Letters of Pliny
IT would be a long story, and of no great importance, to tell you by
what accident I found myself dining the other day with an individual
with whom I am by no means intimate, and who, in his own opinion, does
things in good style and economically as well, but according to mine,
with meanness and extravagance combined. Some very elegant dishes were
served up to himself and a few more of us, whilst those placed before
the rest of the company consisted simply of cheap dishes and scraps.
There were, in small bottles, three different kinds of wine; not that
the guest might take their choice, but that they might not have any
option in their power; one kind being for himself, and for us; another
sort for his lesser friends (for it seems he has degrees of friends),
and the third for his own freedmen and ours. My neighbour,[34] reclining
next me, observing this, asked me if I approved the arrangement. Not at
all, I told him. "Pray then," he asked, "what is your method upon such
occasions?" "Mine," I returned, "is to give all my visitors the same
reception; for when I give an invitation, it is to entertain, not
distinguish, my company: I place every man upon my own level whom I
admit to my table." "Not excepting even your freedmen?" "Not excepting
even my freedmen, whom I consider on these occasions my guests, as much
as any of the rest." He replied, "This must cost you a great deal." "Not
in the least." "How can that be?" "Simply because, although my freedmen
don't drink the same wine as myself, yet I drink the same as they do."
And, no doubt about it, if a man is wise enough to moderate his
appetite, he will not find it such a very expensive thing to share with
all his visitors what he takes himself. Restrain it, keep it in, if you
wish to be true economist. You will find temperance a far better way of
saving than treating other people rudely can be. Why do I say all this?
Why, for fear a young man of your high character and promise should be
imposed upon by this immoderate luxury which prevails at some tables,
under the specious notion of frugality. Whenever any folly of this sort
falls under my eye, I shall, just because I care for you, point it out
to you as an example you ought to shun. Remember, then, nothing is more
to be avoided than this modern alliance of luxury with meanness; odious
enough when existing separate and distinct, but still more hateful where
you meet with them together. Farewell.
XX -- To MACRINUS
THE senate decreed yesterday, on the emperor's motion, a triumphal
statue to Vestricius Spurinna: not as they would to many others, who
never were in action, or saw a camp, or heard the sound of a trumpet,
unless at a show; but as it would be decreed to those who have justly
bought such a distinction with their blood, their exertions, and their
deeds. Spurinna forcibly restored the king of the Bructeri[35] to his
throne; and this by the noblest kind of victory; for he subdued that
warlike people by the terror of the mere display of his preparation for
the campaign. This is his reward as a hero, while, to console him for
the loss of his son Cottius, who died during his absence upon that
expedition, they also voted a statue to the youth; a very unusual honour
for one so young; but the services of the father deserved that the pain
of so severe a wound should be soothed by no common balm. Indeed Cottius
himself evinced such remarkable promise of the highest qualities that it
is but fitting his short limited term of life should be extended, as it
were, by this kind of immortality. He was so pure and blameless, so full
of dignity, and commanded such respect, that he might have challenged in
moral goodness much older men, with whom he now shares equal honours.
Honours, if I am not mistaken, conferred not only to perpetuate the
memory of the deceased youth, and in consolation to the surviving
father, but for the sake of public example also. This will rouse and
stimulate our young men to cultivate every worthy principle, when they
see such rewards bestowed upon one of their own years, provided he
deserve them: at the same time that men of quality will be encouraged to
beget children and to have the joy and satisfaction of leaving a worthy
race behind, if their children survive them, or of so glorious a
consolation, should they survive their children. Looking at it in this
light then, I am glad, upon public grounds, that a statue is decreed
Cottius: and for my own sake too, just as much; for I loved this most
favoured, gifted, youth, as ardently as I now grievously miss him
amongst us. So that it will be a great satisfaction to me to be able to
look at this figure from time to time as I pass by, contemplate it,
stand underneath, and walk to and fro before it. For if having the
pictures of the departed placed in our homes lightens sorrow, how much
more those public representations of them which are not only memorials
of their air and countenance, but of their glory and honour besides?
Farewell.
XXI To PAISCUS
As I know you eagerly embrace every opportunity of obliging me, so there
is no man whom I had rather be under an obligation to. I apply to you,
therefore, in preference to anyone else, for a favour which I am
extremely desirous of obtaining. You, who are commander-in-chief of a
very considerable army, have many opportunities of exercising your
generosity; and the length of time you have enjoyed that post must have
enabled you to provide for all your own friends. I hope you will now
turn your eyes upon some of mine: as indeed they are but a few Your
generous disposition, I know, would be better pleased if the number were
greater, but one or two will suffice my modest desires; at present I
will only mention Voconius Romanus. His father was of great distinction
among the Roman knights, and his father-in-law, or, I might more
properly call him, his second father, (for his affectionate treatment of
Voconius entitles him to that appellation) was still more conspicuous.
His mother was one of the most considerable ladies of Upper Spain: you
know what character the people of that province bear, and how remarkable
they are for their strictness of their manners. As for himself, he
lately held the post of flamen.[36] Now, from the time when we were
first students together, I have felt very tenderly attached to him. We
lived under the same roof, in town and country, we joked together, we
shared each other's serious thoughts: for where indeed could I have
found a truer friend or pleasanter companion than he? In his
conversation, and even in his very voice and countenance, there is a
rare sweetness; as at the bar he displays talents of a high order;
acuteness, elegance, ease, and skill: and he writes such letters too
that were you to read them you would imagine they had been dictated by
the Muses themselves. I have a very great affection for him, as he has
for me. Even in the earlier part of our lives, I warmly embraced every
opportunity of doing him all the good services which then lay in my
power, as I have lately obtained for him from our most gracious
prince[37] the privilege[38] granted to those who have three children: a
favour which, though Cæsar very rarely bestows, and always with great
caution, yet he conferred, at my request, in such a matter as to give it
the air and grace of being his own choice.
The best way of showing that I think he deserves the kindnesses he has
already received from me is by increasing them, especially as he always
accepts my services so gratefully as to deserve more. Thus I have shown
you what manner of man Romanus is, how thoroughly I have proved his
worth, and how much I love him. Let me entreat you to honour him with
your patronage in a way suitable to the generosity of your heart, and
the eminence of your station. But above all let him have your affection;
for though you were to confer upon him the utmost you have in your power
to bestow, you can give him nothing more valuable than your friendship-
That you may see he is worthy of it, even to the closest degree of
intimacy, I send you this brief sketch of his tastes, character, his
whole life, in fact. I should continue my intercessions in his behalf,
but that I know you prefer not being pressed, and I have already
repeated them in every line of this letter: for, to show a good reason
for what one asks is true intercession, and of the most effectual kind.
Farewell.
XXII -- To MAIMUS
You guessed correctly: I am much engaged in pleading before the Hundred.
The business there is more fatiguing than pleasant. Trifling,
inconsiderable cases, mostly; it is very seldom that anything worth
speaking of, either from the importance of the question or the rank of
the persons concerned, comes before them. There are very few lawyers
either whom I take any pleasure in working with. The rest, a parcel of
impudent young fellows, many of whom one knows nothing whatever about,
come here to get some practice in speaking, and conduct themselves so
forwardly and with such utter want of deference that my friend Attilius
exactly hit it, I think, when he made the observation that "boys set out
at the bar with cases in the Court of the Hundred as they do at school
with Homer," intimating that at both places they begin where they should
end. But in former times (so my elders tell me) no youth, even of the
best families, was allowed in unless introduced by some person of
consular dignity. As things are now, since every fence of modesty and
decorum is broken down, and all distinctions are levelled and
confounded, the present young generation, so far from waiting to be
introduced, break in of their own free will. The audience at their heels
are fit attendants upon such orators; a low rabble of hired mercenaries,
supplied by contract. They get together in the middle of the court,
where the dole is dealt round to them as openly as if they were in a
dining-room: and at this noble price they run from court to court. The
Greeks have an appropriate name in their language for this sort of
people, importing that they are applauders by profession, and we
stigmatize them with the opprobrious title of table-flatterers: yet the
dirty business alluded to increases every day. It was only yesterday two
of my domestic officers, mere striplings, were hired to cheer somebody
or other, at three denarii apiece:[39] that is what the highest
eloquence goes for. Upon these terms we fill as many benches as we
please, and gather a crowd; this is how those rending shouts are raised,
as soon as the individual standing up in the middle of the ring gives
the signal. For, you must know, these honest fellows, who understand
nothing of what is said, or, if they did, could not hear it, would be at
a loss without a signal, how to time their applause: for many of them
don't hear a syllable, and are as noisy as any of the rest. If, at any
time, you should happen to be passing by when the court is sitting, and
feel at all interested to know how any speaker is acquitting himself,
you have no occasion to give yourself the trouble of getting up on the
judge's platform, no need to listen; it is easy enough to find out, for
you may be quite sure he that gets most applause deserves it the least.
Largius Licinus was the first to introduce this fashion; but then he
went no farther than to go round and solicit an audience. I know, I
remember hearing this from my tutor Quinctilian. "I used," he told me,
"to go and hear Domitius Afer, and as he was pleading once before the
Hundred in his usual slow and impressive manner, hearing, close to him,
a most immoderate and unusual noise, and being a good deal surprised at
this, he left off: the noise ceased, and he began again: he was
interrupted a second time, and a third. At last he enquired who it was