Letters of Pliny
You desire me to consider what turn you should give to your speech in
honour of the emperor,[98] upon your being appointed consul elect.[99]
It is easy to find copies, not so easy to choose out of them; for his
virtues afford such abundant material. However, I will write and give
you my opinion, or (what I should prefer) I will let you have it in
person, after having laid before you the difficulties which occur to me.
I am doubtful, then, whether I should advise you to pursue the method
which I observed myself on the same occasion. When I was consul elect, I
avoided running into the usual strain of compliment, which, however far
from adulation, might yet look like it. Not that I affected firmness and
independence; but, as well knowing the sentiments of our amiable prince,
and being thoroughly persuaded that the highest praise I could offer to
him would be to show the world I was under no necessity of paying him
any. When I reflected what profusion of honours had been heaped upon the
very worst of his predecessors, nothing, I imagined, could more
distinguish a prince of his real virtues from those infamous emperors
than to address him in a different manner. And this I thought proper to
observe in my speech, lest it might be suspected I passed over his
glorious acts, not out of judgment, but inattention. Such was the method
I then observed; but I am sensible the same measures are neither
agreeable nor indeed suitable to all alike. Besides the propriety of
doing or omitting a thing depends not only upon persons, but time and
circumstances; and as the late actions of our illustrious prince afford
materials for panegyric, no less just than recent and glorious, I doubt
(as I said before) whether I should persuade you in the present instance
to adopt the same plan as I did myself. In this, however, I am clear,
that it was proper to offer you by way of advice the method I pursued.
Farewell.
LXX -- To FABATUS
I HAVE the best reason, certainly, for celebrating your birthday as my
own, since all the happiness of mine arises from yours, to whose care
and diligence it is owing that I am gay here and at my ease in town. --
Your Camillian villa[100] in Campania has suffered by the injuries of
time, and is falling into decay; however, the most valuable parts of the
building either remain entire or are but slightly damaged, and it shall
be my care to see it put into thorough repair. -- Though I flatter
myself I have many friends, yet I have scarcely any of the sort you
enquire after, and which the affair you mention demands. All mine lie
among those whose employments engage them in town; whereas the conduct
of country business requires a person of a robust constitution, and bred
up to the country, to whom the work may not seem hard, nor the office
beneath him, and who does not feel a solitary life depressing. You think
most highly of Rufus, for he was a great friend of your son's; but of
what use he can be to us upon this occasion, I cannot conceive; though I
am sure he will be glad to do all he can for us. Farewell.
LXXI -- To CORNELIANUS
I RECEIVED lately the most exquisite satisfaction at Centumcellae[101]
(as it is now called), being summoned thither by Cæsar[102] to attend a
council. Could anything indeed afford a higher pleasure than to see the
emperor exercising his justice, his wisdom, and his affability, even in
retirement, where those virtues are most observable? Various were the
points brought in judgment before him, and which proved, in so many
different instances, the excellence of the judge. The cause of Claudius
Ariston came on first. He is an Ephesian nobleman, of great munificence
and unambitious popularity, whose virtues have rendered him obnoxious to
a set of people of far different characters; they had instigated an
informer against him, of the same infamous stamp with themselves; but he
was honourably acquitted. The next day, the case of Galitta, accused of
adultery, was heard. Her husband, who is a military tribune, was upon
the point of offering himself as a candidate for certain honours at
Rome, but she had stained her own good name and his by an intrigue with
a centurion.[103] The husband informed the consul's lieutenant, who
wrote to the emperor about it. Cæsar, having thoroughly sifted the
evidence, cashiered the centurion, and sentenced him to banishment. It
remained that some penalty should be inflicted likewise upon the other
party, as it is a crime of which both must necessarily be equally
guilty. But the husband's affection for his wife inclined him to drop
that part of the prosecution, not without some reflections on his
forbearance; for he continued to live with her even after he had
commenced this prosecution, content, it would seem, with having removed
his rival. But he was ordered to proceed in the suit: and, though he
complied with great reluctance, it was necessary, nevertheless, that she
should be condemned. Accordingly, she was sentenced to the punishment
directed by the Julian law.[104] The emperor thought proper to specify,
in his decree, the name and office of the centurion, that it might
appear he passed it in virtue of military discipline; lest it should be
imagined he claimed a particular cognizance in every cause of the same
nature. The third day was employed in examining into an affair which had
occasioned a good deal of talk and various reports; it was concerning
the codicils of Julius Tiro, part of which was plainly genuine, while
the other part, it was alleged, was forged. The persons accused of this
fraud were Sempronius Senecio, a Roman knight, and Eurythmus, Cæsar's
freedman and procurator.[105] The heirs jointly petitioned the emperor,
when he was in Dacia,[106] that he would reserve to himself the trial of
this cause; to which he consented. On his return from that expedition,
he appointed a day for the hearing; and when some of the heirs, as
though out of respect to Eurythmus, offered to withdraw the suit, the
emperor nobly replied, "He is not Polycletus,[107] nor am I Nero."
However, he indulged the petitioners with an adjournment, and the time
being expired, he now sat to hear the cause. Two of the heirs appeared,
and desired that either their whole number might be compelled to plead,
as they had all joined in the information, or that they also might have
leave to withdraw. Cæsar delivered his opinion with great dignity and
moderation; and when the counsel on the part of Senecio and Eurythmus
had represented that unless their clients were heard, they would remain
under the suspicion of guilt,--"I am not concerned," said the emperor,
"what suspicions they may lie under, it is I that am suspected;" and
then turning to us, "Advise me," said he, "how to act in this affair,
for you see they complain when allowed to withdraw their suit." At
length, by the advice of the counsel, he 'ordered notice to be given to
the heirs that they should either proceed with the case or each of them
justify their reasons for not doing so; otherwise that he would pass
sentence upon them as calumniators.[108] Thus you see how usefully and
seriously we spent our time, which however was diversified with
amusements of the most agreeable kind. We were every day invited to
Cæsar's table, which, for so great a prince, was spread with much
plainness and simplicity. There we were either entertained with
interludes or passed the night in the most pleasing conversation. When
we took our leave of him the last day, he made each of us presents; so
studiously polite is Cæsar! As for myself, I was not only charmed with
the dignity and wisdom of the judge, the honour done to the assessors,
the ease and unreserved freedom of our social intercourse, but with the
exquisite situation of the place itself. This delightful villa is
surrounded by the greenest meadows, and overlooks the shore, which bends
inwards, forming a complete harbour. The left arm of this port is
defended by exceedingly strong works, while the right is in process of
completion. An artificial island, which rises at the mouth of the
harbour, breaks the force of the waves, and affords a safe passage to
ships on either side. This island is formed by a process worth seeing:
stones of a most enormous size are transported hither in a large sort of
pontoons, and being piled one upon the other, are fixed by their own
weight, gradually accumulating in the manner, as it were, of a natural
mound. It already lifts its rocky back above the ocean, while the waves
which beat upon it, being broken and tossed to an immense height, foam
with a prodigious noise, and whiten all the surrounding sea. To these
stones are added wooden piers, which in process of time will give it the
appearance of a natural island. This haven is to be called by the name
of its great author,[109] and will prove of infinite benefit, by
affording a secure retreat to ships on that extensive and dangerous
coast. Farewell.
LXXII -- To MAXIMUS
You did perfectly right in promising a gladiatorial combat to our good
friends the citizens of Verona, who have long loved, looked up to, and
honoured, you; while it was from that city too you received that amiable
object of your most tender affection, your late excellent wife. And
since you owed some monument or public representation to her memory,
what other spectacle could you have exhibited more appropriate to the
occasion? Besides, you were so unanimously pressed to do so that to have
refused would have looked more like hardness than resolution. The
readiness too with which you granted their petition, and the magnificent
manner in which you performed it, is very much to your honour; for a
greatness of soul is seen in these smaller instances, as well as in
matters of higher moment. I wish the African panthers, which you had
largely provided for this purpose, had arrived on the day appointed, but
though they were delayed by the stormy weather, the obligation to you is
equally the same, since it was not your fault that they were not
exhibited. Farewell.
LXXIII -- To RESTITUTUS
THIS obstinate illness of yours alarms me; and though I know how
extremely temperate you are, yet I fear lest your disease should get the
better of your moderation. Let me entreat you then to resist it with a
determined abstemiousness: a remedy, be assured, of all others the most
laudable as well as the most salutary. Human nature itself admits the
practicability of what I recommend: it is a rule, at least, which I
always enjoin my family to observe with respect to myself. "I hope," I
say to them, "that should I be attacked with any disorder, I shall
desire nothing of which I ought either to be ashamed or have reason to
repent; however, if my distemper should prevail over my resolution, I
forbid that anything be given me but by the consent of my physicians;
and I shall resent your compliance with me in things improper as much as
another man would their refusal." I once had a most violent fever; when
the fit was a little abated, and I had been anointed,[110] my physician
offered me something to drink; I held out my hand, desiring he would
first feel my pulse, and upon his not seeming quite satisfied, I
instantly returned the cup, though it was just at my lips. Afterwards,
when I was preparing to go into the bath, twenty days from the first
attack of my illness, perceiving the physicians whispering together, I
enquired what they were saying. They replied they were of opinion I may
possibly bathe with safety, however that they were not without some
suspicion of risk. "What need is there," said I, "of my taking a bath at
all?" And so, with perfect calmness and tranquillity, I gave up a
pleasure I was upon the point of enjoying, and abstained from the bath
as serenely and composedly as though I were going into it. I mention