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12. C. PLINIUS IUNIORI SUO S.
1 Castigabat quidam filium suum quod paulo sumptuosius equos et canes emeret. Huic ego iuvene digresso: ‘Heus tu, numquamne fecisti, quod a patre corripi posset? “Fecisti” dico. Non interdum facis quod filius tuus, si repente pater ille tu filius, pari gravitate reprehendat? Non omnes homines aliquo errore ducuntur? Non hic in illo sibi, in hoc alius indulget?’ 2 Haec tibi admonitus immodicae severitatis exemplo, pro amore mutuo scripsi, ne quando tu quoque filium tuum acerbius duriusque tractares. Cogita et illum puerum esse et te fuisse, atque ita hoc quod es pater utere, ut memineris et hominem esse te et hominis patrem. Vale.
12. — TO JUNIOR.
A certain person was chiding his son for being somewhat too extravagant in his purchases of horses and dogs. Said I to him, when the young man had left us, “Harkee!” have you never done what might have been rebuked by your father? Have done, do I say? Do you not sometimes do that which your son, if he were suddenly turned into your father and you into his son, might reprehend with the like severity? Are not all men led by some error or other? Does not one man indulge himself in one respect, and another in another?” Admonished by this example of excessive severity, I have, in accordance with our mutual affection, thus written to you, lest you too should at any time treat your son too sharply and rudely. Reflect, not only that he is a boy, but that you have been one, and so use this your position of father as to remember that you are both a man and the father of a man.
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13. C. PLINIUS QUADRATO SUO S.
1 Quanto studiosius intentiusque legisti libros quos de Helvidi ultione composui, tanto impensius postulas, ut perscribam tibi quaeque extra libros quaeque circa libros, totum denique ordinem rei cui per aetatem non interfuisti.
2 Occiso Domitiano statui mecum ac deliberavi, esse magnam pulchramque materiam insectandi nocentes, miseros vindicandi, se proferendi. Porro inter multa scelera multorum nullum atrocius videbatur, quam quod in senatu senator senatori, praetorius consulari, reo iudex manus intulisset. 3 Fuerat alioqui mihi cum Helvidio amicitia, quanta potuerat esse cum eo, qui metu temporum nomen ingens paresque virtutes secessu tegebat; fuerat cum Arria et Fannia, quarum altera Helvidi noverca, altera mater novercae. Sed non ita me iura privata, ut publicum fas et indignitas facti et exempli ratio incitabat. 4 Ac primis quidem diebus redditae libertatis pro se quisque inimicos suos, dumtaxat minores, incondito turbidoque clamore postulaverat simul et oppresserat. Ego et modestius et constantius arbitratus immanissimum reum non communi temporum invidia, sed proprio crimine urgere, cum iam satis primus ille impetus defremuisset et languidior in dies ira ad iustitiam redisset, quamquam tum maxime tristis amissa nuper uxore, mitto ad Anteiam — nupta haec Helvidio fuerat -; rogo ut veniat, quia me recens adhuc luctus limine contineret. 5 Ut venit, ‘Destinatum est’ inquam ‘mihi maritum tuum non inultum pati. Nuntia Arriae et Fanniae’ — ab exsilio redierant -, ‘consule te, consule illas, an velitis ascribi facto, in quo ego comite non egeo; sed non ita gloriae meae faverim, ut vobis societate eius invideam.’ Perfert Anteia mandata, nec illae morantur.
6 Opportune senatus intra diem tertium. Omnia ego semper ad Corellium rettuli, quem providentissimum aetatis nostrae sapientissimumque cognovi: in hoc tamen contentus consilio meo fui veritus ne vetaret; erat enim cunctantior cautiorque. Sed non sustinui inducere in animum, quominus illi eodem die facturum me indicarem, quod an facerem non deliberabam, expertus usu de eo quod destinaveris non esse consulendos quibus consultis obsequi debeas. 7 Venio in senatum, ius dicendi peto, dico paulisper maximo assensu. Ubi coepi crimen attingere, reum destinare, adhuc tamen sine nomine, undique mihi reclamari. Alius: ‘Sciamus, quis sit de quo extra ordinem referas’, alius: ‘Quis est ante relationem reus?’, alius: ‘Salvi simus, qui supersumus.’ 8 Audio imperturbatus interritus: tantum susceptae rei honestas valet, tantumque ad fiduciam vel metum differt, nolint homines quod facias an non probent. Longum est omnia quae tunc hinc inde iacta sunt recensere. 9 Novissime consul: ‘Secunde, sententiae loco dices, si quid volueris.’ ‘Permiseras’ inquam ‘quod usque adhuc omnibus permisisti.’ 10 Resido; aguntur alia. Interim me quidam ex consularibus amicis, secreto curatoque sermone, quasi nimis fortiter incauteque progressum corripit revocat, monet ut desistam, adicit etiam: ‘Notabilem te futuris principibus fecisti.’ ‘Esto’ inquam ‘dum malis.’ 11 Vix ille discesserat, rursus alter: ‘Quid audes? Quo ruis? Quibus te periculis obicis? Quid praesentibus confidis incertus futurorum? Lacessis hominem iam praefectum aerarii et brevi consulem, praeterea qua gratia quibus amicitiis fultum!’ Nominat quendam, qui tunc ad orientem amplissimum exercitum non sine magnis dubiisque rumoribus obtinebat. 12 Ad haec ego: “ëOmnia praecepi atque animo mecum ante peregi” nec recuso, si ita casus attulerit, luere poenas ob honestissimum factum, dum flagitiosissimum ulciscor.’
13 Iam censendi tempus. Dicit Domitius Apollinaris consul designatus, dicit Fabricius Veiento, Fabius Postuminus, Bittius Proculus collega Publici Certi, de quo agebatur, uxoris autem meae quam amiseram vitricus, post hos Ammius Flaccus. Omnes Certum nondum a me nominatum ut nominatum defendunt crimenque quasi in medio relictum defensione suscipiunt. 14 Quae praeterea dixerint, non est necesse narrare: in libris habes; sum enim cuncta ipsorum verbis persecutus. 15 Dicunt contra Avidius Quietus, Cornutus Tertullus: Quietus, iniquissimum esse querelas dolentium excludi, ideoque Arriae et Fanniae ius querendi non auferendum, nec interesse cuius ordinis quis sit, sed quam causam habeat; 16 Cornutus, datum se a consulibus tutorem Helvidi filiae petentibus matre eius et vitrico; nunc quoque non sustinere deserere officii sui partes, in quo tamen et suo dolori modum imponere et optimarum feminarum perferre modestissimum affectum; quas contentas esse admonere senatum Publici Certi cruentae adulationis et petere, si poena flagitii manifestissimi remittatur, nota certe quasi censoria inuratur. 17 Tum Satrius Rufus medio ambiguoque sermone ‘Puto’ inquit ‘iniuriam factam Publicio Certo, si non absolvitur; nominatus est ab amicis Arriae et Fanniae, nominatus ab amicis suis. Nec debemus solliciti esse; idem enim nos, qui bene sentimus de homine, et iudicaturi sumus. Si innocens est, sicut et spero et malo et, donec aliquid probetur, credo, poteritis absolvere.’ 18 Haec illi quo quisque ordine citabantur. Venitur ad me. Consurgo, utor initio quod in libro est, respondeo singulis. Mirum qua intentione, quibus clamoribus omnia exceperint, qui modo reclamabant: tanta conversio vel negotii dignitatem vel proventum orationis vel actoris Constantiam subsecuta est. 19 Finio. Incipit respondere Veiento; nemo patitur; obturbatur obstrepitur, adeo quidem ut diceret: ‘Rogo, patres conscripti, ne me cogatis implorare auxilium tribunorum.’ Et statim Murena tribunus: ‘Permitto tibi, vir clarissime Veiento, dicere.’ Tunc quoque reclamatur. 20 Inter moras consul citatis nominibus et peracta discessione mittit senatum, ac paene adhuc stantem temptantemque dicere Veientonem reliquit. Multum ille de hac — ita vocabat — contumelia questus est Homerico versu: ‘ô geron, ê mala dê se neoi teirousi machêtai’. 21 Non fere quisquam in senatu fuit, qui non me complecteretur exoscularetur certatimque laude cumularet, quod intermissum iam diu morem in publicum consulendi susceptis propriis simultatibus reduxissem; quod denique senatum invidia liberassem, qua flagrabat apud ordines alios, quod severus in ceteros senatoribus solis dissimulatione quasi mutua parceret.
22 Haec acta sunt absente Certo; fuit enim seu tale aliquid suspicatus sive, ut excusabatur, infirmus. Et relationem quidem de eo Caesar ad senatum non remisit; obtinui tamen quod intenderam: 23 nam collega Certi consulatum, successorem Certus accepit, planeque factum est quod dixeram in fine: ‘Reddat praemium sub optimo principe, quod a pessimo accepit.’ Postea actionem meam utcumque potui recollegi, addidi multa. 24 Accidit fortuitum, sed non tamquam fortuitum, quod editis libris Certus intra paucissimos dies implicitus morbo decessit. 25 Audivi referentes hanc imaginem menti eius hanc oculis oberrasse, tamquam videret me sibi cum ferro imminere. Verane haec, affirmare non ausim; interest tamen exempli, ut vera videantur.
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sp; 26 Habes epistulam, si modum epistulae cogites, libris quos legisti non minorem; sed imputabis tibi qui contentus libris non fuisti. Vale.
13. — TO QUADRATUS.
In proportion to the interest and attention with which you have read the books composed by me, on the subject of the vindication of Helvidius, is the eagerness of your demand that I should write to you in detail on such matters as are not contained in the books, and on such as bear reference to them, in short, as to the whole process of an affair which you were too young to be personally interested in.
After Domitian had been put to death, I deliberated within myself, and resolved that here was a great and noble opportunity for pursuing the guilty, vindicating the unfortunate, and bringing one’s self into notice. Further, among the numerous crimes of numerous people, none seemed more atrocious than that, in the Senate, a Senator should have laid hands on a Senator, a man of prætorian on a man of consular rank, a judge on an accused person. Independently of this, there was a friendship between myself and Helvidius as intimate as there could be with one who, through dread of the times, hid in seclusion his great name, and the great qualities which matched it. I was a friend, too, of Arria and Fannia, one of whom was Helvidius’s stepmother, and the other that stepmother’s parent. But I was not so much incited by private obligations as by public justice, by the disgraceful character of the deed, by a consideration of the example to be made.
Accordingly, during the first few days of restored liberty, every one on his own account had been at once impeaching and crushing his own private enemies (at least the smaller ones) with a confused and turbulent clamour. I, for my part, deemed it a more temperate and also a more courageous course to attack a monstrous criminal, not by means of the popular resentment of the day, but by means of his own individual crime. So, as soon as that first impulse had sufficiently cooled down, and fury growing daily feebler had come back to a sense of justice — though I was at that time particularly sad, having lately lost my wife — I sent to Anteia, the widow of Helvidius, and asked her to come to me, since my still recent bereavement kept me within doors. On her arrival, “It has been decided,” said I, “by me, not to suffer your husband to remain unavenged. Announce this to Arria and Fannia” (they had returned from exile). “Consult yourself, consult them, as to whether you wish to participate in an action in which I need no associate; yet I am not so solicitous about my own glory as to grudge you a share in it.” Anteia conveyed the message, and the ladies did not hesitate. The Senate, very opportunely, was to meet within three days.
I always referred everything to Corellius, knowing him for the most far-seeing and wisest man of our time. On this occasion, however, I was content with my own counsel, fearing that he would put his veto on it for he was inclined to hesitation and caution. But I could not prevail on myself to refrain from intimating to him, the same day, what I was about to do in a matter about which I was not deliberating, having learnt by experience that, where you have made up your mind, it is best not to seek advice from those whose advice you would be bound to obey.
I attended the Senate, begged leave to speak, and spoke for a short time with the greatest approval. When I began to touch on the charge, and to hint at a person to be charged (yet still without naming him), there came reclamations from all sides. Said one, “Let us know who it is that you are accusing out of order!” Another, “Who can be charged before being put in accusation by the Senate?” A third, “Spare us who survive!” I heard them without perturbance or dismay; such strength lies in the goodness of one’s cause; and so great a difference does it make in the way of giving you confidence or frightening you, whether people do not like what you are doing, or do not approve of it. It would be tedious to recount everything that was thrown out from one quarter and another. Last of all the Consul said, “Secundus, when you are called on for your vote, you will be able to speak if you choose.” I replied, “You will have accorded me a permission, which up to this time you have accorded to every one.” I resumed my seat, and other business was transacted.
Meanwhile, one of my friends of consular rank deeming me to have advanced myself with too much daring and rashness, reproved me in some private and anxious words, recalling me, and warning me to stop. He went so far as to add, “You have made yourself a marked man in the eyes of future Princes.”
“So be it,” said I, “provided they are had Princes.” Scarce had he departed, when again another, “What daring is this? Whither are you rushing? What dangers are you throwing yourself in the way of? Why trust to the present state of things, while uncertain as to the future? You are attacking a man who is already Præfect of the Treasury, and who will shortly be Consul; a man, besides, supported by such interest and such connections!” He named a certain person, who at that time commanded a powerful and renowned army in the East — not without strong and suspicious rumours being connected with him. To this I answered, “All I’ve foreseen, and each event have weighed? Nor will I refuse, if fortune shall so bring it to pass, to suffer for a deed of the highest honour, provided I avenge one of the deepest guilt.”
It was now time for pronouncing our opinions. Domitius Apollinaris, Consul-Elect, spoke; there spoke also Rabricius Veiento, Rabius Postumius, and Yettius Proculus, the colleague of Publicius Certus (the person under discussion), who was moreover the stepfather of the wife whom I had lost. After these came Ammius Flaccus. They all of them defended Certus — though he had not yet been named by me — just as though he had been named, and by their defence took up a charge which I had left, so to speak, unattached. What further they said it is not necessary to relate. You have it in the books, for I have gone through the whole, using their own words. Avidius Quietus and Cornutus Tertullus spoke on the other side. Quietus said, “It would be most unjust that the complaints of aggrieved parties should be excluded; that, consequently, the right of presenting their plaints should not be taken from Arria and Fannia; nor was it of any consequence what rank a person belonged to, but what cause he had.” Cornutus said “that the consuls had assigned him as guardian to the daughter of Helvidius, at the request of her mother and stepfather, nor would he now endure to desert the duties of his office; in the discharge of which, however, he would set bounds to his own grief, and would merely convey the extremely temperate sentiments of these admirable ladies. They were content to call the attention of the Senate to the bloodthirsty sycophancy of Publicius Certus, and to beg that, in case punishment for guilt of the clearest kind were remitted, he might at any rate be branded by some mark, like that inflicted by the Censor.” Upon this, Satrius Rufus made a kind of half-and-half ambiguous speech. “I think,” said he, “that injury has been inflicted on Publicius Certus, if he is not acquitted. He has been named by the friends of Arria and Fannia, and he has been named by his own friends. Nor ought we to feel a difficulty about this; for we, the same who now pronounce favourably on the man, will also have to judge him. If he is innocent, as I hope and wish, and, until something be proved against him, believe, you will be able to acquit him.”
So they spoke, in the order in which each was called upon. Then came my turn. I rose and preluded, as in the book, replying to each severally. It was astonishing with what attention, what plaudits, everything that fell from me was received by the very persons who had just before been crying out upon me. Such was the change which ensued, either from the great importance of the affair, or the success of the oration, or the intrepidity of the speaker. I came to an end. Veiento commenced replying, but no one would endure him. There was a great noise and disturbance, so great indeed as to make him say, “I entreat, Conscript Fathers, that you will not compel me to invoke the aid of the Tribune.” Upon which, Murena, the Tribune, immediately exclaimed, “I give you leave to speak, most noble Veiento.” Even then he was shouted at. Meanwhile, the Consul called over the names, got through the division, and dismissed the Senate, leaving Veiento still almost on his legs and trying to speak. He complained loudly of this insult (so he called it), citing Home
r’s line —
“Old man, by younger warriors thou’rt oppressed.”
There was scarce any one in the Senate who did not embrace and salute me, and vie in loading me with praises for having reintroduced the practice, so long interrupted, of consulting the public welfare, at the risk of incurring personal animosities; for having, in short, freed the Senate from the odium which was kindled against it among other orders, as being severe against the rest, and, with a kind of reciprocal connivance, indulgent to Senators alone.
All this took place in the absence of Certus; for he was absent, either because he suspected something of the kind, or (as the excuse was made for him) because he was ill. Cæsar, indeed, did not refer to the Senate any communication with regard to him; nevertheless I obtained what I had aimed at. For the colleague of Certus got the Consulship, and Certus himself was superseded, and what I had said at the end of my speech was completely carried out: “Let him give up, under the best, the distinction which he obtained under the worst of Princes.”
Subsequently I put together again my speech, as best I could, and made many additions. It happened by chance (but so as not to appear like chance) that Certus died a victim to disease within a very few days after the publication of my book. I heard people relate how this was the image which flitted before his mind and his eye — he seemed to see me threatening him with a sword. Whether this was true or not I would not venture to say positively; yet it would be to the interest of example that it should be held to be true.
Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Younger (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 124
