With what tender commiseration, with what exuberance, will you weep over and embellish and exalt this tale! There is, however, no need for your inventing or adding anything fresh to it. It will suffice if what is true suffer no diminution.
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34. — TO TRANQUILLUS.
Relieve me of my difficulty. I hear that I read badly — poetry at least — orations, indeed, well enough, and, on that very account, poetry less well. So being about to have a recitation before some intimate friends, I am thinking of making trial of my freedman. This, too, is a mark of intimacy that I have selected a man who will not read well, though he will read better than me, provided he does not become confused, for he is as unpractised a reader as I am a poet. Now what I myself am to do all the time he is reading I know not. Should I sit wrapt and mute and like a person with nothing in hand? Or, after the fashion of some, should I accompany his delivery with mutterings and motions of the eyes and hands? But I fancy I am as bad at pantomime as at reading. Again, I say, relieve me of my difficulty, and write me back word candidly whether it be better to read execrably than to be either doing or not doing such things as these.
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35. — TO ATRIUS.
I have received the book you sent me, and thank you for it. I am, however, at the present time greatly occupied. Consequently I have not yet read it, though for the rest extremely anxious to do so. But I owe such respect not only to literature itself, but also to your writings, as to deem it impiety to take them in hand save with a mind quite disengaged. I strongly approve your diligence in the revision of your works. Yet there is a certain limit to this; in the first place, because too much care serves to impair rather than to emend; next, because it calls us off from newer attempts, and, while it does not make perfect what went before, prevents us from commencing what ought to come after.
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36. — TO FUSCUS.
You ask how I dispose of my day in summer-time at my place in Tuscany. I wake when I choose, generally about six o’clock, often before that, rarely later. My window’s remain closed; for, thus marvellously withdrawn from all distractions, by means of the silence and the darkness, I am my own master and am left to myself; I make my eyes wait on my mind, not my mind on the eyes; and the eyes will see the same things as the mind, when they have nothing else to see. I ponder whatever I have in hand, ponder it just as if writing it out word for word and correcting it, at one time a shorter, at another a longer portion, according as it has been difficult or easy to compose or to recollect. I call for my amanuensis, and, letting in the daylight, dictate what I have put together; he goes away, is recalled, is dismissed afresh. At ten or eleven o’clock (for the time is not fixed or subject to regulation), according to the weather, I betake myself to the terrace-walk or else to the cloisters, where I meditate and dictate the sequel; then I get into my carriage. There, too, I employ myself in the same way as when walking or lying on my couch; my attention remains constant, being refreshed by the change itself. Next, I go to sleep again for a short time, then walk, and presently read a Greek or Latin oration aloud and with emphasis, not so much for the sake of my voice as my digestion, yet my voice is also strengthened at the same time. Again I walk, am anointed, exercise myself and bathe. At dinner, if taken in company with my wife or a small party, a book is read out. After dinner comes the comedian or a performer on the lyre; shortly afterwards, I take a stroll with my attendants, in the number of whom are some persons of cultivation. In this way the evening is occupied by varied conversation, and the day, however long, is soon brought to an end.
At times some changes are made in the above disposition. For if I have been a long while on my couch, or walking, it is only after a nap and a reading that I take the air, not in a carriage, but — which takes less time, as being more rapid — on horseback. Friends drop in with their visits from the neighbouring villages, engrossing to themselves part of my day; and now and then, when I am wearied with study, these seasonable interruptions are of service to me. Occasionally I hunt, but not without my note-books, so that, if I fail in taking something, I may at any rate have some to bring home. Some time, though not, as they think, enough, is given to my tenants, whose rustic grumblings enhance the pleasures of my literary pursuits, and of those occupations which smack of the city.
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37. — TO PAULINUS.
It is not in your nature to exact customary and, as it were, conventional services from your intimates, against their own convenience; and, moreover, my affection for you is too steadfast to make me fear that you will take it otherwise than I could wish if I fail to attend immediately on the Kalends -to see you made Consul, particularly as I am detained by the necessity of letting my farms, a business which will settle matters for several years, and in connection with which I shall have to make fresh arrangements. For during the last five years, though the tenants have had large remissions made them, their arrears have grown: hence most of them have ceased to take any pains to diminish debts which they despair of being able to pay in full. They even ravage and consume the produce, as though they began to think that if they spared it it would not be for their own benefit. These increasing abuses must consequently be met and remedied. The only plan for remedying them is to let the farms, not at a fixed rent, but for a share of the produce, and then to set some of my servants to supervise the work and guard the crops; and in any case, there is no fairer return than that which the soil, the climate, and the seasons bring in. This plan, it is true, requires great honesty, sharp eyes, and numerous hands. Yet the experiment must be made; and, as in the case of a disease of long standing, we must try and resort to any kind of change. You see it is no fanciful reason which prevents me from attending on the first day of your Consulship, which I shall nevertheless celebrate here, just as if I were there, with prayers and joy and congratulations.
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38. — TO SATURNINUS.
I do praise our friend Rufus, not because you begged me to do so, but because he is most worthy of praise. For I have read his book, so perfect in all points, and my love for the writer added much to its favour with me. Yet I exercised my judgment on it; nor indeed do those only exercise their judgments who read with ill-natured intent.
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39. — TO MUSTIUS.
By the advice of the Haruspices, the temple of Ceres, which stands on my property, will have to be repaired, embellished, and enlarged. It is, to be sure, old and small, though, for all that, it is very crowded on a particular day. FŸR, on the Ides of September, a large assemblage is gathered there from the whole district, much business is transacted, many vows are undertaken, and many are paid, yet there is no refuge near at hand against either the rain or the sun. It seems to me, therefore, that I shall be acting in accordance with the dictates of generosity as well as of religion by constructing the temple in the handsomest style, and adding to it a colonnade — the former for the use of the goddess, the latter for the use of men. Consequently I should be obliged by your buying four columns of marble, of whatever sort you think fit; also by your buying marble for the adornment of the floor and the walls. Moreover, there will have to be either made or bought a statue of the goddess herself, because the old one which is there, and which is of wood, is in some of its parts mutilated through age. As to the colonnade, nothing occurs to me in the interval which seems to be required from your neighbourhood, unless indeed you would draw up a plan in accordance with the locality. It cannot be built round the temple, for the ground on which the temple stands is closed in on one side by a river with extremely steep banks, and on the other by a road. Beyond the road there is an extensive meadow, in which the colonnade might find space conveniently enough, opposite to the temple itself; unless you shall discover anything better, who
are accustomed to overcome difficulties of locality by your art.
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40. — TO FUSCUS.
You write that you were much pleased with my letter, from which you learnt how I spend my summer holidays on my Tuscan estate, and you inquire what of all this is changed in winter-time at my Laurentine villa. Nothing, except that my midday siesta is cut off, and a good deal is taken from the night, either before sunrise or after sunset and if there is any pressing necessity for appearing in court (as there often is in winter) there is no longer place for a comedian or a lyrical performer after dinner, but I often go over again what I have dictated, and at the same time my memory is helped by this frequent revision. You now know my habits in summer and in winter. You may add to this, spring and autumn, in which, as being the intermediate seasons between summer and winter, I lose nothing of my working day, and gain a little from the night.
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BOOK X. CORRESPONDENCE WITH TRAJAN.
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1. — TO TRAJAN.
THOUGH your dutiful affection had made you desire, most august Emperor, to succeed your father at as late a period as possible, yet the immortal gods have hastened to advance your great virtues to the helm of the State, of which you had already undertaken the administration. I pray, then, that all prosperity — in other words, all that is worthy of your epoch — may fall to your lot, and, through you, to that of the human race. I offer private as well as public aspirations for your health and spirits, most noble Emperor.
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2. — TO TRAJAN.
I cannot express in words, my Liege, what joy you have conferred on me, in that you have deemed me worthy of the rights belonging to the father of three children; for though you have conceded this to the prayers of Julius Servianus, an admirable man, most devoted to you, yet I understand from your rescript itself that you have granted it all the more willingly, because he was asking on my account. I seem, then, to have attained the summit of my wishes, now that at the commencement of your most auspicious reign you have proved me to be an object of your especial favour. And all the greater is my longing for children, whom I wished to have even in the dismal period that is past, as you may judge from my two marriages. But the gods have decreed better, who reserved things as they were till your kindly reign. They preferred that I should become a father, rather at this time, when I should be destined to be one in security and happiness.
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3 A (20.) — TO TRAJAN.
The moment, sir, I was promoted by your favour, and that of your father, to the post of Prefect of the Treasury of Saturn, I renounced all employment as an advocate (which, independently of this, I had never exercised in a promiscuous fashion), in order to devote my whole attention to the functions delegated to me. For which reason, when the Provincials chose me as their patron against Marius Priscus, I begged to be excused this office, and obtained my wish. But when subsequently the Consul-Elect gave it as his opinion that we, whose excuse had been accepted, should be urged to place ourselves at the disposal of the Senate, and to suffer our names to be thrown with others into the urn, I deemed it most in accord with the even tenor of your reign not to resist the desire, especially such a moderate one, of the most honourable House. I hope that this compliance of mine will be thought by you to be justified, since it is my wish to make all my acts and deeds approved to your most noble disposition.
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3 B (21.) — TRAJAN TO PLINY.
You have discharged the part of a good citizen and a good Senator in yielding that compliance, which was so justly required of you, to the most honourable House. And I have full confidence that you will carry out this part in faithful accord with your undertaking.
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4 (3.) — PLINY TO TRAJAN.
Your kindness, most noble Emperor, which is experienced by me to the full, prompts me to be so bold as to lie under obligation to you on behalf of my friends as well. Among these, Voconius Romanus claims for himself, I would say, even the first place, my schoolfellow and companion from early life; for which reasons I had already asked the deceased Emperor, your father, to promote him to senatorial rank. But this prayer of mine has been reserved for your grace, since the mother of Romanus had not yet completed, with due formalities, the gift of four hundred thousand sesterces, which she had undertaken to bestow on her son in a petition addressed to your father. This she did afterwards on my admonition; for she has made over to him certain estates, and has accomplished the remaining forms which are usually required for completing a transfer. Seeing, then, that what delayed my hopes is now settled, it is not without considerable assurance that I pledge you my credit for the character of my friend Romanus, set off as it is by literary acquirements, and by his remarkable family affection, which has deserved for him this very benefaction from his mother, as well as his immediate entrance on his father’s estate and his adoption by his stepfather. All this is enhanced by the splendour of his birth and of his paternal property, and I have such confidence in your kindness as to believe that these several matters will actually receive much additional recommendation from my prayers. I therefore beg, sir, that you will put me in possession of a much-coveted subject for rejoicing, and will grant to an affection, which is, I hope, an honourable one, the power of glorying in your judgments, not as regards myself only, but my friend as well.
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5 (4.) — TO TRAJAN.
Last year, sir, being tormented by a severe disease, even to the peril of my life, I engaged a doctor on the Iatraliptic system, whose solicitude and zeal I can make an equal return for, only through favour of your kindness. Wherefore I pray you to grant him the Roman citizenship; for his status is that of a foreigner, and he was manumitted by a foreign lady. His own name is Harpocras. His patroness was Thermuthis, the wife of Theon, who is long since dead. At the same time, I would beg you to grant naturalisation to Hedia and Harmeris, the freedwomen of a most distinguished lady, Antonia Maximilla; a request which I make of you at the desire of their patroness.
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6 (22.) — TO TRAJAN.
I thank you, sir, for granting, without delay, naturalisation to the freedwoman of a lady who is a friend of mine, as well as the Roman citizenship to Harpocras, my Iatraliptic doctor.§ But when I had given in the age and fortune of the latter, as you had bidden me to do, I was informed by persons of greater experience that, inasmuch as he was an Egyptian, I ought first to have obtained for him the citizenship of Alexandria, and afterwards that of Rome. For my part, however, owing to my thinking that there was no difference between Egyptians and other foreigners, I was content simply to write to you to the effect that he had been manumitted by a foreign lady, and that his patroness was long since dead. I will not complain of this ignorance of mine, since it has been the cause of my being under more frequent obligations to you on account of the same person. I beg, therefore, in order that your favour may be lawfully enjoyed by me, that you would accord him the citizenship of Alexandria as well as of Rome. His age and fortune (that there may be no fresh delay in the way of your kindness) I have sent in to those freedmen of yours to whom you ordered me to send them.
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7 (23.) — TRAJAN TO PLINY.
I have made it a rule, in accordance with the established custom of the emperors, to be cautious in bestowing the citizenship of Alexandria; but since you have already obtained that of Rome for Harpocras, your Iatraliptic doctor, I cannot bring myself to refuse this further application of yours. You will have to inform me from what district he comes, that I may forward you a letter for my friend Pompeius Planta, the Prefect of Egypt.
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Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 32