veste comitatu, quibus non quidem augetur dignitas, ornatur tamen et instruitur. 2 Te porro animo beatissimum, modicum facultatibus scio. Itaque partem oneris tui mihi vindico, et tamquam parens alter puellae nostrae confero quinquaginta milia nummum plus collaturus, nisi a verecundia tua sola mediocritate munusculi impetrari posse confiderem, ne recusares. Vale.
32. — TO QUINTILIAN.
Though you are personally the most modest of men in your desires, and though you have brought up your daughter as it was proper that your daughter and the grandchild of Tutilius should be brought up, nevertheless, as she is about to be married to a most honourable gentleman, Nonius Celer, who by reason of his public employments has a certain necessity imposed on him of making an appearance, she should be provided with a wardrobe and an establishment suitable to her husband’s station; matters which, though they will not add to her position, will be adornments and proper accompaniments to it. Furthermore, I know that while you are rich in mental endowments, your fortune is but small. According I lay claim to a share of your burden, and in the character of a second father to our dear girl, contribute towards her portion fifty thousand sesterces. I would contribute a larger sum, were it not that it is by the smallness of my present alone that I have the assurance of being able to prevail on your modesty not to refuse it.
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33. C. PLINIUS ROMANO SUO S.
1 ‘Tollite cuncta’ inquit ‘coeptosque auferte labores!’ Seu scribis aliquid seu legis, tolli auferri iube et accipe orationem meam ut illa arma divinam — num superbius potui? -, re vera ut inter meas pulchram; nam mihi satis est certare mecum. 2 Est haec pro Attia Viriola, et dignitate personae et exempli raritate et iudicii magnitudine insignis. Nam femina splendide nata, nupta praetorio viro, exheredata ab octogenario patre intra undecim dies quam illi novercam amore captus induxerat, quadruplici iudicio bona paterna repetebat. 3 Sedebant centum et octoginta iudices — tot enim quattuor consiliis colliguntur -, ingens utrimque advocatio et numerosa subsellia, praeterea densa circumstantium corona latissimum iudicium multiplici circulo ambibat. 4 Ad hoc stipatum tribunal, atque etiam ex superiore basilicae parte qua feminae qua viri et audiendi — quod difficile — et — quod facile — visendi studio imminebant. Magna exspectatio patrum, magna filiarum, magna etiam novercarum. 5 Secutus est varius eventus; nam duobus consiliis vicimus, totidem victi sumus. Notabilis prorsus et mira eadem in causa, isdem iudicibus, isdem advocatis, eodem tempore tanta diversitas. 6 Accidit casu, quod non casus videretur: victa est noverca, ipsa heres ex parte sexta, victus Suburanus, qui exheredatus a patre singulari impudentia alieni patris bona vindicabat, non ausus sui petere.
7 Haec tibi exposui, primum ut ex epistula scires, quae ex oratione non poteras, deinde — nam detegam artes — ut orationem libentius legeres, si non legere tibi sed interesse iudicio videreris; quam, sit licet magna, non despero gratiam brevissimae impetraturam. 8 Nam et copia rerum et arguta divisione et narratiunculis pluribus et eloquendi varietate renovatur. Sunt multa — non auderem nisi tibi dicere — elata, multa pugnacia, multa subtilia. 9 Intervenit enim acribus illis et erectis frequens necessitas computandi ac paene calculos tabulamque poscendi, ut repente in privati iudicii formam centumvirale vertatur. 10 Dedimus vela indignationi, dedimus irae, dedimus dolori, et in amplissima causa quasi magno mari pluribus ventis sumus vecti. 11 In summa solent quidam ex contubernalibus nostris existimare hanc orationem — iterum dicam — ut inter meas ‘hyper Ktêsiphôntos’ esse: an vere, tu facillime iudicabis, qui tam memoriter tenes omnes, ut conferre cum hac dum hanc solam legis possis. Vale.
33. — TO ROMANUS.
“‘Throw, throw your tasks aside,’ great Vulcan cried;
‘Off with your works begun.’”
Whether you he reading or writing anything, “throw it aside,”
“off with it,” be the order, and take in hand my speech, divine as were those arms of Vulcan — would it be possible to speak more boastfully? — well, in sober truth, an excellent one for a production of mine, and it is enough for me to compete with myself. This speech is on behalf of Attia Viriola, and is rendered remarkable by the station of the individual, the singularity of the case, and the importance of the decision. For, this lady, of lofty birth, married to a man of Prætorian rank, and disinherited by her octogenarian father within eleven days of the time when, smitten with love, he had brought home a stepmother for her, sought to recover her paternal property by a process instituted before the four courts. One hundred and eighty judges sat (for so many are brought together in the four chambers); there was a vast crowd of assistants on either side, and the benches were thronged; moreover a dense circle of spectators, consisting of many rows, encircled the spacious court. Add to this that the tribune was packed, and even in the galleries of the building women as well as men were hanging over in their eagerness to hear, which was difficult, and to see, which was easy. Great was the expectation of fathers and daughters and even of stepmothers. The results which followed were various: for in two chambers we gained the verdict, in the same number we lost it. Truly a notable and marvellous thing that in the same cause, before the same judges, with the same advocates and on the same occasion, so great a diversity should occur by chance, yet so as not to look like chance. The stepmother was beaten, who had herself been made heir to a sixth part of the fortune, and Suberinus was beaten, who, after being disinherited by his own father, had with singular impudence claimed the property of another person’s father, though he did not dare to sue for that of his own parent.
I have given you these details, first that you might learn from my letter what you could not have learnt from the speech, and secondly (for I will discover my arts) that you might have the greater pleasure in reading the speech, ]if you seemed to yourself not so much to be reading, as to be present at the trial. And though it be lengthy, I do not despair of its obtaining the same favour as a very short one. For its freshness is preserved by the abundance of the subject-matter, the niceness of the distinctions, by many short narratives and by the variety of the diction. There are many passages in it (I should not dare say this save to you) of an elevated kind, many of an argumentative, and many too of a subtle character. For in the midst of the former powerful and lofty passages, the necessity often interposed itself of dealing with matters of account, and almost of calling for table and counters, so that a Centumviral trial became all of a sudden changed into the form of a private inquiry. I gave full sails to my indignation, to my wrath, to my grief, and in so mighty a cause, as though on a great sea, was carried by many winds. In short, some of our friends generally consider this speech as being the “Pro Ctesiphonte” of my speeches; whether truly, you will most easily judge, who have them all so well in your memory as to be able to compare them with this, while reading this alone.
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34. C. PLINIUS MAXIMO SUO S.
1 Recte fecisti quod gladiatorium munus Veronensibus nostris promisisti, a quibus olim amaris suspiceris ornaris. Inde etiam uxorem carissimam tibi et probatissimam habuisti, cuius memoriae aut opus aliquod aut spectaculum atque hoc potissimum, quod maxime funeri, debebatur. 2 Praeterea tanto consensu rogabaris, ut negare non constans, sed durum videretur. Illud quoque egregie, quod tam facilis tam liberalis in edendo fuisti; nam per haec etiam magnus animus ostenditur. 3 Vellem Africanae, quas coemeras plurimas, ad praefinitum diem occurrissent: sed licet cessaverint illae tempestate detentae, tu tamen meruisti ut acceptum tibi fieret, quod quo minus exhiberes, non per te stetit. Vale.
34. — TO MAXIMUS.
You have acted rightly in promising a gladiatorial show to our friends at Verona, who have long loved and respected and honoured you. And it was thence you obtained that wife who was so dear to you and so deservedly appreciated; to whose memory either a construction of some kind was due, or else a spectacle, and such a one as this in preference to any other, as being most suited to a death-celebration. Besides, you were entreated with so much unanimity t
hat to refuse would have seemed not so much resolution as obstinacy. In this also you have acted admirably, in being so ready and liberal in furnishing the show; for these are points too in which large-mindness is shown. I could have wished that the panthers, of which you bought such numbers, had come to hand on the day appointed, but though they failed, from being detained by stress of weather, you at any rate deserved to get the credit of what it was no fault of yours that you did not exhibit.
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LIBER SEPTIMVS
BOOK VII.
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1. C. PLINIUS GEMINO SUO S.
1 Terret me haec tua tam pertinax valetudo, et quamquam te temperantissimum noverim, vereor tamen ne quid illi etiam in mores tuos liceat. 2 Proinde moneo patienter resistas: hoc laudabile hoc salutare. Admittit humana natura quod suadeo. 3 Ipse certe sic agere sanus cum meis soleo: ‘Spero quidem, si forte in adversam valetudinem incidero, nihil me desideraturum vel pudore vel paenitentia dignum; si tamen superaverit morbus, denuntio ne quid mihi detis, nisi permittentibus medicis, sciatisque si dederitis ita vindicaturum, ut solent alii quae negantur.’ 4 Quin etiam cum perustus ardentissima febre, tandem remissus unctusque, acciperem a medico potionem, porrexi manum utque tangeret dixi, admotumque iam labris poculum reddidi. 5 Postea cum vicensimo valetudinis die balineo praepararer, mussantesque medicos repente vidissem, causam requisivi. Responderunt posse me tuto lavari, non tamen omnino sine aliqua suspicione. 6 ‘Quid’ inquam ‘necesse est?’ atque ita spe balinei, cui iam videbar inferri, placide leniterque dimissa, ad abstinentiam rursus, non secus ac modo ad balineum, animum vultumque composui. 7 Quae tibi scripsi, primum ut te non sine exemplo monerem, deinde ut in posterum ipse ad eandem temperantiam astringerer, cum me hac epistula quasi pignore obligavissem. Vale.
1. — TO GEMINUS.
THE obstinacy of this illness of yours alarms me, and, though knowing how great is your self-control, I fear it may even affect your temper. Accordingly, I urge you to bear up against it with patience. This is the laudable, the wholesome course, and what I advise is within the power of human nature. For my part, at any rate, when in health, I am in the habit of dealing with my people after this fashion: “It is assuredly my hope that, in case of falling sick, I shall desire nothing to be ashamed of or repented of; yet, should the disease get the better of me, I warn you to give me nothing, except by permission of the doctors; and know that if you do give me anything, I shall punish the act in the same way as others punish a refusal to comply with their wishes.” Moreover, on the occasion of my being burnt up by a raging fever, when, freed at last from the crisis and anointed, I received a drink from the doctor, I held out my pulse and bid him feel it, and thereupon gave back the cup which I had already raised to my lips. Afterwards, on the twentieth day of my illness, when I was being prepared for the bath, and noticed that the doctors were all of a sudden speaking together in an undertone, I inquired the reason. They replied that I might possibly bathe with safety, yet not altogether without some apprehension. “Where,” said I, “is the necessity?” and so placidly and calmly laying aside all hope of the bath, which I had seemed on the point of being conveyed to, I composed my mind and my looks for the privation no less readily than just before for the bath.
All this I have written to you, firstly, that my warning might not he unaccompanied by an example, and next, that for the future I myself might he bound to the same course of self-control, through having engaged myself to it by this letter as by a kind of pledge.
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2. C. PLINIUS IUSTO SUO S.
1 Quemadmodum congruit, ut simul et affirmes te assiduis occupationibus impediri, et scripta nostra desideres, quae vix ab otiosis impetrare aliquid perituri temporis possunt? 2 Patiar ergo aestatem inquietam vobis exercitamque transcurrere, et hieme demum, cum credibile erit noctibus saltem vacare te posse, quaeram quid potissimum ex nugis meis tibi exhibeam. 3 Interim abunde est si epistulae non sunt molestae; sunt autem et ideo breviores erunt. Vale.
2. — TO JUSTUS.
How can it be consistent that in one and the same breath you declare you are engrossed by incessant occupations and yet are longing for my productions, which even from idle folks can scarce obtain a moment of their useless time? I will therefore permit your summer to go by, with its cares and its agitations, and not till winter (when it is presumable that in the evenings at any rate you will possibly have some leisure) will I consider which of my trifles had test be sent you. Meanwhile, it is enough if my letters do not prove a nuisance to you — but they must be, so they shall be cut shorter. Adieu.
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3. C. PLINIUS PRAESENTI SUO S.
1 Tantane perseverantia tu modo in Lucania, modo in Campania? ‘Ipse enim’ inquis ‘Lucanus, uxor Campana.’ 2 Iusta causa longioris absentiae, non perpetuae tamen. Quin ergo aliquando in urbem redis? ubi dignitas honor amicitiae tam superiores quam minores. Quousque regnabis? quousque vigilabis cum voles, dormies quamdiu voles? quousque calcei nusquam, toga feriata, liber totus dies? 3 Tempus est te revisere molestias nostras, vel ob hoc solum ne voluptates istae satietate languescant. Saluta paulisper, quo sit tibi iucundius salutari; terere in hac turba, ut te solitudo delectet. 4 Sed quid imprudens quem evocare conor retardo? Fortasse enim his ipsis admoneris, ut te magis ac magis otio involvas; quod ego non abrumpi sed intermitti volo. 5 Ut enim, si cenam tibi facerem, dulcibus cibis acres acutosque miscerem, ut obtusus illis et oblitus stomachus his excitaretur, ita nunc hortor ut iucundissimum genus vitae non nullis interdum quasi acoribus condias. Vale.
3. — TO PRÆSENS.
Still the same persistency on your part in remaining at one time in Lucania, at another in Campania! “Why,” say you, “I myself am a Lucanian and my wife is a Campanian.” Good grounds these for a more protracted absence from town; but not, however, for an uninterrupted one. Why not return then at some time to Rome, where consideration and honour and friendships, distinguished as well as humble, await you. How long will you continue to play the king, waking when you choose and sleeping as long as you choose? How long are your dress-shoes to be nowhere, your toga to have a holiday, your whole day to be free? It is time that you should revisit our worries, if with this object only, that those pleasures of yours may not languish through satiety. Pay your court to others for a brief while, that it may be the more agreeable to you to be courted in turn. Jostle in this crowd of ours, in order to enjoy solitude. But why foolishly retard him whom I am striving to recall? For, perhaps, you will be urged by this very language of mine more and more to wrap yourself up in your ease, which I don’t want to see broken up, but merely intermitted. For, just as if I were giving you a dinner I should intermingle with sweet dishes some that were sharp-flavoured and piquant, that your taste, deadened and cloyed by the former, might receive a fresh stimulus from the latter, so now I exhort you to season your most delectable mode of life now and then with, so to speak, a trifling admixture of acids.
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4. C. PLINIUS PONTIO SUO S.
1 Ais legisse te hendecasyllabos meos; requiris etiam quemadmodum coeperim scribere, homo ut tibi videor severus, ut ipse fateor non ineptus. 2 Numquam a poetice — altius enim repetam — alienus fui; quin etiam quattuordecim natus annos Graecam tragoediam scripsi. ‘Qualem?’ inquis. Nescio; tragoedia vocabatur. 3 Mox, cum e militia rediens in Icaria insula ventis detinerer, Latinos elegos in illud ipsum mare ipsamque insulam feci. Expertus sum me aliquando et heroo, hendecasyllabis nunc primum, quorum hic natalis haec causa est. Legebantur in Laurentino mihi libri Asini Galli de comparatione patris et Ciceronis. Incidit epigramma Ciceronis in Tironem suum. 4 Dein cum meridie — erat enim aestas — dormiturus me recepissem, nec obreperet somnus, coepi reputare maximos oratores hoc studii genus et in oblectationibus habuisse et in laude posuisse. 5 Intendi animum contraque opinionem meam post longam desuetudi
nem perquam exiguo temporis momento id ipsum, quod me ad scribendum sollicitaverat, his versibus exaravi:
6 Cum libros Galli legerem, quibus ille parenti
ausus de Cicerone dare est palmamque decusque,
lascivum inveni lusum Ciceronis et illo
spectandum ingenio, quo seria condidit et quo
humanis salibus multo varioque lepore
magnorum ostendit mentes gaudere virorum.
Nam queritur quod fraude mala frustratus amantem
paucula cenato sibi debita savia Tiro
tempore nocturno subtraxerit. 5 His ego lectis
‘cur post haec’ inquam ‘nostros celamus amores
nullumque in medium timidi damus atque fatemur
Tironisque dolos, Tironis nosse fugaces
blanditias et furta novas addentia flammas?’
7 Transii ad elegos; hos quoque non minus celeriter explicui, addidi alios facilitate corruptus. Deinde in urbem reversus sodalibus legi; probaverunt. 8 Inde plura metra si quid otii, ac maxime in itinere temptavi. Postremo placuit exemplo multorum unum separatim hendecasyllaborum volumen absolvere, nec paenitet. 9 Legitur describitur cantatur etiam, et a Graecis quoque, quos Latine huius libelli amor docuit, nunc cithara nunc lyra personatur. 10 Sed quid ego tam gloriose? Quamquam poetis furere concessum est. Et tamen non de meo sed de aliorum iudicio loquor; qui sive iudicant sive errant, me delectat. Unum precor, ut posteri quoque aut errent similiter aut iudicent. Vale.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 111