I get up just when I please; generally about sunrise, often earlier, but
seldom later than this. I keep the shutters closed, as darkness and
silence wonderfully promote meditation. Thus free and abstracted from
these outward objects which dissipate attention, I am left to my own
thoughts; nor suffer my mind to wander with my eyes, but keep my eyes in
subjection to my mind, which, when they are not distracted by a
multiplicity of external objects, see nothing but what the imagination
represents to them. If I have any work in hand, this is the time I
choose for thinking it out, word for word, even to the minutest accuracy
of expression. In this way I compose more or less, according as the
subject is more or less difficult, and I find myself able to retain it.
I then call my secretary, and, opening the shutters, dictate to him what
I have put into shape, after which I dismiss him, then call him in
again, and again dismiss him. About ten or eleven o'clock (for I do not
observe one fixed hour), according to the weather, I either walk upon my
terrace or in the covered portico, and there I continue to meditate or
dictate what remains upon the subject in which I am engaged. This
completed, I get into my chariot, where I employ myself as before, when
I was walking, or in my study; and find this change of scene refreshes
and keeps up my attention. On my return home, I take a little nap, then
a walk, and after that repeat out loud and distinctly some Greek or
Latin speech, not so much for the sake of strengthening my voice as my
digestion;[162] though indeed the voice at the same time is strengthened
by this practice. I then take another walk, am anointed, do my
exercises, and go into the bath. At supper, if I have only my wife or a
few friends with me, some author is read to us; and after supper we are
entertained either with music or an interlude. When that is finished, I
take my walk with my family, among whom I am not without some scholars.
Thus we pass our evenings in varied conversation; and the day, even when
at the longest, steals imperceptibly away. Upon some occasions I change
the order in certain of the articles abovementioned. For instance, if I
have studied longer or walked more than usual, after my second sleep,
and reading a speech or two aloud, instead of using my chariot I get on
horseback; by which means I ensure as much exercise and lose less time.
The visits of my friends from the neighbouring villages claim some part
of the day; and sometimes, by an agreeable interruption, they come in
very seasonably to relieve me when I am feeling tired. I now and then
amuse myself with hunting, but always take my tablets into the field,
that, if I should meet with no game, I may at least bring home
something. Part of my time too (though not so much as they desire) is
allotted to my tenants; whose rustic complaints, along with these city
occupations, make my literary studies still more delightful to me.
Farewell. --
CIX -- To PAULINUS
As you are not of a disposition to expect from your friends the ordinary
ceremonial observances of society when they cannot observe them without
inconvenience to themselves, so I love you too steadfastly to be
apprehensive of your taking otherwise than I wish you should my not
waiting upon you on the first day of your entrance upon the consular
office, especially as I am detained here by the necessity of letting my
farms upon long leases. I am obliged to enter upon an entirely new plan
with my tenants: for under the former leases, though I made them very
considerable abatements, they have run greatly in arrear. For this
reason several of them have not only taken no sort of care to lessen a
debt which they found themselves incapable of wholly discharging, but
have even seized and consumed all the produce of the land, in the belief
that it would now be of no advantage to themselves to spare it. I must
therefore obviate this increasing evil, and endeavour to find out some
remedy against it. The only one I can think of is, not to reserve my
rent in money, but in kind, and so place some of my servants to overlook
the tillage, and guard the stock; as indeed there is no sort of revenue
more agreeable to reason than what arises from the bounty of the soil,
the seasons, and the climate. It is true, this method will require great
honesty, sharp eyes, and many hands. However, I must risk the
experiment, and, as in an inveterate complaint, try every change of
remedy. You see, it is not any pleasurable indulgence that prevents my
attending you on the first day of your consulship. I shall celebrate it
nevertheless, as much as if I were present, and pay my vows for you
here, with all the warmest tokens of joy and congratulation. Farewell.
CX -- To FUSCUS
You are much pleased, I find, with the account I gave you in my former
letter of how I spend the summer season at Tuscum, and desire to know
what alteration I make in my method when I am at Laurentum in the
winter. None at all, except abridging myself of my sleep at noon, and
borrowing a good piece of the night before daybreak and after sunset for
study: and if business is very urgent (which in winter very frequently
happens), instead of having interludes or music after supper, I
reconsider whatever I have previously dictated, and improve my memory at
the same time by this frequent mental revision. Thus I have given you a
general sketch of my mode of life in summer and winter; to which you may
add the intermediate seasons of spring and autumn, in which, while
losing nothing out of the day, I gain but little from the night.
Farewell.
]
FOOTNOTES TO THE LETTERS OF PLINY] 1 (return) [ A pupil and intimate
friend of Paetus Thrasea, the distinguished Stoic philosopher. Arulenus
was put to death by Domitian for writing a panegyric upon Thrasea.]
2 (return) [ The impropriety of this expression, in the original, seems
to be in the word stigmosum, which Regulus, probably either coined
through affectation or used through ignorance. It is a word, at least,
which does not occur in any author of authority: the translator has
endeavoured, therefore, to preserve the same sort of impropriety, by
using an expression of like unwarranted stamp in his own tongue. M.]
3 (return) [ An allusion to a wound he had received in the war between
Vitellius and Vespasian.]
4 (return) [ A brother of Piso Galba's adopted son. He was put to death
by Nero.]
5 (return) [ Sulpicius Camerinus, put to death by the same emperor, upon
some frivolous charge.]
6 (return) [ A select body of men who formed a court of judicature,
called the centurnviral court. Their jurisdiction extended chiefly, if
not entirely, to questions of wills and intestate estates. Their number,
it would seem, amounted to 100. M.]
7 (return) [ Junius Mauricus, the brother of Rusticus Arulenus. Both
brothers were sentenced on the same day, Arulenue to execution and
Mauricui to banishment.]
8 (return) [ There seems to have been a cast of uncommon blackness in
the character of this Regulus; otherwise the benevolent Pliny would
scarcely have singled him out, as he has in this and some following
letters, for the subject of his warmest contempt and indignation. Yet,
infamous as he was, he had his flatterers and admirers; and a
contemporary poet frequently represents him as one of the most finished
characters of the age, both in eloquence and virtue. M.]
9 (return) [ The Decurii were a sort of senators in the municipal or
corporate cities of Italy. M.]
10 (return) [ "Euphrates was a native of Tyre, or, according to others,
of Byzantium. He belonged to the Stoic school of philosophy. In his old
age he became tired of life, and asked and obtained from Hadrian
permission to put an end to himself by poison." Smith's Dict. of Greek
and Roman Biog.]
11 (return) [ A pleader and historian of some distinction, mentioned by
Tacitus, Ann. XIV. 19, and by Quintilian, X, I, 102.]
12 (return) [ Padua.]
13 (return) [ Domitian]
14 (return) [ Iliad, XII. 243. Pope.]
15 (return) [ Equal to about $4,000 of our money. After the reign of
Augustus the value of the sesterces.]
16 (return) [ "The equestrian dignity, or that order of the Roman people
which we commonly call knights, had nothing in it analogous to any order
of modern knighthood, but depended entirely upon a valuation of their
estates; and every citizen, whose entire fortune amounted to 400,000
sesterces, that is, to about $16,000 of our money, was enrolled, of
course, in the list of knights, who were considered as a middle order
between the senators and common people, yet, without any other
distinction than the privilege of wearing a gold ring, which was the
peculiar badge of their order." Life of Cicero, Vol. I. III. in note.
M.]
17 (return) [ An elegant Attic orator, remarkable for the grace and
lucidity of his style, also for his vivid and accurate delineations of
character.]
18 (return) [ A graceful and powerful orator, and friend of
Densosthenes.]
19 (return) [ A Roman orator of the Augustan age. He was a poet and
historian as well, but gained most distinction as an orator.]
20 (return) [ A man of considerable taste, talent, and eloquence, but
profligate and extravagant. He was on terms of some intimacy with
Cicero.]
21 (return) [ The praetor was assisted by ten assessors, five of whom
were senators, and the rest knights. With these he was obliged to
consult before he pronounced sentence. M.]
22 (return) [ A contemporary and rival of Aristophanes.]
23 (return) [ Aristophanes, Ach. 531]
24 (return) [ Thersites. Iliad, II. V. 212.]
25 (return) [ Ulysses. Iliad, III. V. 222.]
26 (return) [ Menelaua. Iliad, III. V. 214.]
27 (return) [ Great-grandfather of the Emperor M. Aurelius.]
28 (return) [ An eminent lawyer of Trajan's reign.]
29 (return) [ The philosophers used to hold their disputations in the
gymnasia and porticoes, being places of the most public resort for
walking, &c. M.]
30 (return) [ "Verginius Rufus was governor of Upper Germany at the time
of the revolt of Julius Vindex in Gaul. A.D. 68. The soldiers of
Verginius wished to raise him to the empire, but he refused the honour,
and marched against Vindex, who perished before Vesontio. After the
death of Nero, Verginius supported the claims of Galba, and accompanied
him to Rome. Upon Otho's death, the soldiers again attempted to proclaim
Verginius emperor, and in consequence of his refusal of the honour, he
narrowly escaped with his life." (See Smith's Dict. of Greek and Rom.
Biog., &c.)]
31 (return) [ Nerva.]
32 (return) [ The historian,]
33 (return) [ Namely, of augurs. "This college, as regulated by Sylla,
consisted of fifteen, who were all persons of the first distinction in
Rome; it was a priesthood for life, of a character indelible, which no
crime or forfeiture could efface; it was necessary that every candidate
should be nominated to the people by two augurs, who gave a solemn
testimony upon, oath of his dignity and fitness for that office."
Middleton's Life of Cicero, I. 547. M.]
34 (return) [ The ancient Greeks and Romans did not sit up at the table
as we do, but reclined round it on couches, three and sometimes even
four occupying one conch, at least this latter was the custom among the
Romans. Each guest lay flat upon his chest while eating, reaching out
his hand from time to time to the table, for what he might require. As
soon as he had made a sufficient meal, he turned over upon his left
side, leaning on the elbow.]
35 (return) [ A people of Germany.]
36 (return) [ "Any Roman priest devoted to the service of one particular
god was designated Flamen, receiving a distinguishing epithet from the
deity to whom he ministered. The office was understood to last for life;
but a flamen might be compelled to resign for a breach of duty, or even
on account of the occurrence of an ill-omened accident while discharging
his functions." Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.]
37 (return) [ Trajan.]
38 (return) [ By a law passed A. D. 76, it was enacted that every
citizen of Rome who had three children should be excused from all
troublesome offices where he lived. This privilege the emperors
sometimes extended to those who were not legally entitled to it.]
39 (return) [ About 54 cents.]
40 (return) [ Avenue]
41 (return) [ "Windows made of a transparent stone called lapis
specularis (mica), which was first found in Hispania Citerior, and
afterwards in Cyprus, Cappadocia, Sicily, and Africa; but the best caine
from Spain and Cappadocia. It was easily split into the thinnest sheets.
Windows, made of this stone were called specularia." Smith's Dictionary
of Antiquities.]
42 (return) [ A feast held in honour of the god Saturn, which began on
the 19th of December, and continued as some say, for seven days. It was
a time of general rejoicing, particularly among the slaves, who had at
this season the privilege of taking great liberties with their masters.
M.]
43 (return) [ Cicero and Quintilian have laid down rules how far, and in
what instances, this liberty was allowable, and both agree it ought to
be used with great sagacity and judgment. The latter of these excellent
critics mentions a witticism of Flavius Virginius, who asked one of
these orators, "Quot nillia assuum deciamassett." How many miles he had
declaimed. M.]
44 (return) [ This was an act of great ceremony; and if Aurelia's dress
was of the kind which some of the Roman ladies used, the legacy must
have been considerable which Regulus had the impudence to ask. M.]
45 (return) [ $3,350,000.]
46 (return) [ A poet to whom Quintilian assigns the highest rank, as a
Writer of tragedies, among his contemporaries (book X. C. I. 98).
Tacitus also speaks of him in terms of high appreciation (Annals, v.
8).]
47 (return) [ Stepson of Augustus and brother to Tiberius. An amiable
and popular prince. He died at the close of his third campaign, from a
fracture received by falling from his horse.]
48 (return) [ A historian under Augustus and Tiberius. He wrote part of
a history of Rome, which was continued by the elder Pliny; also an
account of the German war, to which Quintilian makes allusion (Inst. X.
103), pronouncing him, as a historian, "estimable in all respects, yet
in some things failing to do himself justice."]
49 (return) [ The distribution of time among the Romans was very
different from ours. They divided the night into four equal parts, which
they called watches, each three hours in length; and part of these they
devoted either to the pleasures of the table or to study. The natural
day they divided into twelve hours, the first beginning with sunrise,
and the last ending with sunset; by which means their hours were of
unequal length, varying according to the different seasons of the year.
The time for business began with sunrise, and continued to the fifth
hour, being that of dinner, which with them was only a slight repast.
From thence to the seventh hour was a time of repose; a custom which
still prevails in Italy. The eighth hour was employed in bodily
exercises; after which they constantly bathed, and from thence went to
supper. M.]
50 (return) [ $16,000.]
51 (return) [ Born about A. D. 25. He acquired some distinction as an
advocate. The only poem of his which has come down to us is a heavy
prosaic performance in seventeen books, entitled "Tunica," and
containing an account of the events of the Second Punic War, from the
capture of Saguntum to the triumph of Scipio Africanus. See Smith's
Dict. of Gr. and Roin. Biog.]
52 (return) [ Trajan.]
53 (return) [ Spurinna's wife.]
54 (return) [ Domitian banished the philosophers not only from Rome, but
Italy, as Suetonius (Dom. C. X.) and Aulus Gellius (Noct. Att. b. XV.
CXI. 3, 4, 5) Inform us among these was the celebrated Epictetus. M.]
55 (return) [ The following is the story, as related by several of the
ancient historians. Paetus, having joined Scribonianus, who was in arms,
in Illyria, against Claudius, was taken after the death of Scribonianus,
and condemned to death. Arria having, in vain, solicited his life,
persuaded him to destroy himself, rather than suffer the ignominy of
falling by the executioner's hands; and, in order to encourage him to an
act, to which, it seems, he was not particularly inclined, she set him
the example in the manner Pliny relates. M.]
56 (return) [ Trajan.]
57 (return) [ The Roman, used to employ their criminals in the lower
ones of husbandry, such as ploughing, &c. Pun. H. N. 1. 18, 3. M.]
58 (return) [ About $500,000.]
59 (return) [ About $800,000.]
60 (return) [ One of the famous seven hills upon which Rome was
situated.]
61 (return) [ Mart. LX. 19.]
62 (return) [ Calpurnia, Pliny's wife.]
63 (return) [ Now Citta di Castello.]
64 (return) [ The Romans had an absolute power over their children, of
which no age or station of the latter deprived them.]
65 (return) [ Their business was to interpret dreams, oracles,
prodigies, &c., and to foretell whether any action should be fortunate
or prejudicial, to particular persons, or to the whole commonwealth.
Upon this account, they very often occasioned the displacing of
magistrates, the deferring of public assemblies, &c. Kennet's Ron,.
Antig. M.]
66 (return) [ Trajan.]
67 (return) [ A slave was incapable of property; and, therefore,
whatever he acquired became the right of his master. M.]
68 (return) [ "Their office was to attend upon the rites of Vests, the
chief part of which was the preservation of the holy fire. If this fire
happened to go out, it was considered impiety to light it at any common
flame, but they made use of the pure and unpolluted rays of the sun for
that purpose. There were various other duties besides connected with
their office. The chief rules prescribed them were, to vow the strictest
chastity, for the space of thirty years. After this term was completed,
they had liberty to leave the order. If they broke their vow of
virginity, they were buried alive in a place allotted to that peculiar
use." Kennet's Antiq. Their reputation for sanctity was so high that
Livy mentions the fact of two of those virgins having violated their
vows, as a prodigy that, threatened destruction to the Roman state. Lib.
XXII. C. 57. And Suetonius inform, us that Augiastus had so high an
opinion of this religious order, that he consigned the care of his will
to the Vestal Virgins. Suet, in vit. Aug. C. XCI. M.]
69 (return) [ It was usual with Domitian to triumph, not only without a
victory, but even after a defeat, M.]
70 (return) [ Euripides' Hecuba,]
71 (return) [ The punishment inflicted upon the violators of Vestal
chastity was to be scourged to death. M.]
72 (return) [ Calpurnia, Pliny's wife.]
73 (return) [ Gratilla was the wife of Rusticus: Rusticus was put to
death by Domitian, and Gratilla banished. It was sufficient crime in the
reign of that execrable prince to be even a friend of those who were
obnoxious to him. M.]
74 (return) [ In the original, scrinium, box for holding MSS.]
75 (return) [ The hippodromus, in its proper signification, was a place,
among the Grecians, set apart for horse-racing and other exercises of
that kind. But it seems here to be nothing more than a particular walk,
to which Pliny perhaps gave that name, from its bearing some resemblance
in its form to the public places so called. M.]
76 (return) [ Now called Frascati, Tivoli, and Palestrina, all of them
situated in the Campagna di Roma, and at no great distance from Rome.
M.]
77 (return) [ "This is said in allusion to the idea of Nemesis supposed
to threaten excessive prosperity." (Church and Brodribb.)]
78 (return) [ About $15,000.]
79 (return) [ About $42,000.]
80 (return) [ None had the right of using family pictures or statues but
those whose ancestors or themselves had borne some of the highest
dignities. So that the jus imaginis was much the same thing among the
Romans as the right of bearing a coat of arms among us. Ken. Antiq. M.]
81 (return) [ The Roman physicians used to send their patients in
consumptive cases into Egypt, particularly to Alexandria. M.]
82 (return) [ Frejus, in Provence, the southern part of France. M.]
83 (return) [ A court of justice erected by Julius Cæsar in the forum,
and opposite to the basilica Aemilia.]
84 (return) [ The deceniviri seem to have been magistrates for the
administration of justice, subordinate to the praetors, who (to give the
English reader a general notion of their office) may be termed lords
chief justices, as the judges here mentioned were something in the
nature of our juries. M.]
85 (return) [ About $400.]
86 (return) [ This silly piece of superstition seems to have been
peculiar to Regulus, and not of any general practice; at least it is a
custom of which we find no other mention in antiquity. M.]
87 (return) [ "We gather from Martial that the wearing of these was not
an unusual practice with fops and dandies." See Epig. II. 29, in which
he ridicules a certain Rufus, and hints that if you were to "strip off
the 'splenia (plasters)' from his face, you would find out that he was a
branded runaway slave." (Church and Brodribb.)]
88 (return) [ His wife.]
89 (return) [ Hom. II. lib, I. V. 88.]
90 (return) [ Now Alzia, not far from Corno.]
91 (return) [ Nevertheless, Javolentis Priscus was one of the most
eminent lawyers of his time, and is frequently quoted in the Digesta of
Justinian.]
92 (return) [ In the Bay of Naples.]
93 (return) [ The Romans used to lie or walk naked in the sun, after
anointing their bodies with oil, which was esteemed as greatly
contributing to health, and therefore daily practised by them. This
custom, however, of anointing themselves, is inveighed against by the
Satirists as in the number of their luxurious indulgences: but since we
find the elder Pliny here, and the amiable Spurinna in a former letter,
practising this method, we can not suppose the thing itself was esteemed
unmanly, but only when it was attended with some particular
circumstances of an over-refined delicacy. M.]
94 (return) [ Now called Castelamare, in the Bay of Naples. M.]
95 (return) [ The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world
was to be destroyed by fire, and all things fall again into original
chaos; not excepting even the national gods themselves from the
destruction of this general conflagration. M.]
96 (return) [ The lake Larius.]
97 (return) [ Those families were styled patrician whose ancestors had
been members of the senate in the earliest times of the regal or
consular government. M.]
98 (return) [ Trajan]
99 (return) [ The consuls, though they were chosen in August, did not
enter upon their office till the first of January, during which interval
they were styled consules designati, consuls elect. It was usual for
them upon that occasion to compliment the emperor, by whose appointment,
after the dissolution of the republican government, they were chosen.
M.]
100 (return) [ So called, because it formerly belonged to Camillus. M.]
101 (return) [ Civita Vecchia.]
102 (return) [ Trajan.]
103 (return) [ An officer in the Roman legions, answering in some sort
to a captain In our companies. M.]
104 (return) [ This law was made by Augustus Cæsar; but it nowhere
clearly appears what was the peculiar punishment it inflicted. M.]
105 (return) [ An officer employed by the emperor to receive and
regulate the public revenue in the provinces. M.]
106 (return) [ Comprehending Transylvania, Moldavia, and Walaehia. M.]
107 (return) [ Polycletus was a freedman, and great favourite of Nero.
M.]
108 (return) [ Memmius, or Rhemmius (the critics are not agreed which),
was author of a law by which it was enacted that whosoever was convicted
of calumny and false accusation should be stigmatised with a mark in his
forehead; and by the law of the twelve tables, false accusers were to
suffer the same punishment as would have been inflicted upon the person
unjustly accused if the crime had been proved. M.]
109 (return) [ Trajan.]
110 (return) [ Unction was much esteemed and prescribed by the ancients.
Celsus expressly recommends it in the remission of acute distempers:
"ungi leniterque pertractari corpus, etiam in acutic et recentibus
niorbis opartet; us rernissione fumen," &c. Celsi Med. ed. Aliucloveen,
p. 88. M.]
111 (return) [ His wife.]
112 (return) [ See book V. letter XX.]
113 (return) [ Trajan.]
114 (return) [ One of the Bithynians employed to manage the trial. M.]
115 (return) [ About $28,000.]
116 (return) [ About $26,000.]
117 (return) [ There is a kind of witticism in this expression, which
will be lost to the mere English reader unless he be informed that the
Romans had a privilege, confirmed to them by several laws which passed
in the earlier ages of the republic, of appealing from the decisions of
the magistrates to the general assembly of the people: and they did so
in the form of words which Pomponius here applies to a different
purpose. M.]
118 (return) [ The priests, as well as other magistrates, exhibited
public games to the people when they entered upon their office. M.]
119 (return) [ A famous lawyer who flourished in the reign of the
emperor Claudius: those who followed his opinions were said to be
Cassians, or of the school of Cassius. M.]
120 (return) [ A Stoic philosopher and native of Tarsus. He was tutor
for some time to Octavius, afterwards Augustus, Cæsar.]
121 (return) [ Balzac very prettily observes: "Il y a des riviere: qui
ne font jamais tact de bien que quand elles se dibordent; de eneme,
l'amitie n'a mealleur quo l'exces." M.]
122 (return) [ Persons of rank and literature among the Romans retained
in their families a domestic whose sole business was to read to them.
M.]
123 (return) [ It was a doctrine maintained by the Stoics that all
crimes are equal M.]
124 (return) [ About $400.]
125 (return) [ About $600.]
126 (return) [ About $93.]
127 (return) [ Hom. II. lib. IX. V. 319.]
128 (return) [ Those of Nero and Domitian. M.]
129 (return) [ When Nerva and Trajan received the empire. M.]
130 (return) [ A slave could acquire no property, and consequently was
incapable bylaw of making a will. M.]
131 (return) [ Now called Amelia, a town in Ombria. M.]
132 (return) [ Now Laghetto di Bassano. M.]
133 (return) [ A province in Anatolia, or Asia Minor. M.]