(and I hardly think you can have seen it yet, or you would have told
me), go there as soon as possible. I saw it yesterday, and I blame
myself for not having seen it sooner. At the foot of a little hill, well
wooded with old cypress trees, a spring gushes out, which, breaking up
into different and unequal streams, forms itself, after several
windings, into a large, broad basin of water, so transparently clear
that you may count the shining pebbles, and the little pieces of money
thrown into it, as they lie at the bottom. From thence it is carried off
not so much by the declivity of the ground as by its own weight and
exuberance. A mere stream at its source, immediately, on quitting this,
you find it expanded into a broad river, fit for large vessels even,
allowing a free passage by each other, according as they sail with or
against the stream. The current runs so strong, though the ground is
level, that the large barges going down the river have no occasion to
make use of their oars; while those going up find it difficult to make
headway even with the assistance of oars and poles: and this alternate
interchange of ease and toil, according as you turn, is exceedingly
amusing when one sails up and down merely for pleasure. The banks are
well covered with ash and poplar, the shape and colour of the trees
being as clearly and distinctly reflected in the stream as if they were
actually sunk in it. The water is cold as snow, and as white too. Near
it stands an ancient and venerable temple, in which is placed the river-
god Clitumnus clothed in the usual robe of state; and indeed the
prophetic oracles here delivered sufficiently testify the immediate
presence of that divinity. Several little chapels are scattered round,
dedicated to particular gods, distinguished each by his own peculiar
name and form of worship, and some of them, too, presiding over
different fountains. For, besides the principal spring, which is, as it
were, the parent of all the rest, there are several other lesser
streams, which, taking their rise from various sources, lose themselves
in the river; over which a bridge is built that separates the sacred
part from that which lies open to common use. Vessels are allowed to
come above this bridge, but no person is permitted to swim except below
it. The Hispellates, to whom Augustus gave this place, furnish a public
bath, and likewise entertain all strangers, at their own expense.
Several villas, attracted by the beauty of this river, stand about on
its borders. In short, every surrounding object will afford you
entertainment. You may also amuse yourself with numberless inscriptions
upon the pillars and walls, by different persons, celebrating the
virtues of the fountain, and the divinity that presides over it. Many of
them you will admire, while some will make you laugh; but I must correct
myself when I say so; you are too humane, I know, to laugh upon such an
occasion. Farewell.
LXXXIX -- To ARISTO
As you are no less acquainted with the political laws of your country
(which include the customs and usages of the senate) than with the
civil, I am particularly desirous to have your opinion whether I was
mistaken in an affair which lately came before the house, or not. This I
request, not with a view of being directed in my judgment as to what is
passed (for that is now too late), but in order to know how to act in
any possible future case of the kind. You will, ask, perhaps, "Why do
you apply for information concerning a point on which you ought to be
well instructed?" Because the tyranny of former reigns,[128] as it
introduced a neglect and ignorance of all other parts of useful
knowledge, so particularly of what relates to the customs of the senate;
for who is there so tamely industrious as to desire to learn what he can
never have an opportunity of putting in practice? Besides, it is not
very easy to retain even the knowledge one has acquired where no
opportunity of employing it occurs. Hence it was that Liberty, on her
return[129] found us totally ignorant and inexperienced; and thus in the
warmth of our eagerness to taste her sweets, we are sometimes hurried
off to action, ere we are well instructed how we ought to act. But by
the institution of our ancestors, it was wisely provided that the young
should learn from the old, not only by precept, but by their own
observation, how to behave in that sphere in which they were one day
themselves to move; while these, again, in their turn, transmitted the
same mode of instruction to their children. Upon this principle it was
that the youth were sent early into the army, that by being taught to
obey they might learn to command, and, whilst they followed others,
might be trained by degrees to become leaders themselves. On the same
principle, when they were candidates for any office, they were obliged
to stand at the door of the senate-house, and were spectators of the
public council before they became members of it. The father of each
youth was his instructor upon these occasions, or if he had none, some
person of years and dignity supplied the place of a father. Thus they
were taught by that surest method of discipline, Example; how far the
right of proposing any law to the senate extended; what privileges a
senator had in delivering his opinion in the house; the power of the
magistrates in that assembly, and the rights of the rest of the members;
where it is proper to yield, and where to insist; when and how long to
speak, and when to be silent; how to make necessary distinctions between
contrary opinions, and how to improve upon a former motion: in a word,
they learnt by this means every senatorial usage. As for myself, it is
true indeed, I served in the army when I was a youth; but it was at a
time when courage was suspected, and want of spirit rewarded; when
generals were without authority, and soldiers without modesty; when
there was neither discipline nor obedience, but all was riot, disorder,
and confusion; in short, when it was happier to forget than to remember
what one learnt. I attended likewise in my youth the senate, but a
senate shrinking and speechless; where it was dangerous to utter one's
opinion, and mean and pitiable to be silent. What pleasure was there in
learning, or indeed what could be learnt, when the senate was convened
either to do nothing whatever or to give their sanction to some
consummate infamy! when they were assembled either for cruel or
ridiculous purposes, and when their deliberations were never serious,
though often sad! But I was not only a witness to this scene of
wretchedness, as a spectator; I bore my share of it too as a senator,
and both saw and suffered under it for many years; which so broke and
damped my spirits that they have not even yet been able fully to recover
themselves. It is within quite recently (for all time seems short in
proportion to its happiness) that we could take any pleasure in knowing
what relates to or in setting about the duties of our station. Upon
these considerations, therefore, I may the more reasonably entreat you,
in the first place, to pardon my error (if I have been guilty of one),
and, in the next, to lead me out of it by your superior knowledge: for
you have always been diligent to examine into the constitution of your
country, both with respect to its public and private, its ancient and
modern, its general and special laws. I am persuaded indeed the point
upon which I am going to consult you is such an unusual one that even
those whose great experience in public business must have made them, one
would have naturally supposed, acquainted with everything were either
doubtful or absolutely ignorant upon it. I shall be more excusable,
therefore, if I happen to have been mistaken; as you will earn the
higher praise if you can set me right in an affair which it is not clear
has ever yet fallen within your observation. The enquiry then before the
house was concerning the freedmen of Afranius Dexter, who being found
murdered, it was uncertain whether he fell by his own hands, or by those
of his household; and if the latter, whether they committed the fact in
obedience to the commands of Afranius, or were prompted to it by their
own villainy. After they had been put to the question, a certain senator
(it is of no importance to mention his name, but if you are desirous to
know, it was myself) was for acquitting them; another proposed that they
should be banished for a limited time; and a third that they should
suffer death.
These several opinions were so extremely different that it was
impossible either of them could stand with the other. For what have
death and banishment in common with one another? Why, no more than
banishment and acquittal have together. Though an acquittal approaches
rather nearer a sentence of exile than a sentence of death does: for
both the former agree at least in this that they spare life, whereas the
latter takes it away. In the meanwhile, those senators who were for
punishing with death, and those who proposed banishment, sat together on
the same side of the house: and thus by a present appearance of
unanimity suspended their real disagreement. I moved, therefore, that
the votes for each of the three opinions should be separately taken, and
that two of them should not, under favour of a short truce between
themselves, join against the third. I insisted that such of the members
who were for capital punishment should divide from the others who voted
for banishment; and that these two distinct parties should not be
permitted to form themselves into a body, in opposition to those who
declared for acquittal, when they would immediately after disunite
again: for it was not material that they agreed in disliking one
proposal, since they differed with respect to the other two. It seemed
very extraordinary that he who moved the freedmen should be banished,
and the slaves suffer death, should not be allowed to join these two in
one motion, but that each question should be ordered to be put to the
house separately; and yet that the votes of one who was for inflicting
capital punishment upon the freedmen should be taken together with that
of one who was for banishing them. For if, in the former instance, it
was reasonable that the motion should be divided, because it
comprehended two distinct propositions, I could not see why, in the
latter case, suffrages so extremely different should be thrown into the
same scale. Permit me, then, notwithstanding the point is already
settled, to go over it again as if it were still undecided, and to lay
before you those reasons at my ease, which I offered to the house in the
midst of much interruption and clamour. Let us suppose there had been
only three judges appointed to hear this cause, one of whom was of
opinion that the parties in question deserved death; the other that they
should only be banished; and the third that they ought to be acquitted:
should the two former unite their weight to overpower the latter, or
should each be separately balanced? For the first and second are no more
compatible than the second and third. They ought therefore in the same
manner to be counted in the senate as contrary opinions, since they were
delivered as different ones. Suppose the same person had moved that they
should both have been banished and put to death, could they possibly, in
pursuance of this opinion, have suffered both punishments? Or could it
have been looked upon as one consistent motion when it united two such
different decisions? Why then should the same opinion, when delivered by
distinct persons, be considered as one and entire, which would not be
deemed so if it were proposed by a single man? Does not the law
manifestly imply that a distinction is to be made between those who are
for a capital conviction, and those who are for banishment, in the very
form of words made use of when the house is ordered to divide? You who
are of such an opinion, come to this side; you who are of any other, go
over to the side of him whose opinion you follow. Let us examine this
form, and weigh every sentence: You who are of this opinion: that is,
for instance, you who are for banishment, come on this side; namely, on
the side of him who moved for banishment. From whence it is clear he
cannot remain on this side of those who are for death. You who are for
any other: observe, the law is not content with barely saying another,
but it adds any. Now can there be a doubt as to whether they who declare
for a capital conviction are of any other opinion than those who propose
exile! Go over to the side of him whose opinion you follow: does not the
law seem, as it were, to call, compel, drive over, those who are of
different opinions, to contrary sides? Does not the consul himself point
out, not only by this solemn form of words, but by his hand and gesture,
the place in which every man is to remain, or to which he is to go over?
"But," it is objected, "if this separation is made between those who
vote for inflicting death, and those who are on the side of exile, the
opinion for acquitting the prisoners must necessarily prevail." But how
does that affect the parties who vote? Certainly it does not become them
to contend by every art, and urge every expedient, that the milder
sentence may not take place. "Still," say they, "those who are for
condemning the accused either capitally or to banishment should be first
set in opposition to those who are for acquitting them, and afterwards
weighed against each other." Thus, as, in certain public games, some
particular combatant is set apart by lot and kept to engage with the
conqueror; so, it seems, in the senate there is a first and second
combat, and of two different opinions, the prevailing one has still a
third to contend with. What? when any particular opinion is received, do
not all the rest fall of course? Is it reasonable, then, that one should
be thrown into the scale merely to weigh down another? To express my
meaning more plainly: unless the two parties who are respectively for
capital punishment and exile immediately separate upon the first
division of the house it would be to no purpose afterwards to dissent
from those with whom they joined before. But I am dictating instead of
receiving instruction. -- Tell me then whether you think these votes
should have been taken separately? My motion, it is true, prevailed;
nevertheless I am desirous to know whether you think I ought to have
insisted upon this point, or have yielded as that member did who
declared for capital punishment? For convinced, I will not say of the
legality, but at least of the equity of my proposal, he receded from his
opinion, and went over to the party for exile: fearing perhaps, if the
votes were taken separately (which he saw would be the case), the
freedmen would be acquitted: for the numbers were far greater on that
side than on either of the other two, separately counted. The
consequence was that those who had been influenced by his authority,
when they saw themselves forsaken by his going over to the other party,
gave up a motion which they found abandoned by the first proposer, and
deserted, as it were, with their leader. Thus the three opinions were
resolved at length into two; and of those two, one prevailed, and the
other was rejected; while the third, as it was not powerful enough to
conquer both the others, had only to choose to which of the two it would
yield. Farewell.
XC -- To PATERNUS
THE sickness lately in my family, which has carried off several of my
servants, some of them, too, in the prime of their years, has been a
great affliction to me. I have two consolations, however, which, though
by no means equivalent to such a grief, still are consolations. One is,
that as I have always readily manumitted my slaves, their death does not
seem altogether immature, if they lived long enough to receive their
freedom: the other, that I have allowed them to make a kind of
will,[130] which I observe as religiously as if they were legally
entitled to that privilege. I receive and obey their last requests and
injunctions as so many authoritative commands, suffering them to dispose
of their effects to whom they please; with this single restriction, that
they leave them to some one in my household, for to slaves the house
they are in is a kind of state and commonwealth, so to speak. But though
I endeavor to acquiesce under these reflections, yet the same tenderness
which led me to show them these indulgences weakens and gets the better
of me. However, I would not wish on that account to become harder:
though the generality of the world, I know, look upon losses of this
kind in no other view than as a diminution of their property, and fancy,
by cherishing such an unfeeling temper, they show a superior fortitude
and philosophy. Their fortitude and philosophy I will not dispute. But
humane, I am sure, they are not; for it is the very criterion of true
manhood to feel those impressions of sorrow which it endeavors to
resist, and to admit not to be above the want of consolation. But
perhaps I have detained you too long upon this subject, though not so
long as I would. There is a certain pleasure even in giving vent to
one's grief; especially when we weep on the bosom of a friend who will
approve, or, at least, pardon, our tears. Farewell.
XCI -- To MACRINUS
Is the weather with you as rude and boisterous as it is with us? All
here is in tempest and inundation. The Tiber has swelled its channel,
and overflowed its banks far and wide. Though the wise precaution of the
emperor had guarded against this evil, by cutting several outlets to the
river, it has nevertheless flooded all the fields and valleys and
entirely overspread the whole face of the flat country. It seems to have
gone out to meet those rivers which it used to receive and carry off in
one united stream, and has driven them back to deluge those countries it
could not reach itself. That most delightful of rivers, the Anio, which
seems invited and detained in its course by the villas built along its
banks, has almost entirely rooted up and carried away the woods which
shaded its borders. It has overthrown whole mountains, and, in
endeavouring to find a passage through the mass of ruins that obstructed
its way, has forced down houses, and risen and spread over the
desolation it has occasioned. The inhabitants of the hill countries, who
are situated above the reach of this inundation, have been the
melancholy spectators of its dreadful effects, having seen costly
furniture, instruments of husbandry, ploughs, and oxen with their
drivers, whole herds of cattle, together with the trunks of trees, and
beams of the neighbouring villas, floating about in different parts. Nor
indeed have these higher places themselves, to which the waters could
not reach up, escaped the calamity. A continued heavy rain and
tempestuous hurricane, as destructive as the river itself, poured down
upon them, and has destroyed all the enclosures which divided that
fertile country. It has damaged likewise, and even overturned, some of
the public buildings, by the fall of which great numbers have been
maimed, smothered, bruised. And thus lamentation over the fate of
friends has been added to losses. I am extremely uneasy lest this
extensive ruin should have spread to you: I beg therefore, if it has
not, you will immediately relieve my anxiety; and indeed I desire you
would inform me though it should have done so; for the difference is not
great between fearing a danger, and feeling it; except that the evil one
feels has some bounds, whereas one's apprehensions have none. For we can
suffer no more than what actually has happened but we fear all that
possibly could happen. Farewell.
XCII -- To RUFINUS
The common notion is certainly quite a false one, that a man's will is a
kind of mirror in which we may clearly discern his real character, for
Domitius Tullus appears a much better man since his death than he did
during his lifetime. After having artfully encouraged the expectations
of those who paid court to him, with a view to being his heirs, he has
left his estate to his niece whom he adopted. He has given likewise
several very considerable legacies among his grandchildren, and also to
his great-grandson. In a word, he has shown himself a most kind relation
throughout his whole will; which is so much the more to be admired as it
was not expected of him. This affair has been very much talked about,
and various opinions expressed: some call him false, ungrateful, and
forgetful, and, while thus railing at him in this way as if they were
actually disinherited kindred, betray their own dishonest designs:
others, on the contrary, applaud him extremely for having disappointed
the hopes of this infamous tribe of men, whom, considering the
disposition of the times, it is but prudence to deceive. They add that
he was not at liberty to make any other will, and that he cannot so
properly be said to have bequeathed, as returned, his estate to his
adopted daughter, since it was by her means it came to him. For
Curtilius Mancia, whose daughter Domitius Lucanus, brother to this
Tullus, married, having taken a dislike to his son-in-law, made this
young lady (who was the issue of that marriage) his heiress, upon
condition that Lucanus her father would emancipate her. He accordingly
did so, but she being afterwards adopted by Tullus, her uncle, the
design of Mancia's will was entirely frustrated. For these two brothers
having never divided their patrimony, but living together as joint-
tenants of one common estate, the daughter of Lucanus, notwithstanding
the act of emancipation, returned back again, together with her large
fortune, under the dominion of her father, by means of this fraudulent
adoption. It seems indeed to have been the fate of these two brothers to
be enriched by those who had the greatest aversion to them. For Domitius
Afer, by whom they were adopted, left a will in their favour, which he
had made eighteen years before his death; though it was plain he had
since altered his opinion with regard to the family, because he was
instrumental in procuring the confiscation of their father's estate.
There is something extremely singular in the resentment of Afer, and the
good fortune of the other two; as it was very extraordinary, on the one
hand, that Domitius should endeavour to extirpate from the privileges of
society a man whose children he had adopted, and, on the other, that
these brothers should find a parent in the very person that ruined their
father. But Tullus acted justly, after having been appointed sole heir
by his brother, in prejudice to his own daughter, to make her amends by
transferring to her this estate, which came to him from Afer, as well as
all the rest which he had gained in partnership with his brother. His
will therefore deserves the higher praise, having been dictated by
nature, justice, and sense of honour; in which he has returned his
obligations to his several relations, according to their respective good
offices towards him, not forgetting his wife, having bequeathed to that
excellent woman, who patiently endured much for his sake, several
delightful villas, besides a large sum of money. And indeed she deserved
so much the more at his hands, in proportion to the displeasure she
incurred on her marriage with him. It was thought unworthy a person of
her birth and repute, so long left a widow by her former husband, by
whom she had issue, to marry, in the decline of her life, an old man,
merely for his wealth, and who was so sickly and infirm that, even had
he passed the best years of his youth and health with her, she might
well have been heartily tired of him. He had so entirely lost the use of
all his limbs that he could not move himself in bed without assistance;
and the only enjoyment he had of his riches was to contemplate them. He
was even (sad and disgusting to relate) reduced to the necessity of
having his teeth washed and scrubbed by others: in allusion to which he
used frequently to say, when he was complaining of the indignities which
his infirmities obliged him to suffer, that he was every day compelled
to lick his servant's fingers. Still, however, he lived on, and was
willing to accept of life upon such terms. That he lived so long as he
did was particularly owing, indeed, to the care of his wife, who,
whatever reputation she might lose at first by her marriage, acquired
great honour by her unwearied devotion as his wife. -- Thus I have given
you all the news of the town, where nothing is talked of but Tullus. It
is expected his curiosities will shortly be sold by auction. He had such
an abundant collection of very old statues that he actually filled an
extensive garden with them, the very same day he purchased it; not to
mention numberless other antiques, lying neglected in his lumber-room.
If you have anything worth telling me in return, I hope you will not
refuse the trouble of writing to me: not only as we are all of us
naturally fond, you know, of news, but because example has a very
beneficial influence upon our own conduct. Farewell.
XCIII -- To GALLUS