I know that just now you have a particular affection for oratory, but I would not on that account advise you always to adopt that contentious, and, if I may so term it, warlike style. For as soils are refreshed by varying and changing the seeds, so are our minds by exercising the thoughts now in one direction, now in another. I should wish you occasionally to take up some historical topic. I should also wish you to write a letter with especial pains. For oftentimes, even in an oration, a necessity occurs, not only for historical, but almost for poetical treatment, and a concise and pure style is acquired by letter-writing. Even poetry is a fitting relaxation. I don’t say long and sustained poems (for such as these can only be elaborated with full leisure), but of that lively and short kind which form a suitable interruption to occupations and business, however important. We call them poetic sports. But these sports sometimes attain to no less fame than serious effusions. Nay, more (for why should I not exhort you to verse-making by verse?): —
As yielding wax the artist’s skill commands,
Submissive shaped beneath his forming hands;
Now dreadful stands in arms a Mars confessed,
Or now with Venus’ softer air impressed;
Now by the mould a wanton Cupid lies, —
Now shines, severely chaste, a Pallas wise;
As not alone to quench the sacred flame
The sacred fountain pours her friendly stream,
But sweetly gliding through the flowery green,
Spreads glad refreshment o’er the smiling scene;
So, formed by science, should the ductile mind
Receive, distinct, each various art refined.
And so the greatest orators, who were at the same time the greatest of men, either exercised or delighted themselves, nay, rather both exercised and delighted themselves. For it is marvellous how, by means of these small compositions, the mind is at once exerted and refreshed. There is room in them for love, hatred, wrath, pity, humour, everything, in short, which has a place in daily life, as well as in the Forum and its trials. There is in these, too, the same advantage as in other kinds of poetry, that, after acquitting ourselves of the necessities imposed by metre, we learn to rejoice in the freedom of prose, and that which comparison shows to be the easier for us we write with all the more pleasure.
You have now got, perhaps, even more than you required. One thing, however, has been omitted, for I have not said what I thought you ought to read, and yet I did say it when telling you what ought to be written. Do you mind and make a careful selection of authors, each of his own kind. For they say that one ought to read much, not many things. Who these authors are is so well-known and established that there is no necessity for pointing them out; and, independently of this, I have so immoderately extended this letter, that, while advising you on the way in which you ought to conduct your studies, I have been robbing you of time for study. Resume, then, your note-books, and either write something in accordance with these suggestions, or go on with the particular work you had begun.
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10. C. PLINIUS MACRINO SUO S.
1 Quia ipse, cum prima cognovi, iungere extrema quas avulsa cupio, te quoque existimo velle de Vareno et Bithynis reliqua cognoscere. Acta causa hinc a Polyaeno, inde a Magno. 2 Finitis actionibus Caesar ‘Neutra’ inquit ‘pars de mora queretur; erit mihi curae explorare provinciae voluntatem.’ 3 Multum interim Varenus tulit. Etenim quam dubium est an merito accusetur, qui an omnino accusetur incertum est! Superest ne rursus provinciae quod damnasse dicitur placeat, agatque paenitentiam paenitentiae suae. Vale.
10. — TO MACRINUS.
As I myself, when I have learnt the beginning of a story, long to tack to it the ending, which has in a manner been forcibly separated from it, so I suppose that you too would like to learn the remainder about Varenus and the Bithynians. The cause was pleaded by Polyænus on one side, and Magnus on the other. At the conclusion of their speeches, “Neither party,” said Cæsar, “shall have to complain of delay; it shall be my care to ascertain the wishes of the province.” Meanwhile Varenus has obtained a good deal. For, indeed, how doubtful it must be whether a man is rightly accused, when it is uncertain whether he be accused at all? All that remains is that the province should not once more approve of what it is said to have condemned, and thus repent of its own repentance.
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11. C. PLINIUS FABATO PROSOCERO SUO S.
1 Miraris quod Hermes libertus meus hereditarios agros, quos ego iusseram proscribi, non exspectata auctione pro meo quincunce ex septingentis milibus Corelliae addixerit. Adicis hos nongentis milibus posse venire, ac tanto magis quaeris, an quod gessit ratum servem. 2 Ego vero servo: quibus ex causis, accipe. Cupio enim et tibi probatum et coheredibus meis excusatum esse, quod me ab illis maiore officio iubente secerno. 3 Corelliam cum summa reverentia diligo, primum ut sororem Corelli Rufi, cuius mihi memoria sacrosancta est, deinde ut matri meae familiarissimam. 4 Sunt mihi et cum marito eius Minicio Iusto, optimo viro, vetera iura; fuerunt et cum filio maxima, adeo quidem ut praetore me ludis meis praesederit. 5 Haec, cum proxime istic fui, indicavit mihi cupere se aliquid circa Larium nostrum possidere. Ego illi ex praediis meis quod vellet et quanti vellet obtuli exceptis maternis paternisque; his enim cedere ne Corelliae quidem possum. 6 Igitur cum obvenisset mihi hereditas in qua praedia ista, scripsi ei venalia futura. Has epistulas Hermes tulit exigentique, ut statim portionem meam sibi addiceret, paruit. Vides quam ratum habere debeam, quod libertus meus meis moribus gessit. 7 Superest ut coheredes aequo animo ferant separatim me vendidisse, quod mihi licuit omnino non vendere. 8 Nec vero coguntur imitari meum exemplum: non enim illis eadem cum Corellia iura. Possunt ergo intueri utilitatem suam, pro qua mihi fuit amicitia. Vale.
11. — TO FABATUS, HIS WIFE’S GRANDFATHER.
You are surprised that Hermes, my freedman, should have sold to Corellia the five-twelfth share which was left me in an estate (without waiting for the auction, though I had ordered the property to be advertised), at the rate of seven hundred thousand sesterces for the whole. You add that the estate could be sold for nine hundred thousand, and hence you are more particular in inquiring whether I am prepared to stand by what he has done. I certainly do stand by it, for reasons you will now learn, for I am anxious that you should approve, and my co-heirs should excuse, my separating myself from them under the compulsion of a still higher obligation. I have a regard and profound respect for Corellia, first of all as being the sister of Corellius Rufus, whose memory is in the highest degree sacred in my eyes, and next as the bosom friend of my mother. Ties of long standing unite me to her husband also, Minicius Justus, a man of the loftiest character, and very strong ones united me to her son, to such an extent indeed that, during my Prætorship, he presided at the shows which I gave. Corellia, when I was lately in those parts, intimated to me her desire to own some property upon our Larian lake. I offered her, out of my estates, anything she liked, at her own price, always excepting what had come to me from my mother and father, for I could not part with these, even to Corellia. So when this inheritance had fallen to me, containing the lands in question, I wrote to her that they would be offered for sale. Hermes was the bearer of my letter, and on her urgently requesting that he would at once dispose of my portion to her, he complied. You see how completely I must stand to that which has been done by my freedman in compliance with my sentiments. It remains that my co-heirs should bear with a good grace my having sold separately what I was entitled not to sell at all. Nor, indeed, are they compelled to imitate my example, for there are not the same ties between them and Corellia. They can, therefore, look to their own interests; mine were replaced by a sense of friendship.
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12. C. PLINIUS MINICIO SUO S.
1 Libellum formatum a me, sicut exegeras, quo amicus tuus, immo noster — quid enim non commune nobis? -, si res posceret uteretur, misi tibi ideo tardius ne te
mpus emendandi eum, id est disperdendi, haberes. 2 Habebis tamen, an emendandi nescio, utique disperdendi. ‘Hymeis gar hoi euzêloi’ optima quaeque detrahitis. 3 Quod si feceris, boni consulam. Postea enim illis ex aliqua occasione ut meis utar, et beneficio fastidi tui ipse laudabor, ut in eo quod adnotatum invenies et suprascripto aliter explicitum. 4 Nam cum suspicarer futurum, ut tibi tumidius videretur, quoniam est sonantius et elatius, non alienum existimavi, ne te torqueres, addere statim pressius quiddam et exilius, vel potius humilius et peius, vestro tamen iudicio rectius. 5 Cur enim non usquequaque tenuitatem vestram insequar et exagitem? Haec ut inter istas occupationes aliquid aliquando rideres, illud serio: 6 vide ut mihi viaticum reddas, quod impendi data opera cursore dimisso. Ne tu, cum hoc legeris, non partes libelli, sed totum libellum improbabis, negabisque ullius pretii esse, cuius pretium reposcaris. Vale.
12. — TO MINICIUS.
The enclosed small production was composed by me at your request for your, nay, rather our friend (for what is there that is not common between us?), to use if occasion requires. I have sent it you later than I otherwise should, in order that you may have no time for correcting it, that is to say, pulling it to pieces. However, you will find time, whether for correcting it I know not, but certainly for pulling it to pieces. For you “gentlemen of correct taste” cut out all the best bits. Well, if you do this, I will take it in good part. For I shall afterwards, on some occasion or other, use these same bits on my own account, and obtain applause for them by favour of your contemptuous rejection of them — as, for instance, that passage which you will find marked, and the sense set out in a different way, in what I have written above it: for suspecting that it would seem to you turgid, inasmuch as it is high-sounding and elevated, I thought it not inopportune (in order to spare you torture) to append to it forthwith something conciser and simpler, or rather commoner and worse, but which, in your judgment, will be more appropriate. Why, in sooth, should I not take every opportunity of pursuing and railing at your flimsy taste?
So much, that amidst your occupations you might for once have something to laugh at. What follows is serious.
Be sure you repay me the expenses which have come out of my pocket for the special messenger sent herewith. But doubtless, after reading this, you will condemn, not parts of the book only, but the whole book, and, when asked for the price of it, will declare that it is worth no price at all!
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13. C. PLINIUS FEROCI SUO S.
1 Eadem epistula et non studere te et studere significat. Aenigmata loquor? Ita plane, donec distinctius quod sentio enuntiem. 2 Negat enim te studere, sed est tam polita quam nisi a studente non potest scribi; aut es tu super omnes beatus, si talia per desidiam et otium perficis. Vale.
13. — TO FEROX.
One and the same letter of yours intimates to me that you are, and that you are not, engaged in literary studies Do I talk enigmas? So it must be till I express my meaning more clearly. For while it denies that you are studying, it is so elegant that it could only have been written by a student; or else you are the most fortunate of men if you can turn out such compositions as these as the fruits of idleness and leisure.
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14. C. PLINIUS CORELLIAE SUAE S.
1 Tu quidem honestissime, quod tam impense et rogas et exigis, ut accipi iubeam a te pretium agrorum non e septingentis milibus, quanti illos a liberto meo, sed ex nongentis, quanti a publicanis partem vicensimam emisti. 2 Invicem ego et rogo et exigo, ut non solum quid te verum etiam quid me deceat aspicias, patiarisque me in hoc uno tibi eodem animo repugnare, quo in omnibus obsequi soleo. Vale.
14. — TO CORELLIA.
You, for your part, have acted most honourably in begging and insisting with so much earnestness that I would order the purchase-money of the estate to be received from you, not at the rate of seven hundred thousand sesterces — that at which you bought it from my freedman — but at the rate of nine hundred thousand, that at which you compounded for the duty of five per cent, with the farmers of the revenue. In my turn, I beg and insist you will consider, not only what befits you, but what befits me, and will suffer me, in this one particular, to oppose your wishes in the same spirit as on all other occasions I am wont to exhibit in complying with them.
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15. C. PLINIUS SATURNINO SUO S.
1 Requiris quid agam. Quae nosti: distringor officio, amicis deservio, studeo interdum, quod non interdum sed solum semperque facere, non audeo dicere rectius, certe beatius erat. 2 Te omnia alia quam quae velis agere moleste ferrem, nisi ea quae agis essent honestissima. Nam et rei publicae suae negotia curare et disceptare inter amicos laude dignissimum est. 3 Prisci nostri contubernium iucundum tibi futurum sciebam. Noveram simplicitatem eius, noveram comitatem; eundem esse — quod minus noram — gratissimum experior, cum tam iucunde officiorum nostrorum meminisse eum scribas. Vale.
15. — TO SATURNINUS.
You ask what I am about. What you know. I am greatly tried by my official duties, and at the beck and call of my friends. Occasionally I study, to be able to do which, not occasionally, but exclusively and uninterruptedly, would be, I dare not say a more proper, but certainly a happier thing. That your occupations are everything but what you could wish would be a subject of regret to me and were it not that those occupations are of so noble a character. For to administer the affairs of one’s country, and to act as arbitrator for one’s friends, this is in the highest degree glorious. I was sure that the society of our friend Priscus would be a pleasure to you. I was acquainted with his straightforwardness and agreeable manners, and now learn by experience, what I was less acquainted with, his grateful disposition, since you write to me that he is so agreeably mindful of our services to him.
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16. C. PLINIUS FABATO PROSOCERO SUO S.
1 Calestrium Tironem familiarissime diligo et privatis mihi et publicis necessitudinibus implicitum. 2 Simul militavimus, simul quaestores Caesaris fuimus. Ille me in tribunatu liberorum iure praecessit, ego illum in praetura sum consecutus, cum mihi Caesar annum remisisset. Ego in villas eius saepe secessi, ille in domo mea saepe convaluit. 3 Hic nunc pro consule provinciam Baeticam per Ticinum est petiturus. 4 Spero, immo confido facile me impetraturum, ex itinere deflectat ad te, si voles vindicta liberare, quos proxime inter amicos manumisisti. Nihil est quod verearis ne sit hoc illi molestum, cui orbem terrarum circumire non erit longum mea causa. 5 Proinde nimiam istam verecundiam pone, teque quid velis consule. Illi tam iucundum quod ego, quam mihi quod tu iubes. Vale.
16. — TO FABATUS, HIS WIFE’S GRANDFATHER.
I have an intimate regard for Calestrius Tiro, who is attached to me both by private and public ties. We served in the army together, and we were Cæsar’s Quæstors together. He preceded me in the tribuneship, in virtue of his having children, but I overtook him in the prætorship — Cæsar having remitted me a year. I have often enjoyed the retirement of his country seats, and he has often recovered his health at my house. He is now, in the capacity of Proconsul, about to go to the province of Bætica, by way of Ticinum. I hope, nay, am confident, that I shall easily prevail on him to turn out of his way and visit you, if it be your wish to liberate in regular form the slaves whom you have recently manumitted in the presence of your friends. You need not be at all afraid that this will inconvenience him, since he would not think a journey round the world too long for my sake. Lay aside, then, that excessive diffidence of yours, and consult your own wishes. It is as agreeable to him to do my bidding as it is to me to do yours.
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17. C. PLINIUS CELERI SUO S.
1 Sua cuique ratio recitandi; mihi quod saepe iam dixi, ut si quid me fugit — ut certe fugit — admonear. 2 Quo magis miror, quod scribis fuisse quosdam qui reprehenderent quod orationes omnino recitarem; nisi vero has solas non putant emendandas.
3 A quibus libenter requisierim, cur concedant — si concedunt tamen — historiam debere recitari, quae non ostentationi sed fidei veritatique componitur; cur tragoediam, quae non auditorium sed scaenam et actores; cur lyrica, quae non lectorem sed chorum et lyram poscunt. At horum recitatio usu iam recepta est. 4 Num ergo culpandus est ille qui coepit? Quamquam orationes quoque et nostri quidam et Graeci lectitaverunt. 5 Supervacuum tamen est recitare quae dixeris. Etiam, si eadem omnia, si isdem omnibus, si statim recites; si vero multa inseras multa commutes, si quosdam novos quosdam eosdem sed post tempus assumas, cur minus probabilis sit causa recitandi quae dixeris quam edendi? 6 Sed difficile est ut oratio dum recitatur satisfaciat. Iam hoc ad laborem recitantis pertinet, non ad rationem non recitandi. 7 Nec vero ego dum recito laudari, sed dum legor cupio. Itaque nullum emendandi genus omitto. Ac primum quae scripsi mecum ipse pertracto; deinde duobus aut tribus lego; mox aliis trado adnotanda, notasque eorum, si dubito, cum uno rursus aut altero pensito; novissime pluribus recito, ac si quid mihi credis tunc acerrime emendo; 8 nam tanto diligentius quanto sollicitius intendo. Optime autem reverentia pudor metus iudicant, idque adeo sic habe: Nonne si locuturus es cum aliquo quamlibet docto, uno tamen, minus commoveris quam si cum multis vel indoctis? 9 Nonne cum surgis ad agendum, tunc maxime tibi ipse diffidis, tunc commutata non dico plurima sed omnia cupis? utique si latior scaena et corona diffusior; nam illos quoque sordidos pullatosque reveremur. 10 Nonne si prima quaeque improbari putas, debilitaris et concidis? Opinor, quia in numero ipso est quoddam magnum collatumque consilium, quibusque singulis iudicii parum, omnibus plurimum. 11 Itaque Pomponius Secundus — hic scriptor tragoediarum -, si quid forte familiarior amicus tollendum, ipse retinendum arbitraretur, dicere solebat: ‘Ad populum provoco’, atque ita ex populi vel silentio vel assensu aut suam aut amici sententiam sequebatur. 12 Tantum ille populo dabat; recte an secus, nihil ad me. Ego enim non populum advocare sed certos electosque soleo, quos intuear quibus credam, quos denique et tamquam singulos observem et tamquam non singulos timeam. 13 Nam, quod M. Cicero de stilo, ego de metu sentio: timor est, timor emendator asperrimus. Hoc ipsum quod nos recitaturos cogitamus emendat; quod auditorium ingredimur emendat; quod pallemus horrescimus circumspicimus emendat. 14 Proinde non paenitet me consuetudinis meae quam utilissimam experior, adeoque non deterreor sermunculis istorum, ut ultro te rogem monstres aliquid quod his addam. 15 Nihil enim curae meae satis est. Cogito quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum, nec persuadere mihi possum non et cum multis et saepe tractandum, quod placere et semper et omnibus cupias. Vale.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 113