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However, the chief reason why I hesitate is as follows:--The land in
question is fertile, rich and well-watered; it consists of meadows,
vineyards and woods, which are productive and guarantee an income, not
large, it is true, but yet sure. But the fertility of the land is
overtaxed by the lack of capital of the tenants. For the last
proprietor constantly sold the whole stock, and, though he reduced the
arrears of the tenants for the time, he weakened their efficiency for
the future, and as their capital failed them their arrears once more
began to mount up. I must therefore set them up again, and it will cost
me the more because I must provide them with honest slaves, for I have
no slaves working in chains in my possession, nor has any landowner in
that part of the country. Now, let me tell you the price at which I
think I can purchase the property. It is three million sesterces,
though at one time the price was five, but owing to the lack of capital
of the tenants and the general badness of the times the rents have
fallen off and the price has therefore dropped also. Perhaps you will
ask whether I can raise these three millions without difficulty. Well,
nearly all my capital is invested in land, but I have some money out at
interest and I can borrow without any trouble. I can get money from my
mother-in-law, whose purse I use as freely as if it were my own. So
don't let this consideration trouble you, if the other objections can be
got over, and I hope you will give these your most careful attention.
For, as in everything else, so too in the matter of investments, your
experience and shrewdness are unexceptionable. Farewell.

3.XX.--TO MESSIUS MAXIMUS.

Do you remember that you often read of the fierce controversies excited
by the Ballot Act, and the praises and denunciations that it brought
upon the head of the man who introduced it? Yet, nowadays in the Senate
its merits are universally acknowledged, and on the last election day
all the candidates demanded the ballot. For when the voting was open
and members publicly recorded their votes, the confusion was worse than
that which prevails at public meetings. No one paid any heed to the
time allotted to speeches; there was no respectful silence, and members
did not even remember their dignity and keep their seats. On all sides
there was tumult and uproar; all were running to and fro with their
candidates; they clustered in knots and rings on the floor of the house,
and there was the most unseemly disorder. To such an extent had we
degenerated from the customs of our forefathers, who observed in all
things order, moderation, and quiet, and never forgot the dignity of the
place and the attitude proper to it.

There are still old men living who tell me that elections in their time
were conducted as follows:--When a candidate's name was read out the
deepest silence was observed. Then he addressed the House in his own
interest, gave an account of his life, and produced witnesses to speak
in his favour. He would call upon the general under whom he had served,
or the governor to whom he had been quaestor, or both if possible, and
then he mentioned certain of his supporters, who would speak for him in
a few weighty sentences. These had far more effect than entreaties.
Sometimes a candidate would lay objections to the pedigree, age, or
character of a rival, and the Senate would listen with gravity befitting
a censor. Consequently, merit told as a rule more than influence. But
when this laudable practice was spoilt by excessive partisanship the
House had recourse to the silence of the ballot-box in order to cure the
evil, and for a time it did act as a remedy, owing to the novelty of the
sudden change. But I am afraid that as time goes on abuses will arise
even out of this remedy, for there is a danger that the ballot may be
invaded by shameless partiality. How few there are who are as careful
of acting honourably in secret as in public! While many people are
afraid of what others will say, few are afraid of their own conscience.
But it is too early yet to speak of the future, and in the meantime,
thanks to the ballot, we shall have as magistrates men who pre-eminently
deserve the honour. For in this election we have proved honest judges,
like those who are hastily empanelled to serve in the Court of the
Recuperators--where the decision is so speedy that those who try the
case have no time to be bribed.

I have written this letter, firstly to tell you the news, and secondly
to say a word on the general political outlook, and, as opportunities
for discussing the latter are much less frequent than they were in the
old days, we should seize those which present themselves all the more
eagerly. Besides, how long shall we go on using the hackneyed phrases,
"How do you spend your time?" and "Are you quite well?" Let us in our
correspondence rise above the ordinary poor level and petty details
confined to our private affairs. It is true that all political power
lies in the hands of one person, who for the common good has taken upon
himself the cares and labours of the whole State, yet, thanks to his
beneficent moderation, some rills from that bounteous source flow down
even to us, and these we may draw for ourselves and serve up, as it
were, to our absent friends in letters. Farewell.

3.XXI.--TO CORNELIUS PRISCUS.

I hear that Valerius Martial is dead, and I am much troubled at the
news. He was a man of genius, witty and caustic, yet one who in his
writings showed as much candour as he did biting wit and ability to
sting. When he left Rome I made him a present to help to defray his
travelling expenses, as a tribute to the friendship I bore him and to
the verses he had composed about me. It was the custom in the old days
to reward with offices of distinction or money grants those who had
composed eulogies of private individuals or cities, but in our day this
custom, like many other honourable and excellent practices, was one of
the first to fall into disuse. For when we cease to do deeds worthy of
praise, we think it is folly to be praised. Do you ask what the verses
are which excited my gratitude? I would refer you to the volume itself,
but that I have some by heart, and if you like these, you may look out
the others for yourself in the book. He addresses the Muse and bids her
seek my house on the Esquiline and approach it with great respect:--"But
take care that you do not knock at his learned door at a time when you
should not. He devotes whole days together to crabbed Minerva, while he
prepares for the ears of the Court of the Hundred speeches which
posterity and the ages to come may compare even with the pages of
Arpinum's Cicero. "Twill be better if you go late in the day, when the
evening lamps are lit; that is YOUR hour, when the Wine God is at his
revels, when the rose is Queen of the feast, when men's locks drip
perfume. At such an hour even unbending Catos may read my poems." Was
I not right to take a most friendly farewell of a man who wrote a poem
like that about me, and do I do wrong if I now bewail his death as that
of a bosom-friend? For he gave me the best he could, and would have
given me more if he had had it in his power. And yet what more can be
given to a man than glory and praise and immortality? But you may say
that Martial's poems will not live for ever. Well, perhaps not, yet at
least he wrote them in the hope that they would. Farewell.

BOOK IV.

4.I.--TO FABATUS.

You say you wish to see your granddaughter again, and me with her, after
not having seen us for so long. Both of us are charmed to hear you say
so, and, believe me, we are equally anxious to see you. For I cannot
tell you how we long to see you, and we shall no longer delay our visit.
To that end we are even now getting our luggage together, and we shall
push on as fast as the state of the roads will permit. There will be
one delay, but it will not detain us long. We shall branch off to see
my Tuscan estate--not to inspect the farms and go into accounts, as that
can be postponed--but merely to perform a necessary duty. There is a
village near my property called Tifernum Tiberinum, which selected me as
its patron when I was still almost a boy, and showed, by so doing, more
affection than judgment. The people there flock to meet me when I
approach, are distressed when I leave them, and rejoice at my
preferment. In this village, as a return for their kindness--for it
would never do to be outdone in affection--I have, at my own expense,
built a temple, and now that it is completed it would be hardly
respectful to the gods to put off its dedication any longer. So we
shall be present on the dedication day, which I have arranged to
celebrate with a banquet. We may possibly stay there for the following
day as well, but, if we do, we shall get over the ground with increased
speed to make up for lost time. I only hope that we shall find you and
your daughter in good health, for I know we shall find you in good
spirits if we arrive in safety. Farewell.

4.II.--TO ATTIUS CLEMENS.

Regulus has lost his son--the only misfortune he did not deserve,
because I doubt whether he considers it as such. He was a sharp-witted
youth, whatever use he might have made of his talents, though he might
have followed honourable courses if he did not take after his father.
Regulus freed him from his parental control in order that he might
succeed to his mother's property, but after freeing him--and those who
knew the character of the man spoke of it as a release from slavery--he
endeavoured to win his affections by treating him with a pretended
indulgence which was as disgraceful as it was unusual in a father. It
seems incredible, but remember that it was Regulus. Yet now that his
son is dead, he is mad with grief at his loss. The boy had a number of
ponies, some in harness and others not broken in, dogs both great and
small, nightingales, parrots and blackbirds--all these Regulus
slaughtered at his pyre. Yet an act like that was no token of grief; it
was but a mere parade of it. It is strange how people are flocking to
call upon him. Every one detests and hates him, yet they run to visit
him in shoals as though they both admired and loved him. To put in a
nutshell what I mean, people in paying court to Regulus are copying the
example he set. He does not move from his gardens across the Tiber,
where he has covered an immense quantity of ground with colossal
porticos and littered the river bank with his statues, for, though he is
the meanest of misers, he flings his money broadcast, and though his
name is a byword, he is for ever vaunting his glories. Consequently, in
this the most sickly season of the year, he is upsetting every one's
arrangements, and thinks it soothes his grief to inconvenience
everybody. He says he is desirous of taking a wife, and here again, as
in other matters, he shows the perversity of his nature. You will hear
soon that the mourner is married, that the old man has taken a wife,
displaying unseemly haste as the former and undue delay as the latter.
If you ask what makes me think he will take this step, I reply that it
is not because he says he will--for there is no greater liar than he--
but because it is quite certain that Regulus will do what he ought not
to do. Farewell.

4.III.--TO ANTONIUS.

That you, like your ancestors of old, have been twice consul, that you
have been proconsul of Asia with a record such as not more than one or
two of your predecessors and successors have enjoyed--for your modesty
is such that I do not like to say that no one has equalled you--that in
purity of life, influence and age, you are the principal man of the
State,--all these things inspire respect and give distinction, and yet I
admire you even more in your retirement. For to season, as you do, all
your strict uprightness with charm of manner equally striking, and to be
such an agreeable companion as well as such a man of weight, that is no
less difficult than it is desirable. Yet you succeed in so doing with
wonderful sweetness both in your conversation and above all, when you
set pen to paper. For when you talk, all the honey of Homer's old man
eloquent seems to flow from your tongue, and when you write, the bees
seem to be busy pouring into every line their choicest essences and
charging them with sweetness. That certainly was my impression when I
recently read your Greek epigrams and iambics. What breadth of feeling
they contain, what choice expressions, how graceful they are, how
musical, how exact! I thought I was holding in my hands Callimachus or
Herodes, or even a greater poet than these, if greater there be, yet
neither of these two poets attempted or excelled in both these forms of
verse. Is it possible for a Roman to write such Greek? I do not
believe that even Athens has so pure an Attic touch. But why go on? I
am jealous of the Greeks that you should have elected to write in their
language, for it is easy to guess what choice work you could turn out in
your mother-tongue, when you have produced such splendid results with an
exotic language which has been transplanted into our midst. Farewell.

4.IV.--TO SOSIUS SENECIO.

I have the greatest regard for Varisidius Nepos; he is hardworking,
upright, and a scholar--a point which with me outweighs almost any
other. He is a near relative and, in fact, a son of the sister of Caius
Calvisius, my old companion and a friend too of yours. I beg that you
will give him a tribuneship for six months and so advance him in
dignity, both for his own and for his uncle's sake. By so doing you
will confer a favour on me, on our friend Calvisius, and on Varisidius
himself, who is quite as worthy to be under an obligation to you as we
are. You have showered kindnesses on numbers of people, and I will
venture to say that you have never bestowed one that was better
deserved, and have but rarely granted one that was deserved so well.
Farewell.

4.V.--TO SPARSUS.

There is a story that Aeschines was once asked by the Rhodians to read
them one of his speeches, that he afterwards read them one of
Demosthenes' as well, and that both were received with great applause.
I cannot wonder that the orations of such distinguished men were
applauded, when I think that just recently the most learned men in Rome
listened for two days together to a speech of mine, with such
earnestness, applause, and concentration of attention, though there was
nothing to stir their blood, no other speech with which to compare mine,
and not a trace of the acharnement of debate. While the Rhodians had
not only the beauties of the two speeches to kindle them but also the
charm of comparison, my speech was approved though it lacked the
advantages of being controversial. Whether it deserved its reception
you will be able to judge when you have read it, and its bulk does not
allow of my making a longer preface. For I ought certainly to be brief
here where brevity is possible, so that I may be the more readily
excused for the length of the speech itself, though it is not longer
than the subject required. Farewell.

4.VI.--TO JULIUS NASO.

My Tuscan farms have been lashed by hail; from my property in the
Transpadane region I get news that the crops are very heavy but the
prices rule equally low, and it is only my Laurentian estate that makes
me any return. It is true that all my belongings there consist of but a
house and a garden, yet it is the only property which brings me in any
revenue. For while I am there I write hard and I till--not fields, for
I have none--but my own wits, and so I can show you there a full granary
of MSS., as elsewhere I can show you full barns of wheat. Hence if you
are anxious for sure and fruitful farms, you too should sow your grain
on the same kind of shore. Farewell.

4.VII.--TO CATIUS LEPIDUS.

I am constantly writing to tell you what energy Regulus possesses. It
is wonderful the way he carries through anything which he has set his
mind upon. It pleased him to mourn for his son--and never man mourned
like him; it pleased him to erect a number of statues and busts to his
memory, and the result is that he is keeping all the workshops busy; he
is having his boy represented in colours, in wax, in bronze, in silver,
in gold, ivory, and marble--always his boy. He himself just lately got
together a large audience and read a memoir of his life--of the boy's
life; he read it aloud, and yet had a thousand copies written out which
he has scattered broadcast over Italy and the provinces. He wrote at
large to the decurions and asked them to choose one of their number with
the best voice to read the memoir to the people, and it was done. What
good he might have effected with this energy of his--or whatever name we
should give to such dauntless determination on his part to get his own
way--if he had only turned it into a better channel! But then, as you
know, good men rarely have this faculty so well developed as bad men;
the Greeks say, "Ignorance makes a man bold; calculation gives him
pause," and just in the same way modesty cripples the force of an
upright mind, while unblushing confidence is a source of strength to a
man without conscience. Regulus is a case in point. He has weak lungs,
he never looks you straight in the face, he stammers, he has no
imaginative power, absolutely no memory, no quality at all, in short,
except a wild, frantic genius, and yet, thanks to his effrontery, and
even just to this frenzy of his, he has got people to regard him as an
orator. Herennius Senecio very neatly turned against him Cato's well-
known definition of an orator by saying, "An orator is a bad man who
knows nothing of the art of speaking," and I really think that he
thereby gave a better definition of Regulus than Cato did of the really
true orator.

Have you any equivalent to send me for a letter like this? Yes, indeed,
you have, if you will write and say whether any one of my friends in
your township, or whether you yourself have read this pitiful production
of Regulus in the Forum, like a Cheap Jack, pitching your voice high, as
Demosthenes says, shouting with delight, and straining every muscle in
your throat. For it is so absurd that it will make you laugh rather
than sigh, and you would think it was written not about a boy but by a
boy. Farewell.

4.VIII.--TO MATURUS ARRIANUS.

You congratulate me on accepting the office of augur. You are right in
so doing, first, because it is a proper thing to obey the wishes of an
emperor with a character like ours, and, secondly, because the priestly
office is in itself an ancient and sacred one, and inspires respect and
dignity from the very fact that it is held for life. For other offices,
though almost equal in point of dignity to this, may be bestowed one day
and taken away the next, while with the augurship the element of chance
only enters into the bestowal of it. I think too that I have special
reasons for congratulating myself in that I have succeeded Julius
Frontinus, one of the leading men of his day, who for many years running
used to bring forward my name, whenever the nomination day for the
priesthoods came round, as though he wished to coopt me to fill his
place. Now events have turned out in such a way that my election does
not seem to have been the work of chance. I can only hope that as I
have attained to the priesthood and the consulship at a much earlier age
than he did, I may, when I am old, at least in some degree acquire his
serenity of mind. But all that man can give has fallen to my lot and to
many another; the other thing, which can only be bestowed by the gods,
is as difficult to attain to as it is presumptuous to hope for it.
Farewell.

4.IX.--TO CORNELIUS URSUS.

For some days past Julius Bassus has been on his defence. He is a much
harassed man whose misfortunes have made him famous. An accusation was
lodged against him in Vespasian's reign by two private individuals; the
case was referred to the Senate, and for a long time he has been on the
tenter-hooks, but at last he has been acquitted and his character
cleared. He was afraid of Titus because he had been a friend of
Domitian, yet he had been banished by the latter, was recalled by Nerva,
and, after being appointed by lot to the governorship of Bithynia,
returned from the province to stand his trial. The case against him was
keenly pressed, but he was no less loyally defended.

Pomponius Rufus, a ready and impetuous speaker, opened against him and
was followed by Theophanes, one of the deputation from the province, who
was the very life and soul of the prosecution, and indeed the originator
of it. I replied on Bassus' behalf, for he had instructed me to lay the
foundations of his whole defence, to give an account of his
distinctions, which were very considerable--as he was a man of good
family, and had been in many tight places--to dilate upon the conspiracy
of the informers and the gains they counted upon, and to explain how it
was that Bassus had roused the resentment of all the restless spirits of
the province, and notably of Theophanes himself. He had expressed a
wish that I too should controvert the charge which was damaging him
most. For as to the others, though they sounded to be even more
serious, he deserved not only acquittal but approbation, and the only
thing that troubled him was that, in an unguarded moment and in perfect
innocence, he had received certain presents from the provincials as a
token of friendship, for he had served in the same province previously
as quaestor. His accusers stigmatised these gifts as thefts and
plunder: he called them presents, but the law forbids even presents to
be accepted by a governor.

In such a case what was I to do, what line of defence was I to take up?
If I denied them in toto, I was afraid that people would immediately
regard as a theft the presents which I was afraid to confess had been
received. Moreover, to deny the obvious truth would have been to
aggravate and not lessen the gravity of the charge, especially as the
accused himself had cut the ground away from under the feet of his
counsel. For he had told many people, and even the Emperor, that he had
accepted, but only on his birthday or at the feast of the Saturnalia,
some few trifling presents, and had also sent similar gifts to some of
his friends. Was I then to acknowledge this and plead for clemency?
Had I done so, I should have put a knife to my client's throat by
confessing that he had committed offences and could only be acquitted by
an act of clemency. Was I to defend his conduct and justify it? That
would have done him no good, and would have stamped me as an unblushing
advocate.

In this difficult position I resolved to take a middle course, and I
think I succeeded in so doing. Night interrupted my pleading, as it so
often interrupts battles. I had been speaking for three hours and a
half, and I had another hour and a half still left me. The law allowed
the accuser six hours and the defendant nine, and Bassus had arranged
the time at his disposal by giving me five hours, and the remainder to
the advocate who was to speak after me. The success of my pleading
persuaded me to say no more and make an end, for it is rash not to rest
content when things are going well. Besides, I was afraid I might break
down physically if I went over the ground again, as it is more difficult
to pick up the threads of a speech than to go straight on. There was
also the risk of the remainer of my speech meeting with a chilly
reception, owing to the threads being dropped, or of it boring the
judges if I gathered them up anew. For, just as the flame of a torch is
kept alight if you wave it continually up and down, but is difficult to
resuscitate when it has been allowed to go out, so the warmth of a
speaker and the attention of his audience are kept alive if he goes on
speaking, but cool off at any interruption which causes interest to
flag. But Bassus begged and prayed of me, almost with tears in his
eyes, to take my full time. I gave way, and preferred his interests to
my own. It turned out well, for I found that the senators were so
attentive and so fresh that, instead of having had quite enough of my
speech of the day before, it seemed to have only whetted their appetites
for more.

Lucceius Albinus followed me and spoke so much to the point that our
speeches were considered to have all the diversity of two addresses but
the cohesion of one. Herennius Pollio replied with force and dignity,
and then Theophanes again rose. He showed his usual effrontery in
demanding a more liberal allowance of time than is usually granted--even
after two advocates of ability and consular rank had concluded--and he
went on speaking until nightfall, an actually continued after that, when
lights had been brought into court.

On the following day Titius Homullus and Fronto made a splendid effort
on behalf of Bassus, and the hearing of the evidence took up the fourth
day. Baebius Macer, the consul-designate, proposed that Bassus should
be dealt with under the law relating to extortion, while Caepio Hispo
was in favour of appointing judges to hear the case, but urged that
Bassus should retain his place in the Senate. Both were in the right.
How can that be? you may ask. For this reason, because Macer, looking
at the letter of the law, was justified in condemning a man who had
broken the law by receiving presents; while Caepio, acting on the
assumption that the Senate has the right--which it certainly has--both
to mitigate the severity of the laws and to rigorously put them in
force, was not unreasonably desirous of excusing an offence which,
though illegal, is very often committed. Caepio's proposal carried the
day; indeed, when he rose to speak he was greeted with the applause
which is usually reserved for speakers upon resuming their seats. This
will enable you to judge how unanimously the motion was received while
he was speaking, when it met with such a reception on his rising to put
it.

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