Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)
Page 116
27. — TO SURA.
Our leisure furnishes me with the opportunity of learning from you, and you with that of instructing me. Accordingly, I particularly wish to know whether you think there exist such things as phantoms, possessing an appearance peculiar to themselves, and a certain supernatural power, or that mere empty delusions receive a shape from our fears. For my part, I am led to believe in their existence, especially by what I hear happened to Curtius Rufus. While still in humble circumstances and obscure, he was a hanger-on in the suite of the governor of Africa. While pacing the colonnade one afternoon, there appeared to him a female form of superhuman size and beauty. She informed the terrified man that she was “Africa,” and had come to foretell future events; for that he would go to Rome, would fill offices of state there, and would even return to that same province with the highest powers, and die in it. All which things were fulfilled. Moreover, as he touched at Carthage, and was disembarking from his ship, the same form is said to have presented itself to him on the shore. It is certain that, being seized with illness, and auguring the future from the past, and misfortune from his previous prosperity, he himself abandoned all hope of life, though none of those about him despaired.
Is not the following story again still more appalling and not less marvellous? I will relate it as it was received by me: —
There was at Athens a mansion, spacious and commodious, but of evil repute and dangerous to health. In the dead of night there was a noise as of iron, and, if you listened more closely, a clanking of chains was heard, first of all from a distance, and afterwards hard by. Presently a spectre used to appear, an ancient man sinking with emaciation and squalor, with a long beard and bristly hair, wearing shackles on his legs and fetters on his hands, and shaking them. Hence the inmates, by reason of their fears, passed miserable and horrible nights in sleeplessness. This want of sleep was followed by disease, and, their terrors increasing, by death. For in the daytime as well, though the apparition had departed, yet a reminiscence of it flitted before their eyes, and their dread outlived its cause. The mansion was accordingly deserted, and, condemned to solitude, was entirely abandoned to the dreadful ghost. However, it was advertised, on the chance of some one, ignorant of the fearful curse attached to it, being willing to buy or to rent it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, came to Athens and read the advertisement. When he had been informed of the terms, which were so low as to appear suspicious, he made inquiries, and learnt the whole of the particulars. Yet none the less on that account, nay, all the more readily, did he rent the house. As evening began to draw on, he ordered a sofa to be set for himself in the front part of the house, and called for his note-books, writing implements, and a light. The whole of his servants he dismissed to the interior apartments, and for himself applied his soul, eyes, and hand to composition, that his mind might not, from want of occupation, picture to itself the phantoms of which he had heard, or any empty terrors. At the commencement there was the universal silence of night. Soon the shaking of irons and the clanking of chains was heard, yet he never raised his eyes nor slackened his pen, hut hardened his soul and deadened his ears by its help. The noise grew and approached: now it seemed to be heard at the door, and next inside the door. He looked round, beheld and recognised the figure he had been told of. It was standing and signalling to him with its finder, as though inviting him. He, in reply, made a sign with his hand that it should wait a moment, and applied himself afresh to his tablets and pen. Upon this the figure kept rattling its chains over his head as he wrote. On looking round again, he saw it making the same signal as before, and without delay took up a light and followed it. It moved with a slow step, as though oppressed by its chains, and, after turning into the courtyard of the house, vanished suddenly and left his company. On being thus left to himself, he marked the spot with some grass and leaves which he plucked. Next day he applied to the magistrates, and urged them to have the spot in question dug up. There were found there some bones attached to and intermingled with fetters; the body to which they had belonged, rotted away by time and the soil, had abandoned them thus naked and corroded to the chains. They were collected and interred at the public expense, and the house was ever afterwards free from the spirit, which had obtained due sepulture.
The above story I believe on the strength of those who affirm it. What follows I am myself in a position to affirm to others. I have a freedman, who is not without some knowledge of letters. A younger brother of his was sleeping with him in the same bed. The latter dreamt he saw some one sitting on the couch, who approached a pair of scissors to his head, and even cut the hair from the crown of it. When day dawned he was found to be cropped round the crown, and his locks were discovered lying about. A very short time afterwards a fresh occurrence of the same kind confirmed the truth of the former one. A lad of mine was sleeping, in company with several others, in the pages’ apartment. There came through the windows (so he tells the story) two figures in white tunics, who cut his hair as he lay, and departed the way they came. In his case, too, daylight exhibited him shorn, and his locks scattered around. Nothing remarkable followed, except, perhaps, this, that I was not brought under accusation, as I should have been, if Domitian (in whose reign these events happened) had lived longer. For in his desk was found an information against me which had been presented by Carus; from which circumstance it may be conjectured — inasmuch as it is the custom of accused persons to let their hair grow — that the cutting off of my slaves’ hair was a sign of the danger which threatened me being averted.
I beg, then, that you will apply your great learning to this subject. The matter is one which deserves long and deep consideration on your part; nor am I, for my part, undeserving of having the fruits of your wisdom imparted to me. You may even argue on both sides (as your way is), provided you argue more forcibly on one side than the other, so as not to dismiss me in suspense and anxiety, when the very cause of my consulting you has been to have my doubts put an end to.
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28. C. PLINIUS SEPTICIO SUO S.
1 Ais quosdam apud te reprehendisse, tamquam amicos meos ex omni occasione ultra modum laudem. 2 Agnosco crimen, amplector etiam. Quid enim honestius culpa benignitatis? Qui sunt tamen isti, qui amicos meos melius norint? Sed, ut norint, quid invident mihi felicissimo errore? Ut enim non sint tales quales a me praedicantur, ego tamen beatus quod mihi videntur. 3 Igitur ad alios hanc sinistram diligentiam conferant; nec sunt parum multi, qui carpere amicos suos iudicium vocant. Mihi numquam persuadebunt ut meos amari a me nimium putem. Vale.
28. — TO SEPTICIUS.
You say that certain folks have been finding fault with me in your presence, on the ground of my praising my friends immoderately at every opportunity. I plead guilty to the charge, and even hug it to my breast. What indeed can be more to one’s credit than the sin of goodnature? Yet who are these people who know my friends better than I do? However, suppose they do so know them, why grudge me a deception which is the cause of so much happiness to me? For though these friends be not such as they are proclaimed by me, yet I am fortunate in that they seem such to me. Let these persons, then, transfer their mischievous assiduities elsewhere. There is no lack of those who malign their friends under the plea of criticising them. Me they will never persuade to think that my friends are too much loved by me.
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29. C. PLINIUS MONTANO SUO S.
1 Ridebis, deinde indignaberis, deinde ridebis, si legeris, quod nisi legeris non potes credere. 2 Est via Tiburtina intra primum lapidem — proxime adnotavi — monimentum Pallantis ita inscriptum: ‘Huic senatus ob fidem pietatemque erga patronos ornamenta praetoria decrevit et sestertium centies quinquagies, cuius honore contentus fuit.’ 3 Equidem numquam sum miratus quae saepius a fortuna quam a iudicio proficiscerentur; maxime tamen hic me titulus admonuit, quam essent mimica et inepta, quae interdum in hoc caenum, in has sordes abicerentur, quae denique ille furcifer et rec
ipere ausus est et recusare, atque etiam ut moderationis exemplum posteris prodere. 4 Sed quid indignor? Ridere satius, ne se magnum aliquid adeptos putent, qui huc felicitate perveniunt ut rideantur. Vale.
29. — TO MONTANUS.
You will laugh, then you will be indignant, then you will laugh again, when you read what, unless you do read it, you never will believe. There stands on the road to Tibur, this side of the first milestone — I noticed it quite lately — a monument to Pallas, thus inscribed: “To him, the Senate, on account of his faithfulness and loyalty to his patrons, decreed the Prætorian insignia and a sum of fifteen million sesterces. He was contented with the honour merely.” In truth, I have never marvelled to see honours bestowed more frequently by fortune than by discernment; yet this inscription strongly reminded me how farcical and foolish are those which are at times thrown away on such dirt and filth as this; honours which, to crown the matter, this gallows-bird was impudent enough both to accept and to decline, and even, as a sample of modesty, to exhibit to posterity. But why this indignation? It is better to laugh, that these rogues may not fancy they have achieved any mighty result, when their good luck has merely carried them to the point of being subjects for laughter.
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30. C. PLINIUS GENITORI SUO S.
1 Torqueor quod discipulum, ut scribis, optimae spei amisisti. Cuius et valetudine et morte impedita studia tua quidni sciam? cum sis omnium officiorum observantissimus, cumque omnes quos probas effusissime diligas. 2 Me huc quoque urbana negotia persequuntur; non desunt enim qui me iudicem aut arbitrum faciant. 3 Accedunt querelae rusticorum, qui auribus meis post longum tempus suo iure abutuntur. Instat et necessitas agrorum locandorum, perquam molesta: adeo rarum est invenire idoneos conductores. 4 Quibus ex causis precario studeo, studeo tamen. Nam et scribo aliquid et lego; sed cum lego, ex comparatione sentio quam male scribam, licet tu mihi bonum animum facias, 5 qui libellos meos de ultione Helvidi orationi Demosthenis ‘kata Meidiou’ confers. Quam sane, cum componerem illos, habui in manibus, non ut aemularer — improbum enim ac paene furiosum -, sed tamen imitarer et sequerer, quantum aut diversitas ingeniorum maximi et minimi, aut causae dissimilitudo pateretur. Vale.
30. — TO GENITOR.
I am much distressed at your having lost, as you write me word, a pupil of the highest promise. That his illness and death have impeded your studies is of course obvious to me, since you are so careful in the discharge of all friendly offices, and love with so much effusion all those who approve themselves to you. As for me, city business pursues me even to this place. For there are not wanting those who constitute me judge or arbitrator in their affairs. To this must be added the complaints of the rustics, who abuse my ears, as they have a right to do after my long absence. Then there is a pressing necessity for letting my farms, and a very disagreeable one, so rare is it to find suitable tenants. For these reasons I study when I can beg time; still I do study; for I both write and read somewhat. Yet, when reading, I am made sensible by the comparison how bad my own writings are; though you put good heart into me when you compare my treatise in vindication of Helvidius to the oration of Demosthenes against Midias. It is true that I had the latter in my hands while engaged in composing the former; not with the view of rivalling it (that would have been impudence, and almost madness); yet, at any rate, with the view of imitating and following it as far as the divergence between the two intellects — between a very great and a very small one — and the different character of my case would permit.
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31. C. PLINIUS CORNUTO SUO S.
1 Claudius Pollio amari a te cupit dignus hoc ipso quod cupit, deinde quod ipse te diligit; neque enim fere quisquam exigit istud nisi qui facit. Vir alioqui rectus integer quietus ac paene ultra modum — si quis tamen ultra modum — verecundus. 2 Hunc, cum simul militaremus, non solum ut commilito inspexi. Praeerat alae miliariae; ego iussus a legato consulari rationes alarum et cohortium excutere, ut magnam quorundam foedamque avaritiam, neglegentiam parem, ita huius summam integritatem, sollicitam diligentiam inveni. 3 Postea promotus ad amplissimas procurationes, nulla occasione corruptus ab insito abstinentiae amore deflexit; numquam secundis rebus intumuit; numquam officiorum varietate continuam laudem humanitatis infregit, eademque firmitate animi laboribus suffecit, qua nunc otium patitur. 4 Quod quidem paulisper cum magna sua laude intermisit et posuit, a Corellio nostro ex liberalitate imperatoris Nervae emendis dividendisque agris adiutor assumptus. Etenim qua gloria dignum est, summo viro in tanta eligendi facultate praecipue placuisse! 5 Idem quam reverenter, quam fideliter amicos colat, multorum supremis iudiciis, in his Anni Bassi gravissimi civis, credere potes, cuius memoriam tam grata praedicatione prorogat et extendit, ut librum de vita eius — nam studia quoque sicut alias bonas artes veneratur — ediderit. 6 Pulchrum istud et raritate ipsa probandum, cum plerique hactenus defunctorum meminerint ut querantur. 7 Hunc hominem appetentissimum tui, mihi crede, complectere apprehende, immo et invita, ac sic ama tamquam gratiam referas. Neque enim obligandus sed remunerandus est in amoris officio, qui prior coepit. Vale.
31. — TO CORNUTUS.
Claudius Pollio desires your affection, and deserves it from the very fact that he desires it, and next because he loves you of his own accord. And, indeed, none commonly claims this kind of sentiment, save he who himself experiences it. He is, besides, a man of virtue and integrity, free from ambition and modest to excess — if, however, any one can carry modesty to excess. “When we served together, I saw what he was made of, and that not merely in the capacity of his comrade in arms. He commanded a squadron of cavalry a thousand strong. I was ordered by the Consular Legate to examine the accounts of the squadrons and cohorts, in the course of which I discovered, not only the extensive and filthy rapacity of certain parties, but also the consummate integrity and scrupulous industry of my friend. Promoted subsequently to the most distinguished charges, he was seduced by no opportunity to deviate from his innate regard for disinterestedness. He was never puffed up by prosperity; never by reason of the variety of offices which he filled did he detract ought from his unvarying reputation for kindliness; and he supported his labours with the same strength of character as that with which he now bears his repose. This repose, however, he has, for a short time, greatly to his credit, broken in upon and laid aside, having been called to assist our friend Corellius, in consequence of the liberality of the Emperor Nerva, in the matter of buying and distributing lands for the public. What a glory, to be sure, to have especially attracted the choice of so distinguished a man, when there was such an ample field for selection. For the regard and the fidelity with which he cherishes his friends, you may trust to the last testamentary dispositions of many among them, and of this number Annius Bassus, a man of the highest respectability. The memory of this Bassus he preserves and prolongs by eulogies, which are, indeed, so full of gratitude, that he has published (for letters too, as well as the other liberal arts, are held in veneration by him) a volume containing his life. A noble thing this, and one to be approved for its very rarity, seeing that most people remember the dead just so far as to complain of them. This man, who, believe me, is so eager for your friendship, I would have you receive with open arms and cling to, ay, and welcome, and so love him as though you were repaying a favour. For in the office of friendship, he who has set the example is not one to be placed under an obligation, but rather to be remunerated.
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32. C. PLINIUS FABATO PROSOCERO SUO S.
1 Delector iucundum tibi fuisse Tironis mei adventum; quod vero scribis oblata occasione proconsulis plurimos manumissos, unice laetor. Cupio enim patriam nostram omnibus quidem rebus augeri, maxime tamen civium numero: id enim oppidis firmissimum ornamentum. 2 Illud etiam me non ut ambitiosum sed tamen iuvat, quod adicis te meque et gratiarum actione et laude celebratos. Est enim, ut Xenophon ait, ‘hêdiston akousma epainos’, utique si te mereri putes. Vale
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32. — TO FABATUS, HIS WIFE’S GRANDFATHER.
I am delighted that the arrival of my friend Tiro was a source of enjoyment to you; while, as to what you write me word — that the occasion of a Proconsul’s presence having offered itself, a number of persons received their freedom — I rejoice especially. For I desire that our native place should be increased in all things, but principally in the number of its citizens, since this forms the surest embellishment of cities. This, too, pleases me — not that I curry favour — but, at any rate, it does please me, to see you add that both you and I were honoured by the expression of thanks and by praise. For, as Xenophon says, “Praise is the sweetest hearing,” particularly if you think you deserve it.
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33. C. PLINIUS TACITO SUO S.
1 Auguror nec me fallit augurium, historias tuas immortales futuras; quo magis illis — ingenue fatebor — inseri cupio. 2 Nam si esse nobis curae solet ut facies nostra ab optimo quoque artifice exprimatur, nonne debemus optare, ut operibus nostris similis tui scriptor praedicatorque contingat? 3 Demonstro ergo quamquam diligentiam tuam fugere non possit, cum sit in publicis actis, demonstro tamen quo magis credas, iucundum mihi futurum si factum meum, cuius gratia periculo crevit, tuo ingenio tuo testimonio ornaveris.
4 Dederat me senatus cum Herennio Senecione advocatum provinciae Baeticae contra Baebium Massam, damnatoque Massa censuerat, ut bona eius publice custodirentur. Senecio, cum explorasset consules postulationibus vacaturos, convenit me et ‘Qua concordia’ inquit ‘iniunctam nobis accusationem exsecuti sumus, hac adeamus consules petamusque, ne bona dissipari sinant, quorum esse in custodia debent.’ 5 Respondi: ‘Cum simus advocati a senatu dati, dispice num peractas putes partes nostras senatus cognitione finita.’ Et ille: ‘Tu quem voles tibi terminum statues, cui nulla cum provincia necessitudo nisi ex beneficio tuo et hoc recenti; ipse et natus ibi et quaestor in ea fui.’ 6 Tum ego: ‘Si fixum tibi istud ac deliberatum, sequar te ut, si qua ex hoc invidia, non tantum tua.’ 7 Venimus ad consules; dicit Senecio quae res ferebat, aliqua subiungo. Vixdum conticueramus, et Massa questus Senecionem non advocati fidem sed inimici amaritudinem implesse, impietatis reum postulat. 8 Horror omnium; ego autem ‘Vereor’ inquam, ‘clarissimi consules, ne mihi Massa silentio suo praevaricationem obiecerit, quod non et me reum postulavit.’ Quae vox et statim excepta, et postea multo sermone celebrata est. 9 Divus quidem Nerva — nam privatus quoque attendebat his quae recte in publico fierent — missis ad me gravissimis litteris non mihi solum, verum etiam saeculo est gratulatus, cui exemplum — sic enim scripsit — simile antiquis contigisset. 10 Haec, utcumque se habent, notiora clariora maiora tu facies; quamquam non exigo ut excedas actae rei modum. Nam nec historia debet egredi veritatem, et honeste factis veritas sufficit. Vale.