Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)
Page 85
Cornutus Tertullus, the consul-designate, a man of high character and a devoted champion of justice, gave as his opinion that the seven hundred thousand sesterces which Marius had received should be confiscated to the Treasury, that Marius should be banished from Rome and Italy, and that Martianus should be banished from Rome, Italy, and Africa. Towards the conclusion of his speech he added the remark that the Senate considered that, since Tacitus and myself, who had been summoned to plead for the provincials, had fulfilled our duties with diligence and fearlessness, we had acted in a manner worthy of the commission entrusted to us. The consuls-designate agreed, and all the consulars did likewise, until it was Pompeius Collega’s turn to speak. He proposed that the seven hundred thousand sesterces received by Marius should be confiscated to the Treasury, that Martianus should be banished for five years, and that Marius should suffer no further penalty than that for extortion — which had already been passed upon him. Opinion was largely divided, and there was possibly a majority in favour of the latter proposal, which was the more lenient or less severe of the two, for even some of those who appeared to have supported Cornutus changed sides and were ready to vote for Collega, who had spoken after them. But when the House divided, those who stood near the seats of the consuls began to cross over to the side of Cornutus. Then those who were allowing themselves to be counted as supporters of Collega also crossed over, and Collega was left with a mere handful. He complained bitterly afterwards of those who had led him to make the proposal he did, especially of Regulus, who had failed to support him in the proposal that he himself had suggested. But Regulus is a fickle fellow, rash to a degree, yet a great coward as well.
Such was the close of this most important investigation; but there is still another bit of public business on hand of some consequence, for Hostilius Firminus, the lieutenant of Marius Priscus, who was implicated in the matter, had received a very rough handling. It was proved by the accounts of Martianus and a speech he made in the Council of the Town of Leptis that he had engaged with Priscus in a very shady transaction, that he had bargained to receive from Martianus 50,000 denarii and had received in addition ten million sesterces under the head of perfume money — a most disgraceful thing for a soldier, but one which was not at all inconsistent with his character as a man with well-trimmed hair and polished skin. It was agreed on the motion of Cornutus that the case should be investigated at the next meeting of the Senate, but at that meeting he did not put in an appearance, either from some accidental reason or because he knew he was guilty.
Well, I have told you the news of Rome, you must write and tell me the news of the country. How are your shrubs getting on, your vines and your crops, and those dainty sheep of yours? In short, unless you send me as long a letter I am sending you, you mustn’t expect anything more than the scrappiest note from me in the future. Farewell.
Detailed table of contents listing each letter
12. C. PLINIUS ARRIANO SUO S.
1 ‘Litourgion’ illud, quod superesse Mari Prisci causae proxime scripseram, nescio an satis, circumcisum tamen et adrasum est. 2 Firminus inductus in senatum respondit crimini noto. Secutae sunt diversae sententiae consulum designatorum. Cornutus Tertullus censuit ordine movendum, Acutius Nerva in sortitione provinciae rationem eius non habendam. Quae sententia tamquam mitior vicit, cum sit alioqui durior tristiorque. 3 Quid enim miserius quam exsectum et exemptum honoribus senatoriis, labore et molestia non carcere? quid gravius quam tanta ignominia affectum non in solitudine latere, sed in hac altissima specula conspiciendum se monstrandumque praebere? 4 Praeterea quid publice minus aut congruens aut decorum? notatum a senatu in senatu sedere, ipsisque illis a quibus sit notatus aequari; summotum a proconsulatu quia se in legatione turpiter gesserat, de proconsulibus iudicare, damnatumque sordium vel damnare alios vel absolvere! 5 Sed hoc pluribus visum est. Numerantur enim sententiae, non ponderantur; nec aliud in publico consilio potest fieri, in quo nihil est tam inaequale quam aequalitas ipsa. Nam cum sit impar prudentia, par omnium ius est. 6 Implevi promissum priorisque epistulae fidem exsolvi, quam ex spatio temporis iam recepisse te colligo; nam et festinanti et diligenti tabellario dedi, nisi quid impedimenti in via passus est. 7 Tuae nunc partes, ut primum illam, deinde hanc remunereris litteris, quales istinc redire uberrimae possunt. Vale.
XII. — TO ARRIANUS.
As for the bit of public business which, as I told you in my last letter, arose out of the case of Marius Priscus, I don’t know whether it has been thoroughly pruned, but it certainly has been trimmed. When Firminus was called before the Senate he replied to the charges brought against him. What they were you know. The two consuls-designate thereupon expressed their opinions as to the sentence and disagreed with one another. Cornutus Tertullus proposed that he should be degraded from his rank as senator; Acutius Nerva urged that when the provinces were allotted Firminus’s claim should not be allowed, and his suggestion, as being the least severe, carried the day, though on the whole I think it is the harsher and more vindictive of the two. For what could be more wretched than to be cut off and debarred from all the privileges of senatorship, and yet not to be freed from its toil and trouble? What position can be more trying for a man with such a stain on his name than not to be allowed to hide himself from public view, but to have to show himself in a position of eminence to the gaze and pointing fingers of the world? Moreover, can you imagine anything, from the point of view of the public interest, less congruous or becoming than that a member of the Senate who has been branded by that body should keep his seat among them, that he should retain equal rank with the very persons who branded him, that after being debarred from holding a governorship for disgraceful conduct as one of an embassy he should sit in judgment on other governors, and that after being found guilty of peculation he should pronounce the condemnation or acquittal of others? However, the majority approved this proposal, for votes are merely counted and are not weighed according to merit, and there is no other way possible in a public council. Yet in such cases this presumed equality of opinions is really most unequal, for all are equal in the right to vote though the judgment of the voters is a very unequal quantity. I have fulfilled my promise and made good my word contained in the earlier letter I sent you, which I reckon you will by this time have received, for I entrusted it to a fleet and conscientious messenger who must have reached you unless he has been hindered on the road. It now rests with you to recompense me for both these epistles with the very fullest letter that can be sent from where you are staying. Farewell.
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13. C. PLINIUS PRISCO SUO S.
1 Et tu occasiones obligandi me avidissime amplecteris, et ego nemini libentius debeo. 2 Duabus ergo de causis a te potissimum petere constitui, quod impetratum maxime cupio. Regis exercitum amplissimum: hinc tibi beneficiorum larga materia, longum praeterea tempus, quo amicos tuos exornare potuisti. Convertere ad nostros nec hos multos. 3 Malles tu quidem multos; sed meae verecundiae sufficit unus aut alter, ac potius unus. 4 Is erit Voconius Romanus. Pater ei in equestri gradu clarus, clarior vitricu, immo pater alius - nam huic quoque nomini pietate successit -, mater e primi. Ipse citerioris Hispaniae - scis quod iudicium provinciae illius, quanta sit gravitas - flamen proxime fuit. 5 Hunc ego, cum simul studeremus, arte familiariterque dilexi; ille meus in urbe ille in secessu contubernalis, cum hoc seria cum hoc iocos miscui. 6 Quid enim illo aut fidelius amico aut sodale iucundius? Mira in sermone, mira etiam in ore ipso vultuque suavitas. 7 Ad hoc ingenium excelsum subtile dulce facile eruditum in causis agendis; epistulas quidem scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas. Amatur a me plurimum nec tamen vincitur. 8 Equidem iuvenis statim iuveni, quantum potui per aetatem, avidissime contuli, et nuper ab optimo principe trium liberorum ius impetravi; quod quamquam parce et cum delectu daret, mihi tamen tamquam eligeret indulsit. 9 Haec beneficia mea tueri nullo modo melius quam ut augeam possum, praesertim cum ipse illa tam grate interpretetur, ut dum priora accipit posteriora mereatur. 10 Habes qualis
quam probatus carusque sit nobis, quem rogo pro ingenio pro fortuna tua exornes. In primis ama hominem; nam licet tribuas ei quantum amplissimum potes, nihil tamen amplius potes amicitia tua; cuius esse eum usque ad intimam familiaritatem capacem quo magis scires, breviter tibi studia mores omnem denique vitam eius expressi. 11 Extenderem preces nisi et tu rogari diu nolles et ego tota hoc epistula fecissem; rogat enim et quidem efficacissime, qui reddit causas rogandi. Vale.
XIII. — TO PRISCUS.
I know you are only too pleased to seize an opportunity for doing me a service, and for my own part I would rather be in your debt than in that of any one else. So, for both these reasons, I have decided to choose you of all people as the one from whom to ask a favour which I am very anxious to have granted me. You are in command of a magnificent army, which gives you abundant material for conferring favours, and, moreover, has provided you with ample time during which you have advanced the interests of your own friends. Now give my friends a turn, please. There are not many of them, though you doubtless wish there were. But I am too modest to ask favours for more than one or two. Indeed there is only one, and that is Voconius Romanus. His father held a distinguished position in the equestrian order; his stepfather, or rather his second father, an even more distinguished place, for Voconius took the name of the latter out of his regard for him, while his mother belonged to one of the leading families of Hither Spain. You know how sound and weighty the opinion of that province is — well, Voconius was quite recently its flamen. When we were students he and I were close and intimate friends; we spent our days together in Rome and in the country; he was my companion both in moments of work and play. You could not imagine a more trusty friend or a more delightful companion. He has wonderful conversational powers, and a remarkably sweet face and expression, and besides this he possesses a lofty intellect and is shrewd, pleasant, ready, and a clever advocate. The letters he writes are so good as to make you think the Muses speak Latin. I have the greatest affection for him, and he has the same for me. When we were both young I did all that I possibly could as a young man to advance him, and just lately I induced our excellent Emperor to grant him the privileges attached to the parentage of three children. That is a favour he bestows but sparingly and after careful choice, yet he acceded to my request as though the choice were his own. There is no better way by which I may keep up my services to him than by adding to their number, especially as he, the recipient, shows himself so grateful to me that by accepting former favours he earns others to come. I have told you what kind of a man he is, how thoroughly I esteem him and how dear he is to me, and I now ask you to use your wits and splendid opportunities for his advancement. Above all, give him your regard, for though you shower upon him your richest dignities you can give him nothing more valuable than your friendship. It was to assure you that he is worthy of even your closest intimacy that I have briefly set before you his tastes, his character and his whole life. I would spin out my request to greater length, but I know that you would rather I did not press you further and the whole of this letter is nothing but a request. For the best way of asking a favour is to give good reason for asking it. Farewell.
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14. C. PLINIUS MAXIMO SUO S.
1 Verum opinaris: distringor centumviralibus causis, quae me exercent magis quam delectant. Sunt enim pleraeque parvae et exiles; raro incidit vel personarum claritate vel negotii magnitudine insignis. 2 Ad hoc pauci cum quibus iuvet dicere; ceteri audaces atque etiam magna ex parte adulescentuli obscuri ad declamandum huc transierunt, tam irreverenter et temere, ut mihi Atilius noster expresse dixisse videatur, sic in foro pueros a centumviralibus causis auspicari, ut ab Homero in scholis. Nam hic quoque ut illic primum coepit esse quod maximum est. 3 At hercule ante memoriam meam - ita maiores natu solent dicere -, ne nobilissimis quidem adulescentibus locus erat nisi aliquo consulari producente: tanta veneratione pulcherrimum opus colebatur. 4 Nunc refractis pudoris et reverentiae claustris, omnia patent omnibus, nec inducuntur sed irrumpunt. Sequuntur auditores actoribus similes, conducti et redempti. Manceps convenitur; in media basilica tam palam sportulae quam in triclinio dantur; ex iudicio in iudicium pari mercede transitur. 5 Inde iam non inurbane ‘Sophokleis’ vocantur ‘apo tou sophôs kai kaleisthai’, isdem Latinum nomen impositum est Laudiceni; 6 et tamen crescit in dies foeditas utraque lingua notata. Here duo nomenclatores mei - habent sane aetatem eorum qui nuper togas sumpserint - ternis denariis ad laudandum trahebantur. Tanti constat ut sis disertissimus. Hoc pretio quamlibet numerosa subsellia implentur, hoc ingens corona colligitur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur, cum mesochorus dedit signum. 7 Opus est enim signo apud non intellegentes, ne audientes quidem; 8 nam plerique non audiunt, nec ulli magis laudant. Si quando transibis per basilicam et voles scire, quo modo quisque dicat, nihil est quod tribunal ascendas, nihil quod praebeas aurem; facilis divinatio: scito eum pessime dicere, qui laudabitur maxime.
9 Primus hunc audiendi morem induxit Larcius Licinus, hactenus tamen ut auditores corrogaret. Ita certe ex Quintiliano praeceptore meo audisse me memini. 10 Narrabat ille: ‘Assectabar Domitium Afrum. Cum apud centumviros diceret graviter et lente - hoc enim illi actionis genus erat -, audit ex proximo immodicum insolitumque clamorem. Admiratus reticuit; ubi silentium factum est, repetit quod abruperat. 11 Iterum clamor, iterum reticuit, et post silentium coepit. Idem tertio. Novissime quis diceret quaesiit. Responsum est: “Licinus.” Tum intermissa causa “Centumviri,” inquit, “hoc artificium periit.”’ 12 Quod alioqui perire incipiebat cum perisse Afro videretur, nunc vero prope funditus exstinctum et eversum est. Pudet referre quae quam fracta pronuntiatione dicantur, quibus quam teneris clamoribus excipiantur. 13 Plausus tantum ac potius sola cymbala et tympana illis canticis desunt: ululatus quidem - neque enim alio vocabulo potest exprimi theatris quoque indecora laudatio - large supersunt. 14 Nos tamen adhuc et utilitas amicorum et ratio aetatis moratur ac retinet; veremur enim ne forte non has indignitates reliquisse, sed laborem fugisse videamur. Sumus tamen solito rariores, quod initium est gradatim desinendi. Vale.
XIV. — TO MAXIMUS.
Yes, you are quite right; my time is fully taken up by cases in the Centumviral Court, but they give me more worry than pleasure, for most of them are of a minor and unimportant character. Only rarely does a case crop up that can be described as a cause celebre, owing either to the distinguished position of the persons in the suit or to the magnitude of the interests involved. Add to this that there are very few with whom I care to plead; all the other advocates are bumptious, and for the most part young men of no standing, who come over here to do their declamations with such utter want of respect and modesty that I think our friend Atilius just hit the nail on the head when he said that mere boys begin their forensic career with cases in the Centumviral Court, just as they begin with Homer in the schools. For here as there they make their first beginnings on the hardest subjects. Yet, by Heaven, before my time — to use an old man’s phrase — not even the highest-born youths had any standing here, unless they were introduced by a man of consular rank.
Such was the respect with which this noble profession was regarded, but now modesty and respect are thrown to the winds and one man is as good as another. So far from being introduced, they burst their way in. Their audiences follow them as if they were actors, bought and paid to do so; the agent is there to meet them in the middle of the basilica, where the doles of money are handed over as openly as the doles of food at a banquet; and they are ready to pass from one court to another for a similar bribe. So these hirelings have been rather wittily dubbed Zophokleis — from their readiness to call bravo, — and they have also been given the Latin name of Laudicaeni — from their eagerness to applaud for the sake of getting a dinner. Yet this disgraceful practice gets worse from day to day, in spite of the terms of opprobrium applied to it in both languages. Yesterday two of my own nomenclators — young men, I admit, about the age of those who have just assumed the toga — were enticed off to joi
n the claque for three denarii apiece. Such is the outlay you must make to get a reputation for eloquence! At that price you can fill the benches, however many there are, you can collect a great throng of bystanders and obtain thunders of applause as soon as the conductor gives the signal. For a signal is absolutely necessary for people who do not understand and do not even listen to the speeches, and many of these fellows do not listen at all, though they applaud as heartily as any. If you happen to be crossing through the basilica and wish to know how any one is speaking, there is no need for you to mount to the Bench or listen. It is perfectly safe to guess on the principle that he is speaking worst who gets the most applause.
Largius Licinius was the first to introduce this new fashion of procuring an audience, but he went no further than asking people to go and hear him. At least I remember that Quintilian, my old tutor, used to tell me so. He told the story thus: “I was in attendance on Domitius Afer when he was pleading in the Centumviral Court in the deliberate and measured style with which he conducted all his cases. He happened to hear from a neighbouring court the sound of extravagant and unusual applause. Wondering what it could mean, he stopped, and then resumed where he had broken off as soon as quiet was restored. Again the shouts came, again he stopped, and after a short period of quiet it began again for the third time. In the end he inquired who was speaking, and was told that it was Licinius. At that he discontinued his case, exclaiming: ‘Centumvirs, this is death to our profession.’” Indeed, it was beginning to go to the bad in other ways when Afer thought that it had already gone to the bad, but it is now practically ruined and destroyed, root and branch. I am ashamed to tell you what an affected delivery these people have and with what unnatural cheering their speeches are greeted. Their sing-song style only wants clapping of hands, or rather cymbals and drums, to make them like the priests of Cybele, for as for howlings — there is no other word to express the unseemly applause in the theatres — they have enough and to spare. It is only a desire to save my friends and my age that has induced me to go on practising so long, for I am afraid people would think that if I retired my object was not to shun these indecent scenes but to escape hard work. Yet I am making fewer appearances than usual, and that is the beginning of gradually ceasing to attend altogether. Farewell.