia profiteri? nondum te puto audisse: est enim recens nuntius. Praetorius hic modo inter eloquentissimos causarum actores habebatur; nunc eo decidit, ut exsul de senatore, rhetor de oratore fieret.

1 Have you heard that Valerius Licinianus is professing in Sicily? I do not think you have heard yet: for the news is recent. This man of praetorian rank was only lately counted among the most eloquent pleaders of causes; now he has fallen to this point, that from a senator he has become an exile, from an orator a rhetor.

2 Itaque ipse in praefatione dixit dolenter et graviter: 'Quos tibi, Fortuna, ludos facis? facis enim ex senatoribus professores, ex professoribus senatores.' Cui sententiae tantum bilis, tantum amaritudinis inest, ut mihi videatur ideo professus ut hoc diceret. 3 Idem cum Graeco pallio amictus intrasset - carent enim togae iure, quibus aqua et igni interdictum est -, postquam se composuit circumspexitque habitum suum, 'Latine' inquit 'declamaturus sum.' 4 Dices tristia et miseranda, dignum tamen illum qui haec ipsa studia incesti scelere macularit.

2 And so he himself said in the preface, painfully and gravely: 'What games do you play, Fortune? for you do indeed make out of senators professors, out of professors senators.' In which sententia there is so much bile, so much bitterness, that he seems to me to have professed for this reason, in order to say this. 3 The same man, when he had entered wrapped in a Greek pallium - for those to whom water and fire have been interdicted lack the right to the toga -, after he composed himself and looked around at his attire, said, 'I am going to declaim in Latin.' 4 You will say things sad and pitiable; yet he is worthy who has stained these very studies with the crime of incest.

5 Confessus est quidem incestum, sed incertum utrum quia verum erat, an quia graviora metuebat si negasset. Fremebat enim Domitianus aestuabatque in ingenti invidia destitutus. 6 Nam cum Corneliam Vestalium maximam defodere vivam concupisset, ut qui illustrari saeculum suum eiusmodi exemplis arbitraretur, pontificis maximi iure, seu potius immanitate tyranni licentia domini, reliquos pontifices non in Regiam sed in Albanam villam convocavit.

5 He did confess incest, but it is uncertain whether because it was true, or because he feared heavier charges if he had denied it. For Domitian was raging and seething, abandoned amid immense public ill-will. 6 For when he had conceived a desire to bury alive Cornelia, the chief of the Vestals, as one who thought that his age should be made illustrious by examples of this sort, by the right of the pontifex maximus—or rather by the savagery of a tyrant, the license of a master—he summoned the remaining pontiffs not to the Regia but to the Alban villa.

Nec minore scelere quam quod ulcisci videbatur, absentem inauditamque damnavit incesti, cum ipse fratris filiam incesto non polluisset solum verum etiam occidisset; nam vidua abortu periit. 7 Missi statim pontifices qui defodiendam necandamque curarent. Illa nunc ad Vestam, nunc ad ceteros deos manus tendens, multa sed hoc frequentissime clamitabat: 'Me Caesar incestam putat, qua sacra faciente vicit triumphavit!' 8 Blandiens haec an irridens, ex fiducia sui an ex contemptu principis dixerit, dubium est.

Nor with a crime no less than that which he seemed to avenge, he condemned, absent and unheard, of incest, although he himself had not only defiled with incest his brother’s daughter but had even killed her; for, a widow, she perished by an abortion. 7 Straightway pontiffs were sent to see to her being buried alive and put to death. She, now stretching her hands to Vesta, now to the other gods, cried out many things but this most frequently: ‘Caesar deems me guilty of incest, by whom, while I performed the sacred rites, he has conquered and triumphed!’ 8 Whether she said these things in blandishment or in derision, from confidence in herself or from contempt of the emperor, is doubtful.

Dixit donec ad supplicium, nescio an innocens, certe tamquam innocens ducta est. 9 Quin etiam cum in illud subterraneum demitteretur, haesissetque descendenti stola, vertit se ac recollegit, cumque ei manum carnifex daret, aversata est et resiluit foedumque contactum quasi plane a casto puroque corpore novissima sanctitate reiecit omnibusque numeris pudoris πολλὴν πρόνοιαν ἔσχεν εὐσχήμων πεσεῖν. 10 Praeterea Celer eques Romanus, cui Cornelia obiciebatur, cum in comitio virgis caederetur, in hac voce perstiterat: 'Quid feci? nihil feci.' 11 Ardebat ergo Domitianus et crudelitatis et iniquitatis infamia.

She spoke until to the punishment she was led, I know not whether innocent, certainly as if innocent. 9 And even when she was being lowered into that subterranean place, and her stola had stuck as she descended, she turned and gathered it up; and when the executioner offered her his hand, she refused it and recoiled, and rejected the foul contact, as if quite plainly from a chaste and pure body, with an ultimate sanctity; and in every measure of modesty she had much forethought to fall in seemly fashion. 10 Moreover, Celer, a Roman knight, against whom Cornelia was being alleged, when he was being beaten with rods in the Comitium, had persisted in this utterance: 'What have I done? I have done nothing.' 11 Therefore Domitian burned with the infamy both of cruelty and of iniquity.

Arripit Licinianum, quod in agris suis occultasset Corneliae libertam. Ille ab iis quibus erat curae praemonetur, si comitium et virgas pati nollet, ad confessionem confugeret quasi ad veniam. Fecit.

He seizes Licinianus, because he had concealed Cornelia’s freedwoman on his own lands. He is forewarned by those to whom he was a concern that, if he did not wish to suffer the Comitium and the rods, he should flee to confession as if to a pardon. He did so.

12 Locutus est pro absente Herennius Senecio tale quiddam, quale est illud: κεῖται . . . πάτροκλος. Ait enim: 'Ex advocato nuntius factus sum; Licinianus recessit.' 13 Gratum hoc Domitiano adeo quidem ut gaudio proderetur, diceretque: 'Absolvit nos Licinianus.' Adiecit etiam non esse verecundiae eius instandum; ipsi vero permisit, si qua posset, ex rebus suis raperet, antequam bona publicarentur, exsiliumque molle velut praemium dedit. 14 Ex quo tamen postea clementia divi Nervae translatus est in Siciliam, ubi nunc profitetur seque de fortuna praefationibus vindicat.

12 Herennius Senecio spoke on behalf of the absent man something of the sort of that line: “lies . . . Patroclus.” For he said: 'From an advocate I have been made a messenger; Licinianus has withdrawn.' 13 This was pleasing to Domitian, indeed to such a degree that he was betrayed by his joy, and he said: 'Licinianus has absolved us.' He added also that one should not press upon his modesty; and he even permitted him, if he could, to snatch from his own goods whatever he could before the property was confiscated, and he gave a gentle exile as if a reward. 14 From this, however, afterward, by the clemency of the deified Nerva, he was transferred to Sicily, where now he professes and in prefaces vindicates himself concerning his fortune.

15 Vides quam obsequenter paream tibi, qui non solum res urbanas verum etiam peregrinas tam sedulo scribo, ut altius repetam. Et sane putabam te, quia tunc afuisti, nihil aliud de Liciniano audisse quam relegatum ob incestum. Summam enim rerum nuntiat fama non ordinem.

15 You see how obsequiously I comply with you, in that I write not only urban matters but even foreign ones so sedulously as to go back further. And indeed I was thinking that you, since you were away then, had heard nothing else about Licinianus than that he had been relegated on account of incest. For fame announces the sum of things, not the order.

16 Mereor ut vicissim, quid in oppido tuo, quid in finitimis agatur - solent enim quaedam notabilia incidere - perscribas, denique quidquid voles dum modo non minus longa epistula nuntia. Ego non paginas tantum sed versus etiam syllabasque numerabo. Vale.

16 I deserve that, in turn, you write out in full what is being done in your town, what in the neighboring places - for certain notable things are wont to occur - and finally whatever you please, provided only that you report it in a letter no less long. I will count not only the pages but even the lines and the syllables. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MATURO ARRIANO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MATURUS ARRIANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Amas Egnatium Marcellinum atque etiam mihi saepe commendas; amabis magis commendabisque, si cognoveris eius recens factum. 2 Cum in provinciam quaestor exisset, scribamque qui sorte obtigerat ante legitimum salarii tempus amisisset, quod acceperat scribae daturus, intellexit et statuit subsidere apud se non oportere. 3 Itaque reversus Caesarem, deinde Caesare auctore senatum consuluit, quid fieri de salario vellet.

1 You love Egnatius Marcellinus and even often commend him to me; you will love and commend him more, if you come to know his recent deed. 2 When he had gone out into the province as quaestor, and had lost the scribe who had fallen to him by lot before the lawful time of the salary, he realized that the pay which he had received to give to the scribe ought not to settle and remain with himself, and he so resolved. 3 Therefore, having returned, he consulted Caesar, then, with Caesar as author, he consulted the senate as to what it wished to be done about the salary.

Parva quaestio sed tamen quaestio. Heredes scribae sibi, praefecti aerari populo vindicabant. 4 Acta causa est; dixit heredum advocatus, deinde populi, uterque percommode.

A small question, but nevertheless a question. The heirs of the scribe were claiming it for themselves, the prefects of the treasury for the people. 4 The case was argued; the advocate of the heirs spoke, then that of the people, each very ably.

Caecilius Strabo aerario censuit inferendum, Baebius Macer heredibus dandum: obtinuit Strabo. 5 Tu lauda Marcellinum, ut ego statim feci. Quamvis enim abunde sufficiat illi quod est et a principe et a senatu probatus, gaudebit tamen testimonio tuo.

Caecilius Strabo judged that it should be paid into the aerarium, Baebius Macer that it should be given to the heirs: Strabo prevailed. 5 You, praise Marcellinus, as I did at once. For although it amply suffices him that he has been approved both by the Princeps and by the Senate, yet he will rejoice at your testimony.

6 Omnes enim, qui gloria famaque ducuntur, mirum in modum assensio et laus a minoribus etiam profecta delectat. Te vero Marcellinus ita veretur ut iudicio tuo plurimum tribuat. 7 Accedit his quod, si cognoverit factum suum isto usque penetrasse, necesse est laudis suae spatio et cursu et peregrinatione laetetur.

6 For all who are led by glory and fame, assent and praise, even when proceeding from inferiors, delight in a remarkable manner. Marcellinus, for his part, so reveres you that he attributes very much to your judgment. 7 To these there is added this: that, if he learns that his deed has penetrated thus far, he must rejoice at the space and course and peregrination of his praise.

Etenim nescio quo pacto vel magis homines iuvat gloria lata quam magna. Vale.

For indeed, somehow men are delighted more by glory widespread than by great. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CORNELIO TACITO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS CORNELIUS TACITUS, GREETINGS.

1 Salvum in urbem venisse gaudeo; venisti autem, si quando alias, nunc maxime mihi desideratus. Ipse pauculis adhuc diebus in Tusculano commorabor, ut opusculum quod est in manibus absolvam. 2 Vereor enim ne, si hanc intentionem iam in fine laxavero, aegre resumam.

1 I rejoice that you have come safe into the city; and you have come, if ever at other times, now most desired by me. I myself will sojourn for a few days yet at my Tusculan villa, so that I may complete the opuscule which is in hand. 2 For I fear lest, if I relax this intention now at the end, I shall with difficulty resume it.

Interim ne quid festinationi meae pereat, quod sum praesens petiturus, hac quasi praecursoria epistula rogo. Sed prius accipe causas rogandi, deinde ipsum quod peto.

Meanwhile, lest anything be lost to my haste, what I am going to ask in person, I make the request by this, as it were, precursory letter. But first receive the causes of my asking, then the very thing that I seek.

3 Proxime cum in patria mea fui, venit ad me salutandum municipis mei filius praetextatus. Huic ego 'Studes?' inquam. Respondit: 'Etiam.' 'Ubi?' 'Mediolani.' 'Cur non hic?' Et pater eius - erat enim una atque etiam ipse adduxerat puerum -: 'Quia nullos hic praeceptores habemus.' 4 'Quare nullos?

3 Most recently, when I was in my native country, there came to me to pay respects the son of my fellow townsman, a boy in the praetexta. To him I say, 'Do you study?' He replied: 'Yes.' 'Where?' 'At Mediolanum.' 'Why not here?' And his father — for he was there as well and had even himself brought the boy —: 'Because we have no preceptors here.' 4 'Why none?

Nam vehementer intererat vestra, qui patres estis' - et opportune complures patres audiebant - 'liberos vestros hic potissimum discere. Ubi enim aut iucundius morarentur quam in patria aut pudicius continerentur quam sub oculis parentum aut minore sumptu quam domi? 5 Quantulum est ergo collata pecunia conducere praeceptores, quodque nunc in habitationes, in viatica, in ea quae peregre emuntur - omnia autem peregre emuntur - impenditis, adicere mercedibus?

For it was strongly to your interest, you who are fathers' - and opportunely several fathers were listening - 'that your children should learn here most of all. For where would they either stay more agreeably than in their fatherland, or be kept more chastely than under the eyes of their parents, or at less expense than at home? 5 How small a thing is it, then, with money pooled to hire preceptors, and to add to the stipends what you now expend on habitations, on travel-allowances, on the things that are bought abroad - and, indeed, everything is bought abroad - ?

Atque adeo ego, qui nondum liberos habeo, paratus sum pro re publica nostra, quasi pro filia vel parente, tertiam partem eius quod conferre vobis placebit dare. 6 Totum etiam pollicerer, nisi timerem ne hoc munus meum quandoque ambitu corrumperetur, ut accidere multis in locis video, in quibus praeceptores publice conducuntur. 7 Huic vitio occurri uno remedio potest, si parentibus solis ius conducendi relinquatur, isdemque religio recte iudicandi necessitate collationis addatur.

And indeed I, who do not yet have children, am prepared, for our republic—as if for a daughter or a parent—to give a third part of that which it will please you to contribute. 6 I would even promise the whole, were I not afraid lest this my gift should at some time be corrupted by ambition/canvassing, as I see happen in many places where preceptors are hired publicly. 7 This vice can be met by one remedy: if the right of hiring be left to the parents alone, and to these same there be added a conscientious obligation of judging rightly by the necessity of their contribution.

8 Nam qui fortasse de alieno neglegentes, certe de suo diligentes erunt dabuntque operam, ne a me pecuniam non nisi dignus accipiat, si accepturus et ab ipsis erit. 9 Proinde consentite conspirate maioremque animum ex meo sumite, qui cupio esse quam plurimum, quod debeam conferre. Nihil honestius praestare liberis vestris, nihil gratius patriae potestis.

8 For those who perhaps are negligent about another’s, certainly about their own will be diligent, and they will give effort that no one receive money from me unless worthy, if he is going to receive it also from themselves. 9 Therefore consent, conspire, and take a greater spirit from mine, I who desire there to be as much as possible which I ought to confer. You can bestow nothing more honorable upon your children, nothing more grateful to the fatherland.

Educentur hic qui hic nascuntur, statimque ab infantia natale solum amare frequentare consuescant. Atque utinam tam claros praeceptores inducatis, ut in finitimis oppidis studia hinc petantur, utque nunc liberi vestri aliena in loca ita mox alieni in hunc locum confluant!'

Let those who are born here be brought up here, and straightway from infancy let them become accustomed to love and to frequent their native soil. And would that you bring in such illustrious preceptors, that in the neighboring towns studies may be sought from here, and that as now your children go into foreign places, so soon may foreigners flow together into this place!'

10 Haec putavi altius et quasi a fonte repetenda, quo magis scires, quam gratum mihi foret si susciperes quod iniungo. Iniungo autem et pro rei magnitudine rogo, ut ex copia studiosorum, quae ad te ex admiratione ingenii tui convenit, circumspicias praeceptores, quos sollicitare possimus, sub ea tamen condicione ne cui fidem meam obstringam. Omnia enim libera parentibus servo: illi iudicent illi eligant, ego mihi curam tantum et impendium vindico.

10 I thought these matters needed to be taken up more deeply and, as it were, from the fountain-head, so that you might the more know how welcome to me it would be if you would undertake what I enjoin. I do enjoin it, and, in proportion to the magnitude of the affair, I also ask, that from the abundance of the studious, which convenes to you out of admiration for your genius, you look around for instructors whom we might be able to solicit, yet under this condition, that I bind my good faith to no one. For I keep all things free for the parents: let them judge, let them choose; I claim for myself only the care and the expenditure.

11 Proinde si quis fuerit repertus, qui ingenio suo fidat, eat illuc ea lege ut hinc nihil aliud certum quam fiduciam suam ferat. Vale.

11 Therefore, if anyone shall have been found who trusts in his own ingenuity, let him go thither on this condition, that he carry from here nothing else certain than his own confidence. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS [DECIMO] PATERNO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS PATERNUS, [DECIMUS], GREETINGS.

1 Tu fortasse orationem, ut soles, et flagitas et exspectas; at ego quasi ex aliqua peregrina delicataque merce lusus meos tibi prodo. 2 Accipies cum hac epistula hendecasyllabos nostros, quibus nos in vehiculo in balineo inter cenam oblectamus otium temporis. 3 His iocamur ludimus amamus dolemus querimur irascimur, describimus aliquid modo pressius modo elatius, atque ipsa varietate temptamus efficere, ut alia aliis quaedam fortasse omnibus placeant.

1 You perhaps, as you are wont, both demand and expect a speech; but I, as if out of some foreign and delicate merchandise, bring out my amusements for you. 2 You will receive with this letter our hendecasyllables, with which we in the vehicle, in the bath, during dinner, entertain the leisure of the time. 3 With these we jest, we play, we love, we grieve, we complain, we grow irate; we describe something now more compressed, now more elevated; and by the variety itself we try to effect that some things please some, and certain things perhaps all.

4 Ex quibus tamen si non nulla tibi petulantiora paulo videbuntur, erit eruditionis tuae cogitare summos illos et gravissimos viros qui talia scripserunt non modo lascivia rerum, sed ne verbis quidem nudis abstinuisse; quae nos refugimus, non quia severiores - unde enim? -, sed quia timidiores sumus. 5 Scimus alioqui huius opusculi illam esse verissimam legem, quam Catullus expressit:

4 From which, however, if some few shall seem to you a little more petulant, it will be of your erudition to consider that those very greatest and most grave men who wrote such things abstained not only not from the lasciviousness of the subject-matter, but not even from naked words; which things we shun, not because we are severer—whence indeed?—but because we are more timid. 5 We know, moreover, that for this little work that law is most true, which Catullus expressed:

Nam castum esse decet pium poetam
ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est,
qui tunc denique habent salem et leporem
si sunt molliculi et parum pudici.

For it befits that the pious poet be chaste
himself; his little verses need not be at all,
which then, and only then, have salt and charm
if they are a bit soft and not very modest.

6 Ego quanti faciam iudicium tuum, vel ex hoc potes aestimare, quod malui omnia a te pensitari quam electa laudari. Et sane quae sunt commodissima desinunt videri, cum paria esse coeperunt. 7 Praeterea sapiens subtilisque lector debet non diversis conferre diversa, sed singula expendere, nec deterius alio putare quod est in suo genere perfectum.

6 How highly I value your judgment, you can estimate even from this: that I preferred everything to be weighed by you rather than selected pieces to be praised. And indeed those things which are most convenient cease to seem so, when they have begun to have equals. 7 Moreover, a wise and subtle reader ought not to compare disparate things with disparate things, but to weigh each singly, nor to think worse, by reference to another, that which is perfect in its own kind.

8 Sed quid ego plura? Nam longa praefatione vel excusare vel commendare ineptias ineptissimum est. Unum illud praedicendum videtur, cogitare me has meas nugas ita inscribere 'hendecasyllabi', qui titulus sola metri lege constringitur.

8 But why should I say more? For by a long preface to either excuse or commend ineptitudes is most inept. One thing only seems to be to be proclaimed: that I think to entitle these trifles of mine thus, 'hendecasyllables', which title is constrained by the law of meter alone.

9 Proinde, sive epigrammata sive idyllia sive eclogas sive, ut multi, poematia seu quod aliud vocare malueris, licebit voces; ego tantum hendecasyllabos praesto. 10 A simplicitate tua peto, quod de libello meo dicturus es alii, mihi dicas; neque est difficile quod postulo. Nam si hoc opusculum nostrum aut potissimum esset aut solum, fortasse posset durum videri dicere: 'Quaere quod agas'; molle et humanum est: 'Habes quod agas.' Vale.

9 Accordingly, whether epigrams or idylls or eclogues or, as many, poemlets, or whatever else you prefer to call them, you may so call them; I provide only hendecasyllables. 10 From your simplicity I ask that what you are going to say to another about my little book, you say to me; nor is what I ask difficult. For if this little work of ours were either the chief one or the only one, perhaps it could seem harsh to say: 'Seek something to do'; it is gentle and humane: 'You have something to do.' Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MINICIO FUNDANO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS OWN MINICIUS FUNDANUS, GREETINGS.

1 Si quid omnino, hoc certe iudicio facio, quod Asinium Rufum singulariter amo. Est homo eximius et bonorum amantissimus. Cur enim non me quoque inter bonos numerem?

1 If anything at all, I certainly do this by judgment: that I singularly love Asinius Rufus. He is an eximious man and a most ardent lover of the good. For why should I not number myself among the good as well?

Idem Cornelium Tacitum - scis quem virum - arta familiaritate complexus est. 2 Proinde si utrumque nostrum probas, de Rufo quoque necesse est idem sentias, cum sit ad conectendas amicitias vel tenacissimum vinculum morum similitudo. 3 Sunt ei liberi plures.

The same man has embraced Cornelius Tacitus - you know what a man - with close intimacy. 2 Accordingly, if you approve both of us, you must feel the same about Rufus as well, since the similitude of morals is the most tenacious bond for connecting friendships. 3 He has several children.

Nam in hoc quoque functus est optimi civis officio, quod fecunditate uxoris large frui voluit, eo saeculo quo plerisque etiam singulos filios orbitatis praemia graves faciunt. Quibus ille despectis, avi quoque nomen assumpsit. Est enim avus, et quidem ex Saturio Firmo, quem diliges ut ego si ut ego propius inspexeris.

For in this too he has fulfilled the office of a most excellent citizen, in that he wished to enjoy abundantly the fecundity of his wife, in that age in which for very many even single sons make the rewards of childlessness burdensome. These things looked down upon, he even assumed the name of grandfather. For he is a grandfather, and indeed by Saturius Firmus, whom you will love as I do if, as I, you look more closely.

4 Haec eo pertinent, ut scias quam copiosam, quam numerosam domum uno beneficio sis obligaturus; ad quod petendum voto primum, deinde bono quodam omine adducimur. 5 Optamus enim tibi ominamurque in proximum annum consulatum: ita nos virtutes tuae, ita iudicia principis augurari volunt. 6 Concurrit autem ut sit eodem anno quaestor maximus ex liberis Rufi, Asinius Bassus, iuvenis - nescio an dicam, quod me pater et sentire et dicere cupit, adulescentis verecundia vetat - ipso patre melior.

4 These things tend to this, that you may know how copious, how numerous a household you are going to bind by a single benefaction; to petition for which we are led, first by a vow, then by a certain good omen. 5 For we wish you and we augur for you the consulship in the coming year: so do your virtues, so do the judgments of the princeps, bid us to augur. 6 And it coincides that in the same year the senior quaestor from among Rufus’s children, Asinius Bassus, a young man—I do not know whether I should say, which his father wishes me both to feel and to say, the modesty of a youth forbids—is better than his father himself.

7 Difficile est ut mihi de absente credas - quamquam credere soles omnia -, tantum in illo industriae probitatis eruditionis ingenii studii memoriae denique esse, quantum expertus invenies. 8 Vellem tam ferax saeculum bonis artibus haberemus, ut aliquos Basso praeferre deberes: tum ego te primus hortarer moneremque, circumferres oculos ac diu pensitares, quem potissimum eligeres. 9 Nunc vero - sed nihil volo de amico meo arrogantius dicere; hoc solum dico, dignum esse iuvenem quem more maiorum in filii locum assumas.

7 It is difficult that you believe me about one absent—although you are accustomed to believe everything—that there is in him so much of industry, probity, erudition, ingenuity, zeal, and finally memory, as you will find upon experience. 8 I would that we had an age so fecund in good arts, that you ought to prefer some to Bassus: then I would be the first to exhort and admonish you to cast your eyes around and weigh for a long time whom you would choose as the most preferable. 9 Now indeed - but I wish to say nothing more arrogant about my friend; this alone I say, that the young man is worthy to be assumed, according to the custom of the ancestors, into the place of a son.

Debent autem sapientes viri, ut tu, tales quasi liberos a re publica accipere, quales a natura solemus optare. 10 Decorus erit tibi consuli quaestor patre praetorio, propinquis consularibus, quibus iudicio ipsorum, quamquam asulescentulus adhuc, iam tamen invicem ornamento est. 11 Proinde indulge precibus meis, obsequere consilio, et ante omnia si festinare videor ignosce, primum quia votis suis amor plerumque praecurrit; deinde quod in ea civitate, in qua omnia quasi ab occupantibus aguntur, quae legitimum tempus exspectant, non matura sed sera sunt; in summa quod rerum, quas assequi cupias, praesumptio ipsa iucunda est.

Wise men, moreover, as you, ought to receive from the Republic such as, as it were, children, such as we are wont to wish from nature. 10 There will be for you, as consul, a seemly quaestor, with a praetorian father, with consular kinsmen, to whom, by their own judgment, although still rather a youth, he is nevertheless already in turn an ornament. 11 Therefore indulge my entreaties, defer to my counsel, and before all, if I seem to hasten, forgive, first because affection commonly outruns its own wishes; next, because in that city, in which all things are, as it were, transacted by the first occupiers, the things which await their lawful time are not timely but late; in sum, because the very anticipation of the things you desire to attain is delightful.

12 Revereatur iam te Bassus ut consulem, tu dilige illum ut quaestorem, nos denique utriusque vestrum amantissimi laetitia duplici perfruamur. 13 Etenim cum sic te, sic Bassum diligamus, ut et illum cuiuscumque et tuum quemcumque quaestorem in petendis honoribus omni ope labore gratia simus iuvaturi, perquam iucundum nobis erit, si in eundem iuvenem studium nostrum et amicitiae meae et consulatus tui ratio contulerit, si denique precibus meis tu potissimum adiutor accesseris, cuius et suffragio senatus libentissime indulgeat et testimonio plurimum credat. Vale.

12 Let Bassus now revere you as consul, do you cherish him as quaestor, and let us, finally, most loving of you both, enjoy a double joy to the full. 13 For since we so cherish you and so cherish Bassus, that we are ready to aid with every help, labor, and favor both him, of whomever he be quaestor, and yours, whoever he may be, in seeking honors, it will be very pleasant for us if both the consideration of my friendship and the consideration of your consulship shall have directed our zeal to the same young man—if, finally, to my prayers you most of all shall have come as a helper, one at whose suffrage the senate most willingly yields and to whose testimony it gives the greatest credence. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VALERIO PAULINO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS VALERIUS PAULINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Gaude meo, gaude tuo, gaude etiam publico nomine: adhuc honor studiis durat. Proxime cum dicturus apud centumviros essem, adeundi mihi locus nisi a tribunali, nisi per ipsos iudices non fuit; tanta stipatione cetera tenebantur. 2 Ad hoc quidam ornatus adulescens scissis tunicis, ut in frequentia solet fieri, sola velatus toga perstitit et quidem horis septem.

1 Rejoice for me, rejoice for yourself, rejoice also in the public’s name: still honor for studies endures. Most recently, when I was about to speak before the centumviri, there was for me no way to approach except from the tribunal, except through the judges themselves; so great a press held the rest. 2 In addition, a certain well-dressed youth, his tunics torn, as is wont to happen in a crowd, remained veiled only with his toga—and for seven hours at that.

3 Nam tam diu dixi magno cum labore, maiore cum fructu. Studeamus ergo nec desidiae nostrae praetendamus alienam. Sunt qui audiant, sunt qui legant, nos modo dignum aliquid auribus dignum chartis elaboremus.

3 For I spoke for so long with great labor, with greater fruit. Let us therefore be studious, and let us not put forward someone else’s as a pretext for our own idleness. There are those to listen, there are those to read; let us only elaborate something worthy of ears, worthy of pages.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CLUSINIO GALLO SUO S.

Gaius Pliny to his Clusinian Gallus, greeting.

1 Et admones et rogas, ut suscipiam causam Corelliae absentis contra C. Caecilium consulem designatum. Quod admones, gratias ago; quod rogas, queror. Admoneri enim debeo ut sciam, rogari non debeo ut faciam, quod mihi non facere turpissimum est.

1 You both admonish and ask me to undertake the cause of the absent Corellia against C. Caecilius, consul designate. For your admonishing, I give thanks; for your asking, I complain. For I ought to be admonished so that I may know, I ought not to be asked so that I may do, what it would be most disgraceful for me not to do.

2 An ego tueri Corelli filiam dubitem? Est quidem mihi cum isto, contra quem me advocas, non plane familiaris sed tamen amicitia. 3 Accedit huc dignitas hominis atque hic ipse cui destinatus est honor, cuius nobis hoc maior agenda reverentia est, quod iam illo functi sumus.

2 Am I to hesitate to protect Corellius’s daughter? There is indeed between me and that man, against whom you summon me as advocate, not exactly familiarity, yet nonetheless friendship. 3 Moreover, there is added here the dignity of the man and this very person for whom the honor is destined, toward whom a greater reverence is to be paid by us, because we have already discharged that office.

Naturale est enim ut ea, quae quis adeptus est ipse, quam amplissima existimari velit. 4 Sed mihi cogitanti adfuturum me Corelli filiae omnia ista frigida et inania videntur. Obversatur oculis ille vir quo neminem aetas nostra graviorem sanctiorem subtiliorem tulit, quem ego cum ex admiratione diligere coepissem, quod evenire contra solet, magis admiratus sum postquam penitus inspexi.

For it is natural that the things which someone has himself obtained he should wish to be esteemed as the most ample. 4 But as I consider that I am to be present to Corellius’s daughter, all those things seem cold and empty. There comes before my eyes that man, than whom our age has brought forth no one more grave, more saintly, more subtle; whom, when I had begun to love out of admiration—which, contrary to what is wont to happen—I admired the more after I had inspected him thoroughly.

5 Inspexi enim penitus: nihil a me ille secretum, non ioculare non serium, non triste non laetum. 6 Adulescentulus eram, et iam mihi ab illo honor atque etiam - audebo dicere - reverentia ut aequali habebatur. Ille meus in petendis honoribus suffragator et testis, ille in incohandis deductor et comes, ille in gerendis consiliator et rector, ille denique in omnibus officiis nostris, quamquam et imbecillus et senior, quasi iuvenis et validus conspiciebatur.

5 For I inspected him thoroughly: nothing did he keep secret from me—neither jocular nor serious, neither sad nor glad. 6 I was a very young man, and already by him honor and even - I will dare to say - reverence was held toward me as toward an equal. He was my suffragator and witness in seeking honors, he my conductor and companion in initiating them, he my counselor and director in administering them, he, finally, in all our duties, although both feeble and elder, was beheld as if young and strong.

7 Quantum ille famae meae domi in publico, quantum etiam apud principem astruxit! 8 Nam cum forte de bonis iuvenibus apud Nervam imperatorem sermo incidisset, et plerique me laudibus ferrent, paulisper se intra silentium tenuit, quod illi plurimum auctoritatis addebat; deinde gravitate quam noras: 'Necesse est' inquit 'parcius laudem Secundum, quia nihil nisi ex consilio meo facit.' 9 Qua voce tribuit mihi quantum petere voto immodicum erat, nihil me facere non sapientissime, cum omnia ex consilio sapientissimi viri facerem. Quin etiam moriens filiae suae - ipsa solet praedicare -: 'Multos quidem amicos tibi ut longiore vita paravi, praecipuos tamen Secundum et Cornutum.

7 How much did he build up my reputation at home and in public, how much even with the princeps! 8 For when by chance talk had fallen, in the presence of the Emperor Nerva, about good young men, and many were carrying me forth with praises, he held himself for a little while within silence, which added very much authority to him; then, with the gravity you knew: "It is necessary," he said, "to praise Secundus more sparingly, because he does nothing except by my counsel." 9 By this utterance he bestowed on me as much as it would have been immoderate to seek by a vow: that I do nothing not most wisely, since I did everything by the counsel of a most wise man. Nay even, as he was dying, to his daughter — she herself is wont to proclaim it —: 'I have indeed prepared many friends for you by the longer span of my life; yet the chief ones, Secundus and Cornutus.'

10 Quod cum recordor, intellego mihi laborandum, ne qua parte videar hanc de me fiduciam providentissimi viri destituisse. 11 Quare ego vero Corelliae adero promptissime nec subire offensas recusabo; quamquam non solum veniam me verum etiam laudem apud istum ipsum, a quo - ut ais - nova lis fortasse ut feminae intenditur, arbitror consecuturum, si haec eadem in actione, latius scilicet et uberius quam epistularum angustiae sinunt, vel in excusationem vel etiam commendationem meam dixero. Vale.

10 When I recall this, I understand that I must labor, lest in any respect I seem to have failed the confidence in me of a most provident man. 11 Wherefore I indeed will be most promptly present for Corellia, nor will I refuse to undergo offenses; although I think I shall obtain for myself not only pardon but even laud from that very person by whom—as you say—a new suit perhaps is being brought, as against a woman, if in the action I say these same things, more broadly and more abundantly, of course, than the narrowness of epistles allows, either in excuse or even in commendation of myself. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ARRIO ANTONINO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS ARRIUS ANTONINUS, GREETINGS.

1 Quemadmodum magis approbare tibi possum, quanto opere mirer epigrammata tua Graeca, quam quod quaedam Latine aemulari et exprimere temptavi? in deterius tamen. Accidit hoc primum imbecillitate ingenii mei, deinde inopia ac potius, ut Lucretius ait, egestate patrii sermonis.

1 How can I better attest to you how greatly I marvel at your Greek epigrams than by the fact that I have tried to emulate and express some in Latin? Yet to worse effect. This happens, first, from the weakness of my genius, then from the poverty—or rather, as Lucretius says, the destitution—of the native speech.

2 Quodsi haec, quae sunt et Latina et mea, habere tibi aliquid venustatis videbuntur, quantum putas inesse iis gratiae, quae et a te et Graece proferuntur! Vale.

2 If these, which are both Latin and my own, seem to you to have some charm, how much grace do you think there is in those which are proffered both by you and in Greek! Farewell.

C. PLINIUS CALPURNIAE HISPULLAE SUAE S.

C. PLINIUS TO HIS CALPURNIA HISPULLA, HIS, GREETING.

1 Cum sis pietatis exemplum, fratremque optimum et amantissimum tui pari caritate dilexeris, filiamque eius ut tuam diligas, nec tantum amitae ei affectum verum etiam patris amissi repraesentes, non dubito maximo tibi gaudio fore cum cognoveris dignam patre dignam te dignam avo evadere. 2 Summum est acumen summa frugalitas; amat me, quod castitatis indicium est. Accedit his studium litterarum, quod ex mei caritate concepit.

1 Since you are an exemplar of piety, and have loved your brother—most excellent and most loving toward you—with equal affection, and love his daughter as your own, and you present to her not only an aunt’s affection but even that of the father lost, I do not doubt it will be to you a very great joy when you learn that she turns out worthy of her father, worthy of you, worthy of her grandfather. 2 There is highest acumen, highest frugality; she loves me, which is an indication of chastity. To these is added a zeal for letters, which she has conceived from her love for me.

Meos libellos habet lectitat ediscit etiam. 3 Qua illa sollicitudine cum videor acturus, quanto cum egi gaudio afficitur! Disponit qui nuntient sibi quem assensum quos clamores excitarim, quem eventum iudicii tulerim.

She has my little booklets; she reads them frequently; she even learns them by heart. 3 With what solicitude she is filled when I seem about to plead, with how great joy she is affected when I have pled! She arranges people to announce to her what assent, what clamors I have stirred up, what outcome of the judgment I have carried.

Eadem, si quando recito, in proximo discreta velo sedet, laudesque nostras avidissimis auribus excipit. 4 Versus quidem meos cantat etiam formatque cithara non artifice aliquo docente, sed amore qui magister est optimus. 5 His ex causis in spem certissimam adducor, perpetuam nobis maioremque in dies futuram esse concordiam.

The same, whenever I recite, sits nearby, separated by a veil, and catches our praises with most avid ears. 4 She even sings my verses and shapes them on the cithara, not with some artificer instructing, but by love, which is the best teacher. 5 From these causes I am brought into the most certain hope that there will be for us a concord perpetual and growing greater day by day.

Non enim aetatem meam aut corpus, quae paulatim occidunt ac senescunt, sed gloriam diligit. 6 Nec aliud decet tuis manibus educatam, tuis praeceptis institutam, quae nihil in contubernio tuo viderit, nisi sanctum honestumque, quae denique amare me ex tua praedicatione consueverit. 7 Nam cum matrem meam parentis loco vererere, me a pueritia statim formare laudare, talemque qualis nunc uxori meae videor, ominari solebas.

For she loves not my age nor my body, which little by little die away and grow old, but my glory. 6 Nor is anything else fitting for one brought up by your hands, instituted by your precepts, who has seen nothing in your companionship except what is sacred and honorable, who, finally, has become accustomed to love me from your commendation. 7 For when you used to revere my mother in the place of a parent, you were accustomed from my boyhood at once to shape and to praise me, and to augur that I would be such as I now seem to my wife.

8 Certatim ergo tibi gratias agimus, ego quod illam mihi, illa quod me sibi dederis, quasi invicem elegeris. Vale.

8 Therefore with emulous zeal we give thanks to you, I because you have given her to me, she because you have given me to herself, as if you had chosen us for one another. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS NOVIO MAXIMO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS NOVIUS MAXIMUS, GREETINGS.

1 Quid senserim de singulis tuis libris, notum tibi ut quemque perlegeram feci; accipe nunc quid de universis generaliter iudicem. 2 Est opus pulchrum validum acre sublime, varium elegans purum figuratum, spatiosum etiam et cum magna tua laude diffusum, in quo tu ingenii simul dolorisque velis latissime vectus es; et horum utrumque invicem adiumento fuit. 3 Nam dolori sublimitatem et magnificentiam ingenium, ingenio vim et amaritudinem dolor addidit.

1 What I thought about each of your individual books, I made known to you as I read through each; receive now what I judge generally about the whole. 2 It is a work beautiful, strong, sharp, sublime, various, elegant, pure, figured, spacious too and, to your great credit, diffuse, in which you have been carried far and wide with the sails of both talent and grief; and each of these was in turn a help to the other. 3 For genius added loftiness and magnificence to grief, and grief added force and bitterness to genius.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VELIO CERIALI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS VELIUS CERIALIS, GREETINGS.

1 Tristem et acerbum casum Helvidiarum sororum! Utraque a partu, utraque filiam enixa decessit. 2 Afficior dolore, nec tamen supra modum doleo: ita mihi luctuosum videtur, quod puellas honestissimas in flore primo fecunditas abstulit.

1 A sad and bitter calamity of the Helvidian sisters! Each died from childbirth, each, having borne a daughter, departed. 2 I am affected with grief, nor yet do I grieve beyond measure: thus it seems mournful to me that fecundity has carried off the most honorable girls in their first flower.

Angor infantium sorte, quae sunt parentibus statim et dum nascuntur orbatae, angor optimorum maritorum, angor etiam meo nomine. 3 Nam patrem illarum defunctum quoque perseverantissime diligo, ut actione mea librisque testatum est; cui nunc unus ex tribus liberis superest, domumque pluribus adminiculis paulo ante fundatam desolatus fulcit ac sustinet. 4 Magno tamen fomento dolor meus acquiescit, si hunc saltem fortem et incolumem, paremque illi patri illi avo fortuna servaverit.

I am anguished at the lot of the infants, who are bereft of their parents immediately, even while they are being born; I am anguished for the best of husbands; I am anguished also on my own account. 3 For I also most perseveringly cherish their defunct father, as has been attested by my action and by my books; to whom now one out of three children survives, and, desolated, he props and sustains the house which a little before had been founded with more adminicles. 4 Yet with great alleviation my grief acquiesces, if at least Fortune will preserve this one strong and unharmed, and equal to that father, that grandfather.

Cuius ego pro salute pro moribus, hoc sum magis anxius quod unicus factus est. 5 Nosti in amore mollitiam animi mei, nosti metus; quo minus te mirari oportebit, quod plurimum timeam, de quo plurimum spero. Vale.

On whose behalf, for his safety and for his morals, I am the more anxious for this reason, that he has become the only one. 5 You know the softness of my mind in love, you know my fears; so much the less ought you to wonder that I fear most about that of which I hope most. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS SEMPRONIO RUFO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS SEMPRONIUS RUFUS, GREETING.

1 Interfui principis optimi cognitioni in consilium assumptus. Gymnicus agon apud Viennenses ex cuiusdam testamento celebratur. Hunc Trebonius Rufinus, vir egregius nobisque amicus, in duumviratu tollendum abolendumque curavit.

1 I was present at the judicial hearing of the best prince, having been taken into the council. A gymnic agon at Vienne is celebrated by a certain person’s will. This Trebonius Rufinus, a distinguished man and our friend, during his duumvirate saw to be removed and abolished.

2 Negabatur ex auctoritate publica fecisse. Egit ipse causam non minus feliciter quam diserte. Commendabat actionem, quod tamquam homo Romanus et bonus civis in negotio suo mature et graviter loquebatur.

2 It was denied that he had acted by public authority. He himself pleaded the cause no less felicitously than eloquently. This commended the action, because, as a Roman man and a good citizen, he spoke in his own business with maturity and gravity.

3 Cum sententiae perrogarentur, dixit Iunius Mauricus, quo viro nihil firmius nihil verius, non esse restituendum Viennensibus agona; adiecit 'Vellem etiam Romae tolli posset.' 4 Constanter, inquis, et fortiter; quidni? sed hoc a Maurico novum non est. Idem apud imperatorem Nervam non minus fortiter.

3 When the opinions were being called for, Junius Mauricus—than which man nothing is firmer, nothing truer—said that the agon should not be restored to the people of Vienne; he added, 'I would that it could be abolished even at Rome.' 4 Steadfastly, you say, and bravely; why not? but this from Mauricus is nothing new. He did the same before the emperor Nerva, no less bravely.

Cenabat Nerva cum paucis; Veiento proximus atque etiam in sinu recumbebat: dixi omnia cum hominem nominavi. 5 Incidit sermo de Catullo Messalino, qui luminibus orbatus ingenio saevo mala caecitatis addiderat: non verebatur, non erubescebat, non miserebatur; quo saepius a Domitiano non secus ac tela, quae et ipsa caeca et improvida feruntur, in optimum quemque contorquebatur. 6 De huius nequitia sanguinariisque sententiis in commune omnes super cenam loquebantur, cum ipse imperator: 'Quid putamus passurum fuisse si viveret?' Et Mauricus: 'Nobiscum cenaret.' 7 Longius abii, libens tamen.

Nerva was dining with a few; Veiento was nearest and even reclining in his bosom: I have said everything when I named the man. 5 The talk fell upon Catullus Messalinus, who, bereft of his eyes, had added to the evils of blindness a savage temper: he did not feel awe, he did not blush, he did not pity; wherefore the more often by Domitian, no differently than missiles, which themselves too are blind and improvident, he was hurled against each of the best men. 6 About this man’s wickedness and bloodthirsty sentences all together were speaking over dinner, when the emperor himself said: “What do we think he would have suffered if he were alive?” And Mauricus: “He would be dining with us.” 7 I have gone rather too far, yet gladly.

Placuit agona tolli, qui mores Viennensium infecerat, ut noster hic omnium. Nam Viennensium vitia intra ipsos residunt, nostra late vagantur, utque in corporibus sic in imperio gravissimus est morbus, qui a capite diffunditur. Vale.

It was resolved to remove the agon, which had infected the morals of the Viennenses, as our one here—that of all—has. For the vices of the Viennenses remain within themselves; ours wander far and wide; and as in bodies, so in an empire the most grievous disease is that which spreads from the head. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS POMPONIO BASSO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS POMPONIUS BASSUS, GREETINGS.

1 Magnam cepi voluptatem, cum ex communibus amicis cognovi te, ut sapientia tua dignum est, et disponere otium et ferre, habitare amoenissime, et nunc terra nunc mari corpus agitare, multum disputare, multum audire multum lectitare, cumque plurimum scias, cotidie tamen aliquid addiscere. 2 Ita senescere oportet virum, qui magistratus amplissimos gesserit, exercitus rexerit, totumque se rei publicae quam diu decebat obtulerit. 3 Nam et prima vitae tempora et media patriae, extrema nobis impertire debemus, ut ipsae leges monent, quae maiorem annis otio reddunt.

1 I took great pleasure, when from our common friends I learned that you, as is worthy of your sapience, both dispose leisure and bear it, dwell most delightfully, and now on land now at sea exercise your body, dispute much, listen much, read much, and although you know very much, yet every day learn something in addition. 2 Thus ought a man to grow old, who has borne the most ample magistracies, has directed armies, and has offered himself wholly to the commonwealth as long as was seemly. 3 For we ought to impart both the first periods of life and the middle to the fatherland, and the last to ourselves, as the laws themselves admonish, which render back those greater in years to leisure.

4 Quando mihi licebit, quando per aetatem honestum erit imitari istud pulcherrimae quietis exemplum? quando secessus mei non desidiae nomen sed tranquillitatis accipient? Vale.

4 When will it be permitted to me, when, by reason of age, will it be honorable to imitate that exemplar of most beautiful repose? when will my retreats receive the name not of idleness but of tranquility? Farewell.

C. PLINIUS FABIO VALENTI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS FABIUS VALENS, GREETING.

1 Proxime cum apud centumviros in quadruplici iudicio dixissem, subiit recordatio egisse me iuvenem aeque in quadruplici. 2 Processit animus ut solet longius: coepi reputare quos in hoc iudicio, quos in illo socios laboris habuissem. Solus eram qui in utroque dixissem: tantas conversiones aut fragilitas mortalitatis aut fortunae mobilitas facit.

1 Most recently, when I had spoken before the centumviral court in a quadruple suit, the recollection came to me that as a young man I had likewise pleaded in a quadruple one. 2 My mind went forward, as it is wont, farther: I began to reckon whom in this suit, whom in that, I had had as associates in the labor. I was the only one who had spoken in both: such great changes are wrought either by the fragility of mortality or the mobility of fortune.

3 Quidam ex iis qui tunc egerant decesserunt, exsulant alii; huic aetas et valetudo silentium suasit, hic sponte beatissimo otio fruitur; alius exercitum regit, illum civilibus officiis principis amicitia exemit. 4 Circa nos ipsos quam multa mutata sunt! Studiis processimus, studiis periclitati sumus, rursusque processimus: 5 profuerunt nobis bonorum amicitiae, bonorum obfuerunt iterumque prosunt.

3 Some of those who then pleaded have died, others are in exile; to this man age and health have urged silence, this one of his own accord enjoys most-blessed leisure; another commands an army, that one the friendship of the prince has exempted from civil duties. 4 Around ourselves how many things have been changed! By studies we have advanced, by studies we have been put in peril, and again we have advanced: 5 the friendships of good men have profited us, good men have been a hindrance, and once more they profit us.

Si computes annos, exiguum tempus, si vices rerum, aevum putes; 6 quod potest esse documento nihil desperare, nulli rei fidere, cum videamus tot varietates tam volubili orbe circumagi. 7 Mihi autem familiare est omnes cogitationes meas tecum communicare, isdemque te vel praeceptis vel exemplis monere, quibus ipse me moneo; quae ratio huius epistulae fuit. Vale.

If you compute by years, a scant time; if by the vicissitudes of things, you would think an age; 6 which can serve as a proof to despair of nothing and to put faith in no affair, since we see so many varieties being whirled around in so rolling an orb. 7 But it is my familiar habit to share all my thoughts with you, and to admonish you by the same precepts or examples by which I admonish myself; this was the reason of this letter. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MAESIO MAXIMO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MAESIUS MAXIMUS, GREETINGS.

1 Scripseram tibi verendum esse, ne ex tacitis suffragiis vitium aliquod exsisteret. Factum est. Proximis comitiis in quibusdam tabellis multa iocularia atque etiam foeda dictu, in una vero pro candidatorum nominibus suffragatorum nomina inventa sunt.

1 I had written to you that it was to be feared, lest from secret suffrages some defect might arise. It has happened. At the most recent elections, on certain ballots many jocular things and even things foul to say, and on one indeed, in place of the names of the candidates, the names of the voters were found.

2 Excanduit senatus magnoque clamore ei qui scripsisset iratum principem est comprecatus. Ille tamen fefellit et latuit, fortasse etiam inter indignantes fuit. 3 Quid hunc putamus domi facere, qui in tanta re tam serio tempore tam scurriliter ludat, qui denique omnino in senatu dicax et urbanus et bellus est?

2 The senate was inflamed, and with a great outcry called down the emperor’s anger upon the one who had written. He, however, eluded notice and kept hidden, perhaps even was among the indignant. 3 What do we suppose this fellow does at home, who in so great a matter at so serious a time plays the buffoon so scurrilously, who, finally, is altogether in the senate witty and urbane and charming?

4 Tantum licentiae pravis ingeniis adicit illa fiducia: 'quis enim sciet?' Poposcit tabellas, stilum accepit, demisit caput, neminem veretur, se contemnit. 5 Inde ista ludibria scaena et pulpito digna. Quo te vertas?

4 So much license does that fiducia add to perverse wits: 'for who indeed will know?' He demanded the tablets, took up the stylus, lowered his head, fears no one, despises himself. 5 Thence those ludicrous mockeries, worthy of the scene and the pulpit. Where are you to turn?

quae remedia conquiras? Ubique vitia remediis fortiora. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα τῷ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς μελήσει, cui multum cotidie vigiliarum, multum laboris adicit haec nostra iners et tamen effrenata petulantia.

what remedies should you seek out? everywhere vices are stronger than remedies. But these things will be a concern to the One on our behalf, to whom our own inert and yet unbridled petulance adds daily much of vigils and much of labor.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS MAECILIO NEPOTI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS MAECILIUS NEPOS, GREETINGS.

1 Petis ut libellos meos, quos studiosissime comparasti, recognoscendos emendandosque curem. Faciam. Quid enim suscipere libentius debeo, te praesertim exigente?

1 You ask that I take care that my little books, which you have most studiously procured, be reviewed and emended. I shall do so. For what ought I to undertake more willingly, especially with you exacting it?

2 Nam cum vir gravissimus doctissimus disertissimus, super haec occupatissimus, maximae provinciae praefuturus, tanti putes scripta nostra circumferre tecum, quanto opere mihi providendum est, ne te haec pars sarcinarum tamquam supervacua offendat! 3 Adnitar ergo, primum ut comites istos quam commodissimos habeas, deinde ut reversus invenias, quos istis addere velis. Neque enim mediocriter me ad nova opera tu lector hortaris.

2 For since you—a man most grave, most learned, most eloquent, and beyond these most occupied—destined to preside over a very great province, think it of such value to carry my writings with you, with how great care must I provide, lest this part of your baggage offend you as superfluous! 3 I will therefore strive, first, that you may have those companions as commodious as possible; then, that on your return you may find some whom you may wish to add to those. For you, as a reader, urge me not moderately to new works.

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS POMPEIO FALCONI SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS POMPEIUS FALCO, GREETINGS.

1 Tertius dies est quod audivi recitantem Sentium Augurinum cum summa mea voluptate, immo etiam admiratione. Poematia appellat. Multa tenuiter multa sublimiter, multa venuste multa tenere, multa dulciter multa cum bile.

1 It is the third day since I heard Sentius Augurinus reciting, with my highest pleasure—nay, even admiration. He calls them “little poems.” Many things delicately, many things sublimely; many things charmingly, many things tenderly; many things sweetly, many things with bile.

2 Aliquot annis puto nihil generis eiusdem absolutius scriptum, nisi forte me fallit aut amor eius aut quod ipsum me laudibus vexit. 3 Nam lemma sibi sumpsit, quod ego interdum versibus ludo. Atque adeo iudicii mei te iudicem faciam, si mihi ex hoc ipso lemmate secundus versus occurrerit; nam ceteros teneo et iam explicui.

2 For several years I think nothing of the same kind has been written more consummately, unless perhaps either my love for him deceives me or because he himself has carried me away with praises. 3 For he took as a lemma that with which I sometimes play in verses. And indeed I will make you the judge of my judgment, if the second verse from this very lemma should occur to me; for the rest I hold and have now unfolded.

4 Canto carmina versibus minutis,
his olim quibus et meus Catullus
et Calvus veteresque. Sed quid ad me?
Unus Plinius est mihi priores:
mavult versiculos foro relicto
et quaerit quod amet, putatque amari.
Ille o Plinius, ille quot Catones!

4 I sing songs in minute verses,
with those once with which both my Catullus
and Calvus and the ancients. But what is that to me?
For me one Pliny stands before the men of old:
he prefers versicles, the forum left behind,
and seeks what he may love, and thinks himself loved.
That Pliny—oh Pliny, that one—how many Catos!

I nunc, quisquis amas, amare noli.

Go now, whosoever loves, do not love.

5 Vides quam acuta omnia quam apta quam expressa. Ad hunc gustum totum librum repromitto, quem tibi ut primum publicaverit exhibebo. Interim ama iuvenem et temporibus nostris gratulare pro ingenio tali, quod ille moribus adornat.

5 You see how acute everything is, how apt, how expressed. To this taste I re-promise the whole book, which, as soon as he will have published it, I will present to you. Meanwhile love the young man and congratulate our times for such a talent, which he adorns with morals.

Vivit cum Spurinna, vivit cum Antonino, quorum alteri affinis, utrique contubernalis est. 6 Possis ex hoc facere coniecturam, quam sit emendatus adulescens, qui a gravissimis senibus sic amatur. Est enim illud verissimum:

He lives with Spurinna, he lives with Antoninus, of whom he is an in‑law to the one, and a companion to both. 6 From this you could make a conjecture how upright a young man he is, who is thus loved by the most grave old men. For that is most true:

"γινώσκων ὅτι
τοιοῦτὸς ἐστιν, οἷσπερ ἥδεται συνών."

"knowing that
he is such as those with whom he delights to consort."

Vale.

Farewell.

C. PLINIUS VIBIO SEVERO SUO S.

GAIUS PLINY TO HIS VIBIUS SEVERUS, GREETING.

1 Herennius Severus vir doctissimus magni aestimat in bibliotheca sua ponere imagines municipum tuorum Corneli Nepotis et Titi Cati petitque, si sunt istic, ut esse credibile est, exscribendas pingendasque delegem. 2 Quam curam tibi potissimum iniungo, primum quia desideriis meis amicissime obsequeris, deinde quia tibi studiorum summa reverentia, summus amor studiosorum, postremo quod patriam tuam omnesque, qui nomen eius auxerunt, ut patriam ipsam veneraris et diligis. 3 Peto autem, ut pictorem quam diligentissimum assumas.

1 Herennius Severus, a most learned man, highly esteems it to place in his library the images of your fellow townsmen Cornelius Nepos and Titus Catius, and he asks that, if they are there, as is credible, I delegate someone for having them copied and painted. 2 This care I lay especially upon you, first because you most amicably comply with my desires, then because you have the highest reverence for studies, the highest love for the studious, and finally because you venerate and love your fatherland and all who have augmented its name as though the fatherland itself. 3 I ask moreover that you engage a painter as diligent as possible.

Nam cum est arduum similitudinem effingere ex vero, tum longe difficillima est imitationis imitatio; a qua rogo ut artificem quem elegeris ne in melius quidem sinas aberrare. Vale.

For since it is arduous to fashion a similitude from the real, then by far the most difficult is the imitation of an imitation; from which I ask that you do not allow the craftsman whom you shall have chosen to stray, not even into the better. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS ROMATIO FIRMO SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS ROMATIUS FIRMUS, SENDS GREETINGS.

1 Heia tu! cum proxime res agentur, quoquo modo ad iudicandum veni: nihil est quod in dextram aurem fiducia mei dormias. Non impune cessatur. 2 Ecce Licinius Nepos praetor!

1 Hey, you! when next the matter is being handled, come to the judgment however you can: there is no reason for you to be sleeping on your right ear in confidence of me. One does not idle with impunity. 2 Behold Licinius Nepos, praetor!

Acer et fortis et praetor, multam dixit etiam senatori. Egit ille in senatu causam suam, egit autem sic ut deprecaretur. Remissa est multa, sed timuit, sed rogavit, sed opus venia fuit.

Keen and brave and a praetor, he pronounced a fine even upon a senator. He pled his case in the senate, and he did so in such a way as to deprecate it. The fine was remitted, but he feared, but he begged, but there was need of pardon.

3 Dices: 'Non omnes praetores tam severi. Falleris; nam vel instituere vel reducere eiusmodi exemplum non nisi severi, institutum reductumve exercere etiam lenissimi possunt. Vale.

3 You will say: 'Not all praetors are so severe.' You are mistaken; for to institute or to reintroduce a precedent of this kind only the severe can; a precedent instituted or reintroduced even the most lenient can enforce. Farewell.

C. PLINIUS LICINIO SURAE SUO S.

C. PLINY TO HIS LICINIUS SURA, HIS, GREETINGS.

1 Attuli tibi ex patria mea pro munusculo quaestionem altissima ista eruditione dignissimam. 2 Fons oritur in monte, per saxa decurrit, excipitur cenatiuncula manu facta; ibi paulum retentus in Larium lacum decidit. Huius mira natura: ter in die statis auctibus ac diminutionibus crescit decrescitque.

1 I have brought you from my fatherland, as a little gift, a question most worthy of that most lofty erudition. 2 A spring rises on a mountain, runs down through rocks, is received by a little dining-room fashioned by hand; there, held back a little, it falls into the Larian lake. Its nature is wondrous: three times in a day, at set augmentations and diminutions, it grows and shrinks.

3 Cernitur id palam et cum summa voluptate deprenditur. Iuxta recumbis et vesceris, atque etiam ex ipso fonte - nam est frigidissimus - potas; interim ille certis dimensisque momentis vel subtrahitur vel assurgit. 4 Anulum seu quid; aliud ponis in sicco, alluitur sensim ac novissime operitur, detegitur rursus paulatimque deseritur.

3 It is seen openly and is apprehended with the greatest delight. You recline nearby and eat, and even drink from the fountain itself—for it is most frigid; meanwhile it, at fixed and measured moments, is either withdrawn or rises up. 4 A ring or something else you place on dry ground, it is gently washed and at last covered over, it is uncovered again and little by little left bare.

Si diutius observes, utrumque iterum ac tertio videas. 5 Spiritusne aliquis occultior os fontis et fauces modo laxat modo includit, prout illatus occurrit aut decessit expulsus? 6 Quod in ampullis ceterisque generis eiusdem videmus accidere, quibus non hians nec statim patens exitus.

If you observe for longer, you may see both a second time and a third. 5 Does some more occult breath now loosen, now shut the mouth and throat of the spring, according as, when brought in, it surges up, or, departing, is expelled? 6 Which we see happen in ampoules and others of the same kind, whose outlet is neither gaping nor immediately patent.

Nam illa quoque, quamquam prona atque vergentia, per quasdam obluctantis animae moras crebris quasi singultibus sistunt quod effundunt. 7 An, quae oceano natura, fonti quoque, quaque ille ratione aut impellitur aut resorbetur, hac modicus hic umor vicibus alternis supprimitur egeritur? 8 An ut flumina, quae in mare deferuntur, adversantibus ventis obvioque aestu retorquentur, ita est aliquid quod huius fontis excursum repercutiat?

For those too, although prone and verging, through certain delays of a struggling breath, with frequent, as it were, hiccups, halt what they pour out. 7 Or does that nature which the Ocean has belong to the spring as well, and by whatever reason it is either impelled or resorbed, by this the moderate moisture here is in alternating turns suppressed and egested? 8 Or, as rivers which are borne down into the sea are turned back by opposing winds and a confronting tide, so is there something that beats back the excursion of this spring?

9 An latentibus venis certa mensura, quae dum colligit quod exhauserat, minor rivus et pigrior; cum collegit, agilior maiorque profertur? 10 An nescio quod libramentum abditum et caecum, quod cum exinanitum est, suscitat et elicit fontem; cum repletum, moratur et strangulat? 11 Scrutare tu causas - potes enim -, quae tantum miraculum efficiunt: mihi abunde est, si satis expressi quod efficitur.

9 Or is there in the latent veins a certain measure, such that while it gathers what it had exhausted, the rivulet is smaller and more sluggish; when it has gathered, it is brought forth more agile and greater? 10 Or some I-know-not-what counterpoise, hidden and blind, which, when it has been emptied, rouses and elicits the spring; when it is filled, it delays and throttles? 11 Do you scrutinize the causes—for you can—which bring about so great a miracle: for me it is enough, if I have sufficiently expressed what is effected.

Vale.

Farewell.