Books: The Letters of Pliny the Younger
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Pliny the Younger >> The Letters of Pliny the Younger
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Nay, even on his deathbed he said to his daughter, as she is never tired
of repeating, "I have procured for you a multitude of friends, and, even
had I lived longer, I could hardly have got you more, but best of all I
have won you the friendship of Secundus and Cornutus." When I think of
those words, I feel that it is my duty to work hard, that I may not seem
to have fallen short in any particular of the confidence reposed in me
by such an excellent judge of men. So I will take up Corellia's case
without loss of time, nor will I mind giving offence to others by the
course I adopt. Yet I think that I shall not only be excused, but
receive the praises even of him who, as you say, is bringing this new
action against Corellia, possibly because she is a woman, if during the
hearing I explain my motives, more fully and amply than I can in the
narrow limits of a letter, either in order to justify or even to win
approval of my conduct. Farewell.
4.XVIII.--TO ARRIUS ANTONINUS.
How can I better prove to you how greatly I admire your Greek epigrams
than by the fact that I have tried to imitate some of them and turn them
into Latin? I grant they have lost in the translation, and this is due
in the first place to the poorness of my wits, and in the second place--
and even more--to what Lucretius calls the poverty of our native tongue.
But if these verses, writ in Latin and by me, seem to you to possess any
grace, you may guess how charming the originals are which were written
in Greek and by you. Farewell.
4.XIX.--TO CALPURNIA HISPULLA.
As you yourself are a model of the family virtues, as you returned the
affection of your brother, who was the best of men and devoted to you,
and as you love his daughter as though she were your own child, and show
her not only the affection of an aunt but even that of the father she
has lost, I feel sure you will be delighted to know that she is proving
herself worthy of her father, worthy of you, and worthy of her
grandfather. She has a sharp wit, she is wonderfully economical, and
she loves me--which is a guarantee of her purity. Moreover, owing to
her fondness for me she has developed a taste for study. She collects
all my speeches, she reads them, and learns them by heart. When I am
about to plead, what anxiety she shows; when the pleading is over, how
pleased she is! She has relays of people to bring her news as to the
reception I get, the applause I excite, and the verdicts I win from the
judges. Whenever I recite, she sits near me screened from the audience
by a curtain, and her ears greedily drink in what people say to my
credit. She even sings my verses and sets them to music, though she has
no master to teach her but love, which is the best instructor of all.
Hence I feel perfectly assured that our mutual happiness will be
lasting, and will continue to grow day by day. For she loves in me not
my youth nor my person--both of which are subject to gradual decay and
age--but my reputation. Nor would other feelings become one who had
been brought up at your knee, who had been trained by your precepts, who
had seen in your house nothing that was not pure and honourable, and, in
short, had been taught to love me at your recommendation. For as you
loved and venerated my mother as a daughter, so even when I was a boy
you used to shape my character, and encourage me, and prophesy that I
should develop into the man that my wife now believes me to be.
Consequently my wife and I try to see who can thank you best, I because
you have given her to me, and she because you gave me to her, as though
you chose us the one for the other. Farewell.
4.XX.--TO MAXIMUS.
You know my opinion of your volumes singly, for I have written to tell
you as I finished each one; now let me give my broad view of the whole
work. It is beautifully written, with power, incisiveness, loftiness,
and variety of treatment, in elegant, pure language, with plenty of
metaphor, while it is comprehensive and covers an amount of ground that
does you great credit. You have been carried far by the sweeping sails
of your genius and your resentment, both of which have been a great help
to you; for your genius has lent a lofty magnificence to your
resentment, which in turn has added power and sharpness to your genius.
Farewell.
4.XXI.--TO VELIUS CEREALIS.
What a terribly sad fate has overtaken those two sisters, the Helvidiae!
Both to have given birth to daughters, and both to have died in
childbirth! I am very, very sorry, yet I keep my grief within bounds.
What seems to me so lamentable is that two honourable ladies should in
the very spring-time of life have been carried off at the moment of
becoming mothers. I am grieved for the infants who are left motherless
at their birth; I am grieved for their excellent husbands, and grieved
also on my own account. For even now I retain the warmest affection for
their dead father, as I have shown in my pleading and my books. Now but
one of his three children is alive, and only one remains to support a
house which a little time ago had so many props to sustain it. But my
grief will be greatly relieved should Fortune preserve him at least to
robust and vigorous health, and make him as good a man as his father and
grandfather were before him. I am the more anxious for his health and
character now that he is the only one left. You know the tenderness of
my mind where my affections are engaged and how nervous I am, so you
must not be surprised if I show most anxiety on behalf of those of whom
I have formed the greatest hopes. Farewell.
4.XXII.--TO SEMPRONIUS RUFUS.
I have been called in by our excellent Emperor to take part and advise
upon the following case. Under the will of a certain person, it has
been the custom at Vienne to hold a gymnastic contest. Trebonius Rufus,
a man of high principle and a personal friend of mine, in his capacity
of duumvir, discontinued and abolished the custom, and it was objected
that he had no legal authority to do so. He pleaded his case not only
with eloquence but to good effect, and what lent force to his pleading
was that he spoke with discretion and dignity, as a Roman and a good
citizen should, in a matter that concerned himself. When the opinion of
the Council was taken, Junius Mauricus, who stands second to none for
strength of will and devotion to truth, was against restoring the
contest to the people of Vienne, and he added, "I wish the games could
be abolished at Rome as well." That is a bold consistent line, you will
say. So it is, but that is no new thing with Mauricus. He spoke just
as frankly before the Emperor Nerva. Nerva was dining with a few
friends; Veiento was sitting next to him and was leaning on his
shoulder--I need say no more after mentioning the man's name. The
conversation turned upon Catullus Messalinus, who was blind, and had
that curse to bear in addition to his savage disposition. He was void
of fear, shame, and pity, and on that account Domitian often used him as
a tool for the destruction of the best men in the State, just as though
he were a dart urging on its blind and sightless course. All at table
were speaking of this man's villainy and bloody counsels, when the
Emperor himself said: "I wonder what his fate would be if he were alive
to-day," to which Mauricus replied, "He would be dining with us." I
have made a long digression, but willingly. The Council resolved that
the contest should be abolished, because it had corrupted the morals of
Vienne, just as our contests have corrupted the whole world. For the
vices of Vienne go no further than their own walls, but ours spread far
and wide. As in the body corporal, so in the body of the State, the
most dangerous diseases are those that spread from the head. Farewell.
4.XXIII.--TO POMPONIUS BASSUS.
I have been delighted to hear from our mutual friends that you map out
and bear your retirement in a way that is worthy of your ripe wisdom,
that you live in a charming spot, that you take exercise on both sea and
land, that you have plenty of good conversation, that you read a great
deal and listen to others reading, and that, though your stock of
knowledge is vast, you yet add thereto every day. That is just the way
a man should spend his later years after filling the highest
magistracies, after commanding armies, and devoting himself wholly to
the service of the State for as long as it became him to do so. For we
owe our early and middle manhood to our country, our last years are due
to ourselves--as indeed the laws direct which enforce retirement when we
reach a certain age. When will that appointed time come to me? When
shall I attain the age at which I may honourably retire and imitate the
example of beautiful and perfect peace that you set me? When shall I be
able to enjoy calm retreat without people calling it not peaceful
tranquillity but laziness and sloth? Farewell.
4.XXIV.--TO FABIUS VALENS.
Just recently, after pleading before the Centumviri in the fourfold
Court, I happened to remember that in my younger days I had also pleaded
in the same court. My thoughts, as usual, began to take a wider range,
and I commenced to recall to my memory those whom I had worked with in
this court and in that. I found I was the only one left who had
practised in both, so sweeping were the changes effected by the
slenderness of human life and the fickleness of fortune. Some of those
who used to plead in my young days are dead, others are in exile; age
and ill health have convinced others that their speaking days are over;
some are enjoying of their own free will the pleasures of retirement, or
are in command of armies, or have been withdrawn from civil employments
by becoming the personal friends of the Emperor. Even in my own case
how many changes I have gone through! I first owed my promotion to my
literary studies; then they brought me into danger, and then again won
me still further advancement. My friendships with worthy citizens
likewise first helped me, then stood in my way, and now again they
assist me. If you count the years, the time seems but short; but count
the changes and the ups and downs, and it seems an age. This may be
taken by us as a lesson never to despair of anything, and never to
impose a blind trust in anything, when we see so many vicissitudes
brought about by this inconstant world of ours. I deem it a mark of
friendship on my part to make you the confidant of my thoughts, and to
admonish you by the precepts and examples with which I admonish myself.
That is the raison d'etre of this letter. Farewell.
4.XXV.--TO MESSIUS MAXIMUS.
I wrote and told you that there was a danger of the ballot leading to
abuses. Events have confirmed my view. At the last election a number
of flippant jests were written on some of the voting cards and even
obscenities, while on one of them were found, not the names of the
candidates, but those of the voters. The Senate was furious, and loudly
called upon the offended Emperor to punish the writer. But the guilty
person was not discovered and lay close, and he possibly was one of
those who professed the greatest indignation. Yet what conduct may we
not consider him capable of at home when he plays such disgraceful jokes
in a matter of such importance and at such a serious moment, and yet in
the Senate is an incisive, courteous, and pretty speaker? However,
people of no principle are encouraged to act in this shameful way when
they feel they can safely say, "Who will find me out?" Such a man asks
for a voting card, takes a pen in his hand, bends his head, has no fear
of any one, and holds himself cheap. That is the origin of scurrilities
only worthy of the stage and the platform. But where can one turn, and
where is one to look for a cure? On every hand the evils are more
powerful than the remedies. Yet "all these things will be seen to by
one above us," whose daily working hours are lengthened and whose
labours are considerably increased by this lumpish, yet unbridled,
perversity.
4.XXVI.--TO NEPOS.
You ask me to be sure to look over and correct my speeches, which you
have taken the greatest pains to get together. I will with pleasure,
for what duty is there that I ought to be better pleased to undertake,
especially as it is you who ask me? When a man of your weight,
scholarship, and learning, and, above all, one who is never idle for a
moment, and is about to be governor of an important province, sets such
store on having my writings to take with him on his travels, surely I
ought to do my best to prevent this part of his luggage from appearing
useless in his eyes. So I will do what I can, first, to make those
companions of your voyage as agreeable as possible, and, secondly, to
enable you to find on your return others that you may like to add to
their number. Believe me, the fact that you read what I write is no
small incentive to me to produce new works. Farewell.
4.XXVII.--TO POMPEIUS FALCO.
This is the third day that I have been attending the recitals of Sentius
Augurinus, which I have not only enjoyed immensely, but admired as well.
He calls his work "Poetical Pieces." Many are airy trifles; many deal
with noble themes, and they abound in wit, tenderness, sweetness, and
sting. Unless it is that my affection for him, or the fact that he has
lavished praises upon me, warps my judgment, I must say that for some
years past there have been no such finished poems of their class
produced. Augurinus took as his theme the fact that I occasionally
amuse myself with writing verses. I will enable you to act the critic of
my criticism if I can recall the second line of the piece. I remember
the others, and now I think I have them all.
"I sing songs in trifling measures, which Catullus, Calvus, and the
poets of old have employed before me. But what matters that to me?
Pliny alone I count my senior. When he quits the Forum, his taste is
for light verses; he seeks an object for his love, and thinks that he is
loved in return. What a man is Pliny, worth how many Catos! Go now,
you who love, and love no more."
You see how smart, how apposite, how clear-cut the verses are, and I can
promise you that the whole book is equally good. I will send you a copy
as soon as it is published. Meanwhile, give the young man your regard
and congratulate the age on producing such genius, which he enhances by
the beauty of his morals. He passes his time with Spurinna and
Antoninus; he is related to the one, and shares the same house with the
other. You may guess from this that he is a youth of finished parts,
when he is thus loved by men of their years and worth. For the old
adage is wonderfully true, "You may tell a man by the company he keeps."
Farewell.
4.XXVIII.--TO VIBIUS SEVERUS.
Herennius Severus, a man of great learning, is anxious to place in his
library portraits of your fellow-townsmen, Cornelius Nepos and Titus
Catius, and he asks me to get them copied and painted if there are any
such portraits in their native place, as there probably are. I am
laying this commission upon you rather than on any one else, first,
because you are always kind enough to grant any favour I ask; secondly,
because I know your reverence for literary studies and your love of
literary men; and, lastly, because you love and reverence your native
place, and entertain the same feelings for those who have helped to make
its name famous. So I beg you to find as careful a painter as you can,
for while it is hard to paint a portrait from an original, it is far
more difficult to make a good imitation of an imitation. Moreover,
please do not let the painter you choose make any variations from his
copy, even though they are for the better. Farewell.
4.XXIX.--TO ROMATIUS FIRMUS.
Do be careful, my dear friend, and the next time there is business
afoot, see to it that you come into court, whatever happens. It is no
good your putting your confidence in me and so continuing your slumber;
if you stay away, you will have to smart for it. For look you, Licinius
Nepos, who is making a sharp and resolute praetor, has levied a fine
even on a senator. The latter pleaded his cause in the Senate, but he
did so in the form of suing for forgiveness. The fine was remitted, yet
he had an uneasy time; he had to ask for pardon, and he was obliged to
sue for forgiveness. You will say, "Oh, but all praetors are not so
strict." Don't make any mistake! For though it is only a strict
praetor who would make or revive such a precedent, when once it has been
made or revived even the most lenient officials can put it into
execution. Farewell.
4.XXX.--TO LICINIUS SURA.
I have brought you as a present from my native district a problem which
is fully worthy even of your profound learning. A spring rises in the
mountain-side; it flows down a rocky course, and is caught in a little
artificial banqueting house. After the water has been retained there
for a time it falls into the Larian lake. There is a wonderful
phenomenon connected with it, for thrice every day it rises and falls
with fixed regularity of volume. Close by it you may recline and take a
meal, and drink from the spring itself, for the water is very cool, and
meanwhile it ebbs and flows at regular and stated intervals. If you
place a ring or anything else on a dry spot by the edge, the water
gradually rises to it and at last covers it, and then just as gradually
recedes and leaves it bare; while if you watch it for any length of
time, you may see both processes twice or thrice repeated. Is there any
unseen air which first distends and then tightens the orifice and mouth
of the spring, resisting its onset and yielding at its withdrawal? We
observe something of this sort in jars and other similar vessels which
have not a direct and free opening, for these, when held either
perpendicularly or aslant, pour out their contents with a sort of gulp,
as though there were some obstruction to a free passage. Or is this
spring like the ocean, and is its volume enlarged and lessened
alternately by the same laws that govern the ebb and flow of the tide?
Or again, just as rivers on their way to the sea are driven back on
themselves by contrary winds and the opposing tide, is there anything
that can drive back the outflow of this spring? Or is there some latent
reservoir which diminishes and retards the flow while it is gradually
collecting the water that has been drained off, and increases and
quickens the flow when the process of collection is complete? Or is
there some curiously hidden and unseen balance which, when emptied,
raises and thrusts forth the spring, and, when filled, checks and
stifles its flow? Please investigate the causes which bring about this
wonderful result, for you have the ability to do so; it is more than
enough for me if I have described the phenomenon with accuracy.
Farewell.
BOOK V.
5.I.--TO ANNIUS SEVERUS.
I have come in for a legacy, inconsiderable in amount, yet more
gratifying than even the handsomest one could be. Why so? I will tell
you. Pomponia Galla, who had disinherited her son Asudius Curianus, had
left me her heir and had given me as co-heirs Sertorius Severus, a man
of praetorian rank, and other Roman knights of distinction. Curianus
begged me to make my portion over to him, and so strengthen his position
with the court by declaring in his favour beforehand, promising at the
same time to make the amount good to me by a secret compact. My answer
was that my character did not allow me to act in one way before the
world and in another in private, and I further urged that it would not
be a proper thing to make over sums of money to a wealthy and childless
man. In short, my argument was that I should not benefit him by making
over the amount, but that I should benefit him if I renounced my legacy,
and that this I was perfectly willing to do, if he could satisfy me that
he had been unjustly disinherited. His reply to this was to ask me to
investigate the case judicially. After some hesitation I said, "I will,
for I do not see why I should appear less honourable in my own eyes than
I do in yours. But remember even now that I shall not hesitate to
pronounce in favour of your mother if I feel honourably bound to do so."
"Do as you will," he replied, "for what you will is sure to be just and
right."
I called in to assist me two of the most thoroughly honourable men that
the State could boast of possessing, Corellius and Frontinus. With
these by my side I sat in my private room. Curianus then laid his case
before us; I replied briefly, for there was no one else present to
defend the motives of the deceased. Then I withdrew, and, in accordance
with the views of Corellius and Frontinus, I said, "Curianus, we think
that your mother had just grounds for resentment against you."
Subsequently, he lodged an appeal before the centumvirs against the
other heirs but not against me. The day for the hearing approached, and
my co-heirs were disposed to agree to a compromise and come to terms,
not because they doubted their legal position, but owing to the troubled
state of the times. They were afraid that what had happened to many
others might happen to them, and that they might leave the Centumvirs'
Court with some capital charge against them. Moreover, there were some
among their number who were open to the charge of having been friends of
Gratilla and Rusticus, so they begged me to speak with Curianus. We met
in the Temple of Concord, and I addressed him there in the following
terms: "If your mother had left you heir to a fourth of her estate,
could you complain? But what if she had left you heir to the whole, and
yet had so encumbered it with legacies that not more than a fourth of
the whole remained? I think you ought to be satisfied if, after being
disinherited by your mother, you receive a fourth from her heirs, and
this sum I will myself increase. You know that you did not lodge any
appeal against me, that two years have passed, and that I have
established my title to my share. But in order that my co-heirs may
find you more tractable, and that you may lose nothing by the
consideration you have shown me, I offer you of my own free will the
amount that I have received."
I have reaped the reward not only of my scrupulously fair dealing, but
also of my reputation. Curianus left me a legacy, and, unless I flatter
myself unduly, he has given signal distinction to the honest course of
action I pursued. I have written to tell you this because it is my
custom to discuss with you any matters which give me pain or pleasure,
as freely as though I were talking to myself. Besides, I thought it
would be unkind to defraud you, who have such a great regard for me, of
the pleasure which I have received therefrom. For I am not such a
perfect philosopher as to think it makes no difference whether I receive
or not the approbation of others--which is itself a kind of reward--when
I think that I have acted in an honourable manner. Farewell.
5.II.--TO CALPURNIUS FLACCUS.
I received the very fine sea-carp which you sent me. The weather is so
stormy that I cannot return you like for like, either from the market
here at Laurentinum or from the sea. So all you will get is a barren
letter, which frankly makes no return and does not even imitate
Diomede's clever device in exchanging gifts. But your kindness is such
that you will excuse me all the more readily because I confess in my
letter that I do not deserve it. Farewell.
5.III.--TO TITIUS ARISTO.
While I gratefully acknowledge your many acts of kindness to me, I must
especially thank you for not concealing from me the fact that my verses
have formed the subject of many long discussions at your house, that
such discussions have been lengthened owing to the different views
expressed, and that some people, while finding no fault with the
writings themselves, blamed me in a perfectly friendly and candid way
for having written on such themes and for having read them in public.
Well, in order to aggravate my misdeeds, here is my reply to them:
"Yes, I do occasionally compose verses which are far from being couched
in a serious vein. I don't deny it. I also listen to comedies, and
attend the performances of mimes. I read lyrics, and I understand the
poems of Sotades. Moreover, I now and then laugh, jest, and amuse
myself; in short, to sum up in a word every kind of harmless recreation,
I may say 'I am a man.'"
Nor does it annoy me that people should form such opinions about my
character, when it is plain that those who are surprised that I should
compose such poems are unaware that the most learned of men and the
gravest and purest livers have regularly done the same thing. But I
feel sure that I shall easily obtain permission from those who know the
character and calibre of the authors in whose footsteps I am treading,
to stray in company with men whom it is an honour to follow, not only in
their serious but in their lightest moods. I will not mention the names
of those still living for fear of seeming to flatter, but is a person
like myself to be afraid that it will be unbecoming for him to do what
well became Marcus Tullius, Caius Calvus, Asinius Pollio, Marcus
Messalla, Quintus Hortensius, M. Brutus, Lucius Sulla, Quintus Catulus,
Quintus Scaevola, Servius Sulpicius, Varro, Torquatus--or rather the
Torquati,--Caius Memmius, Lentulus, Gaetulicus, Annaeus Seneca, Lucan,
and, last of all, Verginius Rufus? If the names of these private
individuals are not enough, I may add those of the divine Julius,
Augustus and Nerva, and that of Tiberius Caesar. I pass by the name of
Nero, though I am aware that a practice does not become any the worse
because it is sometimes followed by men of bad character, while a
practice usually followed by men of good character retains its honesty.
Among the latter class of men one must give a pre-eminent place to
Publius Vergilius, Cornelius Nepos, and to Attius and Ennius, who should
perhaps come first. These men were not senators, but purity of
character is the same in all ranks.
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