2. C. PLINIUS SABINO SUO S.
1 Facis iucunde quod non solum plurimas epistulas meas verum etiam longissimas flagitas; in quibus parcior fui partim quia tuas occupationes verebar, partim quia ipse multum distringebar plerumque frigidis negotiis quae simul et avocant animum et comminuunt. Praeterea nec materia plura scribendi dabatur. 2 Neque enim eadem nostra condicio quae M. Tulli, ad cuius exemplum nos vocas. Illi enim et copiosissimum ingenium, et par ingenio qua varietas rerum qua magnitudo largissime suppetebat; 3 nos quam angustis terminis claudamur etiam tacente me perspicis, nisi forte volumus scholasticas tibi atque, ut ita dicam, umbraticas litteras mittere. 4 Sed nihil minus aptum arbitramur, cum arma vestra cum castra, eum denique cornua tubas sudorem pulverem soles cogitamus. 5 Habes, ut puto, iustam excusationem, quam tamen dubito an tibi probari velim. Est enim summi amoris negare veniam brevibus epistulis amicorum, quamvis scias illis constare rationem. Vale.
2. — TO SABINUS.
You are very obliging in pressing me not only for frequent letters, but for very long ones into the bargain. I have been somewhat chary in this matter, partly from a regard for your avocations, partly from my having been myself much engrossed by matters, in general of small interest, which, however, at the same time distract and weary the attention. Besides, I had no materials for writing more. Nor, indeed, is my situation the same as that of M. Tullius, whose example you invite me to follow. For not merely was he gifted with a most prolific genius, but events in great variety and of great importance supplied that genius with abundant material. How narrow are the limits in which I am enclosed, you well know, without my telling you, unless haply I should wish to send you letters of the school-exercise kind, and from the shade of the closet, if I may so express it. But nothing, to my mind, could be less apposite, when I think of your arms, your camps, in fine, your horns and trumpets and sweat and dust and burning suns.
You are now furnished, as I think, with a reasonable excuse, and yet I am not sure that I should wish it to be approved by you. For it is a sign of the highest affection to refuse to make allowance for the shortness of one’s friends’ letters, even although one may know that it can be satisfactorily accounted for.
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3. C. PLINIUS PAULINO SUO S.
1 Alius aliud: ego beatissimum existimo, qui bonae mansuraeque famae praesumptione perfruitur, certusque posteritatis cum futura gloria vivit. Ac mihi nisi praemium aeternitatis ante oculos, pingue illud altumque otium placeat. 2 Etenim omnes homines arbitror oportere aut immortalitatem suam aut mortalitatem cogitare, et illos quidem contendere eniti, hos quiescere remitti, nec brevem vitam caducis laboribus fatigare, ut video multos misera simul et ingrata imagine industriae ad vilitatem sui pervenire. 3 Haec ego tecum quae cotidie mecum, ut desinam mecum, si dissenties tu; quamquam non dissenties, ut qui semper clarum aliquid et immortale meditere. Vale.
3. — TO PAULINUS.
Different men have different ideas on the subject, but I for my part deem that individual the most fortunate who enjoys to the full the foretaste of a noble and enduring fame, and, assured of posthumous reputation, lives in the company of his future glory. And, for me indeed, if the prize of immortality were not before my eyes, the usual snug and sound repose would be my choice. For I suppose it is the duty of all men to think of themselves as either immortal or mortal; in the former case, certainly, to contend and to exert themselves; in the latter, to keep quiet, to repose themselves, and not to fatigue their short existence by fleeting efforts; as I see many do, who, by a wretched and at the same time thankless appearance of activity, only attain in the end to a contempt for themselves. All this, which I say daily to myself, I now say to you, that I may leave off saying it to myself, if you dissent; though to be sure you, in your character of one who is always meditating some great and immortal work, will not dissent.
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4. C. PLINIUS MACRINO SUO S.
1 Vererer ne immodicam orationem putares, quam cum hac epistula accipies, nisi esset generis eius ut saepe incipere saepe desinere videatur. am singulis criminibus singulae velut causae continentur. 2 Poteris ergo, undecumque coeperis ubicumque desieris, quae deinceps sequentur et quasi incipientia legere et quasi cohaerentia, meque in universitate longissimum, brevissimum in partibus iudicare. Vale.
4. — TO MACRINUS.
I should be afraid you would think the oration, which you will receive with this letter, of immoderate length, if it were not of such a kind as to seem to have many beginnings and many endings. For under each separate charge is contained as it were a separate cause. So, at whatever point you begin, or at whatever place you leave off, you will be able to read what next follows both in the light of a new commencement and a connected sequel, and so to pronounce me, if extremely long as to the whole, yet extremely short as to the separate parts.
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5. C. PLINIUS TIRONI SUO S.
1 Egregie facis — inquiro enim — et persevera, quod iustitiam tuam provincialibus multa humanitate commendas; cuius praecipua pars est honestissimum quemque complecti, atque ita a minoribus amari, ut simul a principibus diligare. 2 Plerique autem dum verentur, ne gratiae potentium nimium impertire videantur, sinisteritatis atque etiam malignitatis famam consequuntur. 3 A quo vitio tu longe recessisti, scio, sed temperare mihi non possum quominus laudem similis monenti, quod eum modum tenes ut discrimina ordinum dignitatumque custodias; quae si confusa turbata permixta sunt, nihil est ipsa aequalitate inaequalius. Vale.
5. — TO ¤IRO.
You are acting admirably (I have been enquiring about you, as you see), and pray persevere, in commending your love of justice to the provincials by much kindly consideration; the chief part of which consists in surrounding with your regard all the most respectable citizens, and being so loved by the smaller folk that you may at the same time be approved by the leading people. For many, while they are apprehensive of seeming to give in too much to the interest of the powerful, obtain a reputation for ill-breeding, and even for ill-nature. Of this fault you have kept yourself well clear; I know it. Nevertheless I cannot refrain from bestowing praise on you, under the guise of advice, for maintaining a due mean, so as to preserve the distinctions of ranks and dignities; for, if these are confounded, disordered, and intermingled, nothing can be more unequal than this very equality.
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6. C. PLINIUS CALVISIO SUO S.
1 Omne hoc tempus inter pugillares ac libellos iucundissima quiete transmisi. ‘Quemadmodum’ inquis ‘in urbe potuisti?’ Circenses erant, quo genere spectaculi ne levissime quidem teneor. Nihil novum nihil varium, nihil quod non semel spectasse sufficiat. 2 Quo magis miror tot milia virorum tam pueriliter identidem cupere currentes equos, insistentes curribus homines videre. Si tamen aut velocitate equorum aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio non nulla; nunc favent panno, pannum amant, et si in ipso cursu medioque certamine hic color illuc ille huc transferatur, studium favorque transibit, et repente agitatores illos equos illos, quos procul noscitant, quorum clamitant nomina relinquent. 3 Tanta gratia tanta auctoritas in una vilissima tunica, mitto apud vulgus, quod vilius tunica, sed apud quosdam graves homines; quos ego cum recordor, in re inani frigida assidua, tam insatiabiliter desidere, capio aliquam voluptatem, quod hac voluptate non capior. 4 Ac per hos dies libentissime otium meum in litteris colloco, quos alii otiosissimis occupationibus perdunt. Vale.
6. — TO CALVISIUS.
I have been passing all this time between my writing-tablets and my books in the most delicious calm. “However,” you ask, “have you been able to do this in town?” The Circensian games were on, — a species of exhibition which does not attract me even in the faintest degree. There is no novelty, no variety about them, nothing which one is not satisfied with having seen once only. This makes me all the more astonished that so many thousands of persons should have such a childish desire to see, over and
over again, horses running, and men standing in chariots. If, at least, they were attracted by the speed of the horses or the skill of the men, there would be some reason in the thing. As it is, it is a bit of cloth that they applaud, a bit of cloth that they love, and if during the race itself and in the very heat of the contest such and such colours were to change wearers, the favour and applause of the public would change over with them, and the very drivers, the very horses whom they know from afar and whose names they shout out, would all at once be deserted. Such is the influence, such the importance, of a contemptible jacket! I say nothing of the vulgar, itself more contemptible than the jacket; but such is the case with certain persons of standing. When I remember that these can settle down so insatiably to what is so inane, insipid, and tedious, I take some pleasure in the fact that I am not taken by this pleasure. So, I employ in literature my idle hours, throughout these days which others waste in the idlest of occupations.
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7. C. PLINIUS ROMANO SUO S.
1 Aedificare te scribis. Bene est, inveni patrocinium; aedifico enim iam ratione quia tecum. Nam hoc quoque non dissimile quod ad mare tu, ego ad Larium lacum. 2 Huius in litore plures meae villae, sed duae maxime ut delectant ita exercent. 3 Altera imposita saxis more Baiano lacum prospicit, altera aeque more Baiano lacum tangit. Itaque illam tragoediam, hanc appellare comoediam soleo, illam quod quasi cothurnis, hanc quod quasi socculis sustinetur. Sua utrique amoenitas, et utraque possidenti ipsa diversitate iucundior. 4 Haec lacu propius, illa latius utitur; haec unum sinum molli curvamine amplectitur, illa editissimo dorso duos dirimit; illic recta gestatio longo limite super litus extenditur, hic spatiosissimo xysto leviter inflectitur; illa fluctus non sentit haec frangit; ex illa possis despicere piscantes, ex hac ipse piscari, hamumque de cubiculo ac paene etiam de lectulo ut e naucula iacere. Hae mihi causae utrique quae desunt astruendi ob ea quae supersunt. 5 Etsi quid ego rationem tibi? apud quem pro ratione erit idem facere. Vale.
7. — TO ROMANUS.
You write that you are engaged in building. ’Tis well.
I have found my defence; for I build with reason the moment that I do so in your company. Indeed there is this further resemblance between us, that you are building by the sea-side, and I by the Larian Lake. There are several villas of mine on the shore of this lake, but two of them, while they greatly delight me, exercise me in an equal degree. One of them, placed on the rocks, after the fashion of Baiæ, overlooks the lake; another, similarly after the fashion of Baiæ, is at the edge of the lake. Hence I am in the habit of calling the former “Tragedy,” and the latter “Comedy,” because one is supported as it were by a high buskin, and the other by a low sock. Each of them has its special charm, which their very diversity renders more agreeable to the possessor of both.
One enjoys a nearer, the other a more extended view of the lake; one, with a gentle curve, embraces a small bay, the other, situated on a lofty crag, separates two small bays from each other; there a promenade stretches for a long way, in a straight line, along the shore, here it gently curves in the shape of a spacious terrace-walk; one of them does not feel the waves, and the other breaks them. From the former you can look down on the people fishing, from the latter you can fish yourself, and throw your line from your room, and actually from your sofa almost, just as from a skiff. These are my reasons for adding to each what is wanting, in view of the superabundant advantages already enjoyed by both. But why enter into reasons with you? It will stand for a good reason with you that you are doing the same thing.
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8. C. PLINIUS AUGURINO SUO S.
1 Si laudatus a te laudare te coepero, vereor ne non tam proferre iudicium meum quam referre gratiam videar. Sed licet videar, omnia scripta tua pulcherrima existimo, maxime tamen illa de nobis. 2 Accidit hoc una eademque de causa. Nam et tu, quae de amicis, optime scribis, et ego, quae de me, ut optima lego. Vale.
8. — TO AUGURINUS.
If, after you have praised me, I shall begin to praise you, I am apprehensive of seeming to be repaying a favour rather than proffering a judgment. Yet, though it should seem so, I esteem all your writings to be admirable; chiefly, however, those which are about me. This happens owing to one and the same cause; for not only do you write exceedingly well on the subject of your friends, but I too, as I read, find what is written on the subject of myself exceedingly good.
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9. C. PLINIUS COLONO SUO S.
1 Unice probo quod Pompei Quintiani morte tam dolenter afficeris, ut amissi caritatem desiderio extendas, non ut plerique qui tantum viventes amant seu potius amare se simulant, ac ne simulant quidem nisi quos florentes vident; nam miserorum non secus ac defunctorum obliviscuntur. Sed tibi perennis fides tantaque in amore constantia, ut finiri nisi tua morte non possit. 2 Et hercule is fuit Quintianus, quem diligi deceat ipsius exemplo. Felices amabat, miseros tuebatur, desiderabat amissos. Iam illa quanta probitas in ore, quanta in sermone cunctatio, quam pari libra gravitas comitasque! quod studium litterarum, quod iudicium! qua pietate cum dissimillimo patre vivebat! quam non obstabat illi, quo minus vir optimus videretur, quod erat optimus filius! 3 Sed quid dolorem tuum exulcero? Quamquam sic amasti iuvenem ut hoc potius quam de illo sileri velis, a me praesertim cuius praedicatione putas vitam eius ornari, memoriam prorogari, ipsamque illam qua est raptus aetatem posse restitui. Vale.
9. — TO COLONUS.
I particularly applaud you for being so grievously affected by the death of Pomponius Quintianus, that you prolong your regard for the lost one by means of your regrets; not like so many who care only for the living, or rather pretend to care for them, and indeed do not even pretend, except in the case of those whom they see to be prosperous. For they forget the unfortunate, no less than if they were dead. But your faithfulness is unfailing, and your constancy in love such that it can be ended only by your death. And, by Hercules, Quintianus was a man who ought to be cherished on the strength of his own example. He loved the successful, defended the wretched, mourned for the lost. What nobility in his mien to start with! What deliberation in his speech! How evenly balanced his severity and his playfulness! What his love for letters! What his judgment! How dutifully did he live with a father most unlike himself! How the fact of his being the best of sons was no hindrance to his seeming the best of men! But why do I aggravate your grief? Yet you so loved the young man that you would rather have this, than that silence should be kept about him, particularly by me, by whose commendation you think that his life may be illustrated, his memory prolonged, and that very youth, from which he has been snatched, restored to him.
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10. C. PLINIUS TACITO SUO S.
1 Cupio praeceptis tuis parere; sed aprorum tanta penuria est, ut Minervae et Dianae, quas ais pariter colendas, convenire non possit. 2 Itaque Minervae tantum serviendum est, delicate tamen ut in secessu et aestate. In via plane non nulla leviora statimque delenda ea garrulitate qua sermones in vehiculo seruntur extendi. His quaedam addidi in villa, cum aliud non liberet. Itaque poemata quiescunt, quae tu inter nemora et lucos commodissime perfici putas. 3 Oratiunculam unam alteram retractavi; quamquam id genus operis inamabile inamoenum, magisque laboribus ruris quam voluptatibus simile. Vale.
10. — TO TACITUS.
I am desirous of obeying your precepts, yet such is the scarcity of wild boars that Minerva and Diana (who, according to you, should be worshipped in company) can - cannot be brought together. So Minerva alone must be served; gingerly, however, in a manner suitable to retirement and the summer-time. On my road I worked out a few things — unmistakeable trifles that deserve to be at once blotted out — with the kind of garrulity with which talk is scattered about in carriages. I have made some additions to them at my country house, as I did not choose to write anything else. Hence my poetry — which you think can be most suitably turned out among groves and woods �
� is dormant. I have retouched one and another of my small orations. Yet this kind of work is ungrateful and displeasing, and resembles rather the labours than the pleasures of the country.
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11. C. PLINIUS GEMINO SUO S.
1 Epistulam tuam iucundissimam accepi, eo maxime quod aliquid ad te scribi volebas, quod libris inseri posset. Obveniet materia vel haec ipsa quam monstras, vel potior alia. Sunt enim in hac offendicula non nulla: circumfer oculos et occurrent. 2 Bibliopolas Lugduni esse non putabam ac tanto libentius ex litteris tuis cognovi venditari libellos meos, quibus peregre manere gratiam quam in urbe collegerint delector. Incipio enim satis absolutum existimare, de quo tanta diversitate regionum discreta hominum iudicia consentiunt. Vale.
11. — TO GEMINUS.
I have received yours, which has been most agreeable to me, and especially so from your wishing something to be addressed to you such as might be inserted in the Books of Letters. Material for this will turn up; either precisely that which you indicate, or in preference something else; for in the case of the former there are several objections. Cast your eyes round, and they will occur to you. I did not think there were booksellers at Lyons, and was all the more pleased to learn from your letter that my works have a ready sale there. I am rejoiced that such favour as they have acquired in town, continues to attend them abroad. Indeed, I begin to think that my productions must be tolerably finished, when, in regions so diverse, the judgments of men so widely separated from each other are yet in harmony about them.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 123
