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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3234.txt b/3234.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dda175 --- /dev/null +++ b/3234.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6282 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Letters of the Younger Pliny, +with an introductory essay by John B. Firth. First Series. Vol 1 + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Rebecca Trump <r_trump@yahoo.com> +and Sue Asscher <asschers@dingoblue.net.au> + + + + + +THE LETTERS OF THE YOUNGER PLINY. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY JOHN B. +FIRTH. + +FIRST SERIES. + +THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD, +LONDON AND FELLING-ON-TYNE. +NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET. + + + +NOTE.--In the following translation the Teubner text, edited by Keil, +has been followed. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Some slight memoir and critical estimate of the author of this +collection of Letters may perhaps be acceptable to those who are +unfamiliar with the circumstances of the times in which he lived. +Moreover, few have studied the Letters themselves without feeling a warm +affection for the writer of them. He discloses his character therein so +completely, and, in spite of his glaring fault of vanity and his endless +love of adulation, that character is in the main so charming, that one +can easily understand the high esteem in which Pliny was held by the +wide circle of his friends, by the Emperor Trajan, and by the public at +large. The correspondence of Pliny the Younger depicts for us the +everyday life of a Roman gentleman in the best sense of the term. We +see him practising at the Bar; we see him engaged in the civil +magistracies at Rome, and in the governorship of the important province +of Bithynia; we see him consulted by the Emperor on affairs of state, +and occupying a definite place among the "Amici Caesaris." Best of all, +perhaps, we see him in his daily life, a devoted scholar, never so happy +as when he is in his study, laboriously seeking to perfect his style, +whether in verse or prose, by the models of the great writers of the +past and the criticisms of the friends whom he has summoned, in a +friendly way, to hear his compositions read or recited. Or again we +find him at one of his country villas, enjoying a well-earned leisure +after the courts have risen at Rome and all the best society has betaken +itself into the country to escape the heats and fevers of the capital. +We see him managing his estates, listening to the complaints of his +tenants, making abatements of rent, and grumbling at the agricultural +depression and the havoc that the bad seasons have made with his crops. +Or he spends a day in the open air hunting, yet never omits to take with +him a book to read or tablets on which to write, in case the scent is +cold and game is not plentiful. In short, the Letters of Pliny the +Younger give us a picture of social life as it was in the closing years +of the first, and the opening years of the second century of the +Christian era, which is as fascinating as it is absolutely unique. + +Pliny was born either in 61 or 62 A.D. at Comum on Lake Larius. His +father, Lucius Caecilius Cilo, had been aedile of the colony, and, dying +young, left a widow, who with her two sons, sought protection with her +brother, Caius Plinius Secundus, the famous author of the Natural +History. The elder Pliny in his will adopted the younger of the two +boys, and so Publius Caecilius Secundus--as he was originally called-- +took thenceforth the name of Caius Plinius, L.F. Caecilius Secundus. +Though later usage has assigned him the name of Pliny the Younger, he +was known to his contemporaries and usually addressed as Secundus. But +in his early years Pliny was placed under the guardianship of Virginius +Rufus, one of the most distinguished Romans of his day, a successful and +brilliant general who had twice refused the purple, when offered to him +by his legionaries, and who lived to a ripe old age--the Wellington of +his generation. So it was at Comum that he spent his early boyhood, and +his affection for his birthplace led him in later years to provide for +the educational needs of the youth of the district, who had previously +been obliged to go to Mediolanum (Milan) to obtain their schooling. +What can be better, he asks, than for children to be educated where they +are born, so that they may grow to love their native place by residing +in it? Pliny was fortunate in having so distinguished an uncle. On the +accession of Vespasian, the elder Pliny was called to Rome by the +Emperor, and when his nephew--vixdum adolescentus--joined him in the +capital, he took charge of his studies. At the age of fourteen the +young student had composed a Greek tragedy, to which he playfully refers +in one of his letters, and in Rome he had the benefit of attending the +lectures of the great Quintilian and Nicetes Sacerdos, and of making +literary friendships which were to prove of the utmost value to him in +after years. Pliny tells us that his uncle looked to him for assistance +in his literary work, and he was thus engaged when his uncle lost his +life in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, so graphically described in the +two famous letters to Tacitus. That Pliny deeply felt the loss of his +relative and patron is shown by the eloquent tribute he paid to his +memory, and doubtless, as his death occurred just at his own entry into +public life, he was deprived of an influence which might have helped him +greatly in his career. Domitian was on the throne, when, in 82, Pliny +joined the 3rd Gallic legion, stationed in Syria, as military tribune. +Service in the field, however, was not to his liking, and, as soon as +his period of soldiering was over, he hurried back to Rome to win his +spurs at the Bar and climb the ladder of civic distinction. He became +Quaestor in 89 on the recommendation of the Emperor, Tribune in 91, and +Praetor in 93. + +So far his advancement had been rapid, but evil times succeeded. +Domitian went from bad to worse. Always moody, suspicious, and +revengeful, he began to imitate the worst vices of his predecessors of +the line of Augustus. His hand fell heavily upon the Senatorial order, +and another era of proscription began, in which the dreaded delatores +again became the "terror" of Rome. It was a time of spoliation and +murder, and Pliny writes of it with a shudder. Contrasting with the +happy regime of Trajan that which prevailed in his youth and early +manhood, he declares that virtue was regarded with suspicion and a +premium set upon idleness, that in the camps the generals lacked +authority and the soldiers had no sense of obedience, while, when he +entered the Senate, he found it a craven and tongueless assembly (Curiam +trepidam et elinguem), only convened to perpetrate some piece of +villainy for the Emperor, or to humiliate the Senators by the sense of +their own impotence. Pliny was not the man to make a bold stand against +tyranny, and, during those perilous years, one can well believe that he +did his best to avoid compromising himself, though his sympathies were +wholly on the side of his proscribed friends. He was a typical +official, suave and polished in manner, yet without that perilous +enthusiasm which would simply have marked him for destruction. For two +years he was Prefect of the Military Treasury, an office directly in the +gift of the Emperor, and it would seem, therefore, that his character +for uprightness stood him in good stead with the tyrant even in his +worst years. He did not, like so many of the Roman nobles, retire from +public life and enter into the sullen opposition which enraged the +Emperors even more than active and declared antagonism. + +In one passage, indeed, Pliny declares that he, too, was on the black +list of the Emperor, but the words must not be taken too literally. He +was given to boasting, and he may easily have represented, when the +danger was past, that the peril in which he had stood was greater than +it really was. No doubt he felt keenly the judicial murder of his +friends Senecio, Rusticus, and Helvidius, and the banishment of +Mauricus, Gratilla, Arria, and Fannia--for women were not spared in the +general proscription; but, after all, the fact that he held office +during the closing years of Domitian's life is ample proof that he knew +how to walk circumspectly, and did not allow his detestation of the +informers to compromise his safety. When at length, in 96, the Emperor +was assassinated in the palace, and the Senate raised Nerva to the +purple, Pliny stepped forward as the champion of the oppressed, and +impeached Publicius Certus for compassing the death of Helvidius +Priscus, though he was only so far successful that he prevented Certus +from enjoying the consulship which had been promised him. Pliny revised +the speech and published it in book form, and Certus died a few days +after it appeared, haunted, so Pliny tells us, by the vision of his +prosecutor pursuing him, sword in hand. Nerva's reign was short, but he +was succeeded by one of the best of the Roman Emperors, Trajan, a prince +under whose just, impartial and strong rule, a man of Pliny's character +was bound to thrive and pass from office to office. In 98 he had been +appointed by Nerva Prefect of the Treasury of Saturn, and in 100 he held +the Consulship for two months, while still retaining his post at the +Treasury, and delivered his well-known Panegyric on the 1st of +September in that year. Either in 103 or 104 he was advanced to the +Augurate, and two years later was appointed Curator of the Tiber. Then +in 111 or 112--according to Mommsen's Chronology--Trajan bestowed upon +him a signal mark of his esteem by selecting him for the Governorship of +the province of Pontus and Bithynia, which he had transferred from the +list of senatorial to that of imperial provinces. Pliny was given the +special title of Legate Propraetor with full Consular powers, and he +remained in his province for at least fifteen months. After that the +curtain falls. Whether he died in Bithynia, or shortly after his return +to Rome, or whether he lived on to enjoy the ripe old age of which he +writes so pleasantly in his letters, we do not know. Certainly the +probabilities are that, if he had lived, he would have continued to +correspond with his friends, and the absence of further letters makes +for the probability that he died in about his fiftieth year. + +In judging these letters for their literary value, the first thing which +strikes the reader is that Pliny did not write for his friends alone. +Whatever the subject of the epistle, whether it was an invitation to +dinner, a description of the charms of the country, an account of a +visit to a friend, or an expression of condolence with some one in his +or her bereavement, he never allowed his pen to run on carelessly. He +scarcely ever prattles in his letters or lets himself go. One always +sees in the writer the literary man, who knows that his correspondence +is being passed round from hand to hand, and who hopes that it will find +readers among posterity. Consequently there is an air of studied +artificiality about many of the letters, which was more to the taste of +the eighteenth than the nineteenth century. They remind one in many +ways of Richardson and Mackenzie, and Pliny would have been recognised +by those two writers, and by the latter in particular, as a thorough +"man of sentiment." Herein they differ greatly from the other important +collection which has come down to us from classical times, the Letters +of Cicero. Pliny, indeed,--and in this he was a true disciple of his +old teacher Quintilian,--took the great Roman orator as his model. +Nothing pleased him more than for his friends to tell him that he was +the Cicero of his time. Like Marcus Tullius, he was the foremost +pleader of his day; like him again he dabbled in poetry, and his verses, +so far as we know them, were sorry stuff. Yet again like his master, he +fondly believed that he enjoyed the special inspiration of the Muses. +Pliny, unfortunately for his reputation, gives us a few samples, which +are quite as lame and jingling as the famous "O fortunatam natam, me +Consule, Romam!" which had made generations of Romans smile. And so, as +Cicero was in all things his master, Pliny too wrote letters, excellent +in their way, but lacking the vivacity and directness of his model, and, +of course, wholly deficient in the political interest which makes +Cicero's correspondence one of the most important authorities for the +history of his troublous time. Pliny's Letters cover the period from +the accession of Nerva down to 113 A.D. None precede the death of +Domitian in September 96. That is to say, they were written in an era +of profound political peace, and most of them in the reign of Trajan, +whose rule Pliny accepted with enthusiastic admiration. One certainly +could have wished that he had written freely to his friends during the +last years of Domitian's tyranny, for the value of such contemporary +documents would have been enormous. But he would only have risked his +life by so doing, and that he had no desire to do. It was not until the +tyrant had fallen under the sword of Stephanus that he felt it safe to +trust his thoughts to paper. The new era which was inaugurated loosened +his tongue and made him breathe more freely. He exulted that at last an +honest man could venture to hold his head high without drawing down upon +himself the vengeance of the vile informers who throve upon the +misfortunes of the State. + +Two of Pliny's correspondents and friends were Cornelius Tacitus and +Suetonius Tranquillus. Yet no one can read either the Histories and +Annals of Tacitus or the Lives of the Caesars and then pass to a reading +of Pliny's Letters without being struck by the enormous difference in +their tone and spirit. It is almost impossible to believe that their +respective authors were contemporaries. When turning over the pages of +Tacitus one feels that the vices and despotism of the Emperors and the +Empire had crushed all spirit out of the world, had made quiet family +life impossible, and had stamped out every trace of justice and clean +living. It is a remarkable fact that the great writers of the first +century, as soon as the Augustan era had closed, should have been +masters of a merciless satire, which has rarely been equaled in the +history of the world, and never excelled. When we think of Roman +society, as it was in the early Empire, our thoughts recur to the lurid +canvases which have been painted for us by Juvenal, by Tacitus, by +Lucan, by Seneca, and by Petronius--pictures which have made the world +shudder, and have led even careful historians astray. Pliny supplies +the needful corrective and gives us the reverse side of the medal. Like +the authors we have mentioned, he too writes of the evil days which he +himself has passed through, as of a horrid nightmare from which he has +just awakened; but from his letters, artificial and stilted as they are +in some respects, we learn that there were still to be found those who +had not bowed the knee to Baal. + +And so, with this volume in our hands, we obtain a personal introduction +to a number of distinguished Romans and Roman matrons, whose names have +been preserved for all time by the Younger Pliny. His circle of friends +was a large one. Let us mention a few of them. We have already spoken +of Virginius Rufus, the grand old soldier and patriot, who, dying at the +age of eighty-four, was awarded a public funeral, while Cornelius +Tacitus, then Consul, delivered the panegyric in his honour. Vestricius +Spurinna was another distinguished general of the old school, and Pliny +relates with enthusiasm how he paid a visit to him in his country-house +when Spurinna was seventy-seven years of age and had retired from public +office. He tells us how his friend spent his day, how he drove and +walked and played tennis to keep himself in health, wrote Greek and +Latin lyrics, and maintained a keen interest in all that went on in the +capital. Corellius Rufus is another of the older men of whom Pliny +writes with sincere affection, and he helped to pay the debt of +gratitude he owed him by numerous acts of kindness to his daughter +Crellia. Voconius Romanus is another of his closest friends, and Pliny +tells us that he wrote such admirable letters that you would think the +Muses themselves must speak in Latin. His literary associates numbered +among them Caius Cornelius Tacitus, Silius Italicus the poet--whose +veneration for Virgil was so great that he kept his master's birthday +with more solemnity than his own, and visited his tomb on the Bay of +Naples with as much respect as worshippers pay to a temple,--Martial the +epigrammatist, Suetonius Tranquillus the historian, and others such as +Passennus Paullus, Caninius Rufus, Virgilius Romanus, and Caius Fannius, +whose works have not survived the wreck of time, though Pliny showers +upon all of them enthusiastic and indiscriminate praise. Again, he +enjoyed the friendship of a number of distinguished foreigners, +professional rhetoricians and philosophers, who came back to Rome after +their sentence of banishment, passed by Domitian, had been revoked by +Nerva and Trajan. Euphrates, Artemidorus, and Isaeus were the three +most famous, and their respective styles are carefully described by +Pliny. Even more interesting perhaps is the gallery of Roman ladies, +whose portraits are limned with so fine and discriminating a touch. +Juvenal again is responsible for much misconception as to the part the +women of Rome played in Roman society. The appalling Sixth Satire, in +which he unhesitatingly declares that most women--if not all--are bad, +and that virtue and chastity are so rare as to be almost unknown, in +which he roundly accuses them of all the vices known to human depravity, +reads like a monstrous and disgraceful libel on the sex when one turns +to Pliny and makes the acquaintance of Arria, Fannia, Corellia, and +Calpurnia. The characters of Arria and Fannia are well known; they are +among the heroines of history. But in Pliny there are numerous +references to women whose names are not even known to us, but the terms +in which they are referred to prove what sweet, womanly lives they led. +For example, he writes to Geminus: "Our friend Macrinus has suffered a +grievous wound. He has lost his wife, who would have been regarded as a +model of all the virtues even if she had lived in the good old days. He +lived with her for thirty-nine years, without so much as a single +quarrel or disagreement." "Vixit cum hac triginta novem annis sine +jurgio, sine offensa. One is reminded of the fine line of Propertius, +in which Cornelia boasts of the blameless union of herself and her +husband, Paullus-- + +"Viximus insignes inter utramque facem." + +This is no isolated example. One of the most pathetic letters is that +in which Pliny writes of the death of the younger daughter of his friend +Fundanus, a girl in her fifteenth year, who had already "the prudence of +age, the gravity of a matron, and all the maidenly modesty and sweetness +of a girl." Pliny tells us how it cut him to the quick to hear her +father give directions that the money he had meant to lay out on dresses +and pearls and jewels for her betrothal should be spent on incense, +unguents, and spices for her bier. What a different picture from +anything we find in Juvenal, who would fain have us believe that +Messalina was the type of the average Roman matron of his day! + +Such were some of Pliny's friends. His distinguished position at the +Bar drew him a host of clients; his official status and his friendship +with Trajan gave him the entree into any society he liked. He was, +moreover, a man of considerable wealth, generous, even lavish, with his +money, and his disposition was one of the kindest. He was always ready +to believe the best of any one, always prepared to do a friend a +service, devoted to his wife and her relations, and anxious to deal +justly and honourably with all men. We have called him vain, and vain +he undoubtedly was to an extraordinary degree. But Pliny's vanity is +never offensive. The very naivete with which he acknowledges his +failing disarms all criticism and merely renders it amusing. Indeed, it +is doubtful whether he would have admitted that it was a failing at all, +inasmuch as it was his love of praise which spurred him on to literary +endeavour. The Romans, in their grand manner, affected a certain +magniloquence which is alien to the Anglo-Saxon cast of thought, and if +Horace could declare of his own odes that he had erected a monument more +durable than brass, Pliny, who always had the great masters before him, +naturally fell into the same rather vainglorious train of thought. His +frankest confession is to be found in a letter to Titinius Capito, who +had urged him to write history, when he says: "Me autem nihil aeque ac +diuturnitatis amor et cupido sollicitat, res homine dignissima, eo +presertime qui nullius sibi conscius culpae posteritatis memoriam non +reformidet." Or again, he admits that he is not Stoic enough to be +merely content with the consciousness of having done his duty. He +craves for a public testimony thereto, a little applause from the +bystanders, a vote of thanks from those whom he has benefited. Most of +us desire the same--the difference is that Pliny does not mind owning up +to it. But this vanity of his peeps out in curious places. When we +find him speaking of a young Roman of fashion standing for hours in a +crowd to listen to his pleading in the courts, or of his audience +pressing him not to omit a single line of his poems, or of the +deferential way in which certain young barristers of promise hang on his +lips, copy his gestures and bow to his judgment, one cannot resist a +smile. When he tells us that he went on calmly reading and taking notes +during the eruption of Vesuvius, though the hot ashes were threatening +to overwhelm the villa in which he was staying, or when he quotes the +really execrable verses which some scribbler of the day composed in his +honour, with the most exquisite self-complacency, one is tempted to show +a little impatience at such extravagant self-satisfaction. Tacitus +again--that supreme master of irony--must have occasionally curled his +thin lip on reading some of the epistles which were addressed to him by +his friend Pliny. It is a tribute to Pliny's powers of literary +discernment that he appreciated the marvellous ability of Tacitus, +though had he failed to do so, we should have rated him for his +blindness. No cultured Roman could fail to see that Tacitus had brought +a new literary style to a pitch of the highest perfection, and his fame +throughout his lifetime was enormous. So apparently was Pliny's, and +the latter boasts that their names are mentioned together in everyday +conversation, and in the last wills and testaments of people with +literary taste. Tacitus one day was sitting at the games, and got into +conversation with a stranger sitting in the next seat. It took a +literary turn, and the stranger was delighted with the learning that +Tacitus displayed. "Are you a Roman, or from the country" said he. +"You know me quite well," answered Tacitus, "from the books you have +studied." "Then," rejoined the stranger, "you must be either Tacitus or +Pliny." It was Tacitus himself who told Pliny the story, and one can +imagine how it would delight him. He promptly sits down and tells it to +his friend Maximus, and adds another story of a similar character. But +the most extraordinary passage of all occurs in a letter (vii. 20) to +Tacitus himself. In it Pliny says that when he was a young man and +Tacitus was already famous, he determined to make him his model. There +were, he said, many brilliant geniuses, but you--such was the affinity +of our natures--seemed to me to be the most easy to imitate, and the +most worthy of imitation. Maxime imitabilis, maxime imitandus +videbaris. Unconscious conceit could go no farther! + +And yet one can pardon this egregious vanity when one thinks of Pliny's +other qualities. Who else is there in Roman literature who so +thoroughly corresponds with our modern ideal of a rich, generous, +cultured public servant? In one place we find him providing for the +educational needs of his birthplace, Comum. In another he renounces his +share of an inheritance, and bestows it upon his old township. Or he +buys a statue for a temple, finds the money for a new shrine, pays the +debts of an acquaintance, gives a friend's daughter a handsome dowry, +opens his purse and enables another deserving friend to acquire the +status of a senator, or finds Martial his travelling expenses. All the +rising young authors and barristers in Rome looked to him for +encouragement and support; he was ready to attend their public readings, +to rise when the reading was over and say a few words of encouragement, +to canvass for them if they were standing for office, and enlist on +their behalf all the influence at his command. And he only asked in +return a little deference and acknowledgment of his kindness! Most +interesting of all, we find him giving a farm to his old nurse, and +asking a friend to look after it for her. He sends a slave of his, who +was troubled with consumption, to Egypt for a change of air, and +afterwards to the colony of Forum Julii, the modern Frejus on the +Riviera. Pliny writes of the slaves of his household just as any kind- +hearted Jamaican planter would have written before the Emancipation Act, +and it is to be noted that the head slaves of a Roman gentleman's +establishment were often Greeks of high literary attainments, and +treated by their masters as intimate and affectionate friends. Pliny +narrates with a shock of uneasiness and horror the story of a Roman +knight who was beaten to death by the servants of his household, and, +though he admits that the knight had been cruel and overbearing, such an +untimely fate brought home to him the insecurity of all masters--that +insecurity which led the Romans to punish with such merciless severity +any attack by a slave upon his owner. Not that Pliny had any cause for +self-reproach! He tells us in a charming letter his rule of conduct +with his dependants, and the theory on which he conducted his household. +According to his view, "Servis respublica quaedam et quasi civitas domus +est." Consequently, he allowed them to make wills and leave their +property as they desired, provided only that the recipients were also +members of the household, and, what was better still, he speaks of his +"facilitas manumittendi"--his readiness to give them their freedom for +faithful service. One can well imagine that Pliny's was a model family, +that it was his pride to be in every sense of the word a just +paterfamilias, and that he showed his slaves great consideration for +their welfare. He complains, indeed, jocularly in one place that too +much kindness is not good for servants, as it leads them to presume upon +the easy-going temperament of their master, but that is only a good- +natured grumble on the perennial servant problem. + +Pliny was thrice married, twice under Domitian, but his second wife died +in 97, and the lady who figures in the letters is his third wife +Calpurnia, grand-daughter of Calpurnius Fabatus, and niece of a lady +named Hispulla. We get a charming picture of their mutual happiness in +a letter written by Pliny to Hispulla, who had had charge of his wife's +education when she was a girl. He praises her intelligence, her +economy, her love for him, and the interest she takes in his career. +When he is pleading in the courts she has messengers to bring her word +of the success of the speech and the result of the trial; when he is +giving a reading to his friends, Calpurnia sits behind a curtain and +greedily drinks in the praises they bestow. She sets his verses to +music, and Hispulla, who made the match, is neatly rewarded at the +conclusion of the letter by Pliny saying that both he and his wife vie +with one another in seeing who can thank her the more. When Calpurnia +was obliged to leave her husband and go to Campania for her health, we +find Pliny writing her tender love-letters, describing his anxiety on +her behalf, telling her how he conjures up the very things he most +dreads, how he reads and re-reads her letters, which are his only +comfort, and begging her to write him certainly once, and if possible, +twice a day. Then in the prettiest passage of all, he tells her how, at +the hours when he used to visit her, he finds his feet carrying him to +the door of her chamber and turns away from the threshold of the empty +room, sad as a lover who finds the door closed against him. The +glimpses which Roman literature affords us of the conjugal happiness of +man and wife are comparatively few. Cicero, indeed, wrote in a similar +strain to his wife Terentia, and used even tenderer diminutives than +Pliny, but the sequel was that he soon afterwards divorced her and +married a rich ward. We do not know the sequel in the case of Pliny. +All we know is that he nearly lost his wife in a dangerous illness +brought on by a miscarriage, and that she accompanied him to Bithynia +during his governorship. Whether she bore him the child which he so +ardently desired is not stated, but the probabilities are against it, as +there is no mention of such an event in the letters. His correspondence +clearly proves that for all his ambition he was essentially a family +man. Nothing could be finer than his description of the heroic devotion +of Arria to her husband, and the pathos with which he describes the +conduct of Fannia, who concealed the death of her dearly loved son from +her sick husband Paetus, telling him the boy was well and resting +quietly, and controlling her motherly tears until she could keep them +back no longer, and rushed from the room to give them free course. +Then, "Satiata siccis oculis composito vultu redibat, tanquam orbitatem +foris reliquisset." No one could have written that beautiful sentence +but a man of tender heart and sympathies. + +Pliny's tastes were catholic. He writes with delight, but without +pretending to be a connoisseur, of an antique statuette which he had +purchased out of a legacy. Some rich men in Rome had the mania for +antiques--Corinthian bronzes were the rage in Pliny's day--as badly as +those who haunt our modern sale-rooms. Pliny's hobby, if he had been +living in our time, would probably have been books. He is one of the +most bookish men of antiquity. Wherever he went his books went with +him; in his carriage, in his gardens they never left his side. He +betrays, moreover, a taste for the beauties of nature which is +distinctly un-Roman. Even the Roman poets were almost utterly oblivious +to the charms of scenery. When Horace points out of the window to the +snow lying deep on Soracte, it is not to emphasise the beauty of the +scene, but a preliminary to telling the boy to pile the logs of Algidus +upon the fire. Even Virgil, who occasionally paints a bit of landscape +or seascape in the Aeneid, does so in a half-hearted fashion, as a mere +preface to the incident which is to follow, not from a poet's love of +beauty. In Pliny, on the other hand, we find the modern love for a +beautiful view. Me nihil aeque ac natura opera delectant. When he +describes his Tuscan villa he uses language with which we feel in +complete harmony. He specifies the places from which the best views may +be obtained; and if the garden seems to our taste to have been laid out +in rather a formal way, with its box-trees cut into different shapes of +animals and birds, he was in that respect only following the fashion of +his day, and his delight in the unadorned beauties of the surrounding +country has a genuine ring in it. In another curious respect Pliny was +ahead of his times. He had no taste for the Circensian games and the +brutalities of the gladiatorial shows. Writing to Sempronius Rufus (iv. +22), he bluntly declares that he wishes they could be abolished in Rome, +inasmuch as they degrade the character and morals of the whole world. +In another passage (ix. 6) he says that the Circensian games have not +the smallest attraction for him--ne levissime quidem teneor. He cannot +understand why so many thousands of grown-up people take such a childish +pleasure in watching horses running races. It is not the speed of the +horses or the skill of the drivers which is the attraction,--if it were, +there might be some reason for their enthusiasm,--what they go to see is +the victory of their pet racing colours, the triumph of the reds, blues, +or greens. Favent panno, pannum amant. + +We find him writing on all manner of subjects. He asks his scientific +friends to explain to him the mystery of a spring whose waters ebb and +flow, of a lake which contained floating islands, and in one letter he +tells a fascinating ghost story of quite the conventional type, about a +haunted house, which drove any unwary tenant crazy, and the ghost of a +murdered man which walked with clanking chains. Pliny was no cut and +dried philosopher. Like his master Cicero he was an eclectic, and +pinned his faith to no single creed. Whatever was human interested him, +and on whatever interested him he put pen to paper. It need scarcely be +said how valuable these letters are in filling up the gaps of Roman +history. We have to thank Pliny for our knowledge of the great eruption +of Vesuvius which overwhelmed Pompeii and Herculaneum, and it was +probably only due to the accident that the elder Pliny was one of the +victims that we possess the two striking letters in which the disaster +is described. In another letter our author describes how the Emperor +Trajan sent for him and others to his country seat at Centum Cellae, to +help him to try certain important cases, and then he tells us of the +modest, simple living of Trajan--Suavitas simplicitasque convictus--and +the presents he gave them on their departure. The debates in the +Senate, the trials in the Court of the Hundred, the public readings in +the city, which--first introduced by Asinius Pollio in the time of +Augustus--were then the fashion,--of all these Pliny gives us a clear +presentment. His charity is hardly ever at fault. Only when he writes +of Regulus and Pallas does he dip his pen in gall. But Regulus had been +his bitter enemy and an informer, and the memory of Pallas was justly +execrated. + +A few words may be added respecting the letters which form the Tenth +Book of his correspondence, and which show us Pliny acting as Governor +of the province of Pontus and Bithynia. He had been sent there because +the finances of many of the cities had been allowed to fall into a +shocking state, and because the Emperor wanted a man whom he could +thoroughly trust to put them straight. No doubt Pliny, while flattered +at this proof of Trajan's regard, felt the severance from his friends +and ordinary pursuits which this term of absence necessitated. But +compare his attitude with that of Cicero as Governor of Cilicia! Cicero +crawled on the outward journey, and when he reached his destination he +counted the days to his return like a bullied school-boy counts the days +to the end of the term. He writes to his friends in the capital, +begging and praying of them that they will prevent his being obliged to +stay for a second year. All his thoughts are of Rome and how to return +there. The wretched provincials bore him to distraction; he yearns for +the wider arena of the capital in which to play the swelling part to +which he aspires. There is, in short, not a trace in Cicero's letters +from his province to show that he took the slightest interest in his new +surroundings. Pliny displays a far different spirit. He reminds us +more of the Colonial Governor of our own day. He is interested in the +past history and traditions of the country, he is anxious that the +cities shall have good water supplies, good baths, good theatres, good +gymnasia. He is for ever suggesting to the Emperor that he should send +architects to consult with him on some important public work. And these +letters disclose to us what a wonderful system of organised government +the Roman Empire possessed. Pliny even writes to Trajan to ask +permission that an evil-smelling sewer may be covered over in a town +called Amastria. If all the governors of the provinces wrote home for +orders on such points, the Emperor must indeed have been busy, and some +of his replies to Pliny show that Trajan hinted very plainly that a +governor ought to have some initiative of his own. None the less, the +tenour of this correspondence proves that Trajan held the threads of +government very jealously in his own hands. When Pliny suggested the +establishment of a small fire-brigade in Nicomedia, where the citizens +had stood enjoying the aesthetic beauty of a disastrous fire which +destroyed whole streets, instead of putting it out, Trajan sharply +vetoed the suggestion, on the ground that the Greeks were factious +people and would turn even a fire-brigade to illicit and seditious +purposes. + +There is, of course, one letter to Trajan which has achieved world-wide +fame, that in which he asks the Emperor how he wishes him to deal with +the Christians who were brought before him and refused to worship the +statues of the Emperor and the gods. So much has been written upon this +subject that it is almost superfluous to add more. Yet it may be +pointed out that the letter only confirms our estimate of the kindliness +and scrupulous justice of Pliny. He acquits the Christians of all +criminal practices; he bears testimony to the purity of their lives and +their principles. What baffles and vexes him is their "pertinacity and +inflexible obstinacy"--Neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset quod +fateretur, pertinaciam certe et inflexibilem obstinationem debere +puniri. He could not understand, in other words, why, when the theory +of the Roman religion was so tolerant, the Christians should be so +intolerantly narrow-minded and bigoted. As we have said, Pliny was an +eclectic, and an eclectic is the last person to understand the frame of +mind which glories in martyrdom. Such was Pliny's attitude towards the +purely religious side of the question, but that, after all, was not the +main issue. With him, as the representative of the Roman Emperor, the +crime of the Christians lay not so much in their refusal to worship the +statues of Jupiter and the heavenly host of the Pagan mythology, as in +their refusal to worship the statue of the Emperor. Church and State +have never been so closely identified in any form of government as in +that of the early Roman Empire. The genius of the Emperor was the +genius of the Empire; to refuse to sprinkle a few grains of incense on +the ara of Trajan was an act of gross political treason to the best of +rulers. No wonder, therefore, that Pliny felt constrained to punish +these harmless members of a sect which he could not understand. +Trajan's reply is equally clear and distinct. He discountenanced all +inquisition and persecution. The Christians are not to be hunted down, +no notice is to be taken of anonymous accusations, and if any suspected +person renounces his error and offers prayers publicly to the gods of +Rome, no further action is to be taken against him. On the other hand, +if the case is proved and the accused still remains obstinate, +punishment must follow and the law be maintained. Pliny evidently +thought that if the Christians were given a chance of renouncing their +past folly the growth of the new religion would be checked. He speaks +of a certain revival of the old religion, of the temples once more being +thronged by worshippers, and the sacrificial victims again finding +buyers, though almost in the same sentence he describes "the contagion +of the Christian superstition" as having spread not only in the towns +but into the villages and rural districts. He did not foresee that in +process of time a Roman Emperor would himself embrace the new faith and +persecute the upholders of the old with the same vigour as was in his +day applied to the repression of the new. + +J.B. FIRTH. + + + +THE LETTERS OF THE YOUNGER PLINY. + + +BOOK I. + + +1.I.--TO SEPTICIUS. + +You have constantly urged me to collect and publish the more highly +finished of the letters that I may have written. I have made such a +collection, but without preserving the order in which they were +composed, as I was not writing a historical narrative. So I have taken +them as they happened to come to hand. I can only hope that you will +not have cause to regret the advice you gave, and that I shall not +repent having followed it; for I shall set to work to recover such +letters as have up to now been tossed on one side, and I shall not keep +back any that I may write in the future. Farewell. + + +1.II.--TO ARRIANUS. + +As I see that your arrival is likely to be later than I expected, I +forward you the speech which I promised in an earlier letter. I beg +that you will read and revise it as you have done with other +compositions of mine, because I think none of my previous works is +written in quite the same style. I have tried to imitate, at least in +manner and turns of phrase, your old favourite, Demosthenes, and Calvus, +to whom I have recently taken a great fancy; for to catch the fire and +power of such acknowledged stylists is only given to the heaven-inspired +few. I hope you will not think me conceited if I say that the subject- +matter was not unworthy of such imitation, for throughout the whole +argument I found something that kept rousing me from my sleepy and +confirmed indolence, that is to say, as far as a person of my +temperament can be roused. Not that I abjured altogether the pigments +of our master Cicero; when an opportunity arose for a pleasant little +excursion from the main path of my argument I availed myself of it, as +my object was to be terse without being unnecessarily dry. Nor must you +think that I am apologising for these few passages. For just to make +your eye for faults the keener, I will confess that both my friends here +and myself have no fear of publishing the speech, if you will but set +your mark of approval against the passages that possibly show my folly. +I must publish something, and I only hope that the best thing for the +purpose may be this volume which is ready finished. That is the prayer +of a lazy man, is it not? but there are several reasons why I must +publish, and the strongest is that the various copies I have lent out +are said to still find readers, though by this time they have lost the +charm of novelty. Of course, it may be that the booksellers say this to +flatter me. Well, let them flatter, so long as fibs of this kind +encourage me to study the harder. Farewell. + + +1.III.--TO CANINIUS RUFUS. + +How is Comum looking, your darling spot and mine? And that most +charming villa of yours, what of it, and its portico where it is always +spring, its shady clumps of plane trees, its fresh crystal canal, and +the lake below that gives such a charming view? How is the exercise +ground, so soft yet firm to the foot; how goes the bath that gets the +sun's rays so plentifully as he journeys round it? What too of the big +banqueting halls and the little rooms just for a few, and the retiring +rooms for night and day? Have they full possession of you, and do they +share your company in turn? or are you, as usual, continually being +called away to attend to private family business? You are indeed a +lucky man if you can spend all your leisure there; if you cannot, your +case is that of most of us. But really it is time that you passed on +your unimportant and petty duties for others to look after, and buried +yourself among your books in that secluded yet beautiful retreat. Make +this at once the business and the leisure of your life, your occupation +and your rest; let your waking hours be spent among your books, and your +hours of sleep as well. Mould something, hammer out something that +shall be known as yours for all time. Your other property will find a +succession of heirs when you are gone; what I speak of will continue +yours for ever--if once it begins to be. I know the capacity and +inventive wit that I am spurring on. You have only to think of yourself +as the able man others will think you when you have realised your +ability. Farewell. + + +1.IV.--TO POMPEIA CELERINA. + +What treasures you have in your villas at Ocriculum, at Narnia, at +Carsola and Perusia! Even a bathing place at Narnia! My letters--for +now there is no need for you to write--will have shown you how pleased I +am, or rather the short letter will which I wrote long ago. The fact +is, that some of my own property is scarcely so completely mine as is +some of yours; the only difference being that I get more thoroughly and +attentively looked after by your servants than I do by my own. You will +very likely find the same thing yourself when you come to stay in one of +my villas. I hope you will, in the first place that you may get as much +pleasure out of what belongs to me as I have from what belongs to you, +and in the second that my people may be roused a little to a sense of +their duties. I find them rather remiss in their behaviour and almost +careless. But that is their way; if they have a considerate master, +their fear of him grows less and less as they get to know him, while a +new face sharpens their attention and they study to gain their master's +good opinion, not by looking after his wants but those of his guests. +Farewell. + + +1.V.--TO VOCONIUS ROMANUS. + +Did you ever see a man more abject and fawning than Marcus Regulus has +been since the death of Domitian? His misdeeds were better concealed +during that prince's reign, but they were every bit as bad as they were +in the time of Nero. He began to be afraid that I was angry with him +and he was not mistaken, for I certainly was annoyed. After doing what +he could to help those who were compassing the ruin of Rusticus +Arulenus, he had openly exulted at his death, and went so far as to +publicly read and then publish a pamphlet in which he violently attacks +Rusticus and even calls him "the Stoics' ape," adding that "he is marked +with the brand of Vitellius." You recognise, of course, the Regulian +style! He tears to pieces Herennius Senecio so savagely that Metius +Carus said to him, "What have you to do with my dead men? Did I ever +worry your Crassus or Camerinus?"--these being some of Regulus's victims +in the days of Nero. Regulus thought I bore him malice for this, and so +he did not invite me when he read his pamphlet. Besides, he remembered +that he once mortally attacked me in the Court of the Centumviri. + +I was a witness on behalf of Arionilla, the wife of Timon, at the +request of Rusticus Arulenus, and Regulus was conducting the +prosecution. We on our side were relying for part of the defence on a +decision of Metius Modestus, an excellent man who had been banished by +Domitian and was at that moment in exile. This was Regulus's +opportunity. "Tell me, Secundus," said he, "what you think of +Modestus." You see in what peril I should have placed myself if I had +answered that I thought highly of him, and how disgraceful it would have +been if I had said that I thought ill of him. I fancy it must have been +the gods who came to my rescue. "I will tell you what I think of him," +I said, "when the Court has to give a decision on the point." He +returned to the charge: "My question is, what do you think of +Modestus?" Again I replied: "Witnesses used to be interrogated about +persons in the dock, not about those who are already convicted." A +third time he asked: "Well, I won't ask you now what you think of +Modestus, but what you think of his loyalty." "You ask me," said I, +"for my opinion. But I do not think it is in order for you to ask an +opinion on what the Court has already passed judgment." He was +silenced, while I was congratulated and praised for not having smirched +my reputation by giving an answer that might have been discreet but +would certainly have been dishonest, and for not having entangled myself +in the meshes of such a crafty question. + +Well, now the fellow is conscience-stricken, and buttonholes first +Caecilius Celer and then implores Fabius Justsus to reconcile me to him. +Not content with that, he makes his way in to see Spurinna, and begs and +prays of him--you know what an abject coward he is when he is +frightened--as follows. "Do go," says he, "and call on Pliny in the +morning--early in the morning, for my suspense is unbearable--and do +what you can to remove his anger against me." I was early awake that +day, when a message came from Spurinna, "I am coming to see you." I +sent back word, "I will come and see you." We met at the portico of +Livia, just as we were each of us on the way to see the other. He +explained his commission from Regulus and added his own entreaties, but +did not press the point too strongly, as became a worthy gentleman +asking a favour for a worthless acquaintance. This was my answer: +"Well, you must see for yourself what message you think best to take +back to Regulus; I should not like you to be under any misapprehension. +I am waiting till Mauricus returns"--he had not yet returned from exile- +-"and so I cannot give you an answer either way, for I shall do just +what he thinks best. It is he who is principally interested in this +matter, I am only secondarily concerned." A few days afterwards Regulus +himself met me when I was paying my respects to the new praetor. He +followed me thither and asked for a private conversation. He said he +was afraid that something he once said in the Court of the Centumviri +rankled in my memory, when, in replying to Satrius Rufus and myself, he +remarked, "Satrius Rufus, who is quite content with the eloquence of our +days, and does not seek to rival Cicero." I told him that as I had his +own confession for it I could now see that the remark was a spiteful +one, but that it was quite possible to put a complimentary construction +upon it. "For," said I, "I do try to rival Cicero, and I am not content +with the eloquence of our own time. I think it is very stupid not to +take as models the very best masters. But how is it that you remember +this case and forget the other one in which you asked me what I thought +of the loyalty of Metius Modestus?" As you know, he is always pale, but +he grew perceptibly paler at this thrust. Then he stammered out, "I put +the question not to damage you but Modestus." Observe the man's +malignant nature who does not mind acknowledging that he wished to do an +injury to an exile. Then he went on to make this fine excuse; "He wrote +in a letter which was read aloud in Domitian's presence, 'Regulus is the +vilest creature that walks on two legs.'" Modestus never wrote a truer +word. + +That practically closed the conversation. I did not wish it to go any +further, so that I might not commit myself until Mauricus arrived. +Moreover, I am quite aware that Regulus is a difficult bird to net. He +is rich, he is a shrewd intriguer, he has no inconsiderable body of +followers and a still larger circle of those who fear him, and fear is +often a more powerful factor than affection. But, after all, these are +bonds that may be shattered and weakened, for a bad man's influence is +as little to be relied upon as is the man himself. Moreover, let me +repeat that I am waiting for Mauricus. He is a man of sound judgment +and sagacity, which he has learned by experience, and he can gauge what +is likely to happen in the future from what has occurred in the past. I +shall be guided by him, and either strike a blow or put by my weapons +just as he thinks best. I have written you this letter because it is +only right, considering our regard for one another, that you should be +acquainted not only with what I have said and done, but also with my +plans for the future. Farewell. + + +1.VI.--TO CORNELIUS TACITUS. + +You will laugh, and I give you leave to. You know what sort of +sportsman I am, but I, even I, have bagged three boars, each one of them +a perfect beauty. "What!" you will say, "YOU!" Yes, I, and that too +without any violent departure from my usual lazy ways. I was sitting by +the nets; I had by my side not a hunting spear and a dart, but my pen +and writing tablets. I was engaged in some composition and jotting down +notes, so that I might have full tablets to take home with me, even +though my hands were empty. You need not shrug your shoulders at study +under such conditions. It is really surprising how the mind is +stimulated by bodily movement and exercise. I find the most powerful +incentive to thought in having the woods all about me, in the solitude +and the silence which is observed in hunting. So when next you go +hunting, take my advice and carry your writing tablets with you as well +as your luncheon basket and your flask. You will find that Minerva +loves to wander on the mountains quite as much as Diana. Farewell. + + +1.VII.--TO OCTAVIUS RUFUS. + +See on what a pinnacle you have placed me by giving me the same power +and royal will that Homer attributed to Jupiter, Best and Greatest:-- +"One half his prayer the Father granted, the other half he refused." +For I too can answer your request by just nodding a yes or no. It is +open to me, especially as you press me to do so, to decline to act on +behalf of the Barbici against a single individual; but I should be +violating the good faith and constancy that you admire in me, if I were +to accept a brief against a province to which I am bound by many +friendly ties, and by the work and dangers I have often undertaken in +its behalf. So I will take a middle course, and of the alternative +favours you ask I will choose the one which will commend itself both to +your interest and your judgment. For what I have to consider is not so +much what will meet your wishes of the moment, but how to do that which +will win the steady approval of a man of your high character. I hope to +be in Rome about the Ides of October and then join my credit with yours, +and convince Gallus in person of the wisdom of my resolve, though even +now you may assure him of my good intentions. "He spake, and Kronios +nodded his dark brows." Homer again, but why should I not go on plying +you with Homeric lines? You will not let me ply you with verses of your +own, though I love them so well that I think your permission to quote +them would be the one bribe that would induce me to appear against the +Barbici. I have almost made a shocking omission, and forgotten to thank +you for the dates you sent me. They are very fine, and are likely to +prove strong rivals of my figs and mushrooms. Farewell. + + +1.VIII.--TO POMPEIUS SATURNINUS. + +Your letter, asking me to send you one of my compositions, came at an +opportune moment, for I had just made up my mind to do so. So you were +spurring a willing horse, and you have not only spoiled your only chance +of making excuses for declining, but have enabled me to press work upon +you without feeling ashamed at asking the favour. For it would be +equally unbecoming for me to hesitate about accepting your offer as for +you who made it to look upon it as a bore. However, you must not expect +anything of an original kind from a lazy man like me. I shall only ask +you to find time to again look through the speech which I made to my +townsfolk at the dedication of the public library. I remember that you +have already criticised a few points therein, but merely in a general +way, and I now beg that you will not only criticise it as a whole, but +will ply your pencil on particular passages as well, in your severest +manner. For even after a thorough revision it will still be open to us +to publish or suppress it as we think fit. Very likely the revision +will help us out of our hesitation and enable us to decide one way or +the other. By looking through it again and again we shall either find +that it is not worth publication or we shall render it worthy by the way +we revise it. + +What makes me doubtful is rather the subject-matter than the actual +composition. It is perhaps a shade too laudatory and ostentatious. And +this will be more than our modesty can carry, however plain and +unassuming the style in which it is written, especially as I have to +enlarge on the munificence of my relatives as well as on my own. It is +a ticklish and dangerous subject, even when one can flatter one's self +that there was no way of avoiding it. For if people grow impatient at +hearing the praises of others, how much more difficult must it be to +prevent a speech becoming tedious when we sing our own praises or those +of our family? We look askance even at unpretentious honesty, and do so +all the more when its fame is trumpeted abroad. In short, it is only +the good action that is done by stealth and passes unapplauded which +protects the doer from the carping criticism of the world. For this +reason I have often debated whether I ought to have composed the speech, +such as it is, simply to suit my own feelings, or whether I should have +looked beyond myself to the public. I am inclined to the former +alternative by the thought that many actions which are necessary to the +performance of an object lose their point and appositeness when that +object is attained. I will not weary you with examples further than to +ask whether anything could have been more appropriate than my gracing in +writing the reasons which prompted my generosity. By so doing, the +result was that I grew familiar with generous sentiments; the more I +discussed the virtue the more I saw its beauties, and above all I saved +myself from the reaction that often follows a sudden fit of open- +handedness. From all this there gradually grew up within me the habit +of despising money, and whereas nature seems to have tied men down to +their money bags to guard them, I was enabled to throw off the +prevailing shackles of avarice by my long and carefully reasoned love of +generosity. Consequently my munificence appeared to me to be all the +more worthy of praise, inasmuch as I was drawn to it by reason and not +by any sudden impulse. + +Again, I also felt that I was promising not mere games or gladiatorial +shows, but an annual subscription for the upbringing of freeborn youths. +The pleasures of the eye and ear never lack eulogists; on the contrary, +they need rather to be put in the background than in the foreground by +speakers: but to obtain volunteers who will undertake the fatigue and +hard work of self-culture, we have not only to offer rewards but to +encourage them with the choicest addresses. For if doctors have to coax +their patients into adopting an insipid but yet wholesome diet, how much +the more ought the man who is giving his fellows good advice to use all +the allurements of oratory to make his hearers adopt a course which, +though most useful, is not generally popular? Especially is this the +case when we have to try and convince men who have no children of the +value of the boon which is bestowed on those who have, and to induce all +the rest to wait patiently till their turn comes to receive the benefit +now given to a few, and in the meantime show themselves fit recipients +for it. But just as then, when we wished to explain the meaning and +bearing of our bounty, we were studying the common good and not seeking +an opportunity for self-boasting, so now in the matter of publication we +are afraid lest people should think that we have had an eye not so much +to the benefit of others as to our own glorification. Besides, we do +not forget how much better it is to seek the reward of a good action in +the testimony of one's conscience than in fame. For glory ought to +follow of its own accord, and not to be consciously sought for; nor, +again, is a good deed any the less beautiful because owing to some +chance or other no glory attends it. Those who boast of their own good +deeds are credited not so much with boasting for having done them, but +with having done them in order to be able to boast of them. +Consequently what would have been considered a noble action if told of +by a stranger, loses its striking qualities when recounted by the actual +doer. For when men find that the deed itself is inassailable they +attack the boastfulness of the doer, and hence if you commit anything to +be ashamed of, the deed itself is blamed, while if you perform anything +deserving of praise, you are blamed for not having kept silence upon it. + +Beyond all this, however, there is a special obstacle in the way of +publishing the speech. I delivered it not before the people but before +the municipal corporation, not in public but in the Council Chamber. So +I am afraid that it may look inconsistent if, after avoiding the +applause and cheers of the crowd when I delivered the speech, I now seek +for that applause by publishing it, and if, after getting the common +people, whose interests I was seeking, removed from the threshold and +the walls of the Chamber--to prevent the appearance of courting +popularity--I should now seem to deliberately seek the acclamations of +those who are only interested in my munificence to the extent of having +a good example shown them. Well, I have told you the grounds of my +hesitation, but I shall follow the advice you give me, for its weight +will be reason sufficient for me. Farewell. + + +1.IX.--TO MINUTIUS FUNDANUS. + +It is surprising how if you take each day singly here in the city you +pass or seem to pass your time reasonably enough when you take stock +thereof, but how, when you put the days together, you are dissatisfied +with yourself. If you ask any one, "What have you been doing to-day?" +he will say, "Oh, I have been attending a coming-of-age function; I was +at a betrothal or a wedding; so-and-so asked me to witness the signing +of a will; I have been acting as witness to A, or I have been in +consultation with B." All these occupations appear of paramount +importance on the day in question, but if you remember that you repeat +the round day after day, they seem a sheer waste of time, especially +when you have got away from them into the country; for then the thought +occurs to you, "What a number of days I have frittered away in these +chilly formalities!" That is how I feel when I am at my Laurentine +Villa and busy reading or writing, or even when I am giving my body a +thorough rest and so repairing the pillars of my mind. I hear nothing +and say nothing to give me vexation; no one comes backbiting a third +party, and I myself have no fault to find with any one except it be with +myself when my pen does not run to my liking. I have no hopes and fears +to worry me, no rumours to disturb my rest. I hold converse with myself +and with my books. 'Tis a genuine and honest life; such leisure is +delicious and honourable, and one might say that it is much more +attractive than any business. The sea, the shore, these are the true +secret haunts of the Muses, and how many inspirations they give me, how +they prompt my musings! Do, I beg of you, as soon as ever you can, turn +your back on the din, the idle chatter, and the frivolous occupations of +Rome, and give yourself up to study or recreation. It is better, as our +friend Attilius once very wittily and very truly said, to have no +occupation than to be occupied with nothingness. Farewell. + + +1.X.--TO ATTIUS CLEMENS. + +If ever there was a time when this Rome of ours was devoted to learning, +it is now. There are many shining lights, of whom it will be enough to +mention but one. I refer to Euphrates the philosopher. I saw a great +deal of him, even in the privacy of his home life, during my young +soldiering days in Syria, and I did my best to win his affection, though +that was not a hard task, for he is ever easy of access, frank, and full +of the humanities that he teaches. I only wish that I had been as +successful in fulfilling the hopes he then formed of me as he has been +increasing his large stock of virtues, though possibly it is I who now +admire them the more because I can appreciate them the better. Even now +my appreciation is not as complete as it might be. It is only an artist +who can thoroughly judge another painter, sculptor, or image-maker, and +so too it needs a philosopher to estimate another philosopher at his +full merit. But so far as I can judge, Euphrates has many qualities so +conspicuously brilliant that they arrest the eyes and attention even of +those who have but modest pretensions to learning. His reasoning is +acute, weighty, and elegant, often attaining to the breadth and +loftiness that we find in Plato. His conversation flows in a copious +yet varied stream, strikingly pleasant to the ear, and with a charm that +seizes and carries away even the reluctant hearer. Add to this a tall, +commanding presence, a handsome face, long flowing hair, a streaming +white beard--all of which may be thought accidental adjuncts and without +significance, but they do wonderfully increase the veneration he +inspires. There is no studied negligence in his dress, it is severely +plain but not austere; when you meet him you revere him without +shrinking away in awe. His life is purity itself, but he is just as +genial; his lash is not for men but for their vices; for the erring he +has gentle words of correction rather than sharp rebuke. When he gives +advice you cannot help listening in rapt attention, and you hope he will +go on persuading you even when the persuasion is complete. He has three +children, two of them sons, whom he has brought up with the strictest +care. His father-in-law is Pompeius Julianus, a man of great +distinction, but whose chief title to fame is that though, as ruler of a +province, he might have chosen a son-in-law of the highest social rank, +he preferred one who was distinguished not for social dignities but for +wisdom. + +Yet why describe at greater length a man whose society I can no longer +enjoy? Is it to make myself feel my loss the more? For my time is all +taken up by the duties of an office--important, no doubt, but tedious in +the extreme. I sit at my magisterial desk; I countersign petitions, I +make out the public accounts; I write hosts of letters, but what +illiterary productions they are! Sometimes--but how seldom I get the +opportunity--I complain to Euphrates about these uncongenial duties. He +consoles me and even assures me that there is no more noble part in the +whole of philosophy than to be a public official, to hear cases, pass +judgment, explain the laws and administer justice, and so practise in +short what the philosophers do but teach. But he never can persuade me +of this, that it is better to be busy as I am than to spend whole days +in listening to and acquiring knowledge from him. That makes me the +readier to urge you, whose time is your own, to let him put a finish and +polish upon you when you come to town, and I hope you will come all the +sooner on that account. I am not one of those--and there are many of +them--who grudge to others the happiness they are debarred from +themselves; on the contrary, I feel a very lively sense of pleasure in +seeing my friends abounding in joys that are denied to me. Farewell. + + +1.XI.--TO FABIUS JUSTUS. + +It is quite a long time since I had a letter from you. "Oh," you say, +"there has been nothing to write about." But at least you might write +and say just that, or you might send me the line with which our +grandfathers used to begin their letters: "All is well if you are well, +for I am well." I should be quite satisfied with so much; for, after +all, it is the heart of a letter. Do you think I am joking? I am +perfectly serious. Pray, let me know of your doings. It makes me feel +downright uneasy to be kept in ignorance. Farewell. + + +1.XII.--TO CALESTRIUS TIRO. + +I have suffered a most grievous loss, if loss is a word that can be +applied to my being bereft of so distinguished a man. Corellius Rufus +is dead, and what makes my grief the more poignant is that he died by +his own act. Such a death is always most lamentable, since neither +natural causes nor Fate can be held responsible for it. When people die +of disease there is a great consolation in the thought that no one could +have prevented it; when they lay violent hands on themselves we feel a +pang which nothing can assuage in the thought that they might have lived +longer. Corellius, it is true, felt driven to take his own life by +Reason--and Reason is always tantamount to Necessity with philosophers-- +and yet there were abundant inducements for him to live. His conscience +was stainless, his reputation beyond reproach; he stood high in men's +esteem. Moreover, he had a daughter, a wife, a grandson, and sisters, +and, besides all these relations, many genuine friends. But his battle +against ill-health had been so long and hopeless that all these splendid +rewards of living were outweighed by the reasons that urged him to die. + +I have heard him say that he was first attacked by gout in the feet when +he was thirty-three years of age. He had inherited the complaint, for +it often happens that a tendency to disease is handed down like other +qualities in a sort of succession. While he was in the prime of life he +overcame his malady and kept it well in check by abstemious and pure +living, and when it became sharper in its attacks as he grew old he bore +up against it with great fortitude of mind. Even when he suffered +incredible torture and the most horrible agony--for the pain was no +longer confined, as before, to the feet, but had begun to spread over +all his limbs--I went to see him in the time of Domitian when he was +staying at his country house. His attendants withdrew from his chamber, +as they always did whenever one of his more intimate friends entered the +room. Even his wife, a lady who might have been trusted to keep any +secret, also used to retire. Looking round the room, he said: "Why do +you think I endure pain like this so long? It is that I may outlive +that tyrant, even if only by a single day." Could you but have given +him a frame fit to support his resolution, he would have achieved the +object of his desire. However, some god heard his prayer and granted +it, and then feeling that he could die without anxiety and as a free man +ought, he snapped the bonds that bound him to life. Though they were +many, he preferred death. + +His malady had become worse, though he tried to moderate it by his +careful diet, and then, as it still continued to grow, he escaped from +it by a fixed resolve. Two, three, four days passed and he refused all +food. Then his wife Hispulla sent our mutual friend Caius Geminius to +tell me the sad news that Corellius had determined to die, that he was +not moved by the entreaties of his wife and daughter, and that I was the +only one left who might possibly recall him to life. I flew to see him, +and had almost reached the house when Hispulla sent me another message +by Julius Atticus, saying that now even I could do nothing, for his +resolve had become more and more fixed. When the doctor offered him +nourishment he said, "My mind is made up," and the word has awakened +within me not only a sense of loss, but of admiration. I keep thinking +what a friend, what a manly friend is now lost to me. He was at the end +of his seventy-sixth year, an age long enough even for the stoutest of +us. True. He has escaped a lifelong illness; he has died leaving +children to survive him, and knowing that the State, which was dearer to +him than everything else beside, was prospering well. Yes, yes, I know +all this. And yet I grieve at his death as I should at the death of a +young man in the full vigour of life; I grieve--you may think me weak +for so doing--on my own account too. For I have lost, lost for ever, +the guide, philosopher, and friend of my life. In short, I will say +again what I said to my friend Calvisius, when my grief was fresh: "I +am afraid I shall not live so well ordered a life now." Send me a word +of sympathy, but do not say, "He was an old man, or he was infirm." +These are hackneyed words; send me some that are new, that are potent to +ease my trouble, that I cannot find in books or hear from my friends. +For all that I have heard and read occur to me naturally, but they are +powerless in the presence of my excessive sorrow. Farewell. + + +1.XIII.--TO SOSIUS SENECIO. + +This year has brought us a fine crop of poets: right through April +hardly a day passed without some recital or other. I am delighted that +literature is so flourishing and that men are giving such open proofs of +brains, even though audiences are found so slow in coming together. +People as a rule lounge in the squares and waste the time in gossip when +they should be listening to the recital. They get some one to come and +tell them whether the reciter has entered the hall yet, whether he has +got through his introduction, or whether he has nearly reached the end +of his reading. Not until then do they enter the room, and even then +they come in slowly and languidly. Nor do they sit it out; no, before +the close of the recital they slip away, some sidling out so as not to +attract attention, others rising openly and walking out boldly. And +yet, by Hercules, our fathers tell a story of how Claudius Caesar one +day, while walking up and down in the palace, happened to hear some +clapping of hands, and on inquiring the cause and being told that +Nonianus was giving a reading, he suddenly joined the company to every +one's surprise. But nowadays even those who have most time on their +hands, after receiving early notices and frequent reminders, either fail +to put in an appearance, or if they do come they complain that they have +wasted a day just because they have not wasted it. All the more praise +and credit, therefore, is due to those who do not allow their love of +writing and reciting to be damped either by the laziness or the +fastidiousness of their audiences. For my own part, I have hardly ever +failed to attend. True, the authors are mostly my friends, for almost +all the literary people are also friends of mine, and for this reason I +have spent more time in Rome than I had intended. But now I can betake +myself to my country retreat and compose something, though not for a +public recital, lest those whose readings I attended should think I went +not so much to hear their works as to get a claim on them to come and +hear mine. As in everything else, if you lend a man your ears, all the +grace of the act vanishes if you ask for his in return. Farewell. + + +1.XIV.--TO JUNIUS MAURICUS. + +You ask me to look out for a husband for your brother's daughter, and +you do well to select me for such a commission. For you know how I +looked up to him, and what an affection I had for his splendid +qualities; you know, too, what good advice he gave me in my salad days, +and how by his warm praises he actually made it appear that I deserved +them. You could not have given me a more important commission or one +that I should be better pleased to undertake, and there is no charge +that I could possibly accept as a greater compliment to myself than that +of being set to choose a young man worthy of being the father of +grandchildren to Arulenus Rusticus. I should have had to look carefully +and long, had it not been that Minucius Acilianus was ready to hand,-- +one might almost say that Providence had prepared him for the purpose. +He has for me the close and affectionate regard of one young man for +another--for he is only a few years younger than myself--yet at the same +time he pays me the deference due to a man of years, for he is as +anxious that I should mould and form his character as I used to be that +you and your son should mould mine. His native place is Brixia, a part +of that Italy of ours which still retains and preserves much of the old- +fashioned courtesy, frugality and even rusticity. His father, Minucius +Macrinus, was one of the leaders of the Equestrian order, because he did +not wish to attain higher rank; he was admitted by the divine Vespasian +to Praetorian rank, and to the end of his days preferred this modest and +honourable distinction to the--what shall I say?--ambitions or dignities +for which we strive. His grandmother on his mother's side was Serrana +Procula, who belonged to the township of Patavia. You know the +character of that place--well, Serrana was a model of austere living +even to the people of Patavia. His uncle was Publius Acilius, a man of +almost unique weight, judgment, and honour. In short, you will find +nothing in the whole of his family which will fail to please you as much +as if the family were your own. + +As for Acilianus himself, he is an energetic and untiring worker, and +the very pink of courtesy. He has already acquitted himself with great +credit in the quaestorship, tribunate, and praetorship, and so he has +thus spared you the trouble of having to canvass in his behalf. He has +a frank, open countenance, fresh-coloured and blooming; a handsome, +well-made figure, and an air that would become a senator. These are +points which, in my opinion, are not to be neglected, for I regard them +as meet rewards to a girl for her chastity. I don't know whether I +should add that his father is a well-to-do man, for when I think of you +and your brother for whom we are looking out for a son-in-law, I feel +disinclined to speak of money. On the other hand, when I consider the +prevailing tendencies of the day and the laws of the state which lay +such prominent stress upon the matter of income, I think it right not to +overlook the point. Moreover, when I remember the possible issue of the +marriage, I feel that in choosing a bridegroom one must take his income +into account. Perhaps you will imagine that I have let my affection run +away with me, and that I have exaggerated my friend's merits beyond +their due. But I pledge you my word of honour that you will find his +virtues to be far in excess of my description of them. I have the most +intense affection for the young man, and he deserves my love, but it is +one of the proofs of a lover that you do not overburden the object of +your regard with praise. Farewell. + + +1.XV.--TO SEPTICIUS CLARUS. + +What a fellow you are! You promise to come to dinner and then fail to +turn up! Well, here is my magisterial sentence upon you. You must pay +the money I am out of pocket to the last farthing, and you will find the +sum no small one. I had provided for each guest one lettuce, three +snails, two eggs, spelt mixed with honey and snow (you will please +reckon up the cost of the latter as among the costly of all, since it +melts away in the dish), olives from Baetica, cucumbers, onions, and a +thousand other equally expensive dainties. You would have listened to a +comedian, or a reciter, or a harp-player, or perhaps to all, as I am +such a lavish host. But you preferred to dine elsewhere,--where I know +not--off oysters, sow's matrices, sea-urchins, and to watch Spanish +dancing girls! You will be paid out for it, though how I decline to +say. You have done violence to yourself. You have grudged, possibly +yourself, but certainly me, a fine treat. Yes, yourself! For how we +should have enjoyed ourselves, how we should have laughed together, how +we should have applied ourselves! You can dine at many houses in better +style than at mine, but nowhere will you have a better time, or such a +simple and free and easy entertainment. In short, give me a trial, and +if afterwards you do not prefer to excuse yourself to others rather than +to me, why then I give you leave to decline my invitations always. +Farewell. + + +1.XVI.--TO ERUCIUS. + +I used to be very fond of Pompeius Saturninus--our Saturninus, as I may +call him--and to admire his intellectual powers, even before I knew him; +they were so varied, so supple, so many-sided; but now I am devoted to +him body and soul. I have heard him pleading in the Courts, always keen +and empassioned, and his addresses are as polished and graceful when +they are impromptu as when they have been carefully prepared. He has a +never-failing flow of apt sentiment; his style is weighty and dignified, +his language is of the sonorous, classical school. All these qualities +charm me immensely when they come pouring forth in a streaming rush of +eloquence, and they charm me too when I read them in book form. You +will experience the same pleasure as I do when you take them up, and you +will at once compare them with some one of the old masters whose rival +indeed he is. You will find even greater charm in the style of his +historical compositions, in its terseness, its lucidity, smoothness, +brilliancy and stateliness, for there is the same vigour in the +historical harangues as there is in his own orations, only rather more +compressed, restricted, and epigrammatic. + +Moreover, he writes verses that Catullus or Calvus might have composed. +They are positively brimming over with grace, sweetness, irony and love. +He occasionally, and of set design, interpolates among these smooth and +easy-flowing verses others cast in a more rugged mould, and here again +he is like Catullus and Calvus. A little while ago he read me some +letters which he declared had been written by his wife. I thought, on +hearing them, that they were either Plautus or Terence in prose, and +whether they were composed, as he said, by his wife or by himself, as he +denies, his credit is the same. It belongs to him either as the actual +author of the letters or as the teacher who has made such a polished and +learned lady of his wife--whom he married when she was a girl. So I +pass the whole day in the company of Saturninus. I read him before I +set pen to paper; I read him again after finishing my writing, and again +when I am at leisure. He is always the same but never seems the same. +Let me urge and beg of you to do likewise, for the fact that the author +is still alive ought not to be of any detriment to his works. If he had +been a contemporary of those on whom we have never set eyes, we should +not only be seeking to procure copies of his books but also asking for +busts of him. Why then, as he is still amongst us, should his credit +and popularity dwindle, as though we were tired of him? Surely it is +discreditable and scandalous that we should not give a man the due he +richly deserves, simply because we can see him with our own eyes, speak +to him, hear him, embrace him, and not only praise but love him. +Farewell. + + +1.XVII.--TO CORNELIUS TITIANUS. + +Faith and loyalty are not yet extinct among men: there are still those +to be found who keep friendly remembrances even of the dead. Titinius +Capito has obtained permission from our Emperor to erect a statue of +Lucius Silanus in the Forum. It is a graceful and entirely praiseworthy +act to turn one's friendship with a sovereign to such a purpose, and to +use all the influence one possesses to obtain honours for others. But +Capito is a devoted hero-worshipper; it is remarkable how religiously +and enthusiastically he regards the busts of the Bruti, the Cassii, and +the Catos in his own house, where he may do as he pleases in this +matter. He even composes splendid lyrics on the lives of all the most +famous men of the past. Surely a man who is such an intense admirer of +the virtue of others must know how to exemplify a crowd of virtues in +his own person. Lucius Silanus quite deserved the honour that has been +paid to him, and Capito in seeking to immortalise his memory has +immortalised his own quite as much. For it is not more honourable and +distinguished to have a statue of one's own in the Forum of the Roman +People than to be the author of some one else's statue being placed +there. Farewell. + + +1.XVIII.--TO SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS. + +You say in your letter that you have been troubled by a dream, and are +afraid lest your suit should go against you. So you ask me to try and +get it postponed, and that I will have to put it off for a few days, or +at least for one day. It is not an easy matter, but I will do my best, +for, as Homer says, "A dream comes from Zeus." However, it makes all +the difference whether your dreams usually signify the course of future +events or their opposite. When I think over a certain dream I once had, +what causes you fear seems to me to promise a splendid termination to +your case. I had undertaken a brief for Julius Pastor, when there +appeared to me in my sleep a vision of my mother-in-law, who threw +herself on her knees before me and begged that I would not plead. I was +quite a young man at the time of the action, which was to be heard in +the Fourfold Court, and I was appearing against the most powerful men of +the State, including some of the Friends of Caesar. All these things or +any one of them might well have shattered my resolution after such an +ominous dream. Nevertheless, I went on with the case, remembering the +well-known line of Homer: "But one omen is best, to fight on behalf of +one's country." For in my case the keeping of my word seemed to me as +important as fighting on behalf of my country or as any other still more +pressing consideration--if any consideration more pressing can be +imagined. Well, the action went off successfully, and it was the way +that I conducted that case which got me a hearing with men and opened +the door to fame. So I advise you to see whether you too cannot turn +your dream, as I did mine, to a prosperous issue, or if you think that +it is safer to follow the well-known proverb: "Never do anything if you +feel the least hesitation," write and tell me so. I will invent some +excuse or other, and will so arrange matters that you can have your suit +brought on when you like. For, after all, your position is not the same +as mine was; a trial before the Centumvir's Court cannot be postponed on +any consideration, but an action like yours can be, although it is +rather difficult to arrange. Farewell. + + +1.XIX.--TO ROMANUS FIRMUS. + +You and I were born in the same township, we went to school together, +and shared quarters from an early age; your father was on terms of +friendship with my mother and my uncle, and with me--as far as the +disparity in our years allowed. These are overwhelming reasons why I +ought to advance you as far as I can along the path of dignities. The +fact of your being a decurio in our town shows that you have an income +of a hundred thousand sesterces, and so, that we may have the pleasure +of enjoying your society not only as a decurio, but as a Roman knight, I +offer you 300,000 numm., to make up the equestrian qualification. The +length of our friendship is sufficient guarantee that you will not +forget this favour, and I do not even urge you to enjoy with modesty the +dignity which I thus enable you to attain, as perhaps I ought, just +because I know you will do so without any urging from without. People +ought to guard an honour all the more carefully, when, in so doing, they +are taking care of a gift bestowed by the kindness of a friend. +Farewell. + + +1.XX.--TO CORNELIUS TACITUS. + +I am constantly having arguments with a friend of mine who is a learned +and practised speaker, but who admires in pleading nothing so much as +brevity. I allow that brevity ought to be observed, if the case permits +of it; but sometimes it is an act of collusion to pass over matters that +ought to be mentioned, and it is even an act of collusion to run briefly +and rapidly over points which ought to be dwelt upon, to be thoroughly +driven home, and to be taken up and dealt with more than once. For very +often an argument acquires strength and weight by being handled at some +length, and a speech ought to be impressed on the mind, not by a short, +sharp shock, but by measured blows, just as a sword should be used in +dealing with the body of an opponent. Thereupon he plies me with +authorities, and flourishes before me the speeches of Lysias among the +Greeks, and those of the Gracchi and Cato from among Roman orators. The +majority of these are certainly characterised by conciseness and +brevity, but I quote against Lysias the examples of Demosthenes, +Aeschines, Hyperides, and a multitude of others, while against the +Gracchi and Cato I set Pollio, Caesar, Caelius, and, above all, Marcus +Tullius, whose longest speech is generally considered to be his best. +And upon my word, as with all other good things, the more there is of a +good book, the better it is. You know how it is with statues, images, +pictures, and the outlines of many animals and even trees, that if they +are at all graceful nothing gives them a greater charm than size. It is +just the same with speeches,--even the mere volumes themselves acquire a +certain additional dignity and beauty from mere bulk. + +These are but a few of the many arguments I usually employ to establish +my point; but there is no pinning my friend down in an argument. He is +such a slippery fellow that he wriggles off the pin and declares that +these same orators, whose speeches I instance, spoke at less length than +their published addresses seem to show. I hold the contrary to be the +case, and there are many speeches of many orators in favour of my +opinion, as, for example, the Pro Murena and the Pro Vareno of Cicero, +in which he indicates by side-heads alone, and quite barely and briefly, +how he dealt with certain charges against his clients. From these it is +clear that he actually spoke at much greater length and left out a +considerable number of passages when he published the addresses. Cicero +indeed says that in his defence of Cluentius "he had simply followed the +ancient custom and compressed his whole case into a peroration," and +that in defending Caius Cornelius "he had pleaded for four days." Hence +it cannot be questioned that after speaking somewhat discursively for +several days, as he was bound to do, he subsequently trimmed and revised +his oration and compressed it into a single book--a long one, it is +true, but yet a single book. + +But, argues my friend, a good indictment is a different thing from a +good speech. I know some people hold that view, but I--of course I may +be wrong--feel persuaded that though it is possible to have a good +indictment without a good speech, it is not possible for a good speech +not to be a good indictment. For a speech is the exemplar of an +indictment--one might even call it its archetype. Hence in every first- +class oration we find a thousand extempore figures of speech, even in +those which we know to have been carefully edited. For example, in the +Speech against Verres:--"--some artist. What was his name? Yes, you +are quite right. My friends here tell me it was Polycletus." It +follows, therefore, that the most perfect indictment is that which most +resembles a spoken speech, provided only that sufficiently adequate time +is allowed for its delivery. If it is not, then the orator is not at +fault, but the presiding magistrate is very much to blame. My opinion +receives support from the laws, which are lavish in the amount of time +they place at a pleader's disposal. They do not inculcate brevity among +counsel, but exhaustiveness--that is to say, they give them time for a +painstaking statement of their case, and this is quite incompatible with +brevity, except the most unimportant actions. I will add also what +experience has taught me, and experience is the finest master. I have +constantly acted as counsel, as presiding magistrate, and as one of the +consulting bench. Different people are influenced by different things, +and it often happens that unimportant details have important +consequences. Men do not think alike, nor have they the same +inclinations, and hence it comes about that though people have listened +together to the same case being tried, they often form different +opinions about it, and sometimes, though arriving at the same +conclusion, they have been influenced by very different motives. +Moreover, each one has a bias in favour of his own interpretation, and +thus, when a second party enunciates an opinion which he himself has +arrived at, he takes it for gospel and holds to it firmly. +Consequently, a pleader should give each member of the jury something +that he may get hold of and recognise as his own opinion. + +Regulus once said to me when we were in Court together: "You think you +ought to follow up every single point in the case: I lose no time in +getting a view of my opponent's throat, and consider only the easiest +way of cutting it." (I must admit that he does cut it when he gets hold +of it, but often in trying to get a hold he makes a mistake.) Here was +my answer to him: "Yes, but sometimes what you think is the throat is +only the knee, or the shin bone or the ankle. As for myself, I may not +be quick at getting a clear view of my enemy's throat, but I keep +feeling for a grip and try him at every point. In short, as the Greeks +say, 'I leave no stone unturned.'" I am like a husbandman, I look +carefully after not only my vineyards but my orchards, not only my +orchards but my meadows, while in the meadows I set seed for barley, +beans, and other vegetables, as well as for spelt and the best white +wheat. So when I plead in the Courts I scatter my arguments like seeds +with a lavish hand, and reap the crop that they produce. For the minds +of judges are as obscure, as little to be relied upon, and as deceptive +as the dispositions of storms and soils. + +Nor do I forget that in his eulogy of that consummate orator, Pericles, +the comedy-writer Eupolis used the following language:--"But besides his +keenness, Persuasion sate upon his lips. So he charmed all ears and, +alone of all our orators, left his thrill behind him in his hearer's +minds." But even Pericles would not have possessed the persuasion and +charm of which Eupolis speaks merely owing to his conciseness or to his +keenness, or to both (for they are different attributes), unless he had +also possessed consummate oratorical power. In order to delight and +carry conviction an orator must have ample time and room allowed him, +for he alone can leave a thrill in his hearers' minds who plants his +weapon besides merely puncturing the skin. Again, see what another +comic poet writes of the same Pericles: "He lightened, he thundered, he +turned Hellas upside down." Such metaphors as thunder, lightning, and +chaos and confusion could not be used of abbreviated and compressed +oratory, but only of oratory on a sweeping scale, pitched in a lofty and +exalted key. + +But, you say, the mean is the best. Quite so, but the mean is as much +neglected by those who fail to do justice to their subject as by those +who overdo it, by those who wear a bearing rein as by those who give +themselves their heads. And so you often hear the criticism that a +speech was "frigid and weak," just as you hear that another was +"overloaded and a mass of repetition." The one speaker is said to have +over-elaborated his subject, the other not to have risen to the +occasion. Both are at fault; one through weakness, the other through +too much strength, and the latter, though he may not show the more +refined intellect, certainly shows the more robust mind. When I say +this it must not be supposed that I am approving Homer's Thersites--the +man who was a torrent of words--but rather his Ulysses, whose "words +were like snow-flakes in winter," though at the same time I admire his +Menelaus, who spoke "Few words, but well to the point." Yet, if I had +to choose, I should prefer the speech that is like the winter snow- +storm--viz. fluent, flowing, and of generous width; and not only that, +but divine and celestial. It may, I know, be said that many people +prefer a short pleading. No doubt, but they are lazy creatures, and it +is ridiculous to consult the tastes of such sloths as though they were +critics. For if you take their opinion as worth anything, you will find +that they not only prefer a short pleading, but no pleading at all. + +Well, I have told you what I think. I shall change my opinion if you do +not agree with me, but in that case I beg of you to give me clear +reasons for your disagreement; for although I feel bound to bow to a man +of your judgment, yet in a point of such importance, I consider that I +ought to give way rather to a reasoned statement than to an ipse dixit. +But even if you think I am right, still write and tell me so, and make +the letter as short as you like--for you will thus confirm my judgment. +If I am wrong, see that you write me a very long letter. I feel sure I +have not estimated you wrongly in thus asking you for a short note if +you agree with me, while laying on you the obligation of writing at +length if you disagree. Farewell. + + +1.XXI.--TO PLINIUS PATERNUS. + +Let me acknowledge not only the keenness of your judgment but the +sharpness of your eyesight, not because you are full of wisdom--no, +don't plume yourself on that--but because you are just as wise as I am, +and that is saying a great deal. Yet, joking apart, I think the slaves +which I bought on your recommendation are a tidy-looking lot. It now +remains to be seen whether they are honest; because in judging the value +of a slave, it is better to trust one's ears than one's eyes. Farewell. + + +1.XXII.--TO CATILIUS SEVERUS. + +Here am I still in Rome, and a good deal surprised to find myself here. +But I am troubled at the long illness of Titus Aristo, which he cannot +shake off. He is a man for whom I feel an extraordinary admiration and +affection: search where you will, he is second to none in character, +uprightness, and learning--so much so that I hardly look upon his +illness as that of a mere individual being in danger. It is rather as +if literature and all good arts were personified in him, and through him +were in grievous peril. What a knowledge he has of private and public +rights and the laws relating to them! What a mastery he has of things +in general, what experience, what an acquaintance with the past! There +is nothing you may wish to learn that he cannot teach you; to me, +certainly, he is a perfect mine of learning whenever I am requiring any +out-of-the-way information. Then again, how convincing his conversation +is, how strongly it impresses you, how modest and becoming is his +hesitation! What is there that he does not know straight away? And +yet, often enough, he shows hesitation and doubt, from the very +diversity of the reasons that come crowding into his mind, and upon +these he brings to bear his keen and mighty intellect, and, going back +to their fountain-head, reviews them, tests them, and weighs them in the +balance. Again, how sparing he is in his manner of life, how unassuming +in his dress! I often look at his bedroom and the bed itself, as though +they were models of old-fashioned economy. However, they are adorned by +his splendid mind, which has not a thought for ostentation, but refers +everything to his conscience. He seeks his reward for a good deed not +in the praise of the world, but in the deed itself. In short, you will +not find it easy to discover any one, even among those who prefer to +study wisdom rather than take heed to their bodily pleasures, worthy to +be compared with him. He does not haunt the training grounds and the +public porticos, nor does he charm the idle moments of others and his +own by indulging in long talks; no, he is always in his toga and always +at work; his services are at the disposal of many in the Courts, and he +helps numbers more by his advice. Yet in chastity of life, in piety, in +justice, in courage even, there is no one of all his acquaintance to +whom he need give place. + +You would marvel, if you were by his side, at the patience with which he +endures his illness, how he fights against his suffering, how he resists +his thirst, how, without moving and without throwing off his bed- +clothes, he endures the dreadful burning heats of his fever. Just +recently he sent for me and a few others of his especial friends with +me, and begged us to consult his doctors and ask them about the +termination of his illness, so that if there were no hope for him he +might voluntarily give up his life, but might fight against it and hold +out if the illness only threatened to be difficult and long. He owed +it, he said, to the prayers of his wife, the tears of his daughter, and +the regard of us who were his friends, not to cheat our hopes by a +voluntary death, providing those hopes were not altogether futile. I +think that such an acknowledgment as that must be especially difficult +to make, and worthy of the highest praise; for many people are quite +capable of hastening to death under the impulse of a sudden instinct, +but only a truly noble mind can weigh up the pros and cons of the +matter, and resolve to live or die according to the dictates of Reason. +However, the doctors give us reassuring promises, and it now remains for +the Deity to confirm and fulfil them, and so at length release me from +my anxiety. The moment my mind is easy, I shall be off to my Laurentine +Villa--that is to say, to my books and tablets, and to my studious ease. +For now as I sit by my friend's bedside I can neither read nor write, +and I am so anxious that I have no inclination for such study. + +Well, I have told you my fears, my hopes, and my future plans; it is +your turn now to write and tell me what you have been doing, what you +are doing now, and what your plans are, and I hope your letter will be a +more cheerful one than mine. If you have nothing to complain about, it +will be no small consolation to me in my general upset. Farewell. + + +1.XXIII.--TO POMPEIUS FALCO. + +You ask me whether I think you ought to practise in the courts while you +are tribune. The answer entirely depends on the conception you have of +the tribuneship, whether you think it is a mere empty honour, a name +with no real dignity, or an office of the highest sanctity, and one that +no one, not even the holder himself, ought to slight in the least +degree. When I was tribune, I may have been wrong for thinking that I +was somebody, but I acted as if I were, and I abstained from practising +in the courts. In the first place, I thought it below my dignity that +I, at whose entrance every one ought to rise and give way, should stand +to plead while all others were sitting; or that I, who could impose +silence on all and sundry, should be ordered to be silent by a water- +clock; that I, whom it was a crime to interrupt, should be subjected +even to abuse, and that I should make people think I was a spiritless +fellow if I let an insult pass unnoticed, or proud and puffed up if I +resented and avenged it. Again, there was this embarrassing thought +always before me. Supposing appeal was made to me as tribune either by +my client or by the other party to the suit, what should I do? Lend him +aid, or keep silence and say not a word, and thus forswear my magistracy +and reduce myself to a mere private citizen? Moved by these +considerations, I preferred to be at the disposal of all men as a +tribune rather than act as an advocate for a few. But, to repeat what I +said before, it makes all the difference what conception you happen to +have of the office, and what part you essay to play. Providing you +carry it through to the end, either will be quite congruous with a man +of wisdom. Farewell. + + +1.XXIV.--TO BAEBIUS HISPANUS. + +My comrade Tranquillus wishes to buy a bit of land which your friend is +said to be offering for sale. I beg that you will see that he purchases +it at a fair price, for in that case he will be glad to have bought it. +A bad bargain is always annoying, and especially so as it seems to show +that the previous owner has played one a scurvy trick. As to the plot +in question, if only the price is right, there are many reasons that +tempt my friend Tranquillus to buy--the nearness of the city, the +convenient road, the modest dimensions of his villa and the extent of +the farm, which is just enough to pleasantly disengage his thoughts from +other things, but not enough to give him any worry. In fact learned +schoolmen, like Tranquillus, on turning land-owners, ought only to have +just sufficient land to enable them to get rid of headaches, cure their +eyes, walk lazily round their boundary paths, make one beaten track for +themselves, get to know all their vines and count their trees. I have +gone into these details that you might understand what a regard I have +for Tranquillus, and how greatly I shall be indebted to you if he is +enabled to purchase the estate which has all these advantages to commend +it at such a reasonable price that he will not regret having bought it. +Farewell. + + + +BOOK II. + + +2.I.--TO ROMANUS. + +Not for many years have the Roman people seen so striking and even so +memorable a spectacle as that provided by the public funeral of +Virginius Rufus, one of our noblest and most distinguished citizens, and +not less fortunate than distinguished. He lived in a blaze of glory for +thirty years. He read poems and histories composed in his honour, and +so enjoyed in life the fame that awaited him among posterity. He held +the consulship three times, so that he might attain the highest +distinction open to a private citizen, as he had declined to lay hands +on the sovereign power. He escaped unscathed from the Emperors, who +were suspicious of his motives and hated him for his virtues; while the +best Emperor of them all, and the one who was his devoted friend, he +left behind him safely installed on the throne, as though his life had +been preserved for this very reason, that he might be honoured with a +public funeral. He was eighty-three years of age when he died, +sublimely calm, and respected by all. He enjoyed good health, for +though his hands were palsied they gave him no pain: only the closing +scenes were rather painful and prolonged, but even in them he won men's +praise. For while he was getting ready a speech, to return thanks to +the Emperor during his consulship, he happened to take up a rather heavy +book. As he was an old man and standing at the time, its weight caused +it to fall from his hands, and while he was stooping to pick it up his +foot slipped on the smooth and slippery floor, and he fell and broke his +collar-bone. This was not very skilfully set for him, and owing to his +old age it did not heal properly. But his funeral was a source of glory +to the Emperor, to the age in which he lived, and even to the Roman +Forum and the rostra. His panegyric was pronounced by Cornelius +Tacitus, and Virginius's good fortune was crowned by this, that he had +the most eloquent man in Rome to speak his praises. + +He died full of years, full of honours, full even of the honours he +refused. We shall seek his like in vain; we shall lose in him a living +example of an earlier age. I shall miss him most of all, for my +affection equalled my admiration, not only of his public virtue but of +his private life. In the first place, we came from the same district, +we belonged to neighbouring municipalities, our estates and property lay +alongside, and, moreover, he was left as my guardian and showed me all +the affection of a parent. When I was a candidate for office he +honoured me with his support; in all my elections he left his private +retreat and hastened to escort me in all my entries upon office--though +for years he had ceased to show his friends these attentions,--and on +the day when the priests are accustomed to nominate those they think to +be worthiest of the priesthood he always gave me his nomination. Even +in his last illness, when he was afraid lest he should be appointed one +of the commission of five who were being appointed on the decree of the +Senate to lessen public expenditure, he chose me, young as I am--though +he had a number of friends still surviving who were much older than I +and men of consular rank--to act as his substitute, and he used these +words: "Even if I had a son, I should give this commission to you." +Hence it is that I cannot help but mourn his death on your bosom, as +though he had died before his time; if indeed it is right to mourn at +all in such a case, or speak of death in connection with such a man, who +has rather ceased to be mortal than ceased to live. For he still lives +and will do for all time, and he will acquire a broader existence in the +memories and conversation of mankind, now that he has gone from our +sight. + +I wished to write to you on many other subjects, but my whole mind is +given up to and fixed on this one subject of thought. I keep thinking +of Virginius, I dream of him, and, though my dreams are illusory, they +are so vivid that I seem to hear his voice, to speak to him, to embrace +him. It may be that we have other citizens like him in his virtues, and +shall continue to have them, but there is none to equal with him in +glory. Farewell. + + +2.II.--TO PAULINUS. + +I am angry with you; whether I ought to be I am not quite sure, but I am +angry all the same. You know how affection is often biassed, how it is +always liable to make a man unreasonable, and how it causes him to flare +up on even small provocation. But I have serious grounds for my anger, +whether they are just or not, and so I am assuming that they are as just +as they are serious, and am downright cross with you because you have +not sent me a line for such a long time. There is only one way that you +can obtain forgiveness, and that is by your writing me at once a number +of long letters. That will be the only excuse I shall take as genuine; +any others you may send I shall regard as false. For I won't listen to +such stuff as "I was away from Rome," or "I have been fearfully busy." +As for the plea, "I have not been at all well," I hope Providence has +been too kind to let you write that. I am at my country house, enjoying +study and idleness in turns, and both of these delights are born of +leisure-hours. Farewell. + + +2.III.--TO NEPOS. + +Isaeus's reputation--and it was a great one--had preceded him to Rome, +but it was found to fall short of his merits. He has consummate +oratorical power, fluency and choice of expression, and though he always +speaks extempore his speeches might have been carefully written out long +beforehand. He speaks in Greek, and that the purest Attic; his +prefatory remarks are polished, neat and agreeable, and occasionally +stately and sparkling. He asks to be supplied with a number of subjects +for discussion, and allows his audience to choose which they will have +and often which side they would like him to take. Then he rises to his +feet, wraps his gown round him, and begins. Without losing a moment he +has everything at his fingers' ends, irrespective of the subject +selected. Deep thoughts come crowding into his mind and words flow to +his lips. And such words--exquisitely choice! Every now and then there +come flashes which show how widely he has read and how much he has +written. He opens his case to the point; he states his position +clearly; his arguments are incisive; his conclusions are forcible; his +word-painting is magnificent. In a word, he instructs, delights, and +impresses his hearers, so that you can hardly say wherein he most +excels. He makes constant use of rhetorical arguments, his syllogisms +are crisp and finished--though that is not an easy matter to attain even +with a pen. He has a wonderful memory and can repeat, without missing a +single word, even his extempore speeches. He has attained this facility +by study and constant practice, for he does nothing else day or night: +either as a listener or speaker he is for ever discussing. He has +passed his sixtieth year and is still only a rhetorician, and there is +no more honest and upright class of men living. For we who are always +rubbing shoulders with others in the Forum and in the lawsuits of +everyday life, cannot help picking up a good deal of roguery, while in +the imaginary cases of the lecture hall and the schoolroom it is like +fighting with the button on the foil and quite harmless, and is every +whit as enjoyable, especially for men of years. For what can be more +enjoyable for men in their old age than that which gave them the keenest +pleasure in their youth? + +Consequently, I look upon Isaeus not only as a wonderfully learned man +but as one who possesses a most enviable lot, and you must be made of +flint and iron if you do not burn to make his acquaintance. So if there +is nothing else to draw you here, if I myself am not a sufficient +attraction, do come to hear Isaeus. Have you never read of the man who +lived at Gades who was so fired by the name and glory of Titus Livius +that he came from the remotest corner of the world to see him, and +returned the moment he had set eyes on him? It would stamp a man as an +illiterate boor and a lazy idler, it would be disgraceful almost for any +one not to think the journey worth the trouble when the reward is a +study which is more delightful, more elegant, and has more of the +humanities than any other. You will say: "But I have here authors just +as learned, whose works I can read." Granted, but you can always read +an author, while you cannot always listen to him. Moreover, as the +proverb goes, the spoken word is invariably much more impressive than +the written one; for however lively what you read may be, it does not +sink so deeply into the mind as what is pressed home by the accent, the +expression, and the whole bearing and action of a speaker. This must be +admitted unless we think the story of Aeschines untrue, when, after +reading a speech of Demosthenes at Rhodes, he is said to have exclaimed +to those who expressed their admiration of it: "Yes, but what would you +have said if you had heard the beast himself?" And yet Aeschines +himself, if we are to believe Demosthenes, had a very striking delivery! +None the less he acknowledged that the author of the speech delivered it +far better than he had done. All these things point to this, that you +should hear Isaeus, if only to enable you to say that you have heard +him. Farewell. + + +2.IV.--TO CALVINA. + +If your father had owed his other creditors, or any one of them, as much +as he owed to me, there would perhaps have been good reason for you to +hesitate about entering on the inheritance of an estate which even a man +might find burdensome. However, I am now the sole creditor, for as we +are relations I thought it my duty to pay off all those who were--I will +not say importunate--but were rather more particular about getting their +money. When your father was alive, and you were about to be married, I +contributed 100,000 sesterces towards your dower, in addition to the sum +which your father assigned as your wedding portion, out of my pocket-- +for it had to be paid out of my money,--so you have ample proof of my +leniency towards you in money matters, and you may boldly rely thereon +and defend the credit and honour of your dead father. Moreover, to show +you that I can be generous with my purse as well as with my advice, I +authorise you to enter as paid whatever sum was owing by your father to +me. You need not be afraid that my generosity will embarrass my +finances. Though my means are modest, though my position is expensive +to keep up and my income is equally small and precarious owing to the +state of the land market, my unemployed capital is increased by my +economical living, and this is the source, as I may call it, from which +I gratify my generosity. I have to husband it carefully lest the source +should dry up if I draw on it too freely; but such caution is reserved +for others. In your case I can easily justify my liberality, even +though it be rather larger than usual. Farewell. + + +2.V.--TO LUPERCUS. + +I have forwarded to you the speech which you have often asked for, and +which I have often promised to send, but not the whole of it. A portion +thereof is still undergoing the polishing process. Meanwhile, I thought +it would not be out of place to submit to your judgment the parts which +seemed to me to be more finished. I hope you will bestow on them the +same critical attention that the writer has given them. I have never +handled any subject that demanded greater pains from me, for whereas in +other speeches I have submitted merely my carefulness and good faith to +men's judgment, in this I submit my patriotism as well. It is out of +that that the speech has grown, for it is a pleasure to sing the praises +of one's native place and at the same time to do what I could to help +its interests and its fame. But be sure you prune even these passages +according to your judgment. For when I think of the fastidiousness of +the general reader and the niceties of his taste, I understand that the +best way to win praise is to keep within moderate limits. + +Yet at the same time, though I ask you to show this strictness, I feel +bound to request you to display the opposite quality also and deal +indulgently with many of the passages. For we must make certain +concessions to our young readers, especially if the subject-matter +allows of it. Descriptions of scenery, of which there are more than +usual in this speech, should be treated not in a strict historical +fashion, but with some approach to poetic licence. However, if any one +thinks that I have written more ornately than is warranted by the +serious nature of the subject, the remaining portions of the address +ought to mollify what one may call the austerity of such a man. I have +certainly tried, by varying the character of the style, to get hold of +all sorts and conditions of readers, and though I am afraid that each +individual reader will not find every single passage to his liking, yet +I think I may be pretty confident that the variety of styles will +recommend the whole to all classes. For at a banquet, though we each +one of us taboo certain dishes, yet we all praise the banquet as a +whole, nor do the dishes which our palate declines make those we like +any less enjoyable. I want my speech to be taken in the same spirit, +not because I think I have succeeded in my aim, but because I have tried +to succeed therein, and I believe my efforts will not have been in vain +if only you will take pains now with what I enclose in this letter and +afterwards with the remaining portions. + +You will say that you cannot do this sufficiently carefully until you +have gone through the entire speech. That is so; but for the present +you will be able to get a thorough acquaintance with what I send you, +and there are sure to be certain passages that can be altered in part. +For if you were to see the head or any limb of a statue torn from the +trunk, though you might not be able to speak definitely of its symmetry +and proportion to the rest of the body, you would at least be able to +judge whether the part you were looking at was sufficiently well shaped. +That is the only reason why authors send round to their friends +specimens of their speeches, because any part can be judged to be +perfect or not apart from the remainder. The pleasure of speaking with +you has led me farther than I intended, but I will conclude for fear of +exceeding in a letter the limits which I think ought to be set to a +speech. Farewell. + + +2.VI.--TO AVITUS. + +It would be a long story--and it is of no importance--to tell you how I +came to be dining--for I am no particular friend of his--with a man who +thought he combined elegance with economy, but who appeared to me to be +both mean and lavish, for he set the best dishes before himself and a +few others and treated the rest to cheap and scrappy food. He had +apportioned the wine in small decanters of three different kinds, not in +order to give his guests their choice but so that they might not refuse. +He had one kind for himself and us, another for his less distinguished +friends--for he is a man who classifies his acquaintances--and a third +for his own freedmen and those of his guests. The man who sat next to +me noticed this and asked me if I approved of it. I said no. "Then how +do you arrange matters?" he asked. "I set the same before all," I +answered, "for I invite my friends to dine not to grade them one above +the other, and those whom I have set at equal places at my board and on +my couches I treat as equals in every respect." What! even the +freedmen?" he said. "Yes," I replied, "for then I regard them as my +guests at table, not as freedmen." He went on: "It must cost you a +lot." "Not at all," said I. "Then how do you manage it?" "It's easily +done; because my freedmen do not drink the same wine as I do, but I +drink the same that they do." And, by Jove, the fact is that if you +keep off gluttony it is not at all ruinously expensive to entertain a +number of people to the fare you have yourself. It is this gluttony +which is to be put down, to be reduced as it were to the ranks, if you +wish to cut down expenses, and you will find it better to consult your +own moderate living than to care about the nasty things people may say +of you. What then is my point? Just this, that I don't want you, who +are a young man of great promise, to be taken in by the extravagance +with which some people load their tables under the guise of economy. +Whenever such a concrete instance comes in my way it becomes the +affection I bear you to warn you of what you ought to avoid by giving +you an example. So remember that there is nothing you should eschew +more than this new association of extravagance and meanness; they are +abominable qualities when separated and single, and still more so when +you get a combination of them. Farewell. + + +2.VII.--TO MACRINUS. + +Yesterday, on the motion of the Emperor, a triumphal statue was decreed +to Vestricius Spurinna. He is not one of those heroes, of whom there +have been many, who have never stood in battle, never seen a camp, and +never heard the call of the trumpets except at the public shows: no, he +is one of the real heroes who used to win that decoration by the sweat +of their brow, by shedding their blood and doing mighty deeds. For +Spurinna restored by force of arms the king of the Bructeri to his +kingdom, and, after threatening war, subdued that savage race by the +terror of his name, which is the noblest kind of victory. That was the +reward of his valour, and the fact that his son Cottius, whom he lost +while he was away on his duties, was deemed worthy of being honoured +with a statue has solaced his grief for his loss. Young men rarely +attain such distinction, but his father deserved this additional honour, +for it required some considerable solace to heal his bitter wound. +Moreover, Cottius himself had given such striking proofs of his splendid +character that his short and narrow life ought to be prolonged by the +immortality, so to speak, that a statue confers upon him; for his +uprightness, his weight of character, his influence were such that his +virtues served as a spur even to the older men with whom he has now been +placed on an equality by the honour paid to him. + +If I understand the matter aright, in conferring that dignity upon him, +regard was had not only to the memory of the dead man and the grief of +his father, but also to the effect it would have upon others. When such +splendid rewards are bestowed upon young men--provided they deserve +them--they will serve to sharpen the inclinations of the rising +generation to the practice of the honourable arts; they will make our +leading men more desirous of bringing up their children, increase the +joy they will have in them if they survive, and provide a glorious +consolation if they lose them. It is for these reasons that I rejoice +on public grounds that a statue has been decreed to Cottius, and on +personal grounds I am equally delighted. My affection for that most +accomplished youth was as strong as is my ungovernable sorrow at his +loss. So I shall find it soothing from time to time to gaze upon his +statue, to look back upon it, to stand beneath it, and to walk past it. +For if the busts of the dead that we set up in our private houses +assuage our grief, how much more soothing should be the statues of our +dead friends erected in the most frequented spots, which recall to us +not only the form and face of our lost ones, but also their dignities +and glory? Farewell. + + +2.VIII.--TO CANINIUS. + +Are you at your books, or are you fishing, or hunting, or doing all +three together? For the latter is possible in the neighbourhood of our +Larian lake. The lake supplies fish in plenty, the woods that girdle +its shores are full of game, and their secluded recesses inspire one to +study. But whether you combine the three at once, or occupy yourself +with either one of them, I cannot say "I grudge you your happiness," +though I feel annoyed to think that I am debarred from pleasures which I +long for as ardently as an invalid longs for wine, and the baths, and +the fountains. If I cannot unloose the close meshes of the net that +enfolds me, shall I never snap them asunder? Never, I am afraid, for +new business keeps piling up on top of the old, and that without even +the old being got rid of. Every day the entangling chain of my +engagements seems to lengthen by acquiring additional links. Farewell. + + +2.IX.--TO APOLLINARIS. + +I am worried and anxious about the candidature of my friend Sextus +Erucius. I am quite careworn, and feel for my second self, as it were, +a solicitude that I did not feel on my own account. Besides, my honour, +my reputation, my position are all at stake: for it was I who obtained +from our Emperor for Sextus the right to wear the latus clavis, it was I +who secured for him the quaestorship; it was owing to my interest that +he was advanced to the right of standing for the tribunate, and unless +he is elected by the Senate, I am afraid that it will look as if I had +deceived the Emperor. Consequently, I have to do my best to induce all +the senators to take the same favourable view of him that the Emperor +did on my recommendation. If this were not reason sufficient to rouse +my zeal in his behalf, yet I should like to see a young man helped on, +who is of such sterling character, who is of such weight and learning, +and is fully worthy of any and every praise, as indeed are all the +members of his family. + +His father, Erucius Clarus, is a man of probity of the old-fashioned +sort, full of learning and an experienced counsel, conducting his cases +with splendid honesty, perseverance, and modesty as well. His uncle is +Caius Septicius, than whom I never met any one more sterling, simple, +frank, and trustworthy. They all see who can shower most affection upon +me, though they all love me equally, and now I can repay the love of all +in the person of young Erucius. So I am button-holing all my friends, +begging them for their support, going round to see them and haunting +their houses and favourite resorts, and I am putting both my position +and influence to the test by my entreaties. I beg of you to think it +worth your while to relieve me of some part of my burden. I will do the +same for you whenever you ask the return favour; nay I will do so even +if you do not ask me. You are a favourite with many, people seek your +society, and you have a wide circle of friends. Do you but give a hint +that you have a wish, and there will be plenty who will make your wish +their desire. Farewell. + + +2.X.--TO OCTAVIUS. + +What an indolent fellow you are, or perhaps I should say how hard- +hearted you are and almost cruel to keep back so long such splendid +volumes of verse! How long will you deprive yourself of the chorus of +praise that awaits you, and us of the pleasure of reading them? Do let +them be borne on the lips of men and circulate through all the wide +regions where the Roman tongue is spoken. People have long been eagerly +looking forward to your publishing them, and you really ought not to +cheat and disappoint them any longer. Some of your verses have become +known, and--no thanks to you--have broken down the barriers you set +round them, and unless you rescue them and include them in the main body +of your work they will one day, like vagrant slaves, find some one else +to claim the ownership of them. Don't lose sight of the fact that you +are but mortal, and that you can only defend yourself from being +forgotten by such a monument as this: all other titles to fame are +fragile and perishable, and come to a sudden end as soon as the breath +is out of your body. You will say, as usual, "Oh! my friends must see +to that for me." Well, I hope you have friends loyal enough, learned +enough, painstaking enough, to be capable and desirous of undertaking +such a responsible task, but I would have you consider whether it is +altogether prudent to expect from other people the toil which you will +not undergo for yourself. However, as to publishing, do as you please, +but at least give some public readings, in order to stir you on to +publishing, and that you may at length see how pleased people will be to +hear you, as I have for a long time been bold enough to anticipate on +your account. For I picture to myself what a run there will be to hear +you, how they will admire your work, what applause is in store for you, +and what a hush of attention. Personally, when I speak or recite I like +a hush quite as much as loud applause, provided that the people are +quiet, because they are keenly interested and eager to hear more. With +such a reward before you so absolutely certain, do not go on chilling +our enthusiasm by that never-ending hesitation of yours, for if it once +gets over a certain line, there is a danger of people giving it another +name and saying you are idle, slothful, or even nervous. Farewell. + + +2.XI.--TO ARRIANUS. + +I know you are always delighted when the Senate behaves in a way +befitting its rank, for though your love of peace and quiet has caused +you to withdraw from Rome, your anxiety that public life should be kept +at a high level is as strong as it ever was. So let me tell you what +has been going on during the last few days. The proceedings are +memorable owing to the commanding position of the person most concerned; +they will have a healthy influence because of the sharp lesson that has +been administered; and the importance of the case will make them famous +for all time. + +Marius Priscus, on being accused by the people of Africa, whom he had +governed as proconsul, declined to defend himself before the Senate and +asked to have judges assigned to hear the case. Cornelius Tacitus and +myself were instructed to appear for the provincials, and we came to the +conclusion that we were bound in honesty to our clients to notify the +Senate that the charges of inhumanity and cruelty brought against +Priscus were too serious to be heard by a panel of judges, inasmuch as +he was accused of having received bribes to condemn and even put to +death innocent persons. Fronto Catius spoke in reply, and urged that +the prosecution should be confined within the law dealing with +extortion: he is wonderfully skilled at drawing tears, and throughout +his speech he filled his sails with a breeze of pathos. Then a hubbub +arose, and there were loud exclamations of applause and dissent; some +held that a trial of the case by the Senate was barred by law; others +declared that the Senate was quite competent and entitled to deal with +it, and argued that the law should punish the whole guilt of the +defendant. At length Julius Ferox, the consul-designate, a man of +honour and probity, gave it as his opinion that judges should be +assigned for the time being, and that those who were said to have bribed +Priscus to punish innocent persons should be summoned to Rome. This +proposal not only carried the day, but it was the only one that was +numerously supported in spite of the previous fierce dissension, for it +has often been remarked that though partisanship and pity lead men to +make very keen and heated attacks in the first instance, they gradually +sober down under the influence of further consideration and reason. +Hence it comes about that no one cares to make the point, when the other +people are sitting still, which a number of persons may be anxious to +make if an uproar is going on all round them; for when you get away from +the throng a quiet consideration of the subject at issue makes clear all +the points that were lost sight of in the throng of speakers. + +Well, the witnesses who were summoned came to Rome, viz., Vitellius +Honoratus and Flavius Martianus. Honoratus was charged with having +bribed Priscus to the tune of three hundred thousand sesterces to exile +a Roman knight and put seven of his friends to death; Martianus was +accused of having given Priscus seven hundred thousand sesterces to +sentence a single Roman knight to still more grievous punishment, for he +was beaten with rods, condemned to the mines, and then strangled in +prison. Honoratus--luckily for him--escaped the investigation of the +Senate by dying; Martianus was brought before them when Priscus was not +present. Consequently Tuccius Cerealis, a man of consular rank, pleaded +senatorial privileges and demanded that Priscus should be informed of +the attendance of Martianus, either because he thought that Priscus by +being present would have a better chance of awakening the compassion of +the Senate or to increase the feeling against him, or possibly, and I +think this was his real motive, because strict justice demanded that +both should defend themselves against a charge that affected them both, +and that both should be punished if they could not rebut the accusation. + +The subject was postponed to the next meeting of the Senate, and a very +august assembly it was. The Emperor presided in his capacity as consul; +besides, the month of January brings crowds of people to Rome and +especially senators, and moreover the importance of the case, the great +notoriety it had obtained, which had been increased by the delays that +had taken place, and the ingrained curiosity of all men to get to know +all the details of an unusually important matter, had made everybody +flock to Rome from all quarters. You can imagine how nervous and +anxious we were in having to speak in such a gathering and in the +presence of the Emperor on such an important case. It was not the first +time that I had pleaded in the Senate, and there is nowhere where I get +a more sympathetic hearing, but then the novelty of the whole position +seemed to afflict me with a feeling of nervousness I had never felt +before. For in addition to all that I have mentioned above I kept +thinking of the difficulties of the case and was oppressed by the +feeling that Priscus, the defendant, had once held consular rank and +been one of the seven regulators of the sacred feasts, and was now +deprived of both these dignities. So I found it a very trying task to +accuse a man on whom sentence had already been passed, for though the +shocking offences with which he was charged weighed heavily against him, +he yet was protected to a certain extent by the commiseration felt for a +man already condemned to punishment that one might have thought final. + +However, as soon as I had pulled myself together and collected my +thoughts, I began my address, and though I was nervous I was on the best +of terms with my audience. I spoke for nearly five hours, for, in +addition to the twelve water-clocks--the largest I could get--which had +been assigned to me, I obtained four others. And, as matters turned +out, everything that I thought before speaking would have proved an +obstacle in the way of a good speech really helped me during my address. +As for the Emperor, he showed me such kind attention and consideration-- +for it would be too much to call it anxiety on my behalf--that he +frequently nodded to my freedman, who was standing just behind me, to +give me a hint not to overtax my voice and lungs, when he thought that I +was throwing myself too ardently into my pleading and imposing too great +a burden on my slender frame. Claudius Marcellinus answered me on +behalf of Martianus, and then the Senate was dismissed and met again on +the following day. For there was no time to begin a fresh speech, as it +would have had to be broken off by the fall of night. On the following +day, Salvius Liberalis, a man of shrewd wit, careful in the arrangement +of his speeches, with a pointed style and a fund of learning, spoke for +Marius, and in his speech he certainly brought out all he knew. +Cornelius Tacitus replied to him in a wonderfully eloquent address, +characterised by that lofty dignity which is the chief charm of his +oratory. Then Fronto Catius made another excellent speech on Marius's +behalf, and he spent more time in appeals for mercy than in rebutting +evidence, as befitted the part of the case that he had then to deal +with. The fall of night terminated his speech but did not break it off +altogether, and so the proceedings lasted over into the third day. This +was quite fine and just like it used to be for the Senate to be +interrupted by nightfall, and for the members to be called and sit for +three days running. + +Cornutus Tertullus, the consul-designate, a man of high character and a +devoted champion of justice, gave as his opinion that the seven hundred +thousand sesterces which Marius had received should be confiscated to +the Treasury, that Marius should be banished from Rome and Italy, and +that Martianus should be banished from Rome, Italy, and Africa. Towards +the conclusion of his speech he added the remark that the Senate +considered that, since Tacitus and myself, who had been summoned to +plead for the provincials, had fulfilled our duties with diligence and +fearlessness, we had acted in a manner worthy of the commission +entrusted to us. The consuls-designate agreed, and all the consulars +did likewise, until it was Pompeius Collega's turn to speak. He +proposed that the seven hundred thousand sesterces received by Marius +should be confiscated to the Treasury, that Martianus should be banished +for five years, and that Marius should suffer no further penalty than +that for extortion--which had already been passed upon him. Opinion was +largely divided, and there was possibly a majority in favour of the +latter proposal, which was the more lenient or less severe of the two, +for even some of those who appeared to have supported Cornutus changed +sides and were ready to vote for Collega, who had spoken after them. +But when the House divided, those who stood near the seats of the +consuls began to cross over to the side of Cornutus. Then those who +were allowing themselves to be counted as supporters of Collega also +crossed over, and Collega was left with a mere handful. He complained +bitterly afterwards of those who had led him to make the proposal he +did, especially of Regulus, who had failed to support him in the +proposal that he himself had suggested. But Regulus is a fickle fellow, +rash to a degree, yet a great coward as well. + +Such was the close of this most important investigation; but there is +still another bit of public business on hand of some consequence, for +Hostilius Firminus, the lieutenant of Marius Priscus, who was implicated +in the matter, had received a very rough handling. It was proved by the +accounts of Martianus and a speech he made in the Council of the Town of +Leptis that he had engaged with Priscus in a very shady transaction, +that he had bargained to receive from Martianus 50,000 denarii and had +received in addition ten million sesterces under the head of perfume +money--a most disgraceful thing for a soldier, but one which was not at +all inconsistent with his character as a man with well-trimmed hair and +polished skin. It was agreed on the motion of Cornutus that the case +should be investigated at the next meeting of the Senate, but at that +meeting he did not put in an appearance, either from some accidental +reason or because he knew he was guilty. + +Well, I have told you the news of Rome, you must write and tell me the +news of the country. How are your shrubs getting on, your vines and +your crops, and those dainty sheep of yours? In short, unless you send +me as long a letter I am sending you, you mustn't expect anything more +than the scrappiest note from me in the future. Farewell. + + +2.XII.--TO ARRIANUS. + +As for the bit of public business which, as I told you in my last +letter, arose out of the case of Marius Priscus, I don't know whether it +has been thoroughly pruned, but it certainly has been trimmed. When +Firminus was called before the Senate he replied to the charges brought +against him. What they were you know. The two consuls-designate +thereupon expressed their opinions as to the sentence and disagreed with +one another. Cornutus Tertullus proposed that he should be degraded +from his rank as senator; Acutius Nerva urged that when the provinces +were allotted Firminus's claim should not be allowed, and his +suggestion, as being the least severe, carried the day, though on the +whole I think it is the harsher and more vindictive of the two. For +what could be more wretched than to be cut off and debarred from all the +privileges of senatorship, and yet not to be freed from its toil and +trouble? What position can be more trying for a man with such a stain +on his name than not to be allowed to hide himself from public view, but +to have to show himself in a position of eminence to the gaze and +pointing fingers of the world? Moreover, can you imagine anything, from +the point of view of the public interest, less congruous or becoming +than that a member of the Senate who has been branded by that body +should keep his seat among them, that he should retain equal rank with +the very persons who branded him, that after being debarred from holding +a governorship for disgraceful conduct as one of an embassy he should +sit in judgment on other governors, and that after being found guilty of +peculation he should pronounce the condemnation or acquittal of others? +However, the majority approved this proposal, for votes are merely +counted and are not weighed according to merit, and there is no other +way possible in a public council. Yet in such cases this presumed +equality of opinions is really most unequal, for all are equal in the +right to vote though the judgment of the voters is a very unequal +quantity. I have fulfilled my promise and made good my word contained +in the earlier letter I sent you, which I reckon you will by this time +have received, for I entrusted it to a fleet and conscientious messenger +who must have reached you unless he has been hindered on the road. It +now rests with you to recompense me for both these epistles with the +very fullest letter that can be sent from where you are staying. +Farewell. + + +2.XIII.--TO PRISCUS. + +I know you are only too pleased to seize an opportunity for doing me a +service, and for my own part I would rather be in your debt than in that +of any one else. So, for both these reasons, I have decided to choose +you of all people as the one from whom to ask a favour which I am very +anxious to have granted me. You are in command of a magnificent army, +which gives you abundant material for conferring favours, and, moreover, +has provided you with ample time during which you have advanced the +interests of your own friends. Now give my friends a turn, please. +There are not many of them, though you doubtless wish there were. But I +am too modest to ask favours for more than one or two. Indeed there is +only one, and that is Voconius Romanus. His father held a distinguished +position in the equestrian order; his stepfather, or rather his second +father, an even more distinguished place, for Voconius took the name of +the latter out of his regard for him, while his mother belonged to one +of the leading families of Hither Spain. You know how sound and weighty +the opinion of that province is--well, Voconius was quite recently its +flamen. When we were students he and I were close and intimate friends; +we spent our days together in Rome and in the country; he was my +companion both in moments of work and play. You could not imagine a +more trusty friend or a more delightful companion. He has wonderful +conversational powers, and a remarkably sweet face and expression, and +besides this he possesses a lofty intellect and is shrewd, pleasant, +ready, and a clever advocate. The letters he writes are so good as to +make you think the Muses speak Latin. I have the greatest affection for +him, and he has the same for me. When we were both young I did all that +I possibly could as a young man to advance him, and just lately I +induced our excellent Emperor to grant him the privileges attached to +the parentage of three children. That is a favour he bestows but +sparingly and after careful choice, yet he acceded to my request as +though the choice were his own. There is no better way by which I may +keep up my services to him than by adding to their number, especially as +he, the recipient, shows himself so grateful to me that by accepting +former favours he earns others to come. I have told you what kind of a +man he is, how thoroughly I esteem him and how dear he is to me, and I +now ask you to use your wits and splendid opportunities for his +advancement. Above all, give him your regard, for though you shower +upon him your richest dignities you can give him nothing more valuable +than your friendship. It was to assure you that he is worthy of even +your closest intimacy that I have briefly set before you his tastes, his +character and his whole life. I would spin out my request to greater +length, but I know that you would rather I did not press you further and +the whole of this letter is nothing but a request. For the best way of +asking a favour is to give good reason for asking it. Farewell. + + +2.XIV.--TO MAXIMUS. + +Yes, you are quite right; my time is fully taken up by cases in the +Centumviral Court, but they give me more worry than pleasure, for most +of them are of a minor and unimportant character. Only rarely does a +case crop up that can be described as a cause celebre, owing either to +the distinguished position of the persons in the suit or to the +magnitude of the interests involved. Add to this that there are very +few with whom I care to plead; all the other advocates are bumptious, +and for the most part young men of no standing, who come over here to do +their declamations with such utter want of respect and modesty that I +think our friend Atilius just hit the nail on the head when he said that +mere boys begin their forensic career with cases in the Centumviral +Court, just as they begin with Homer in the schools. For here as there +they make their first beginnings on the hardest subjects. Yet, by +Heaven, before my time--to use an old man's phrase--not even the +highest-born youths had any standing here, unless they were introduced +by a man of consular rank. + +Such was the respect with which this noble profession was regarded, but +now modesty and respect are thrown to the winds and one man is as good +as another. So far from being introduced, they burst their way in. +Their audiences follow them as if they were actors, bought and paid to +do so; the agent is there to meet them in the middle of the basilica, +where the doles of money are handed over as openly as the doles of food +at a banquet; and they are ready to pass from one court to another for a +similar bribe. So these hirelings have been rather wittily dubbed +Zophokleis--from their readiness to call bravo,--and they have also been +given the Latin name of Laudicaeni--from their eagerness to applaud for +the sake of getting a dinner. Yet this disgraceful practice gets worse +from day to day, in spite of the terms of opprobrium applied to it in +both languages. Yesterday two of my own nomenclators--young men, I +admit, about the age of those who have just assumed the toga--were +enticed off to join the claque for three denarii apiece. Such is the +outlay you must make to get a reputation for eloquence! At that price +you can fill the benches, however many there are, you can collect a +great throng of bystanders and obtain thunders of applause as soon as +the conductor gives the signal. For a signal is absolutely necessary +for people who do not understand and do not even listen to the speeches, +and many of these fellows do not listen at all, though they applaud as +heartily as any. If you happen to be crossing through the basilica and +wish to know how any one is speaking, there is no need for you to mount +to the Bench or listen. It is perfectly safe to guess on the principle +that he is speaking worst who gets the most applause. + +Largius Licinius was the first to introduce this new fashion of +procuring an audience, but he went no further than asking people to go +and hear him. At least I remember that Quintilian, my old tutor, used +to tell me so. He told the story thus: "I was in attendance on +Domitius Afer when he was pleading in the Centumviral Court in the +deliberate and measured style with which he conducted all his cases. He +happened to hear from a neighbouring court the sound of extravagant and +unusual applause. Wondering what it could mean, he stopped, and then +resumed where he had broken off as soon as quiet was restored. Again +the shouts came, again he stopped, and after a short period of quiet it +began again for the third time. In the end he inquired who was +speaking, and was told that it was Licinius. At that he discontinued +his case, exclaiming: 'Centumvirs, this is death to our profession.'" +Indeed, it was beginning to go to the bad in other ways when Afer +thought that it had already gone to the bad, but it is now practically +ruined and destroyed, root and branch. I am ashamed to tell you what an +affected delivery these people have and with what unnatural cheering +their speeches are greeted. Their sing-song style only wants clapping +of hands, or rather cymbals and drums, to make them like the priests of +Cybele, for as for howlings--there is no other word to express the +unseemly applause in the theatres--they have enough and to spare. It is +only a desire to save my friends and my age that has induced me to go on +practising so long, for I am afraid people would think that if I retired +my object was not to shun these indecent scenes but to escape hard work. +Yet I am making fewer appearances than usual, and that is the beginning +of gradually ceasing to attend altogether. Farewell. + + +2.XV.--TO VALERIANUS. + +How does your old Marsian property treat you? And your new purchase? +Do you like the estate now that it is your own? It is rarely one does, +for we never find things as nice when we have obtained them as when we +wished to obtain them. My mother's property is giving me considerable +trouble, but I like it because it was my mother's, and besides, I have +put up with so much that I am now hardened. If people go on complaining +long enough, they end in being ashamed to complain further. Farewell. + + +2.XVI.--TO ANNIANUS. + +You, with your usual watchfulness on my behalf, advise me that the +codicils of Acilianus, who left me heir to half his estate, may be +treated as though they were non-existent, because they are not confirmed +by the will. I was quite aware of the law on the subject, for even +those who know nothing else know as much as that. But I have made a law +of my own for such cases, which leads me to treat as valid the wishes of +a dead man, even though they are not legally binding upon me. It is +beyond question that the codicils in question were drawn up by Acilianus +in his own hand. So, even though they are not confirmed by the will, I +shall carefully carry out their intentions as though they were, +especially as there is no loophole for an informer to meddle in the +matter. For if there were any reason to be afraid of the money I have +given being confiscated, I ought to act with perhaps greater hesitation +and caution; but since an heir is at perfect liberty to give away what +has reverted to him under an inheritance, there is no reason why I +should not abide by my own law, which does not clash with the +regulations of the State. Farewell. + + +2.XVII.--TO GALLUS. + +You are surprised, you say, at my infatuation for my Laurentine estate, +or Laurentian if you prefer it so. You will cease to wonder when you +are told the charms of the villa, the handiness of its site, and the +stretch of shore it commands. It is seventeen miles distant from Rome, +so that after getting through all your business, and without loss or +curtailment of your working hours, you can go and stay there. It can be +reached by more than one route, for the roads to Laurentium and Ostia +both lead in the same direction, but you must branch off on the former +at the fourth, and on the latter at the fourteenth milestone. From both +of these points onward the road is for the most part rather sandy, which +makes it a tedious and lengthy journey if you drive, but if you ride it +is easy going and quickly covered. The scenery on either hand is full +of variety. At places the path is a narrow one with woods running down +to it on both sides, at other points it passes through spreading meadows +and is wide and open. You will see abundant flocks of sheep and many +herds of cattle and horses, which are driven down from the high ground +in the winter and grow sleek in a pasturage and a temperature like those +of spring. + +The villa is large enough for all requirements, and is not expensive to +keep in repair. At its entrance there is a modest but by no means mean- +looking hall; then come the cloisters, which are rounded into the +likeness of the letter D, and these enclose a smallish but handsome +courtyard. They make a fine place of refuge in a storm, for they are +protected by glazed windows and deep overhanging eaves. Facing the +middle of the cloisters is a cheerful inner court, then comes a dining- +room running down towards the shore, which is handsome enough for any +one, and when the sea is disturbed by the south-west wind the room is +just flecked by the spray of the spent waves. There are folding doors +on all sides of it, or windows that are quite as large as such doors, +and so from the two sides and the front it commands a prospect as it +were of three seas, while at the back one can see through the inner +court, the cloisters, the courtyard, then more cloisters and the hall, +and through them the woods and the distant hills. A little farther +back, on the left-hand side, is a spacious chamber; then a smaller one +which admits the rising sun by one window and by another enjoys his last +lingering rays as he sets, and this room also commands a view of the sea +that lies beneath it, at a longer but more secure distance. An angle is +formed by this chamber and the dining-room, which catches and +concentrates the purest rays of the sun. This forms the winter +apartments and exercise ground for my household. No wind penetrates +thither except those which bring up rain-clouds and only prevent the +place being used when they take away the fine weather. Adjoining this +angle is a chamber with one wall rounded like a bay, which catches the +sun on all its windows as he moves through the heavens. In the wall of +this room I have had shelves placed like a library, which contains the +volumes which I not only read, but read over and over again. Next to it +is a sleeping chamber, through a passage supported by pillars and fitted +with pipes which catch the hot air and circulate it from place to place, +keeping the rooms at a healthy temperature. The remaining part of this +side of the villa is appropriated to the use of my slaves and freedmen, +most of the rooms being sufficiently well furnished for the reception of +guests. + +On the other side of the building there is a nicely decorated chamber, +then another room which would serve either as a large bed-chamber or a +moderate sized dining-room, as it enjoys plenty of sunshine and an +extensive sea-view. Behind this is an apartment with an ante-room, +suitable for summer use because of its height, and for winter use owing +to it sheltered position, for it is out of reach of all winds. Another +room with an ante-room is joined to this by a common wall. Next to it +is the cold bath room, a spacious and wide chamber, with two curved +swimming baths thrown out as it were from opposite sides of the room and +facing one another. They hold plenty of water if you consider how close +the sea is. Adjoining this room is the anointing room, then the +sweating room, and then the heating room, from which you pass to two +chambers of graceful rather than sumptuous proportions. Attached to +these is a warm swimming bath which everybody admires, and from it those +who are taking a swim can command a view of the sea. Close by is the +tennis court, which receives the warmest rays of the afternoon sun; on +one side a tower has been built with two sitting rooms on the ground +floor, two more on the first floor, and above them a dining-room +commanding a wide expanse of sea, a long stretch of shore, and the +pleasantest villas of the neighbourhood. There is also a second tower, +containing a bedroom which gets the sun morning and evening, and a +spacious wine cellar and store-room at the back of it. On the floor +beneath is a sitting-room where, even when the sea is stormy, you hear +the roar and thunder only in subdued and dying murmurs. It looks out +upon the exercise ground, which runs round the garden. + +This exercise ground has a border of boxwood, or rosemary where the box +does not grow well--for box thrives admirably when it is sheltered by +buildings, but where it is fully exposed to wind and weather and to the +spray of the sea, though it stands at a great distance therefrom, it is +apt to shrivel. On the inside ring of the exercise ground is a pretty +and shady alley of vines, which is soft and yielding even to the bare +foot. The garden itself is clad with a number of mulberry and fig- +trees, the soil being specially suitable for the former trees, though it +is not so kindly to the others. On this side, the dining-room away from +the sea commands as fine a view as that of the sea itself. It is closed +in behind by two day-rooms, from the windows of which can be seen the +entrance to the villa from the road and another garden as rich as the +first one but not so ornamental. + +Along its side stretches a covered portico, almost long enough for a +public building. It has windows on both sides, most of them facing the +sea; those looking on the garden are single ones, and less numerous than +those on the other side, as every alternate window was left out. All +these are kept open when it is a fine day and there is no wind; when the +wind is high, the windows only on the sheltered side are opened and no +harm is done. In front of the portico is a terrace walk that is +fragrant with violets. The portico increases the warmth of the sun by +radiation, and retains the heat just as it keeps off and breaks the +force of the north wind. Hence it is as warm in front as it is cool +behind. In the same way it checks the south-west winds, and similarly +with all winds from whatever quarter they blow--it tempers them and +stops them dead. This is its charm in winter, but in summer it is even +greater, for in the mornings its shade tempers the heat of the terrace +walk, and in the afternoon the heat of the exercise ground and the +nearest part of the garden, the shadows falling longer and shorter on +the two sides respectively as the sun rises to his meridian and sinks to +his setting. Indeed, the portico has least sunshine when the sun is +blazing down upon its roof. Consequently it receives the west winds +through its open windows and circulates them through the building, and +so never becomes oppressive through the stuffy air remaining within it. + +At the head of the terrace and portico successively is a garden suite of +rooms, my favourite spot and well worthy of being so. I had them built +myself. In this is a sunny chamber which commands the terrace on one +side, the sea on another, and the sun on both; besides an apartment +which looks on the portico through folding doors and on the sea through +a window. In the middle of the wall is a neat recess, which by means of +glazed windows and curtains can either be thrown into the adjoining room +or be cut off from it. It holds a couch and two easy-chairs, and as you +lie on the couch you have the sea at your feet, the villa at your back, +and the woods at your head, and all these views may be looked at +separately from each window or blended into one prospect. Adjoining is +a chamber for passing the night in or taking a nap, and unless the +windows are open, you do not hear a sound either of your slaves talking, +or the murmur of the sea, or the raging of the storms; nor do you see +the flashes of the lightning or know that it is day. This deep +seclusion and remoteness is due to the fact that an intervening passage +separates the wall of the chamber from that of the garden, and so all +the sound is dissipated in the empty space between. A very small +heating apparatus has been fitted to the room, which, by means of a +narrow trap-door, either diffuses or retains the hot air as may be +required. Adjoining it is an ante-room and a chamber projected towards +the sun, which the latter room catches immediately upon his rising, and +retains his rays beyond mid-day though they fall aslant upon it. When I +betake myself into this sitting-room, I seem to be quite away even from +my villa, and I find it delightful to sit there, especially during the +Saturnalia, when all the rest of the house rings with the merry riot and +shouts of the festival-makers; for then I do not interfere with their +amusements, and they do not distract me from my studies. + +The convenience and charm of the situation of my villa have one drawback +in that it contains no running water, but I draw my supply from wells or +rather fountains, for they are situated at a high level. Indeed, it is +one of the curious characteristics of the shore here that wherever you +dig you find moisture ready to hand, and the water is quite fresh and +not even brackish in the slightest degree, though the sea is so close +by. The neighbouring woods furnish us with abundance of fuel, and other +supplies we get from a colony of Ostia. The village, which is separated +only by one residence from my own, supplies my modest wants; it boasts +of three public baths, which are a great convenience, when you do not +feel inclined to heat your own bath at home, if you arrive unexpectedly +or wish to save time. The shore is beautified by a most pleasing +variety of villa buildings, some of which are close together, while +others have great intervals between them. They give the appearance of a +number of cities, whether you view them from the sea or from the shore +itself, and the sands of the latter are sometimes loosened by a long +spell of quiet weather, or--as more often happens--are hardened by the +constant beating of the waves. The sea does not indeed abound with fish +of any value, but it yields excellent soles and prawns. Yet our villa +provides us with plenty of inland produce and especially milk, for the +herds come down to us from the pastures whenever they seek water or +shade. + +Well, do you think that I have just reasons for living here, for passing +my time here, and for loving a retreat for which your mouth must be +watering, unless you are a confirmed town-bird? I wish that your mouth +did water! If it did, the many great charms of my little villa would be +enhanced in the highest degree by your company. Farewell. + + +2.XVIII.--TO MAURICUS. + +No, you could not have given me a pleasanter commission than to find a +teacher of rhetoric for your brother's children. For, thanks to you, I +go to school again, and, as it were, enjoy once more the happiest days +of my life. I sit among young people, as I used to do, and I can judge +what authority I have among them owing to my literary pursuits. Just +recently in a full class-room, before a number of members of our order, +the boys were joking among themselves quite loudly; the moment I entered +they were quiet as mice. I should not mention the incident except that +it redounded more to their credit than to mine, and that I wish you to +feel sure that your brother's sons can attend the lectures to their +advantage. Moreover, when I have heard all the lectures, I will write +and tell you what I think about each one of them, and so--as far as I +can by a letter--I will make you think that you have heard them all +yourself. I owe this to you, and I owe it to the memory of your brother +to deal loyally by him and take this interest, especially on such an +important subject. For what can touch you more closely than that these +children--I should say your children, but that you love them more than +if they were your own--should be found worthy of such a father and such +an uncle as yourself. Even if you had not asked me to look after them, +I should have done so on my own account. I do not forget that in +choosing a public teacher one is apt to give offence, but on behalf of +your brother's sons I must risk giving offence and even incurring +animosity with as little compunction as a parent would in looking after +his own children. Farewell. + + +2.XIX.--TO CERIALIS. + +You urge me to recite my speech before a company of my friends. I will +do so, because you ask me to, but I am exceedingly doubtful of the +wisdom of the step. For I cannot help remembering that speeches which +are recited lose all their spirit and passion and almost the right to +the name of speeches--which are properly enhanced and fired by the bench +of judges, the crowds of supporters, the waiting for the verdict, the +reputation of the various counsel, and the divided partisanship of the +audience. Besides all this, there are the gestures of the pleader, his +moving to and fro, even his hurried strides, and every movement of his +body which corresponds to some thought passing through his mind. Hence +it is that those who plead sitting down, although they have practically +the same environment as those who plead standing, are not so impressive +and telling just because they happen to be seated. But when a man +recites a speech, his eyes and hands--which are the most important aids +to expression--are otherwise occupied, and so it is no wonder that the +attention of the audience becomes languid, when there are no external +graces to charm them and no thrills to stimulate them. Moreover, the +address I am talking about is a fighting speech and full of contentious +matter, and Nature has so ordained it that we think, if a subject has +given us trouble to write, it will give an audience trouble to listen to +it. How few conscientious listeners there are who prefer a stiff, +closely-reasoned argument to honeyed and sonorous eloquence! It is +wrong, I know, that there should be a difference of taste between judge +and listener, but there is such a difference and it constantly crops up. +The audience want one thing and the judges another, whereas, on the +contrary, a listener ought to be impressed just by those points which +would make most impression on him if he were judge. However, it is +possible that in spite of these difficulties the speech may be +recommended by a certain novelty--a novelty that is quite Roman,--for +though the Greeks have a custom which does bear a remote resemblance to +it, it is really quite different. For just as it was their practice, in +showing that a law was opposed to earlier laws, to prove that it was so +by comparing it with the others, so I had to show that my accusation was +covered by the law against extortion by comparing it with other laws as +well as by proving it from the law itself. Such a subject, though far +from having any charm for the ears of the man in the street, ought to be +as interesting to the learned as it is uninteresting to the unlearned. +But if I make up my mind to recite the speech, I shall invite all the +learned people to hear it. However, please think it over by all means +and tell me whether you still consider that I ought to recite it; place +on either side all the considerations I have raised, and choose the +conclusion which has the weight of argument in its favour. It is from +you, not from me, that a reason will be required; my apology will be +that I did as I was told. Farewell. + + +2.XX.--TO CALVISIUS. + +Get ready your penny and I will tell you a golden story, nay, more than +one, for the new one has reminded me of some old tales, and it does not +matter with which I begin. Verania, the wife of Piso, was lying very +ill--I mean the Piso who was adopted by Galba. Regulus paid her a +visit. First mark the impudence of the man in coming to see the +invalid, for he had been her husband's bitter enemy and she loathed and +detested him. However, that might pass if he had only called, but he +actually sat down beside her on the couch and asked her on what day and +at what hour she had been born. On being told he puts on a grave look, +fixes his eyes hard, moves his lips, works his fingers and makes his +reckoning, but says nothing. Then after keeping the poor lady on the +tenter-hooks, wondering what he would say, he exclaims: "You are +passing through a critical time, but you will pull through. Still, just +to reassure you, I will go and consult a soothsayer with whom I have +often had dealings." He goes off at once; offers the sacrifice and +swears that the appearance of the entrails corresponds with the warning +of the stars. She, with all the credulity of an invalid, calls for her +tablets and writes down a legacy for Regulus; subsequently she grows +worse and exclaims as she dies, "What a rascal, what a lying and worse +than perjured wretch, thus to have sworn falsely on the head of his +son!" + +That is Regulus's trick, and he has recourse to the scandalous device +constantly, for he calls down the anger of the gods, whom he daily +outrages, upon the head of his luckless son. Velleius Blaesus, the rich +Consular, was stricken with the illness which carried him off, and was +desirous of changing his will. Regulus, who was capable of hoping for +anything from an alteration of the will because he had lately begun to +haunt him on the chance of a legacy, begged and prayed of the doctors to +prolong Blaesus's life by hook or by crook. But when the will was +signed he took quite a different line. He changed his tone and said to +the same doctors: "How long do you intend to torture the poor man? Why +do you grudge him an easy death when you cannot give him life?" Blaesus +dies, and, as though he had heard every word, he leaves Regulus not a +brass farthing. Two stories are quite enough. Or do you ask for a +third, on the rhetoricians' principle? Well, I have one for you. When +Aurelia, a lady of great means, was about to make her will, she put on +for the occasion her most handsome tunics. When Regulus came to witness +the signing he said, "I beg you to leave me these." Aurelia thought the +man was joking, but he was serious and pressed the matter. Well, to cut +the story short, he compelled the poor woman to open the tablets and +leave to him the tunics she was wearing at the time. He watched her as +she wrote, and looked to see whether she had written it rightly. +Aurelia still lives, but he forced her to make that legacy as if she had +been on the point of death. Yet this is the fellow who receives +inheritances and legacies as though he deserved them. + +But why do I worry myself when I live in a country where villainy and +rascality have long been getting not less but far more handsome rewards +than modesty and virtue? Look at Regulus, for example, who, from being +a pauper and without a shilling, has now become such a rich man by sheer +villainy that he once told me that, when he was consulting the omens as +to how soon he would be worth sixty millions of sesterces, he found +double sets of entrails, which were a token that he would be worth 120 +millions. So he will too, if only he goes on, as he has begun, +dictating wills which are not their own to the very people who are +making their wills, which is about the most disgraceful kind of forgery +imaginable. Farewell. + + + +BOOK III. + + +3.I.--TO CALVISIUS. + +I don't think I ever spent a more delightful time than during my recent +visit at Spurinna's house; indeed, I enjoyed myself so much that, if it +is my fortune to grow old, there is no one whom I should prefer to take +as my model in old age, as there is nothing more methodical than that +time of life. Personally, I like to see men map out their lives with +the regularity of the fixed courses of the stars, and especially old +men. For while one is young a little disorder and rush, so to speak, is +not unbecoming; but for old folks, whose days of exertion are past and +in whom personal ambition is disgraceful, a placid and well-ordered life +is highly suitable. That is the principle upon which Spurinna acts most +religiously; even trifles, or what would be trifles were they not of +daily occurrence, he goes through in fixed order and, as it were, orbit. + +In the morning he keeps his couch; at the second hour he calls for his +shoes and walks three miles, exercising mind as well as body. If he has +friends with him the time is passed in conversation on the noblest of +themes, otherwise a book is read aloud, and sometimes this is done even +when his friends are present, but never in such a way as to bore them. +Then he sits down, and there is more reading aloud or more talk for +preference; afterwards he enters his carriage, taking with him either +his wife, who is a pattern lady, or one of his friends, a distinction I +recently enjoyed. How delightful, how charming that privacy is! What +glimpses of old times one gets! What noble deeds and noble men he tells +you of! What lessons you drink in! Yet at the same time it is his +custom so to blend his learning with modesty that he never seems to be +playing the schoolmaster. After riding seven miles he walks another +mile, then he again resumes his seat or betakes himself to his room and +his pen. For he composes, both in Latin and Greek, the most scholarly +lyrics. They have a wonderful grace, wonderful sweetness, and wonderful +humour, and the chastity of the writer enhances its charm. When he is +told that the bathing hour has come--which is the ninth hour in winter +and the eighth in summer--he takes a walk naked in the sun, if there is +no wind. Then he plays at ball for a long spell, throwing himself +heartily into the game, for it is by means of this kind of active +exercise that he battles with old age. After his bath he lies down and +waits a little while before taking food, listening in the meantime to +the reading of some light and pleasant book. All this time his friends +are at perfect liberty to imitate his example or do anything else they +prefer. Then dinner is served, the table being as bright as it is +modest, and the silver plain and old-fashioned; he also has some +Corinthian vases in use, for which he has a taste though not a mania. +The dinner is often relieved by actors of comedy, so that the pleasures +of the table may have a seasoning of letters. Even in the summer the +meal lasts well into the night, but no one finds it long, for it is kept +up with such good humour and charm. The consequence is that, though he +has passed his seventy-seventh year, his hearing and eyesight are as +good as ever, his body is still active and alert, and the only symptom +of his age is his wisdom. + +This is the sort of life that I have vowed and determined to forestall, +and I shall enter upon it with zest as soon as my age justifies me in +beating a retreat. Meanwhile, I am distracted with a thousand things to +attend to, and my only solace therein is the example of Spurinna again, +for he undertook official duties, held magistracies, and governed +provinces as long as it became him to do so, and earned his present +leisure by abundant toil. That is why I set myself the same race to run +and the same goal to attain, and I now register the vow and place it in +your hands, so that, if ever you see me being carried beyond the mark, +you may bring me to book, quote this letter of mine against me and order +me to take my ease, so soon as I shall have made it impossible for +people to charge me with laziness. Farewell. + + +3.II.--TO MAXIMUS. + +I think I am justified in asking you to grant to one of my friends a +favour which I should certainly have offered to friends of yours, had I +the same opportunity for conferring them as you have. Arrianus Maturus +is the leading man in Altinum; and when I say that, I mean not that he +is the richest man there--though he possesses considerable property--but +I refer to his character, to his chastity, justice, weight, and wisdom. +I turn to him in business for advice, and for criticism in literary +matters, for he is wonderfully loyal, straightforward, and shrewd. He +has the same regard for me as you have, and I cannot conceive a more +ardent affection than that. He is by no means an ambitious man, and for +that reason, though he might easily have attained the highest rank in +the state, he has been content to remain in the equestrian order. Yet I +feel that I must do something to add to his honours and give him some +token of my regard. And so I am very anxious to heap some dignity upon +him, though he does not expect it, knows nothing about it, and perhaps +even would rather I did not--but it must be a real distinction and one +that involves no troublesome responsibilities. So I ask you to confer +upon him such a favour at your earliest opportunity, and I shall be +profoundly obliged to you. And he will be also, for though he does not +run after honours, he welcomes them as thankfully as if his heart were +set upon them. Farewell. + + +3.III.--TO CORELLIA HISPULLA. + +I know not whether I regarded your father, who was a man of consummate +judgment and rectitude of life, with greater love or reverence, and as I +have a very special regard for you for his sake and also for your own, I +feel bound to desire and even to do all that lies in my power to help +your son to turn out like his grandfather. For choice, I should prefer +him to be like his grandfather on his mother's side, though his paternal +grandfather was also a man of distinction and eminence, and his father +and his uncle won conspicuous laurels. I feel sure that the only way to +secure his growing up to be like them in all their good qualities is for +him to drink deeply of the honourable arts, and the choice of a teacher +from whom he may learn them is a matter of the highest importance. So +far, his tender years have naturally kept him close by your side; he has +had tutors at home, where there is little or no chance of his going +wrong. But now his studies must take him out of doors, and we must look +out for a Latin rhetorician with a good reputation for school +discipline, for modesty, and above all, for good morals. For our young +friend has been endowed, in addition to his other gifts of nature and +fortune, with striking physical beauty, and at his slippery age we must +find him not only a teacher but a guardian who will keep him straight. + +Well, I fancy I can recommend to you Julius Genitor. I have a regard +for him, and my affection, which was based on judgment, does not blind +my judgment of him. He is without faults, a man of real character, +perhaps a little over-rugged and austere for this libertine age. You +can learn from others what an accomplished speaker he is, for ability to +speak is an open gift and is recognised at once when the power is +displayed, but a man's private life is full of deep recesses and obscure +mazes. For the latter in Genitor's case you may hold me as guarantor. +From a man like him your son will hear nothing but what will be to his +profit; he will learn nothing of which he had better have remained in +ignorance, and Genitor will remind him, as often as you or I would, of +the special obligations in his case of "noblesse oblige" and the dignity +of the names he has to worthily uphold. So bid him God-speed and +entrust him to a tutor who will teach him morals first and eloquence +afterwards, for it is but a poor thing to learn the latter without the +former. Farewell. + + +3.IV.--TO MACRINUS. + +Although my course of action was approved in general estimation and by +the friends who were with me at the time, I am anxious to know what you +think of it. I should have liked to have had your opinion before +finally deciding, so now that the matter is over I am exceedingly keen +to hear your judgment. I had run down to my Tuscan estate to lay the +foundations of a public building at my own expense, after obtaining +leave of absence as Praefect of the Treasury, when a deputation from the +province of Baetica, who were about to lodge complaints against the +governorship of Caecilius Classicus, petitioned the Senate to appoint me +to conduct their case for them. My colleagues, who are the best of +fellows and devoted to my interests, pleaded the engagements and duties +of the office we hold, and tried to get me off and make excuses for me. +The Senate passed a handsome resolution, saying that I should be allowed +to champion the cause of the provincials if they succeeded in persuading +me to take up the brief. Then the deputation was again introduced, when +I was in my place in the Senate, and asked my assistance, appealing to +my loyalty, of which they had previous experience in the action against +Massa Baebius, and adducing their legal right to a patronus. The Senate +responded to the appeal with the loud applause which usually precedes a +decree of that body. + +Then I rose and said: "Conscript Fathers, I beg to withdraw my plea to +be excused as inadequate," and the House approved the modesty of the +remark and the reason. However, I was drawn to act as I did not only by +the applause of the Senate, though that had great weight with me, but by +a variety of other reasons, less in themselves, but all telling in the +account. I remembered that our forefathers used to voluntarily +undertake the championship of individual private friends who had been +wronged, and so I thought that it would be shameful for me to neglect +the claims of an entire people who were my friends. Moreover, when I +recollected what hazards I had run for the same people of Baetica in my +earlier championship of them, I thought I had better preserve their +gratitude for the old favour by granting them a new one. For it is a +law of nature that people soon forget an old benefit, unless you keep on +renewing it by later ones, for however often you oblige them, if you +refuse them one request, they only remember the refusal. Another motive +was that Classicus was dead, and so there was no fear of the odium of +endangering a senator, which in these cases is usually the most serious +objection. I saw, therefore, that if I undertook the case I should +obtain just as much kudos as if he were alive, and yet escape all odium. +In short, I reckoned that if I consented to appear a third time in a +brief of this kind, I should have an easier task to excuse myself if a +case turned up in which I felt I ought not to play the part of accuser. +For as there is a limit to the granting of all favours, the best method +of paving the way to obtain a right of refusal is by consenting to +previous requests. I have now told you my reasons for acting as I did, +and it is open to you to agree or dissent, but let me assure you that +frank dissent will be no less agreeable to me than the sanction of your +approval. Farewell. + + +3.V.--TO BAEBIUS MACER. + +I was delighted to find that you are so zealous a student of my uncle's +books that you would like to possess copies of them all, and that you +ask me to give you a complete list of them. I will play the part of an +index for you, and tell you, moreover, the order in which they were +written, for this is a point that students are interested to know. +"Throwing the Javelin from Horseback," one volume; this was composed, +with considerable ingenuity and research, when he was on active service +as a cavalry lieutenant. "The Life of Pomponius Secundus," two +volumes;--Pomponius was remarkably attached to my uncle, who, so to +speak, composed this book to his friend's memory in payment of his debt +of gratitude. "The German Wars," twenty volumes;--this comprises an +account of all the wars we have waged with the German races. He +commenced it, while on service in Germany, in obedience to the warning +of a dream, for, while he was asleep, the shade of Drusus Nero, who had +won sweeping victories in that country and died there, appeared to him +and kept on entrusting his fame to my uncle, beseeching him to rescue +his name from ill-deserved oblivion. "The Student," three volumes, +afterwards split up into six on account of their length;--in this he +showed the proper training and equipment of an orator from his cradle +up. "Ambiguity in Language," in eight volumes, was written in the last +years of Nero's reign when tyranny had made it dangerous to write any +book, no matter the subject, in anything like a free and candid style. +"A Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus," in thirty-one books, +and a "Natural History," in thirty-seven books;--the latter is a +comprehensive and learned work, covering as wide a field as Nature +herself. + +Does it surprise you that a busy man found time to finish so many +volumes, many of which deal with such minute details? You will wonder +the more when I tell you that he for many years pleaded in the law +courts, that he died in his fifty-seventh year, and that in the interval +his time was taken up and his studies were hindered by the important +offices he held and the duties arising out of his friendship with the +Emperors. But he possessed a keen intellect; he had a marvellous +capacity for work, and his powers of application were enormous. He used +to begin to study at night on the Festival of Vulcan, not for luck but +from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at +the seventh hour or at the eighth at the very latest, and often at the +sixth. He could sleep at call, and it would come upon him and leave him +in the middle of his work. Before daybreak he would go to Vespasian-- +for he too was a night-worker--and then set about his official duties. +On his return home he would again give to study any time that he had +free. Often in summer after taking a meal, which with him, as in the +old days, was always a simple and light one, he would lie in the sun if +he had any time to spare, and a book would be read aloud, from which he +would take notes and extracts. For he never read without taking +extracts, and used to say that there never was a book so bad that it was +not good in some passage or another. After his sun bath he usually +bathed in cold water, then he took a snack and a brief nap, and +subsequently, as though another day had begun, he would study till +dinner-time. After dinner a book would be read aloud, and he would take +notes in a cursory way. I remember that one of his friends, when the +reader pronounced a word wrongly, checked him and made him read it +again, and my uncle said to him, "Did you not catch the meaning?" When +his friend said "yes," he remarked, "Why then did you make him turn +back? We have lost more than ten lines through your interruption." So +jealous was he of every moment lost. + +In summer he used to rise from the dinner-table while it was still +light; in winter always before the first hour had passed, as though +there was a law obliging him to do so. Such was his method of living +when up to the eyes in work and amid the bustle of Rome. When he was in +the country the only time snatched from his work was when he took his +bath, and when I say bath I refer to the actual bathing, for while he +was being scraped with the strigil or rubbed down, he used to listen to +a reader or dictate. When he was travelling he cut himself aloof from +every other thought and gave himself up to study alone. At his side he +kept a shorthand writer with a book and tablets, who wore mittens on his +hands in winter, so that not even the sharpness of the weather should +rob him of a moment, and for the same reason, when in Rome, he used to +be carried in a litter. I remember that once he rebuked me for walking, +saying, "If you were a student, you could not waste your hours like +that," for he considered that all time was wasted which was not devoted +to study. + +Such was the application which enabled him to compile all those volumes +I have enumerated, and he left me one hundred and sixty commonplace +books, written on both sides of the scrolls, and in a very small +handwriting, which really makes the number of the volumes considerably +more. He used to say that when he was procurator in Spain he could have +sold these commonplace books to Largius Licinus for four hundred +thousand sestertia, and at that time they were much fewer in number. Do +you not feel when you think of his voluminous writing and reading that +he cannot have had any public duties to attend to, and that he cannot +have been an intimate friend of the Emperors? Again, when you hear what +an amount of work he put into his studies, does it not seem that he +neither wrote nor read as much as he might? For his other duties might +surely have prevented him from studying altogether, and a man with his +application might have accomplished even more than he did. So I often +smile when some of my friends call me a book-worm, for if I compare +myself with him I am but a shocking idler. Yet am I quite as bad as +that, considering the way I am distracted by my public and private +duties? Who is there of all those who devote their whole life to +literature, who, if compared with him, would not blush for himself as a +sleepy-head and a lazy fellow? I have let my pen run on, though I had +intended simply to answer your question and give you a list of my +uncle's works; but I trust that even my letter may give you as much +pleasure as his books, and that it will spur you on not only to read +them, but also to compose something worthy to be compared with them. +Farewell. + + +3.VI.--TO ANNIUS SEVERUS. + +Out of a legacy which I have come in for I have just bought a Corinthian +bronze, small it is true, but a charming and sharply-cut piece of work, +so far as I have any knowledge of art, and that, as in everything else +perhaps, is very slight. But as for the statue in question even I can +appreciate its merits. For it is a nude, and neither conceals its +faults, if there are any, nor hides at all its strong points. It +represents an old man in a standing posture; the bones, muscles, nerves, +veins, and even the wrinkles appear quite life-like; the hair is thin +and scanty on the forehead; the brow is broad; the face wizened; the +neck thin; the shoulders are bowed; the breast is flat, and the belly +hollow. The back too gives the same impression of age, as far as a back +view can. The bronze itself, judging by the genuine colour, is old and +of great antiquity. In fact, in every respect it is a work calculated +to catch the eye of a connoisseur and to delight the eye of an amateur, +and this is what tempted me to purchase it, although I am the merest +novice. But I bought it not to keep it at home--for as yet I have no +Corinthian art work in my house--but that I might put it up in my native +country in some frequented place, and I specially had in mind the Temple +of Jupiter. For the statue seems to me to be worthy of the temple, and +the gift to be worthy of the god. So I hope that you will show me your +usual kindness when I give you a commission, and that you will undertake +the following for me. Will you order a pedestal to be made, of any +marble you like, to be inscribed with my name and titles, if you think +the latter ought to be mentioned? I will send you the statue as soon as +I can find any one who is not overburdened with luggage, or I will bring +myself along with it, as I dare say you would prefer me to do. For, if +only my duties allow me, I am intending to run down thither. You are +glad that I promise to come, but you will frown when I add that I can +only stay a few days. For the business which hitherto has kept me from +getting away will not allow of my being absent any longer. Farewell. + + +3.VII.--TO CANINIUS RUFUS. + +News has just come that Silius Italicus has starved himself to death at +his villa near Naples. Ill-health was the cause assigned. He had an +incurable corn, which made him weary of life and resolved him to face +death with a determination that nothing could shake, yet to his last day +he was prosperous and happy, save that he lost the younger of his two +children. The elder and the better of the two still survives him in +prosperous circumstances and of consular rank. During Nero's reign +Silius had injured his reputation, for it was thought that he +voluntarily informed against people, but he had conducted himself with +prudence and courtesy as one of the friends of Vitellius; he had +returned from his governorship of Asia covered with glory, and he had +succeeded in obliterating the stains on his character, caused by his +activity in his young days, by the admirable use he made of his +retirement. He ranked among the leading men of the State, though he +held no official position and excited no man's envy. People paid their +respects to him and courted his society, and, though he spent much of +his time on his couch, his room was always full of company who were no +mere chance callers, and he passed his days in learned and scholarly +conversation, when he was not busy composing. He wrote verses which +show abundant pains rather than genius, and sometimes he submitted them +to general criticism by having them read in public. + +At last he retired from the city, prompted thereto by his great age, and +settled in Campania, nor did he stir from the spot, even at the +accession of the new Emperor. A Caesar deserves great credit for +allowing a subject such liberty, and Italicus deserves the same for +venturing to avail himself of it. He was such a keen virtuoso that he +got the reputation of always itching to buy new things. He owned a +number of villas in the same neighbourhood, and used to neglect his old +ones through his passion for his recent purchases. In each he had any +quantity of books, statues and busts, which he not only kept by him but +even treated with a sort of veneration, especially the busts of Virgil, +whose birthday he kept up far more scrupulously than he did his own, +principally at Naples, where he used to approach the poet's monument as +though it were a temple. In these peaceful surroundings he completed +his seventy-fifth year, his health being delicate rather than weak, and +just as he was the last consul appointed by Nero, so too in him died the +sole survivor of all the consuls appointed by that Emperor. It is also +a curious fact that, besides his being the last of Nero's consuls, it +was in his term of office that Nero perished. When I think of this, I +feel a sort of compassion for the frailty of humanity. For what is so +circumscribed and so short as even the longest human life? Does it not +seem to you as if Nero were alive only the other day? Yet of all those +who held the consulship during his reign not one survives at the present +moment. + +But, after all, what is there remarkable in that? Not so long ago +Lucius Piso, the father of the Piso who was must shamefully put to death +in Africa by Valerius Festus, used to say that he did not see a single +soul in the Senate of all those whom he had called upon to speak during +his consulship. Within such narrow limits are the powers of living of +even the mightiest throng confined that it seems to me the royal tears +are not only excusable but even praiseworthy. For the story goes that +when Xerxes cast his eyes over his enormous host, he wept to think of +the fate that in such brief space would lay so many thousands low. But +that is all the more reason why we should apply all the fleeting, +rushing moments at our disposal, if not to great achievements--for these +may be destined for other hands than ours--at least to study, and why, +as long life is denied us, we should leave behind us some memorial that +we have lived. I know that you need no spurring on, yet the affection I +have for you prompts me even to spur a willing horse, just as you do +with me. Well, it is a noble contention when friends exhort one another +to work and sharpen one another's desires to win an immortal name. +Farewell. + + +3.VIII.--TO SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS. + +It is just like your usual respectful regard for me that you beg me so +earnestly to transfer the tribuneship, which I obtained for you from +that noble man Neratius Marcellus, to your relative Caesennius Silvanus. +I should have been delighted to see you as tribune, but I shall be +equally pleased to see another take the post through your generosity, +for I do not think it would be becoming in me to grudge a man whom you +desire to advance in dignity the fame of family affection, which is a +greater distinction than any honorific titles. Besides, as it is a +splendid thing both to deserve benefits and to confer them, I see that +you will at one and the same time receive credit for both, now that you +bestow on another what your own merits have won. Moreover, I quite +understand that I too shall come in for some glory when it is known +through your generous deed that friends of mine can not only fill the +office of tribune, but can bestow it on others. For these reasons I bow +to the wishes which do you the greatest credit. No name has yet been +placed on the lists, and so we can quite well substitute that of +Silvanus for yours. I hope that he will show himself as grateful to you +as you have to me. Farewell. + + +3.IX.--TO CORNELIUS MINICIANUS. + +I can now give you a full account of the enormous trouble entailed upon +me in the public trial brought by the Province of Baetica. It was a +complicated suit, and new issues kept constantly cropping up. Why this +variety, and why these different pleadings? you well ask. Well, +Caecilius Classicus--a low rascal who carries his villainy in his face-- +had during his proconsulship in Baetica, in the same year that Marius +Priscus was Governor of Africa, behaved both with violence and rapacity. +Now, Priscus came from Baetica and Classicus from Africa, and so there +was a rather good saying among the people of Baetica, for even +resentment often inspires wit: "It is give and take between us." But +in the case of Marius only one city publicly impeached him besides +several private individuals, while the whole Province pressed the +charges home against Classicus. He forestalled their accusation by a +sudden death which may or may not have been self-inflicted, for there +was some doubt about his dishonourable end. Men thought that though it +was quite intelligible that he should have been willing to die as he had +no defence to offer, yet they could hardly understand why he had died +rather than undergo the shame of being condemned when he was not ashamed +to commit the crime which merited the condemnation. None the less, the +Province determined to go on with the accusation of the dead man. +Provision had been made for such cases by the laws, but the custom had +fallen into disuse and it was revived then for the first time after many +years. Another argument urged by the Baetici for continuing the suit +was that they had impeached not only Classicus, but his intimates and +tools, and had demanded leave to prosecute them by name. + +I was acting for the Province, assisted by Lucceius Albinus, an eloquent +and ornate speaker, and though we have long been on terms of the closest +regard for one another, our association in this suit has made me feel +vastly more attached to him. As a rule, and especially in oratorical +efforts, people do not run well in double harness in their striving for +glory, but he and I were not in any sense rivals and there was no +jealousy between us, as we both did our level best, not for our own +hand, but for the common cause, which was of such a serious character +and of such public importance that it seemed to demand from us that we +should not over-elaborate each single pleading. We were afraid that +time would fail us, and that our voices and lungs would break down if we +tied up together so many charges and so many defendants into one bundle. +Again, we feared that the attention of the judges would not only be +wearied by the introduction of so many names and charges, but that they +would be confused thereby, that the sum-total of the influence of each +one of the accused might procure for each the strength of all, and +finally we were afraid lest the most influential of the accused should +make a scapegoat of the meanest among them, and so slip out of the hands +of justice at the expense of some one else--for favour and personal +interest are strongest when they can skulk behind some pretence of +severity. Moreover, we were advised by the well-known story of +Sertorius, who set two soldiers--one young and powerful, and the other +old and weak--to pull off the tail of a horse. You know how it +finishes. And so we too thought that we could get the better of even +such a long array of defendants, provided we took them one by one. + +Our plan was first to prove the guilt of Classicus himself; then it was +a natural transition to his intimates and tools, because the latter +could never be condemned unless Classicus were guilty. Consequently, we +took two of them and closely connected them with Classicus, Baebius +Probus and Fabius Hispanus, both men of some influence, while Hispanus +possesses a strong gift of eloquence. To prove the guilt of Classicus +was an easy and simple task that did not take us long. He had left in +his own handwriting a document showing what profits he had made out of +each transaction and case, and he had even despatched a letter couched +in a boasting and impudent strain to one of his mistresses containing +the words, "Hurrah! hurrah! I am coming back to you with my hands free; +for I have already sold the interests of the Baetici to the tune of four +million sesterces." But we had to sweat to get a conviction against +Hispanus and Probus. Before I dealt with the charges against them, I +thought it necessary to establish the legal point that the execution of +an unjust sentence is an indictable offence, for if I had not done this +it would have been useless for me to prove that they had been the +henchmen of Classicus. Moreover, their line of defence was not a +denial. They pleaded that they could not help themselves and therefore +were to be pardoned, arguing that they were mere provincials and were +frightened into doing anything that a proconsul bade them do. Claudius +Restitutus, who replied to me, a practised and watchful speaker who is +equal to any emergency however suddenly sprung up upon him, is now going +about saying that he never was so dumbfounded and thrown off his balance +as when he discovered that the ground on which he placed full reliance +for his defence had been cut from under him and stolen away from him. + +Well, the outcome of our line of attack was as follows: the Senate +decreed that the property owned by Classicus before he went to the +Province should be set apart from that which he subsequently acquired, +and that his daughter should receive the former and the rest be handed +over to the victims of his extortion. It was also decreed that the sums +which he had paid over to his creditors should be refunded. Hispanus +and Probus were banished for five years. Such was the serious view +taken of their conduct, about which at the outset there were doubts +whether it was legally criminal at all. A few days afterwards we +accused Claudius Fuscus, a son-in-law of Classicus, and Stilonius +Priscus, who had acted under him as tribune of a cohort. Here the +verdicts differed, for while Priscus was banished from Italy for two +years, Fuscus was acquitted. + +In the third action, we thought our best course was to lump the +defendants together, fearing lest, if the trial were to be spun out to +undue length, those who were hearing the case would grow sick and tired +of it, and their zeal for strict justice and severity would abate. +Besides, the accused persons, who had been designedly kept over till +then, were all of comparatively little importance, except the wife of +Classicus, and, although suspicion against her was strong, the proofs +seemed rather weak. As for the daughter of Classicus, who was also +among the defendants, she had cleared herself even of suspicion. +Consequently, when I reached her name in the last trial--for there was +no fear then as there had been at the beginning that such an admission +would weaken the force of the prosecution--I thought the most honourable +course was to refrain from pressing the charge against an innocent +person, and I frankly said so, repeating the idea in various forms. For +example, I asked the deputation of the Baetici whether they had given me +definite instructions on any point which they felt confident they could +prove against her; I turned to the senators and inquired whether they +thought I ought to employ what eloquence I might possess against an +innocent person, and hold, as it were, the knife to her throat; and, +finally, I concluded the subject with these words: "Some one may say, +'You are presuming to act as judge.' No, I reply, I am not presuming to +be a judge, but I cannot forget that the judges appointed me to act as +counsel." + +Well, the conclusion of this trial, with its crowd of defendants, was +that a certain few were acquitted, but the majority were condemned and +banished, some for a fixed term of years, and others for life. In the +same decree the Senate expressed in most handsome terms its appreciation +of our industry, loyalty, and perseverance, and this was the only +possible worthy and adequate reward for the trouble we had taken. You +can imagine how worn out we were, when you think how often we had to +plead, and answer the pleadings of our opponents, and how many witnesses +we had to cross-question, encourage, and refute. Besides, you know how +trying and vexatious it is to say "no" to the friends of the accused +when they come pleading with you in private, and to stoutly oppose them +when they confront you in open court. I will tell you one of the things +I said. When one of those who were acting as judges interrupted me on +behalf of one of the accused in whom he took a special interest, I +replied: "He will be none the less innocent, if he be innocent, when I +have had my full say." You can guess from this sample what opposition +we had to face, and how we could not avoid giving offence,--but that +only lasted a short time, for though at the moment a loyal conduct of a +case may offend those whom one is opposing, in the end it wins even +their admiration and respect. + +I have brought you up to date as well as I could. You will say, "It was +not worth while, for what have I to do with such a long letter?" If you +do, don't ask again what is going on at Rome, and bear in mind that you +cannot call a letter long which covers so many days, so many trials, and +so many defendants and pleadings. I think I have dealt with all these +subjects as briefly as I am sure they are exactly dealt with. But no, I +was rash to say "exactly"; I remember a point which I had omitted, and I +will tell you about it even now, though it is out of its proper place. +Homer does this, and many other authors have followed his example--with +very good effect too--though that is not my reason for so doing. One of +the witnesses, annoyed at being summoned to appear, or bribed by some +one of the defendants in order to weaken the prosecution, laid an +accusation against Norbanus Licinianus, a member of the deputation, who +had been instructed to get up the case, and charged him with having +acted in collusion with the other side in relation to Casta, the wife of +Classicus. It is a legal rule in such instances that the trial of the +accused must be finished before inquiry is made into a charge of +collusion, on the ground that one can best form an opinion on the bona +fides of the prosecution by noticing how the case has been carried +through. However, Norbanus reaped no advantage from this point of law, +nor did his position as member of the deputation, nor his duties as one +of those getting up the action stand him in good stead. A storm of +prejudice broke out against him, and there is no denying that his hands +were crime-stained, that he, like many others, had taken advantage of +the evil times of Domitian, and that he had been selected by the +provincials to get up the case, not as a man of probity and honour, but +because he had been a personal enemy of Classicus, by whom, indeed, he +had been banished. + +He demanded that a day should be fixed for his trial, and that the +charge against him should be published; both were refused, and he was +obliged to answer on the spot. He did so, and though the thorough +badness and depravity of the fellow make me hesitate to say whether he +showed more impudence or resolution, he certainly replied with great +readiness. There were sundry things brought against him which did him +much greater damage than the charge of collusion, and two men of +consular rank, Pomponius Rufus and Libo Frugi, severely damaged him by +giving evidence to the effect that during the reign of Domitian he had +assisted the prosecution of Salvius Liberalis before the judge. He was +convicted and banished to an island. Consequently, when I was accusing +Casta, I specially pressed the point that her accuser had been found +guilty of collusion. But I did so in vain, and we had the novel and +inconsistent result that the accused was acquitted though her accuser +was found guilty of collusion with her. You may ask what we were about +while this was going on. We told the Senate that we had received all +our instructions for this public trial from Norbanus, and that the case +ought to be tried afresh if he were proved guilty of collusion, and so, +while his trial was proceeding, we sat still. Subsequently Norbanus was +present every day the trial lasted, and showed right up to the end the +same resolute or impudent front. + +I wonder if I have forgotten anything else. Well, I almost did. On the +last day Salvius Liberalis bitterly assailed the rest of the deputation +on the ground that they had not brought accusations against all whom +they were commissioned to accuse by the province. He is a powerful and +able speaker, and he put them in some danger. However, I went to the +protection of those excellent and most grateful men, and they declare +that they owe it entirely to me that they safely weathered that storm. +This is the end, positively the end of my letter: I will not add +another syllable, even if I discover that I have still omitted to tell +you something. Farewell. + + +3.X.--TO VESTRICIUS SPURINNA AND HIS WIFE COTTIA. + +When I was last at your house I did not tell you that I had composed +some verses about your son. I refrained from so doing, first, because I +had not written them simply for the sake of reciting them, but in order +to relieve my feelings of love and sorrow; and, in the second place, +Spurinna, I thought that when you were told that I had given a +recitation--as you mentioned to me--you had also heard its subject. +Moreover, I was afraid of troubling you in your happiness by recalling +to your remembrance your bitter sorrow. Even now I have been hesitating +somewhat as to whether I should send you at your request only the verses +that I actually read, or whether I should also send those which I am +thinking of reserving for another volume. For my love for him was such +that I find it impossible to do justice to the memory of one who was so +dear and precious to me in a single volume, and his fame will be best +consulted if it is husbanded and carefully expressed. But though, as I +say, I am doubtful whether to show you all that I have composed on the +subject, or whether I should still keep back a part, it has seemed to me +that frankness and our friendship demand that I should let you have the +whole, especially as you promise that you will keep them strictly entre +nous until I decide to publish them. The only other request I make is +that you will be equally candid with me and tell me if you think any +additions, alterations, or omissions should be made. It is difficult to +focus the mind on such subjects when one is in trouble, but in spite of +that I want you to deal with me as you would with a sculptor or a +painter who was making a model or portrait of your son. In such a case, +you would advise him as to the points he should bring out and alter, and +similarly I hope you will guide and direct me, for I am essaying a +likeness, neither frail nor perishable, but one, as you think, which +will last for ever. It will be the more durable, according to its +trueness to life and correctness of detail. Farewell. + + +3.XI.--TO JULIUS GENITOR. + +Our friend Artemidorus has so much goodness of heart that he always +exaggerates the services his friends render him, and hence, in my case, +though it is true that I have done him a good turn, he speaks of it in +far too glowing language. When the philosophers were banished from the +city I was staying with him in his suburban residence, and the visit was +the more talked about and the more dangerous to me, because I was +praetor at the time. Moreover, as he stood in need of a considerable +sum of money to discharge some debts which he had incurred for the most +honourable of reasons, I borrowed the sum and gave it to him as a free +gift, when certain of his powerful and rich friends held aloof. I did +so in spite of the fact that seven of my friends had been put to death +or banished; Senecio, Rusticus, and Helvidius having suffered the +former, and Mauricus, Gratilla, Arria, and Fannia the latter punishment. +With all these thunderbolts falling round me, I felt scorched, and there +were certain clear indications that a like fate was hanging over my +head, but I do not on that account think I deserve the splendid credit +which Artemidorus assigns me--I only claim to have avoided the disgrace +of deserting my friends. For I loved and admired his father-in-law, +Caius Musonius, as far as the difference in our ages would permit, while +as for Artemidorus himself, even when I was on active service as tribune +in Syria, I was on terms of close intimacy with him, and the first sign +I gave of possessing any brains at all was that I appeared to appreciate +a man who was either the absolute sage, or the nearest possible +approximation to such a character. For, of all those who nowadays call +themselves philosophers, you will hardly find another to match him in +the qualities of sincerity and truth. I say nothing of the physical +fortitude with which he bears the extremes both of summer and winter, or +of the way in which he never shrinks from work, never indulges himself +in the pleasures of eating and drinking, and keeps constant restraint +over his appetites and desires. In another man these would appear great +virtues, but in Artemidorus they appear mere trifles compared with his +other noble qualities, which obtained for him the distinction of being +chosen by Caius Musonius as his son-in-law amid a crowd of disciples +belonging to all ranks of society. As I think of all these things it is +pleasant to know that he sings my praises so loudly, not only to others +but also to you, but I am afraid he overdoes them, for--to go back again +to the point whence I started--he is so good-hearted that he is given to +exaggeration. It is one of his faults--an honourable one, no doubt, but +still a fault--that, though he is otherwise most level-headed, he +entertains a higher opinion of his friends than they deserve. Farewell. + + +3.XII.--TO CATILIUS SEVERUS. + +Yes, I will come to dinner, but even now I must stipulate that the meal +be short and frugal, and brimming over only with Socratic talk. Nay, +even in this respect there must be a limit fixed, for there will be +crowds of people going to make calls before day breaks, and even Cato +did not escape when he fell in with them, though Caius Caesar, in +telling the story, blames him in such a way that it redounds to his +praise. For he says that when those who met him drunk uncovered his +head and saw who it was, they blushed at the sight, and he adds: "You +would think it was not they who had caught Cato, but Cato who had caught +them." What greater testimony could there be to Cato's character than +that men respected him even when he was in liquor? But for our dinner +let us agree not only to have a modest and inexpensive feast but to +break up in good time, for we are not Catos that our enemies cannot +censure us without praising us in the same breath. Farewell. + + +3.XII.--TO VOCONIUS ROMANUS. + +I am sending you, at your request, the speech in which I lately thanked +our best of emperors for my nomination as Consul, and I should have sent +it to you even though you had not asked for it. I hope you will take +into consideration both the beauty and the difficulty of the theme. For +in other speeches the attention of the reader is kept fixed by the +novelty of the subject, but in this case every detail is familiar, a +matter of common knowledge, and has been said before. Consequently the +reader will be lazy and careless and will only pay attention to the +diction, and when merely the diction is attended to, it is not easy to +give satisfaction. I wish that people would pay equal regard to the +arrangement of the speech, to its transitions, and the figures of speech +employed. For even the unlearned sometimes manage to get a noble +inspiration and express it in powerful language, but skilful arrangement +and variety of metaphor are only attained by the scholarly. Besides, +one must not for ever keep at the same high and lofty level. For, just +as in painting there is nothing like shadow to bring out the effect of +light, so in a speech it is as important on occasions to reduce the +treatment to an ordinary level as to raise it to a high one. But why do +I talk of first principles to a man of your accomplishments? What I do +wish to insist upon is to ask you to mark the passages which you think +should be corrected. For I shall think that you are all the better +pleased with the remainder if I find that there are certain portions +that you do not like. Farewell. + + +3.XIV.--TO ACILIUS. + +A shocking affair, worthy of more publicity than a letter can bestow, +has befallen Largius Macedo, a man of praetorian rank, at the hands of +his own slaves. He was known to be an overbearing and cruel master, and +one who forgot--or rather remembered to keenly--that his own father had +been a slave. He was bathing at his villa near Formiae, when he was +suddenly surrounded by his slaves. One seized him by the throat, +another struck him on the forehead, and others smote him in the chest, +belly, and even--I am shocked to say--in the private parts. When they +thought the breath had left his body they flung him on to the hot tiled +floor to see if he was still alive. Whether he was insensible, or +merely pretended to be so, he certainly did not move, and lying there at +full length, he made them think that he was actually dead. At length +they carried him out as though he had been overcome by the heat and +handed him over to his more trusty servants, while his mistresses ran +shrieking and wailing to his side. Aroused by their cries and restored +by the coolness of the room where he lay, he opened his eyes and moved +his limbs, betraying thereby that he was still alive, as it was then +safe to do so. His slaves took to flight; most of them have been +captured, but some are still being hunted for. Thanks to the attentions +he received, Macedo was kept alive for a few days and had the +satisfaction of full vengeance before he died, for he exacted the same +punishment while he still lived as is usually taken when the victim of a +murder dies. You see the dangers, the affronts and insults we are +exposed to, and no one can feel at all secure because he is an easy and +mild-tempered master, for villainy not deliberation murders masters. + +But enough of that subject! Have I any other news to tell you? Let me +see! No, there is nothing. If there were, I would tell you, for I have +room enough on this sheet, and, as to-day is a holiday, I should have +plenty of time to write more. But I will just add an incident which I +chance to recall that happened to the same Macedo. When he was in one +of the public baths in Rome, a curious and--the event has shown--an +ominous accident happened to him. Macedo's servant lightly tapped a +Roman knight with his hand to induce him to make room for them to pass, +and the knight turned round and struck, not the slave who had touched +him but Macedo himself, such a heavy blow with his fist that he almost +felled him. So one may say that the bath has been by certain stages the +scene first of humiliation to him and then of death. Farewell. + + +3.XV.--TO SILIUS PROCULUS. + +You ask me to read your poems while I am in the country, and see whether +I think they are worth publishing; you even add entreaties, and quote an +authority for the request; for you beg me to take a few holiday hours +from my own studies and spend them on your efforts, and you say that +Marcus Tullius showed wonderful good nature in encouraging the talent of +poets. Well, there was no need to beg and pray of me to do such a +thing, for I have the most profound regard for the poetic art and I have +a very strong affection for you, so I will comply with your request and +give them a careful and willing reading. But even now I think I am +justified in writing and telling you that your work is charming and +should on no account be kept from publication, as far as I could judge +from the pieces that you read aloud in my hearing--unless, indeed, your +delivery took me in, for you read with great charm and skill. But I +feel pretty sure that I am not so completely led away by the mere +pleasures of the ear that my critical powers are wholly disarmed by the +pleasure of listening--they might be blunted possibly and have their +edge turned somewhat, but they certainly could not be subverted or +destroyed. Consequently, I am not rash in pronouncing a general verdict +on the whole even now, but in order to judge of them in detail, I must +read them through. Farewell. + + +3.XVI.--TO NEPOS. + +I have often observed that the greatest words and deeds, both of men and +women, are not always the most famous, and my opinion has been confirmed +by a talk I had with Fannia yesterday. She is a granddaughter of the +Arria who comforted her husband in his dying moments and showed him how +to die. She told me many stories of her grandmother, just as heroic but +not so well known as the manner of her death, and I think they will seem +to you as you read them quite as remarkable as they did to me as I +listened to them. + +Her husband, Caecina Paetus, was lying ill, and so too was their son, +both, it was thought, without chance of recovery. The son died. He was +a strikingly handsome lad, modest as he was handsome, and endeared to +his parents for his other virtues quite as much as because he was their +son. Arria made all the arrangements for the funeral and attended it in +person, without her husband knowing anything of it. When she entered +his room she pretended that the boy was still alive and even much +better, and when her husband constantly asked how the lad was getting +on, she replied: "He has had a good sleep, and has taken food with a +good appetite." Then when the tears, which she had long forced back, +overcame her and burst their way out, she would leave the room, and not +till then give grief its course, returning when the flood of tears was +over, with dry eyes and composed look, as though she had left her +bereavement at the door of the chamber. It was indeed a splendid deed +of hers to unsheath the sword, to plunge it into her breast, then to +draw it out and offer it to her husband, with the words which will live +for ever and seem to have been more than mortal, "Paetus, it does not +hurt." But at that moment, while speaking and acting thus, there was +fame and immortality before her eyes, and I think it an even nobler deed +for her without looking for any reward of glory or immortality to force +back her tears, to hide her grief, and, even when her son was lost to +her, to continue to act a mother's part. + +When Scribonianus had started a rebellion in Illyricum against Claudius, +Paetus joined his party, and, on the death of Scribonianus, he was +brought prisoner to Rome. As he was about to embark, Arria implored the +soldiers to take her on board with him. "For," she pleaded, "as he is +of consular rank, you will assign him some servants to serve his meals, +to valet him and put on his shoes. I will perform all these offices for +him." When they refused her, she hired a fishing-boat and in that tiny +vessel followed the big ship. Again, in the presence of Claudius she +said to the wife of Scribonianus, when that woman was voluntarily giving +evidence of the rebellion, "What, shall I listen to you in whose bosom +Scribonianus was killed and yet you still live?" Those words showed +that her resolve to die gloriously was due to no sudden impulse. +Moreover, when her son-in-law Thrasea sought to dissuade her from +carrying out her purpose, and urged among his other entreaties the +following argument: "If I had to die, would you wish your daughter to +die with me?" she replied, "If she had lived as long and as happily with +you as I have lived with Paetus, yes." This answer increased the +anxiety of her friends, and she was watched with greater care. Noticing +this, she said, "Your endeavours are vain. You can make me die hard, +but you cannot prevent me from dying." As she spoke she jumped from her +chair and dashed her head with great force against the wall of the +chamber, and fell to the ground. When she came to herself again, she +said, "I told you that I should find a difficult way of dying if you +denied me an easy one." + +Do not sentences like these seem to you more noble than the "Paetus, it +does not hurt," to which they gradually led up? Yet, while that saying +is famous all over the world, the others are unknown. But they confirm +what I said at the outset, that the noblest words and deeds are not +always the most famous. Farewell. + + +3.XVII.--TO JULIUS SERVIANUS. + +Is everything quite well with you, that I have not had a letter from you +for so long? Or if all is well, are you busy? Or if you are not busy, +is it that you rarely get a chance of writing, or never a chance at all? +Relieve my anxiety, which is altogether too much for me, and do so even +if you have to send a special messenger. I will pay the travelling +expenses and give him a present for himself, provided only he brings me +the news I wish to hear. I am in good health if being in good health is +to live in a state of constant anxiety, expecting and fearing every hour +to hear that my dearest friend has met with any one of the dreadful +accidents to which men are liable. Farewell. + + +3.XVIII.--TO CURIUS SEVERUS. + +As Consul, it naturally devolved upon me to thank the Emperor in the +name of the State. After doing so in the Senate in the usual way and in +a speech befitting the place and the occasion, I thought that it would +highly become me, as a good citizen, to cover the same ground in greater +detail and much more fully in a book. In the first place, I desired +that the Emperor might be encouraged by well-deserved praise of his +virtues; and, secondly, that future Emperors might be shown how best to +attain similar glory by having such an example before them, rather than +by any precepts of a teacher. For though it is a very proper thing to +point out to an Emperor the virtues he ought to display, it involves a +heavy responsibility to do so and it has rather a presumptuous look, +whereas to eulogise an excellent ruler and so hold up a beacon to his +successors by which they may steer their path, is not only an act of +public service but involves no assumption of superiority. + +But I have been more than a little pleased to find that when I proposed +to give a public reading of this speech, my friends, whom I invited not +by letters and personal notes, but in general terms, such as "if you +find it convenient," or "if you have plenty of time"--for no one has +ever plenty of time at Rome, nor is it ever convenient to listen to a +recital--attended two days running, in spite of shockingly bad weather, +and when my modesty would have brought the recital to an end, they +forced me to continue it for another day. Am I to take this as a +compliment to myself or to learning? I should prefer to think to the +latter, for learning, after having almost drooped to death, is now +reviving a little. Yet consider the subject which occasioned all this +enthusiasm! Why, in the Senate, when we had to listen to these +panegyrics we used to be bored to death after the first moment; yet now +there are people to be found who are willing to read and listen to the +readings for three days, not because the subject is dealt with more +eloquently than before, but because it is treated with greater freedom, +and therefore the work is more willingly undertaken. This will be +another feather in the cap of our Emperor, that those speeches which +used to be as odious as they were unreal are now as popular as they are +true to facts. + +But I especially noticed with pleasure both the attention and the +critical faculties of the audience, for I remarked that they seemed most +pleased with the passages which were least adorned. I do not forget +that I have read only to a few what I have written for all the reading +public, yet none the less I take for granted that the multitude will +pass a similar judgment, and I am delighted with their taste for simple +passages. Just as the audience in the theatres made the musicians +cultivate a false taste in playing, so now I am encouraged to hope that +they will encourage the players to cultivate a good taste. For all who +write to please will write in the style which they see is popular. As +for myself, I hope that with such a subject a luxuriant style may pass +muster, inasmuch as the passages which are closely reasoned and stripped +of all ornament are more likely to seem forced and far-fetched than +those treated in a more buoyant and, as it were, more exultant strain. +Nevertheless, I am just as anxious for the day to come (I hope it has +come already!) when mere charming and honeyed words, however justly +applied, shall give way to a chaste simplicity. Well, I have told you +all about my three days' work; when you read it I hope that, though you +were absent at the time, you may be as pleased at the compliment paid to +learning and to me as you would have been if you had been there. +Farewell. + + +3.XIX.--TO CALVISIUS RUFUS. + +I want to ask your advice, as I have often done, on a matter of private +business. Some land adjoining my own, and even running into mine, is +for sale, and while there are many considerations tempting me to buy it, +there are equally weighty reasons to dissuade me. I feel tempted to +purchase, first, because the estate will look well if rounded off, and, +secondly, because the conveniences resulting therefrom would be as great +as the pleasures it would give me. The same work could be carried on at +both places, they could be visited at the same cost of travelling, they +could be put under one steward and practically one set of managers, and, +while one villa was kept up in style, the other house might be just kept +in repair. Moreover, one must take into account the cost of furniture +and head-servants, besides gardeners, smiths, and even the gamekeepers, +and it makes a great difference whether you have all these in one place +or have them distributed in several. Yet, on the other hand, I am +afraid it may be rash to risk so much of one's property to the same +storms and the same accidents, and it seems safer to meet the caprices +of Fortune by not putting all one's eggs into the same basket. Again, +there is something exceedingly pleasant in changing one's air and place, +and in the travelling from one estate to another. + +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. + +However, just as there was difference of opinion in the Senate, so there +is the same with the general public. Those who approved the proposal of +Caepio find fault with that of Macer as being vindictive and severe; +those who agree with Macer condemn Caepio's motion as lax and even +inconsistent, for they say it is incongruous to allow a man to keep his +place in the Senate when judges have been allotted to try him. There +was also a third proposal. Valerius Paulinus, who agreed in the main +with Caepio, proposed that an inquiry should be instituted into the case +of Theophanes, as soon as he had concluded his work on the deputation. +It was urged that during his conduct of the prosecution he had committed +a number of offences which came within the scope of the law under which +he had accused Bassus. However, the consuls did not approve this +proposal, though it found great favour with a large proportion of the +Senate. None the less, Paulinus gained a reputation thereby for justice +and consistency. When the Senate rose, Bassus came in for an ovation; +crowds gathered round him and greeted him with a remarkable +demonstration of their joy. Public sympathy had been aroused in his +favour by the old story of the hazards he had gone through being told +over again, by the association of his name with grave perils, by his +tall physique and the sadness and poverty of his old age. You must +consider this letter as the forerunner of another: you will be looking +out for my speech in full and with every detail, and you will have to +look out for it for some time to come, because, owing to the importance +of the subject, it will require more than a mere brief and cursory +revision. Farewell. + + +4.X.--TO STATIUS SABINUS. + +You tell me that Sabina, who left us her heirs, never gave any +instructions that her slave Modestus was to be granted his freedom, +though she left him a legacy in these words: "I give...to Modestus, +whom I have ordered to receive his liberty." You ask me what I think of +the matter. I have consulted some eminent lawyers and they all agree +that Modestus need not be given his freedom, because it was not +expressly granted by Sabina, nor his legacy, because she left it to him +as a slave. But the mistake is obvious to me, and so I think that we +ought to act as though Sabina had ordered him to be freed in express +terms, since she certainly was under the impression that she had ordered +it. I am sure that you will be of my way of thinking, for you are most +punctilious in carrying out the intentions of a dead person, which are, +with honourable heirs, tantamount to legal obligations. For with us +honour has as much weight as necessity has with others. So I propose +that we should allow Modestus to have his liberty and enjoy his legacy, +as if Sabina had taken all proper precautions to ensure that he should. +For a lady who has made a good choice of her heirs has surely taken all +the precautions necessary. Farewell. + + +4.XI.--TO CORNELIUS MINICIANUS. + +Have you heard that Valerius Licinianus is teaching rhetoric in Sicily? +I do not think you can have done, for the news is quite fresh. He is of +praetorian rank, and he used at one time to be considered one of our +most eloquent pleaders at the bar, but now he has fallen so low that he +is an exile instead of being a senator, and a mere teacher of rhetoric +instead of being a prominent advocate. Consequently in his opening +remarks he exclaimed, sorrowfully and solemnly: "O Fortune, what sport +you make to amuse yourself! For you turn senators into professors, and +professors into senators." There is so much gall and bitterness in that +expression that it seems to me that he became a professor merely to have +the opportunity of uttering it. Again, when he entered the hall wearing +a Greek pallium--for those who have been banished with the fire-and- +water formula are not allowed to wear the toga--he first pulled himself +together and then, glancing at his dress, he said, "I shall speak my +declamations in Latin." + +You will say that this is all very sad and pitiful, but that a man who +defiled his profession of letters by the guilt of incest deserves to +suffer. It is true that he confessed his guilt, but it is an open +question whether he did so because he was guilty or because he feared an +even heavier punishment if he denied it. For Domitian was in a great +rage and was boiling over with fury because his witnesses had left him +in the lurch. His mind was set upon burying alive Cornelia, the chief +of the Vestal Virgins, as he thought to make his age memorable by such +an example of severity, and, using his authority as Chief Pontiff, or +rather exercising the cruelty of a tyrant and the wanton caprice of a +ruler, he summoned the rest of the pontiffs not to the Palace but to his +Villa at Alba. There, with a wickedness just as monstrous as the crime +which he pretended to be punishing, he declared her guilty of incest, +without summoning her before him and giving her a hearing, though he +himself had not only committed incest with his brother's daughter but +had even caused her death, for she died of abortion during her +widowhood. He immediately despatched some of the pontiffs to see that +his victim was buried alive and put to death. Cornelia invoked in turns +the aid of Vesta and of the rest of the deities, and amid her many cries +this was repeated most frequently: "How can Caesar think me guilty of +incest, when he has conquered and triumphed after my hands have +performed the sacred rites?" It is not known whether her purpose was to +soften Caesar's heart or to deride him, whether she spoke the words to +show her confidence in herself or her contempt of the Emperor. Yet she +continued to utter them until she was led to the place of execution, and +whether she was innocent or not, she certainly appeared to be so. Nay, +even when she was being let down into the dreadful pit and her dress +caught as she was being lowered, she turned and readjusted it, and when +the executioner offered her his hand she declined it and drew back, as +though she put away from her with horror the idea of having her chaste +and pure body defiled by his loathsome touch. Thus she preserved her +sanctity to the last and displayed all the tokens of a chaste woman, +like Hecuba, "taking care that she might fall in seemly wise." + +Moreover, when Celer, the Roman knight who was accused of having +intrigued with Cornelia, was being scourged with rods in the Forum, he +did nothing but cry out, "What have I done? I have done nothing." +Consequently Domitian's evil reputation for cruelty and injustice blazed +up on all hands. He fastened upon Licinianus for hiding a freedwoman of +Cornelia on one of his farms. Licinianus was advised by his friends who +interested themselves on his behalf to take refuge in making a +confession and beg for pardon, if he wished to escape being flogged in +the Forum, and he did so. Herennius Senecio spoke for him in his +absence very much in the words of Homer, "Patroclus is fallen," for he +said, "Instead of being an advocate, I am the bearer of news: +Licinianus has removed himself." This so pleased Domitian that he +allowed his gratification to betray him into exclaiming, "Licinianus has +cleared us." He even went on to say that it would not do to press a man +who admitted his fault too hard, and gave him permission to get together +what he could of his belongings before his goods were confiscated, and +granted him a pleasant place of exile as a reward for his consideration. +Subsequently, by the clemency of the Emperor Nerva, he was removed to +Sicily, where he now is a Professor of Rhetoric and takes his revenge +upon Fortune in his prefatory remarks. + +You see how careful I am to obey your wishes, as I not only give you the +news of the town, but news from abroad, and minutely trace a story from +its very beginning. I took for granted that, as you were away from Rome +at the time, all you heard of Licinianus was that he had been banished +for incest. For rumour only gives one the gist of the matter, not the +various stages through which it passes. Surely I deserve that you +should return the compliment and write and tell me what is going on in +your town and neighbourhood, for something worthy of note is always +happening. But say what you will, provided you give me the news in as +long a letter as I have written to you. I shall count up not only the +pages, but the lines and the syllables. Farewell. + + +4.XII.--TO MATURUS ARRIANUS. + +You have a regard for Egnatius Marcellinus and you often commend him to +my notice; you will love him and commend him the more when you hear what +he has recently done. After setting out as quaestor for his province, +he lost by death a secretary, who was allotted to him, before the day +when the man's salary fell due, and he made up his mind and resolved +that he ought not to keep the money which had been paid over to him to +give to the secretary. So when he returned he consulted first Caesar +and then the Senate, on Caesar's recommendation, as to what was to be +done with the money. It was a trifling question, but, after all, it was +a question. The secretary's heirs claimed it should pass to them; the +prefects of the treasury claimed it for the people. The case was heard, +and counsel for the heirs and for the people pleaded in turn, and both +spoke well to the point. Caecilius Strabo proposed that it should be +paid over to the treasury; Baebius Macer that it should be given to the +man's heirs; Strabo carried the day. I hope you will praise Marcellinus +for his conduct, as I did on the spot, for, although he thinks it more +than enough to have been congratulated by the Emperor and the Senate, he +will be glad to have your commendation as well. All who are anxious for +glory and reputation are wonderfully pleased with the approbation and +praise even of men of no particular account, while Marcellinus has such +regard for you that he attaches the greatest importance to your opinion. +Besides, if he knows that the fame of his action has penetrated so far, +he cannot but be pleased at the ground his praises have covered and the +rapidity and distance they have travelled. For it somehow happens that +men prefer a wide even to a well-grounded reputation. Farewell. + + +4.XIII.--TO TACITUS. + +I am delighted that you have returned to Rome, for though your arrival +is always welcome, it is especially so to me at the present moment. I +shall be spending a few more days at my Tusculan villa in order to +finish a small work which I have in hand, for I am afraid that if I do +not carry it right through now that it is nearly completed I shall find +it irksome to start on it again. In the meanwhile, that I may lose no +time, I am sending this letter as a sort of forerunner to make a request +which, when I am in town, I shall ask you to grant. + +But first of all, let me tell you my reasons for asking it. When I was +last in my native district a son of a fellow townsman of mine, a youth +under age, came to pay his respects to me. I said to him, "Do you keep +up your studies?" "Yes," said he. "Where?" I asked. "At Mediolanum," +he replied. "But why not here?" I queried. Then the lad's father, who +was with him, and indeed had brought him, replied, "Because we have no +teachers here." "How is that?" I asked. "It is a matter of urgent +importance to you who are fathers"--and it so happened, luckily, that a +number of fathers were listening to me--"that your children should get +their schooling here on the spot. For where can they pass the time so +pleasantly as in their native place; where can they be brought up so +virtuously as under their parents' eyes; where so inexpensively as at +home? If you put your money together you could hire teachers at a +trifling cost, and you could add to their stipends the sums you now +spend upon your sons' lodgings and travelling money, which are no light +amounts. I have no children of my own, but still, in the interest of +the State, which I may consider as my child or my parent, I am prepared +to contribute a third part of the amount which you may decide to club +together. I would even promise the whole sum, if I were not afraid that +if I did so my generosity would be corrupted to serve private interests, +as I see is the case in many places where teachers are employed at the +public charge. There is but one way of preventing this evil, and that +is by leaving the right of employing the teachers to the parents alone, +who will be careful to make a right choice if they are required to find +the money. For those who perhaps would be careless in dealing with +other people's money will assuredly be careful in spending their own, +and they will take care that the teacher who gets my money will be worth +his salt when he will also get money from them as well. So put your +heads together, make up your minds, and let my example inspire you, for +I can assure you that the greater the contribution you lay upon me the +better I shall be pleased. You cannot make your children a more +handsome present than this, nor can you do your native place a better +turn. Let those who are born here be brought up here, and from their +earliest days accustom them to love and know every foot of their native +soil. I hope you may be able to attract such distinguished teachers +that boys will be sent here to study from the towns round about, and +that, as now your children flock to other places, so in the future other +people's children may flock hither." + +I thought it best to repeat this conversation in detail and from the +very beginning, to convince you how glad I shall be if you will +undertake my commission. As the subject is one of such importance, I +beg and implore you to look out for some teachers from among the throng +of learned people who gather round you in admiration of your genius, +whom we can sound on the matter, but in such a way that we do not pledge +ourselves to employ any one of them. For I wish to give the parents a +perfectly free hand. They must judge and choose for themselves; my +responsibilities go no further than a sympathetic interest and the +payment of my share of the cost. So if you find any one who is +confident in his own abilities, let him go to Comum, but on the express +understanding that he builds upon no certainty beyond his own confidence +in himself. Farewell. + + +4.XIV.--TO PATERNUS. + +Perhaps you are asking and looking out for a speech of mine, as you +usually do, but I am sending you some wares of another sort, exotic +trifles, the fruit of my playtime. You will receive with this letter +some hendecasyllabics of mine with which I pass my leisure hours +pleasantly when driving, or in the bath, or at dinner. They contain my +jests, my sportive fancies, my loves, sorrows, displeasures and wrath, +described sometimes in a humble, sometimes in a lofty strain. My object +has been to please different tastes by this variety of treatment, and I +hope that certain pieces will be liked by every one. Some of them will +possibly strike you as being rather wanton, but a man of your +scholarship will bear in mind that the very greatest and gravest authors +who have handled such subjects have not only dealt with lascivious +themes, but have treated them in the plainest language. I have not done +that, not because I have greater austerity than they--by no means, but +because I am not quite so daring. Otherwise, I am aware that Catullus +has laid down the best and truest regulations governing this style of +poetry in his lines: "For it becomes a pious bard to be chaste himself, +though there is no need for his verses to be so. Nay, if they are to +have wit and charm, they must be voluptuous and not too modest." + +You may guess from this what store I set on your critical judgment when +I say that I prefer you should weigh the whole in the balance rather +than pick out a few for your special praise. Yet pieces, perfect in +themselves, cease to appear so the moment they are all on a dead level +of perfection. Besides, a reader of judgment and acumen ought not to +compare different pieces with one another, but to weigh each on its own +merits and not to think one inferior to another, if it is perfect of its +kind. But why say more? What more foolish than to excuse or commend +mere trifles with a long preface? Still there is one thing of which I +think I should advise you, and it is that I am thinking of calling these +trifles "Hendecasyllables," a title which simply refers to the single +metre employed. So, whether you prefer to call them epigrams, or +idylls, or eclogues, or little poems, as many do, or any other name, +remember that I only offer you "Hendecasyllables." I appeal to your +candour to speak to me frankly about my tiny volume as you would to a +third person, and this is no hard request. For if this trifling work of +mind were my chef d'oeuvre, or my one solitary composition, it might +perhaps seem harsh to say, "Seek out some other employment for your +talent," but it is perfectly gentle and kindly criticism to say, "You +have another sphere in which you show to greater advantage." Farewell. + + +4.XV.--TO FUNDANUS. + +If I have ever been guided by judgment, it has been in the strength of +regard I have for Asinius Rufus. He is one of a thousand, and a devoted +admirer of all good men among whom why may I not include myself? He is +on the very closest of terms of friendship with Cornelius Tacitus, and +you know what an honourable man Tacitus is. So if you have any high +opinion of both Tacitus and myself, you must also think as highly of +Rufus as you do of us, since similarity of character is perhaps the +strongest bond for cementing friendships. Rufus has a number of +children. Even in this respect he has acted the part of a good citizen, +in that he was willing to freely undertake the responsibilities entailed +upon him by the fruitfulness of his wife, in an age when the advantages +of being childless are such that many people consider even one son to be +a burden. He has scorned all those advantages, and has also become a +grandfather. For a grandfather he is, thanks to Saturius Firmus, whom +you will love as I do when you know him as intimately. + +I mention these particulars to show you what a large and numerous +household you can oblige by a single favour, and I am induced to ask it +from you, in the first place, because I wish to do so, and in the +second, owing to a good omen. For we hope and prophesy that next year +you will be consul, and we are led to make that forecast by your own +good qualities, and by the opinion that the Emperor has of you. But it +also happens that Asinius Bassus, the eldest son of Rufus, will be +quaestor in the same year, and he is a young man even more worthy than +his father, though I don't know whether I ought to mention such a fact, +which the modesty of the young fellow would deny, but which his father +desires me to think and openly declare. Though you always repose +confidence in what I say, it is difficult, I know, for you to credit my +account of an absent man when I say that he possesses splendid industry, +probity, learning, wit, application, and powers of memory, as you will +discover for yourself when you have tried him. I only wish that our age +was so productive of men of high character that there were others to +whom you ought to give preference over Bassus; if it did, I should be +the first to advise and exhort you to take a good look round, and +consider long and carefully on whom your choice should fall. But as it +is--yet no, I do not wish to boast about my friend, I will merely say +that he is a young man well deserving of adoption by you as a son in the +old-fashioned way. For prudent men, like yourself, ought to receive as +children from the State children such as we are accustomed to hope that +Nature will bestow upon us. When you are consul it will become you to +have as quaestor a man whose father was praetor, and whose relatives are +of consular rank, especially as he, although still young, is in his turn +already in their judgment an honour to them and their family. So I hope +you will grant my request and take my advice. + +Above all, pardon me if you think I am acting prematurely, first, +because in a State where to get a thing done depends on the earliness of +the application, those who wait for the proper time find the fruit not +only ripe but plucked, and, secondly, when one is anxious to get a +favour it is very pleasant to enjoy in advance the certainty of +obtaining it. Give Bassus the opportunity of respecting you even now as +consul, and do you entertain a friendly regard for him as your quaestor, +and let us who are devoted to both of you have the enjoyment of this +double satisfaction. For while our regard for you and Bassus is such +that we shall use all our resources, energy, and influence to obtain the +advancement of Bassus, no matter to what consul he is assigned as +quaestor--as well as the advancement of any quaestor that may be +allotted to you--it would be immensely gratifying to us if we could at +one and the same time prove our friendship and advance your interests as +consul by helping the cause of our young friend, and if you of all +people, whose wishes the Senate is so ready to gratify, and in whose +recommendations they place such implicit trust, were to stand forth as +the seconder of my desires. Farewell. + + +4.XVI.--TO VALERIUS PAULINUS. + +Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, on my account, on your own, and on that of +the public. The student still has his meed of recompense. Just +recently, when I had to speak in the Court of the Hundred, I could find +no way in except by crossing the tribunal and passing through the +judges, all the other places were so crowded and thronged. Moreover, a +certain young man of fashion who had his tunic torn to pieces--as often +happens in a crowd--kept his ground for seven long hours with only his +toga thrown round him. For my speech lasted all that time; and though +it cost me a great effort, the results were more than worth it. Let us +therefore prosecute our studies, and not allow the idleness of other +people to be an excuse for laziness on our part. We can still find an +audience and readers, provided only that our compositions are worth +hearing, and worth the paper they are written on. Farewell. + + +4.XVII.--TO ASINIUS GALLUS. + +You recommend and press me to take up the case of Corellia, in her +absence, against Caius Caecilius, the consul-designate. I thank you for +the recommendation, but I am a little hurt at your pressing me; it was +right of you to recommend me to do so, and so inform me of the case, but +I needed no pressing to do what it would have been scandalous for me to +leave undone. Am I the man to hesitate a second about protecting the +rights of a daughter of Corellius? It is true that I am not only an +acquaintance, but also a close friend of him whom you ask me to oppose. +Moreover, he is a man of position and the office for which he has been +chosen is a great one, one indeed for which I cannot but feel all the +greater respect, inasmuch as I recently held it myself. It is natural +that a man should desire the dignities to which he has himself attained +to be held in the very highest esteem. + +However, all those considerations seem unimportant and trifling when I +consider that I am about to champion the daughter of Corellius. I +picture to myself that worthy gentleman, a man second to none in our age +for gravity, uprightness of life, and quickness of judgment. I began to +love him because I admired him so much, and the better I learned to know +him the more my admiration grew--a result that rarely happens. Yes, and +I knew his character thoroughly; he had no secrets from me, I knew him +in his sportive and serious moods, in his moments both of sorrow and +joy. I was but a young man, yet, young as I was, he held me in honour, +and I will make bold to say that he paid me the respect he would have +paid to one of his own years. When I sought advancement, it was he who +canvassed and spoke for me; when I entered upon an office he introduced +me and stood by my side; in all administrative work he gave me counsel +and kept me straight; in short, in all my public duties, despite his +weakness and his years, he showed himself to have the energy and fire of +youth. How he helped to build up my reputation at home and in public, +and even with the Emperor himself! For when it so happened that the +conversation in the presence of the Emperor Nerva turned upon the +subject of the promising young men of the day, and several speakers sang +my praises, Corellius kept silence for a little while--a fact which +added material weight to his remarks--and then he said in that grave +manner you knew so well, "I must be careful how I praise Secundus, for +he never does anything without taking my advice." The words were a +tribute such as it would have been unreasonable for me to ask for or +expect, for they amounted to this, that I never acted except in the most +prudent manner, since I invariably acted on the advice of a man of his +consummate prudence. + +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. + +But, you say, I recite my compositions and I cannot be sure that they +did. Granted, but they may have been content with their own judgment, +whereas I am too modest to think that any composition of mine is +sufficiently perfect when it has no other approbation but my own. + +Consequently, these are the reasons why I recite in public, first, +because a man who recites becomes a keener critic of his own writings +out of deference to his audience, and, secondly, because, where he is in +doubt, he can decide by referring the point to his auditors. Moreover, +he constantly meets with criticism from many quarters, and even if it is +not openly expressed, he can tell what each person thinks by watching +the expression and eyes of his hearers, or by a nod, a motion of the +hand, a murmur, or dead silence. All these things are tolerably clear +indications which enable one to distinguish judgment from complaisance. +And so, if any one who was present at my reading takes the trouble to +look through the same compositions, he will find that I have either +altered or omitted certain passages, in compliance perhaps with his +judgment, though he never uttered a word to me. But I am arguing on +this point as though I invited the whole populace to my reading room and +not merely a few friends to my private chamber, while the possession of +a large circle of friends has been a source of pride to many men and a +reproach to none. Farewell. + + +5.IV.--TO JULIUS VALERIANUS. + +The incident is trifling in itself, but it is leading up to important +consequences. Sollers, a man of praetorian rank, asked permission of +the Senate to establish a market on his property. The delegates of the +people of Vicetia opposed it: Tuscilius Nominatus appeared as their +counsel, and the hearing was postponed. At a later meeting of the +Senate, the Vicetini entered without their counsel and said that they +had been tricked,--I cannot say whether it was merely a hasty +expression, or whether they really thought they had been. When they +were asked by the praetor Nepos whom they had instructed to appear for +them, they said, "We have the same counsel as before." To the question +whether on the previous occasion he had appeared for them gratuitously, +they said they had given him 6000 sesterces, and on being asked whether +they paid him a further fee, they replied, "Yes, a thousand denarii." +Nepos demanded that Nominatus should be called, and matters went no +further on that day. But, I fancy, the case has gone to much greater +lengths than that, for it often happens that a mere touch is sufficient +to set things in commotion, and then they spread far and wide. I have +made you prick up your ears, so now you will have to ask in your very +nicest manner for me to tell you the rest of the story, unless you +decide to come to Rome for the sequel, and prefer to see it for yourself +rather than read about it. Farewell. + + +5.V.--TO NONIUS MAXIMUS. + +I have been told that Caius Fannius is dead, and the news has greatly +upset me, in the first place, because I loved him for his taste and +learning, and, secondly, because I used to avail myself of his judgment. +He was naturally keen-witted; experience had sharpened his acumen, and +he could detect the truth without hesitation. I am troubled, too, owing +to the circumstances in which he died, for he has died without revoking +an old will which contains no mention of those for whom he had the +greatest affection, and is in favour of those with whom he has been on +bad terms. However, this might have been got over--what is most serious +is that he has left unfinished his finest work. Although his time was +taken up with his profession as a pleader, he was engaged in writing the +lives of those who were put to death or banished by Nero. He had +already finished three books, in an unadorned, accurate style and in the +Latin language. They are something between narrative and history, and +the eagerness which people displayed to read them made him all the more +desirous to finish the remaining volumes. + +It always seems to me hard and untimely when people die who are engaged +upon some immortal work. For those who are devoted to their pleasures +and live a sort of day-to-day existence exhaust every day the reasons +why they should go on living, whereas when people think of posterity and +keep alive their memory by their works, their death, come as it may, is +always sudden, inasmuch as it cuts short something that is still +unfinished. However, Caius Fannius had had for a long time a +presentiment of what was to befall him. He dreamt in the quiet of the +night that he was lying on his bed dressed for study and that he had a +writing desk before him, as was his wont. Then he thought that Nero +came to him, sat down on the couch, and after producing the first volume +which Fannius had written about his crimes, turned over the pages to the +end. He did the same with the second and third volumes, and then +departed. Fannius was much alarmed, and interpreted the dream to mean +that he would leave off writing just where Nero had left off reading, +and so the event proved. + +When I think of it I feel grieved to think how many wakeful hours and +how much labour Fannius toiled through in vain. I see before me my own +mortality and my own writings. Nor do I doubt that you have the same +thought and anxiety for the work which is still on your hands. Let us +do our best, therefore, while life lasts, that death may find as few +works of ours as possible for him to destroy. Farewell. + + +5.VI.--TO DOMITIUS APOLLINARIS. + +I was charmed with the kind consideration which led you, when you heard +that I was about to visit my Tuscan villa in the summer, to advise me +not to do so during the season that you consider the district unhealthy. +Undoubtedly, the region along the coast of Tuscany is trying and +dangerous to the health, but my property lies well back from the sea; +indeed, it is just under the Apennines, which are the healthiest of our +mountain ranges. However, that you may not have the slightest anxiety +on my account, let me tell you all about the climatic conditions, the +lie of the land, and the charms of my villa. It will be as pleasant +reading for you as it is pleasant writing for me. + +In winter the air is cold and frosty: myrtles, olives and all other +trees which require constant warmth for them to do well, the climate +rejects and spurns, though it allows laurel to grow, and even brings it +to a luxuriant leaf. Occasionally, however, it kills it, but that does +not happen more frequently than in the neighbourhood of Rome. In +summer, the heat is marvellously tempered: there is always a breath of +air stirring, and breezes are more common than winds. Hence the number +of old people to be found there: you find the grandfathers and great- +grandfathers of the young people still living; you are constantly +hearing old stories and tales of the past, so that, when you set foot +there, you may fancy that you have been born in another century. + +The contour of the district is most beautiful. Picture to yourself an +immense amphitheatre, such as only Nature can create, with a wide- +spreading plain ringed with hills, and the summits of the hills +themselves covered with tall and ancient forests. There is plentiful +and varied hunting to be had. Down the mountain slopes there are +stretches of underwoods, and among these are rich, deep-soiled hillocks- +-where if you look for a stone you will have hard work to find one-- +which are just as fertile as the most level plains, and ripen just as +rich harvests, though later in the season. Below these, along the whole +hillsides, stretch the vineyards which present an unbroken line far and +wide, on the borders and lowest level of which comes a fringe of trees. +Then you reach the meadows and the fields--fields which only the most +powerful oxen and the stoutest ploughs can turn. The soil is so tough +and composed of such thick clods that when it is first broken up it has +to be furrowed nine times before it is subdued. The meadows are +jewelled with flowers, and produce trefoil and other herbs, always +tender and soft, and looking as though they were always fresh. For all +parts are well nourished by never-failing streams, and even where there +is most water there are no swamps, for the declivity of the land drains +off into the Tiber all the moisture that it receives and cannot itself +absorb. + +The Tiber runs through the middle of the plain; it is navigable for +ships, and all the grain is carried down stream to the city, at least in +winter and spring. In summer the volume of water dwindles away, leaving +but the name of a great river to the dried-up bed, but in the autumn it +recovers its flood. You would be delighted if you could obtain a view +of the district from the mountain height, for you would think you were +looking not so much at earth and fields as at a beautiful landscape +picture of wonderful loveliness. Such is the variety, such the +arrangement of the scene, that wherever the eyes fall they are sure to +be refreshed. + +My villa, though it lies at the foot of the hill, enjoys as fine a +prospect as though it stood on the summit; the ascent is so gentle and +easy, and the gradient so unnoticeable, that you find yourself at the +top without feeling that you are ascending. The Apennines lie behind +it, but at a considerable distance, and even on a cloudless and still +day it gets a breeze from this range, never boisterous and rough, for +its strength is broken and lost in the distance it has to travel. Most +of the house faces south; in summer it gets the sun from the sixth hour, +and in winter considerably earlier, inviting it as it were into the +portico, which is broad and long to correspond, and contains a number of +apartments and an old-fashioned hall. In front, there is a terrace laid +out in different patterns and bounded with an edging of box; then comes +a sloping ridge with figures of animals on both sides cut out of the +box-trees, while on the level ground stands an acanthus-tree, with +leaves so soft that I might almost call them liquid. Round this is a +walk bordered by evergreens pressed and trimmed into various shapes; +then comes an exercise ground, round like a circus, which surrounds the +box-trees that are cut into different forms, and the dwarf shrubs that +are kept clipped. Everything is protected by an enclosure, which is +hidden and withdrawn from sight by the tiers of box-trees. Beyond is a +meadow, as well worth seeing for its natural charm as the features just +described are for their artificial beauty, and beyond that there +stretches an expanse of fields and a number of other meadows and +thickets. + +At the head of the portico there runs out the dining-room, from the +doors of which can be seen the end of the terrace with the meadow and a +good expanse of country beyond it, while from the windows the view on +the one hand commands one side of the terrace and the part of the villa +which juts out, and on the other the grove and foliage of the adjoining +riding-school. Almost opposite to the middle of the portico is a +summer-house standing back a little, with a small open space in the +middle shaded by four plane-trees. Among them is a marble fountain, +from which the water plays upon and lightly sprinkles the roots of the +plane-trees and the grass plot beneath them. In this summer-house there +is a bed-chamber which excludes all light, noise, and sound, and +adjoining it is a dining-room for my friends, which faces upon the small +court and the other portico, and commands the view enjoyed by the +latter. There is another bed-chamber, which is leafy and shaded by the +nearest plane-tree and built of marble up to the balcony; above is a +picture of a tree with birds perched in the branches equally beautiful +with the marble. Here there is a small fountain with a basin around the +latter, and the water runs into it from a number of small pipes, which +produce a most agreeable sound. In the corner of the portico is a +spacious bed-chamber leading out of the dining-room, some of its windows +looking out upon the terrace, others upon the meadow, while the windows +in front face the fish-pond which lies just beneath them, and is +pleasant both to eye and ear, as the water falls from a considerable +elevation and glistens white as it is caught in the marble basin. This +bed-chamber is beautifully warm even in winter, for it is flooded with +an abundance of sunshine. + +The heating chamber for the bath adjoins it, and on a cloudy day we turn +in steam to take the place of the sun's warmth. Next comes a roomy and +cheerful undressing room for the bath, from which you pass into a cool +chamber containing a large and shady swimming bath. If you prefer more +room or warmer water to swim in, there is a pond in the court with a +well adjoining it, from which you can make the water colder when you are +tired of the warm. Adjoining the cold bath is one of medium warmth, for +the sun shines lavishly upon it, but not so much as upon the hot bath +which is built farther out. There are three sets of steps leading to +it, two exposed to the sun, and the third out of the sun though quite as +light. Above the dressing-room is a ball court where various kinds of +exercise can be taken, and a number of games can be played at once. Not +far from the bath-room is a staircase leading to a covered passage, at +the head of which are three rooms, one looking out upon the courtyard +with the four plane-trees, the second upon the meadow, and the third +upon the vineyards, so each therefore enjoys a different view. At the +end of the passage is a bed-chamber constructed out of the passage +itself, which looks out upon the riding-course, the vineyards, and the +mountains. Connected with it is another bed-chamber open to the sun, +and especially so in winter time. Leading out of this is an apartment +which adjoins the riding-course of the villa. + +Such is the appearance and the use to which the front of my house is +put. At the side is a raised covered gallery, which seems not so much +to look out upon the vineyards as to touch them; in the middle is a +dining-room which gets the invigorating breezes from the valleys of the +Apennines, while at the other side, through the spacious windows and the +folding doors, you seem to be close upon the vineyards again with the +gallery between. On the side of the room where there are no windows is +a private winding staircase by which the servants bring up the +requisites for a meal. At the end of the gallery is a bed-chamber, and +the gallery itself affords as pleasant a prospect therefrom as the +vineyards. Underneath runs a sort of subterranean gallery, which in +summer time remains perfectly cool, and as it has sufficient air within +it, it neither admits any from without nor needs any. Next to both +these galleries the portico commences where the dining-room ends, and +this is cold before mid-day, and summery when the sun has reached his +zenith. This gives the approach to two apartments, one of which +contains four beds and the other three, and they are bathed in sunshine +or steeped in shadow, according to the position of the sun. + +But though the arrangements of the house itself are charming, they are +far and away surpassed by the riding-course. It is quite open in the +centre, and the moment you enter your eye ranges over the whole of it. +Around its borders are plane-trees clothed with ivy, and so while the +foliage at the top belongs to the trees themselves, that on the lower +parts belongs to the ivy, which creeps along the trunk and branches, and +spreading across to the neighbouring trees, joins them together. +Between the plane-trees are box shrubs, and on the farther side of the +shrubs is a ring of laurels which mingle their shade with that of the +plane-trees. At the far end, the straight boundary of the riding-course +is curved into semicircular form, which quite changes its appearance. +It is enclosed and covered with cypress-trees, the deeper shade of which +makes it darker and gloomier than at the sides, but the inner circles-- +for there are more than one--are quite open to the sunshine. Even roses +grow there, and the warmth of the sun is delightful as a change from the +cool of the shade. When you come to the end of these various winding +alleys, the boundary again runs straight, or should I say boundaries, +for there are a number of paths with box shrubs between them. In places +there are grass plots intervening, in others box shrubs, which are +trimmed to a great variety of patterns, some of them being cut into +letters forming my name as owner and that of the gardener. Here and +there are small pyramids and apple-trees, and now and then in the midst +of all this graceful artificial work you suddenly come upon what looks +like a real bit of the country planted there. The intervening space is +beautified on both sides with dwarf plane-trees; beyond these is the +acanthus-tree that is supple and flexible to the hand, and there are +more boxwood figures and names. + +At the upper end is a couch of white marble covered with a vine, the +latter being supported by four small pillars of Carystian marble. Jets +of water flow from the couch through small pipes and look as if they +were forced out by the weight of persons reclining thereon, and the +water is caught in a stone cistern and then retained in a graceful +marble basin, regulated by pipes out of sight, so that the basin, while +always full, never overflows. The heavier dishes and plates are placed +at the side of the basin when I dine there, but the lighter ones, formed +into the shapes of little boats and birds, float on the surface and +travel round and round. Facing this is a fountain which receives back +the water it expels, for the water is thrown up to a considerable height +and then falls down again, and the pipes that perform the two processes +are connected. Directly opposite the couch is a bed-chamber, and each +lends a grace to the other. It is formed of glistening marble, and +through the projecting folding doors you pass at once among the foliage, +while both from the upper and lower windows you look out upon the same +green picture. Within is a little cabinet which seems to belong at once +to the same and yet another bed-chamber. This contains a bed and it has +windows on every side, yet the shade is so thick without that but little +light enters, for a wonderfully luxuriant vine has climbed up to the +roof and covers the whole building. You can fancy you are in a grove as +you lie there, only that you do not feel the rain as you do among trees. +Here too a fountain rises and immediately loses itself underground. +There are a number of marble chairs placed up and down, which are as +restful for persons tired with walking as the bed-chamber itself. Near +these chairs are little fountains, and throughout the whole riding- +course you hear the murmur of tiny streams carried through pipes, which +run wherever you please to direct them. These are used to water the +shrubs, sometimes in one part, sometimes in another, and at other times +all are watered together. + +I should long since have been afraid of boring you, had I not set out in +this letter to take you with me round every corner of my estate. For I +am not at all apprehensive that you will find it tedious to read about a +place which certainly would not tire you to look at, especially as you +can get a little rest whenever you desire, and can sit down, so to +speak, by laying down the letter. Moreover, I have been indulging my +affection for the place, for I am greatly attached to anything that is +mainly the work of my own hands or that some one else has begun and I +have taken up. In short--for there is no reason is there? why I should +not be frank with you, whether my judgments are sound or unsound--I +consider that it is the first duty of a writer to select the title of +his work and constantly ask himself what he has begun to write about. +He may be sure that so long as he keeps to his subject-matter he will +not be tedious, but that he will bore his readers to distraction if he +starts dragging in extraneous matter to make weight. Observe the length +with which Homer describes the arms of Achilles, and Virgil the arms of +Aeneas--yet in both cases the description seems short, because the +author only carries out what he intended to. Observe how Aratus hunts +up and brings together even the tiniest stars--yet he does not exceed +due limits. For his description is not an excursus, but the end and aim +of the whole work. It is the same with myself, if I may compare my +lowly efforts with their great ones. I have been trying to give you a +bird's eye view of the whole of my villa, and if I have introduced no +extraneous matter and have never wandered off my subject, it is not the +letter containing the description which is to be considered of excessive +size, but rather the villa which has been described. + +However, let me get back to the point I started from, lest I give you an +opportunity of justly condemning me by my own law, by not pursuing this +digression any farther. I have explained to you why I prefer my Tuscan +house to my other places at Tusculum, Tibur and Praeneste. For in +addition to all the beauties I have described above, my repose here is +more profound and more comfortable, and therefore all the freer from +anxiety. There is no necessity to don the toga, no neighbour ever calls +to drag me out; everything is placid and quiet; and this peace adds to +the healthiness of the place, by giving it, so to speak, a purer sky and +a more liquid air. I enjoy better health both in mind and body here +than anywhere else, for I exercise the former by study and the latter by +hunting. Besides, there is no place where my household keep in better +trim, and up to the present I have not lost a single one of all whom I +brought with me. I hope Heaven will forgive the boast, and that the +gods will continue my happiness to me and preserve this place in all its +beauty. Farewell. + + +5.VII.--TO CALVISIUS. + +It is beyond question that a community cannot be appointed heir and +cannot take a share of an inheritance before the general distribution of +the estate. None the less, Saturninus, who left us his heirs, +bequeathed a fourth share to our community of Comum, and then, in lieu +of that fourth share, assigned them permission to take 400,000 sesterces +before the division of the estate. As a matter of strict law, this is +null and void, but if you only look at the intentions of the deceased, +it is quite sound and valid. I don't know what the lawyers will think +of what I am going to say, but to me the wishes of the deceased seem +worthy of more consideration than the letter of the law, especially as +regards the sum which he wished to go to our common birthplace. +Moreover, I, who gave 1,600,000 sesterces our of my own money to my +native place, am not the man to refuse it a little more than a third +part of 400,000 sesterces which have come to me by a lucky windfall. I +know that you too will not refuse to fall in with my views, as your +affection for the same community is that of a thoroughly loyal citizen. +I shall be glad, therefore, if at the next meeting of the decurions, you +will lay before them the state of the law, and I hope you will do so +briefly and modestly. Then add that we make them an offer of the +400,000 sesterces, in accordance with the wishes of Saturninus. But be +sure to point out that the munificence and generosity are his, and that +all we are doing is to obey his wishes. I have refrained from writing +in a public manner on this business, firstly, because I knew very well +that our friendship was such, and that your judgment was so ripe, that +you could and ought to act for me as well as for yourself, and then +again I was afraid that I might not preserve in a letter that exact mean +which you will have no difficulty in preserving in a speech. For a +man's expression, his gestures, and even the tones of his voice help to +indicate the precise meaning of his words, while a letter, which is +deprived of all these advantages, is exposed to the malignity of those +who put upon it what interpretation they choose. Farewell. + + +5.VIII.--TO TITINIUS CAPITO. + +You urge me to write history, nor are you the first to do so. Many +others have often given me the same advice, and I am quite willing to +follow it, not because I feel confident that I should succeed in so +doing--for it would be presumption to think so until one had tried--but +because it seems to me a very proper thing not to let people be +forgotten whose fame ought never to die, and to perpetuate the glories +of others together with one's own. Personally, I confess that there is +nothing on which I have set my heart so much as to win a lasting +reputation, and the ambition is a worthy one for any man, especially for +one who is not conscious of having committed any wrong and has no cause +to fear being remembered by posterity. Hence it is that both day and +night I scheme to find a way "to raise myself above the ordinary dull +level": my ambition goes no farther than that, for it is quite beyond +my dreams "that my victorious name should pass from mouth to mouth." +"And yet--!"--but I am quite satisfied with the fame which history alone +seems to promise me. For one reaps but a small reward from oratory and +poetry, unless our eloquence is really first-class, while history seems +to charm people in whatever style it is written. For men are naturally +curious; they are delighted even by the baldest relation of facts, and +so we see them carried away even by little stories and anecdotes. + +Again, there is a precedent in my own family which impels me towards +writing history. My uncle, who was also my father by adoption, was a +historian of the most scrupulous type, and I find all wise men agree +that one can do nothing better than follow in the footsteps of one's +ancestors, provided that they have gone in the right path themselves. +Why, then, do I hesitate? For this reason, that I have delivered a +number of pleadings of serious importance, and it is my intention to +revise them carefully--though my hopes of fame from them are only +slight--lest, in spite of all the trouble they have given me, they +should perish with me, just for want of receiving the last polishing and +additional touches. For if you have a view to what posterity will say, +all that is not absolutely finished must be classed as incomplete +matter. You will say: "Yes, but you can touch up your pleadings and +compose history at the same time." I wish I could, but each is so great +a task that I should think I had done very well to have finished either. + +I began to plead in the Forum in my nineteenth year, and it is only just +now that I begin to see darkly what an orator ought to be. What would +happen if I were to take on a new task in addition to this one? Oratory +and history have many things in common, but they also differ greatly in +the points that seem common to both. There is narrative in both, but of +a different type; the humblest, meanest and most common-place subjects +suit the one; the other requires research, splendour, and dignity. In +the one you may describe the bones, muscles, and nerves of the body, in +the other brawny parts and flowing manes. In oratory one wants force, +invective, sustained attack; in history the charm is obtained by +copiousness and agreeableness, even by sweetness of style. Lastly, the +words used, the forms of speech, and the construction of the sentences +are different. For, as Thucydides remarks, it makes all the difference +whether the composition is to be a possession for all time or a +declamation for the moment; oratory has to do with the latter, history +with the former. + +Hence it is that I do not feel tempted to hopelessly jumble together two +dissimilar styles which differ from one another just because of their +great importance, and I am afraid I should become bewildered by such a +terrible medley and write in the one style just where I ought to be +employing the other. For the meantime, therefore, to use the language +of the courts, I ask your gracious permission to go on with my pleading. +However, do you be good enough even now to consider the period which it +would be best for me to tackle. Shall it be a period of ancient history +which others have dealt with before me? If so, the materials are all +ready to hand, but the putting them together would be a heavy task. On +the other hand, if I choose a modern period which has not been dealt +with, I shall get but small thanks and am bound to give serious offence. +For, besides the fact that the general standard of morality is so lax +that there is much more to censure than to praise, you are sure to be +called niggardly if you praise and too censorious if you censure, though +you may have been lavish of appreciation and scrupulously guarded in +reproach. However, these considerations do not stay me, for I have the +courage of my convictions. I only beg of you to prepare the way for me +in the direction you urge me to take, and choose a subject for me, so +that, when I am at length ready to take pen in hand, no other +overpowering reason may crop up to make me hesitate and delay my +purpose. Farewell. + + +5.IX.--TO RUFUS. + +I had gone down to the basilica of Julius to listen to the speeches of +the counsel to whom I had to reply from the last postponement. The +judges were in their places; the decemvirs had arrived; the advocates +were moving to and fro, and then came a long silence, broken at last by +a message from the praetor. The centumvirs were dismissed and the +hearing was put off, at which I was glad, for I am never so well +prepared that I am not pleased at having extra time given me. The +postponement was due to Nepos, the praetor-designate, who hears cases +with the most scrupulous attention to legal forms. He had issued a +short edict warning both plaintiffs and defendants that he would +strictly carry out the decree of the Senate. Attached to the edict was +a copy of the decree, which provided "that all persons engaged in any +lawsuit are hereby ordered to take an oath before their cases are heard, +that they have neither given nor promised any sum to their advocates, +nor have entered into any contract to pay them for their advocacy." In +these words and other long sentences as well, advocates were forbidden +to sell their services and litigants to buy them, although, when a suit +is over, the latter are allowed to offer their counsel a sum not +exceeding ten thousand sesterces. The praetor, who was presiding over +the Court of the Centumviri, was embarrassed by this decree of Nepos and +gave us an unexpected holiday, while he made up his mind whether or not +he should follow the example set him. Meanwhile, the whole town is +discussing the edict of Nepos, some favourably, others adversely. Many +people are saying: "Well, we have found a man to set the crooked +straight. But have there been no praetors before Nepos, and who is +Nepos that he should mend our public morals?" On the other hand, a +number of people argue: "He has acted quite rightly. He has mastered +the laws before entering office, he has read the decrees of the Senate, +he is putting a stop to a disgraceful system of bargaining, and he will +not allow a most honourable profession to be bought and sold in a +scandalous way." That is how people are talking everywhere, and there +will be no majority for one side or the other till it is known how the +matter will end. It is very deplorable, but it is the accepted rule +that good or bad counsels are approved or condemned according to whether +they turn out well or badly. The result is that we find the self-same +deed ascribed sometimes to zeal, sometimes to vanity, and even to love +of liberty and downright madness. Farewell. + + +5.X.--TO SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS. + +Do, I beg of you, fulfil the promise I made in my verses when I pledged +my word that our common friends should see your compositions. People +are asking for them every day, clamouring for them even, and, if you are +not careful, you may find yourself served with a writ to publish them. +I myself am very slow to make up my mind to publish, but you are far +more of a slow-coach than even I am. So either decide at once, or take +care that I do not drag those books of yours from you by the lash of my +satire, as I have failed to coax them out by my hendecasyllabics. The +work is absolutely finished, and if you polish it any more you will only +impair it without making it shine the more brightly. Do let me see your +name on the title page; do let me hear that the volumes of my friend +Tranquillus are being copied, read, and sold. It is only fair, +considering the strength of our attachment, that you should afford me +the same gratification that I have afforded you. Farewell. + + +5.XI.--TO CALPURNIUS FABATUS. + +I have received your letter, from which I gather that you have dedicated +a most beautiful portico in the joint names of yourself and your son, +and that on the following day you promised a sum of money for the +decoration of the gates, so as to signalise the completion of your +earlier act of generosity by immediately beginning a new one. I am +delighted to hear it, in the first place, on account of the reputation +you will secure, of which some part will extend to me, owing to the +closeness of our friendship; secondly, because I see that the name of my +father-in-law will be perpetuated by these choice works; and, lastly, +because our country is in such a flourishing state. Pleasant as it is +to see her honoured by any one, it is trebly gratifying when the honour +is paid by yourself. It only remains for me to pray Heaven to confirm +you in this habit of mind, and bestow upon you long length of years. +For I venture to prophesy that, when your latest promise is complete, +you will set about something else. When once a man's generosity has +been aroused it knows not where to stop, for the more it is practised +the more beautiful it becomes in the eyes of the generous. Farewell. + + +5.XII.--TO TERENTIUS SCAURUS. + +Before giving a recital of a little speech which I had some thoughts of +publishing, I called a few friends to hear it, so as to put me on my +mettle, but not many, so that I might get candid criticism. For there +are two reasons why I give these recitals, one that I may screw myself +up to the proper pitch by their anxiety that I should do myself justice, +and the other that they may correct me if I happen to make a mistake and +do not notice it because the blunder is my own. I got what I wanted and +I found some friends who gave me their advice freely; while I myself +noticed certain passages which required correction. I have revised the +speech which I am sending you. You will see what the subject is from +the title, and the speech itself will explain all other points. It +ought now to become so familiar to people as to be understood without +any preface. But I trust that you will write and tell me what you think +of it as a whole as well as in parts, for I shall be the more careful to +suppress it, or the more determined to publish it, according as your +critical judgment inclines one way or the other. Farewell. + + +5.XIII.--TO VALERIANUS. + +In compliance with your request--and the promise I made to comply in +case you asked me--I will write and tell you the upshot of the demand of +Nepos in the matter of Tuscilius Nominatus. Nominatus was brought into +the Senate, and he pleaded his own case. There was no one to accuse +him, for the legates of the Vicetini, so far from making matters +difficult for him, smoothed his path. The substance of his defence was +that in his conduct of the case he had failed not in loyalty but in +resolution, that he had come down with the intention of pleading and had +been seen in the Senate-house, but had been discouraged by what his +friends told him in conversation, and so had left the chamber. He had +been advised, he said, not to oppose, especially in the Senate, a member +of that body who was now fighting hard not so much to get leave to +establish a market on his estate, as to maintain his influence, +reputation, and position, and he was warned that if he did not give way +he would come in for greater ill-will than had been recently shown him. +It was true that he had been hissed as he left the chamber on the +previous hearing, but only by a few people. He spoke in a very +appealing way and shed a number of tears, and, throughout his pleading, +he used his undoubted abilities as a speaker to make it seem that he was +not so much defending his conduct as asking pardon for it, which was +certainly the safest and best course for him to adopt. + +He was acquitted on the motion of the consul-designate, Afranius Dexter, +whose speech may be summarised as follows. He argued that Nominatus +would have done much better if he had gone through with the cause of the +Vicetini with the same resolution with which he had undertaken it, but +that since his conduct, though blameworthy, was not fraudulent, and he +had not been convicted of having committed any crime, he had better be +acquitted on the understanding that he should return to the Vicetini the +fees he had received from them. All present agreed, with the exception +of Fabius Aper, who proposed that Nominatus should be disbarred for the +term of five years, and he continued firmly in that opinion though he +drew no one over to side with him. He even produced the law under which +the meeting of the Senate had been convened, and forced Dexter, who had +been the first to propose the resolution opposed to his, to swear that +his proposal was for the good of the State. Though this demand was +perfectly legal, certain members loudly protested against it, on the +ground that Aper seemed to be accusing Dexter of showing undue favour to +Nominatus. But before any further speeches were made to the motion, +Nigrinus, a tribune of the plebs, read out a learned and weighty +remonstrance in which he complained that counsel were bought and sold, +that they would sell their clients' cases, that they conspired together +to make litigation, and that, instead of being satisfied with fame, they +drew large and fixed amounts at the expense of citizens. He recited the +heads of various laws, he recalled to their memories certain decrees of +the Senate, and at last proposed that, as the laws and the decrees of +the Senate were treated as a dead letter, they should petition their +excellent Emperor to find a remedy for such a scandal. + +A few days elapsed, and then the Emperor issued an edict which was at +once moderate and severe. You will be able to read the text of it, for +it appears in the official register. Imagine how delighted I am that I +have always made a point of refusing for my services as counsel not only +to enter into any understanding to receive presents and gifts in any +shape, but even friendly acknowledgments! We ought indeed to refrain +from doing anything that is not quite honourable, not because it is +forbidden, but because we should be ashamed to do it; still it is +gratifying to see a custom which you have never allowed yourself to +follow publicly forbidden. Very likely--and in fact there is no doubt +on the point--I shall reap fewer praises and my reputation will not +shine as brightly when all the members of my profession find themselves +compelled to behave as I did quite of my own free will. In the meantime +I enjoy the pleasure of hearing some of my friends say that I must have +foreseen what was coming, while others banter me by declaring that the +new edict has been designed to put a stop to my plunder and greed. +Farewell. + + +5.XIV.--TO PONTIUS. + +I had already retired to my township when the news was brought to me +that Cornutus Tertullus had accepted the curatorship of the Aemilian +Way. I cannot tell you how delighted I am, both for his own sake and +for mine. I am pleased for his sake, because, though he is +unquestionably entirely void of all ambitious aspirations, he cannot but +be gratified at being offered a post without seeking it; and I am +pleased on my own account, because I am all the more satisfied with my +own employment now that Cornutus has had a position of equal eminence +given to him. For it is just as gratifying to be placed on an equality +with worthy citizens as to receive a step up in one's official position. +And where is there a better man than Cornutus, or a man of more noble +life? Where will you find one who follows more closely the ancient +pattern in all that is praiseworthy? I know his virtues not by hearsay +alone, though he enjoys a richly deserved reputation everywhere, but +from a personal experience extending over many years. + +We both of us entertain an affectionate regard, and have done for years, +for all the worthy persons of both sexes whom our age has produced, and +this community of friendships has thrown us together into the most +intimate relations. Another link in the chain has been the closeness of +our public connection. As you know, he was my colleague as prefect of +the Treasury--thus realising, so to speak, my dearest wish--and again he +was associated with me in the consulship. It was there that I obtained +my clearest insight into the character and real greatness of the man, +when I followed his judgment as a magistrate and reverenced him as a +parent, while my veneration was inspired not so much by the ripeness of +his years as by the ripeness of his general character. Hence it is that +I congratulate both him and myself, for public reasons quite as much as +for personal ones, in that now at last a virtuous life leads a man not +to peril, as it used to do, but to public honours. + +I should let my pen run on for ever if I were to give my joy a free +course, so I will turn back to tell you how I was engaged when the +messenger came and found me. I was with my wife's grandfather and her +aunt, and in the company of friends I had long wished to see. I was +going the round of the estate, hearing no end of complaints from my +tenants, reading over with an unwilling eye and in a cursory fashion the +accounts--for I have been consecrating my energies to papers and books +of quite a different style--and I had even begun to make preparations +for my journey. For I am rather pressed owing to the shortness of my +leave, and I am reminded of my own public duties by hearing of those +which have been entrusted to Cornutus. I hope that your Campanian villa +may spare you about the same time, lest, when I return to town, I should +lose a single day of your company. Farewell. + + +5.XV.--TO ARRIUS ANTONINUS. + +It is when I try to equal your verses that I most fully appreciate how +excellent they are. For just as painters rarely succeed in putting a +perfectly beautiful face on their canvas without doing injustice to the +original, so, though I slave hard with your verses as my model, I always +fall short. Let me urge you then to publish as many as possible, so +good that every one will burn to imitate them, and yet no one, or but +very few, will succeed in the attempt. Farewell. + + +5.XVI.--TO MARCELLINUS. + +I am writing to you in great distress. The younger daughter of your +friend Fundanus is dead, and I never saw a girl of a brighter and more +lovable disposition, nor one who better deserved length of days or even +to live for ever. She had hardly completed her fourteenth year, yet she +possessed the prudence of old age and the sedateness of a matron, with +the sweetness of a child and the modesty of a maiden. How she used to +cling round her father's neck! How tenderly and modestly she embraced +us who were her father's friends! Her nurses, her teachers and tutors, +how well she loved them, each according to his station! With what +application and quickness she used to read, while her amusements were +never carried to excess and never overstepped the mark. What +resignation, patience and fortitude she showed during her last illness! +She obeyed her doctor's orders, she cheered her sister and father, and +when her body had lost all its strength, she kept herself alive by the +vigour of her mind. This never failed her right up to the end, nor was +it broken down by her long illness or by the fear of death, and this has +made us miss her all the more severely and made our sorrow all the +heavier to bear. What a sad, heart-rending funeral it was! The moment +of her death seemed even more cruel than death itself, for she had just +been betrothed to a youth of splendid character; the day of the wedding +had been decided upon, and we had already been summoned to attend it. +Think into what terrible grief our joy was changed! I really cannot +tell you in words how acutely I felt it when I heard Fundanus himself, +for one sorrow always leads on to other bitter sorrows--giving the order +that the money he had intended to lay out upon wedding raiment, pearls +and gems, should be spent upon incense, unguents and scents. + +He is, it is true, a man of learning and wisdom, who from early years +has devoted himself to the deeper studies and the nobler arts, but, at a +moment like this, all the philosophy he has ever heard from others or +uttered himself is put on one side. All virtues but one are disregarded +for the time being--he can only think of parental love. You will +forgive and even praise him for this, if you consider the loss he has +suffered. For he has lost a daughter who reflected in herself, not only +his face and feature, but his character, and one who was the living +image of her father in every particular. If you send him a letter in +the midst of this rightful grief of his, be careful to use words of +solace which will not flay the heart or deal roughly with his sorrow, +but which will soothe and ease his pain. The time which has elapsed +will make him the more likely to admit your words of consolation, for, +just as a raw wound first shrinks from the touch of the doctor's hand, +then bears it without flinching and actually welcomes it, so with mental +anguish we reject and fly from consolation when the pain is fresh, then +after a time we look for it and find relief in its soothing application. +Farewell. + + +5.XVII.--TO SPURINNA. + +I know what an interest you take in the liberal arts, and how delighted +you are when young men of rank do anything worthy of their ancestry. +That is why I am losing no time to tell you that to-day I made one of +the audience of Calpurnius Piso. He was reading his poem on the Legends +of the Stars, and it was a learned and very excellent composition. It +was written in fluent, graceful, and smooth elegiacs, and rose even to +lofty heights as occasion demanded. The style was cleverly varied, in +some places it soared, in others it was subdued; passing from the grand +to the commonplace, from thinness to richness, and from lively to +severe, and in each case with consummate skill. The sweetness of his +voice lent it an additional charm, and his modesty made even his voice +the sweeter, while his blushes and his nervousness, which were very +plain to see, still further set off the reading. I don't know why, but +diffidence becomes a man of letters much more than over-confidence. +However, to cut the story short,--though I would gladly say more, +because such performances are all the more charming when given by a +young man, and all the rarer when he is of noble birth,--as soon as the +reading was concluded, I embraced the youth with great cordiality, and +by showering praises upon him--which are always the best incentive when +giving advice--I urged him to go on as he had begun, and hold out to his +descendants the light which his own ancestors had held out to him. I +congratulated his excellent mother and also his brother, who made one of +the audience, and indeed achieved as much reputation for brotherly +feeling as his brother Calpurnius did for his eloquence, for while the +latter was reading everybody noticed first the nervous look on the +brother's face, and then the expression of joy. I pray Heaven that I +may often have such news for you, for I am very partial to the age I +live in, and I hope that it may not prove barren and worthless. I am +really most anxious that our young men of rank should have some other +beautiful objects in their houses besides the busts of their ancestors, +and it seems to me that the latter tacitly approve and encourage these +two young men, and even recognise them as their true descendants, which +is in itself a sufficiently high compliment to both. Farewell. + + +5.XVIII.--TO CALPURNIUS MACER. + +As all is well with you, all is well with me. You have your wife with +you, and your son; you enjoy your sea-view, your fountains, greenery, +estate, and your charming villa. I cannot doubt that the latter is most +charming, inasmuch as it was the home of the man who was even happier +there than when he became the happiest man on earth. I am staying at my +Tuscan house; I hunt and I study, sometimes in turns, sometimes both +together, and I cannot as yet tell you whether I find it more difficult +to catch anything or to compose anything. Farewell. + + +5.XIX.--TO PAULINUS. + +I notice how kindly you treat your servants, so I will be quite frank +with you, and tell you with what indulgence I treat mine. I always bear +in mind that phrase in Homer, "like a father mild," and our own Latin +phrase, "father of his family." Even if I had naturally been of a +harsher and less genial disposition, the weakness of my freedman Zosimus +would melt my harshness, for one has to show him greater kindness just +in proportion as he needs it more at his time of life. He is an honest +fellow, devoted to his duties and well-educated, but his chief +accomplishment and, so to speak, his particular recommendation is his +skill in playing comedy, in which he is really admirable. For his +delivery is sharp, intelligent, to the point, and even graceful, and he +plays the harp much better than is usually expected from a comedian. He +is also so clever in reading speeches, history and poetry, that you +would fancy he had never studied anything else. I have gone into all +this detail to show you how many services this one man can render me, +and how pleasant they are. Moreover, I have long entertained a great +regard for him, which has been increased by his serious ill-health, for +Nature has so arranged it that nothing fires and stimulates our +affection so much as the fear of losing the object of it, and I have on +more than one occasion been afraid of losing Zosimus. + +Some years since, while he was reciting with great earnestness and fire, +he spat blood, and I sent him on that account to Egypt, from which +country he recently returned with his health restored. Then, after +severely taxing his voice for days together, he was warned of his old +malady by a slight cough, and once more brought up some blood. So I +have decided to send him to the farm which you own at Forum Julii, for I +have often heard you say that the air there is healthy, and the milk +peculiarly beneficial to complaints of this kind. I should be glad, +therefore, if you will write to your people to take him in at the house +and give him lodging, and accommodate him with anything he may require +at his expense. His needs will be very small, for he is so sparing and +abstemious that his frugality leads him to deny himself, not only +dainties, but even that which is necessary for his weak health. When he +sets out, I will give him sufficient travelling money for one who is +going to your part of the country. Farewell. + + +5.XX.--TO URSUS. + +Within a short time of their impeaching Julius Bassus the Bithynians +brought a second action, this time against Rufus Varenus, their +proconsul, the very man whom, in their action against Bassus, they had +received permission, at their own request, to retain as their advocate. +On being brought into the Senate they applied for a commission to be +appointed to investigate their charges, and Varenus sought leave to be +allowed to bring witnesses from the province in his defence. To this +the Bithynians objected, and the matter came to a debate. I acted on +behalf of Varenus, and my pleading was not without good results. I am +justified in saying this, as my written speech will show whether I spoke +well or badly. For in delivering a speech chance has a controlling +influence on success or failure. A speech either gains or loses a good +deal according to the memory, voice, and gesture of the speaker, and +even the time taken in delivery, to say nothing of the popularity or +unpopularity of the accused; whereas a written speech profits nothing +from these advantages, loses nothing by these disadvantages, and is +subject neither to lucky nor unlucky accidents. + +Fonteius Magnus, one of the Bithynians, replied to me at great length, +but he made very few points. Like most of the Greeks, he mistakes +volubility for fulness of treatment, and they pour forth in a single +breath a perfect torrent of long-winded and frigid periods. Julius +Candidus rather wittily says apropos of this that eloquence is one thing +and loquacity another. For there have been only one or two people who +can be described as eloquent--not one indeed if Marcus Antonius is to be +believed,--but scores of persons possess what Candidus calls loquacity, +and loquacity and impudence usually go together. On the following day, +Homullus spoke on behalf of Varenus, and delivered a skilful, powerful, +and polished speech, while Nigrinus replied with terseness, dignity, and +elegance. Acilius Rufus, the consul-designate, proposed that the +Commission of Enquiry asked for by the Bithynians should be allowed, and +said not a word about the request of Varenus, which was tantamount to +proposing that it should be negatived. Cornelius Priscus, the consular, +moved that the requests of both the accusers and the accused should be +granted, and he carried a majority with him. The point we asked for was +not within the four corners of the law and was not quite covered by +precedent, but none the less it was entirely reasonable, though why it +was reasonable I shall not tell you in this letter, in order to make you +ask for a copy of my pleading. For if it be true, as Homer says, that +"men always prize the song the most which rings newest in their ears," I +must beware lest by allowing myself to go chattering on in this letter I +destroy all the charm of novelty in that little speech of mine, which is +the main thing it has to commend itself to you. Farewell. + + +5.XXI.--TO SATURNINUS. + +Your letter has aroused in me conflicting emotions, for part of the news +it contained made me glad, and part made me sorrowful. I was glad to +hear that you were detained in town, for though you say it was much +against your will, it was not against mine, especially as you promise +that you will give a reading as soon as I arrive. So I thank you for +waiting my coming. The bad news was that Julius Valens is lying +seriously ill, although even this should not sadden us, if we only think +of what is best for him, for it will be much better for him to obtain as +speedy a release as possible from a disease which is past all cure. No, +the real sad news, or rather heartrending news is that Julius Avitus +died on ship-board while returning from his quaestorship, miles away +from the brother who was devoted to him, and from his mother and +sisters. Those are circumstances which do not affect him now that he is +dead, but they did affect him on his death-bed, and they are a great +trouble to his surviving relatives, especially as he was a young man of +such promise and would have reached the highest offices in the State if +only his qualities had had time to ripen. And now he has been cut down +in the very flower of manhood! What a keen and enthusiastic student he +was, how well read, and what a number of essays he had made in writing! +Yet all have perished with him and left no fruit for posterity to reap. +But it is useless for me to indulge my sorrow, for if once one gives it +free play, even the slightest occasions for grief are magnified into +crushing blows. I will write no more, and so check the tears which this +letter has made to flow. Farewell. + + + +END OF VOL. 1. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Letters of the Younger Pliny, +with an introductory essay by John B. Firth. First Series. + diff --git a/3234.zip b/3234.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..170d91b --- /dev/null +++ b/3234.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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