of fifteen years, a large space in human life, chance and change have been cutting off many among us; others, and the most energetic, have perished by the Emperor's ferocity; while the few who remain have outlived not merely their neighbours but, so to say, themselves; for out of their prime have been blotted fifteen years, during which mature men reached old age and old men the very bounds almost of decrepitude, and all without opening their lips.

But after all I shall not regret the task of recording our former slavery and testifying to our present blessings, albeit with unpractised and stammering tongue. —MAURICE HUTTON.

RELEASE FROM TYRANNY 1

PLINY

[Letters, VIII, 14]

Gaius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Younger, was born at Comum in the year 62. He owed much in his training to the example and guidance of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, author of the Natural History, and to the instruction of Quintilian. He entered the public career, climbed to the consulship, and later be

came governor of Bithynia. In the public business he displayed special ability in matters of finance. Rich, and generous with his riches, he became interested in various forms of philanthropy, which he practised by methods altogether modern. He died about 114.

Pliny is a worthy representative of the better class among the Roman nobility at the beginning of the second century. His Letters show him sober, industrious, a good man and a clever, but with little imagination. They give pleasing pictures of society in marked contrast with those found in the satires of the cynical Juvenal. Unlike Cicero, he collected, arranged, and published his letters himself; indeed, there

'From The Loeb Classical Library, reprinted by permission.

can be little doubt that they were written for publication in the first instance. They exhibit nothing of the rambling method of the private letter. Rather, they are short essays, each, as a rule, dealing with but a single theme, and having a more or less formal introduction and conclusion.

Pliny finds the most pronounced change among the many that resulted from the new freedom to be the restoration of the senate to its proper place in the government of the Empire.

To Aristo:

As you are equally versed in civil and constitutional law, which latter includes the procedure of the Senate, I am particularly desirous to have your opinion, whether or no I made a mistake in the House the other day. This I request for my better instruction, not as to what is passed (for that is now too late), but as regards questions of the same nature that may hereafter arise.

I can fancy your replying, "Why do you ask, what you ought to have known?" But our servitude under a former reign cast a cloud of oblivion and ignorance over all branches of useful knowledge, and not excluding even the usages of the Senate; for who is so tamespirited as to desire to learn an art of

which he will be debarred the exercise? Besides, it is not easy to retain the knowledge one has acquired, without putting it in practice. Thus Liberty at her return found us ignorant and inexperienced; and kindled by her charms, we are sometimes impelled to action, ere we know how to act.

But in the olden time it was an established rule that Romans should learn from their elders, not only by precept, but by example, the principles on which they themselves should one day act, and which they should in their turn transmit to the younger generation. Hence they were inured from boyhood to service in camp, that by being accustomed to obey,

they might learn to command, and by following others, be trained to play the leader. And hence, on becoming candidates for office, they used to stand in the senate-house doors, and were spectators, before they were members of the Council of State. The father of each youth served as his instructor, 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 instruction, example, how far the right of proposing any law to the Senate extended, what privileges a senator had in delivering his opinion; the powers of senators who are magistrates, and the independence of the rest; where it is proper to yield, and where to stand firm; how long to speak, and when to be silent; how to distinguish conflicting motions, and how to discuss an amendment. In a word, they learnt by this means the whole conduct of a senator.

It is true, indeed, I myself served in the army as a young man; but it was at a time when courage was suspected, and cowardice at a premium; when the generals were without authority, and the soldiers without awe; when there was neither command nor obedience; when our whole military system was relaxed, disordered, and actually turned upside down-in short, when it was better to forget than to remember its lessons. I likewise went as a spectator to the Senate, but a Senate that was mute and fearful; since it was dangerous to speak one's real sentiments, and infamous to profess any others. What satisfaction in learning, or indeed what could be learnt, when the Senate was convened either for utter idleness or for business the most criminal; when they were kept sitting either for cruel or ridiculous purposes; and when their resolutions were never serious, though often tragical? On becoming a senator, and a partaker of these miseries, I both witnessed and endured them for many years; which so

You desire me to consider what turn you should give to your speech in honour of the Emperor, upon your being appointed consul. It is easy to find, but not easy to select, topics of encomium, for this prince's virtues supply them in abundance. However, I will write, or (what I prefer) indicate my views to you in person, only I must first lay my grounds for hesitating before you.

I doubt whether I should advise you to do as I did on the same occasion. When I was consul elect, I refrained from all that customary panegyric which, though not adulation, might yet bear the semblance of it. Not that I affected an intrepid freedom; but as well knowing the sentiments of our amiable prince, and that the highest praise I could offer to him would be to show the world I was 'From The Loeb Classical Library, reprinted by permission.

under no necessity of paying him any. When I reflected what honours had been heaped upon the very worst of his predecessors, nothing, I imagined, could more distinguish a prince of his real virtues from these infamous Emperors, than to eulogise him in a different manner. And this point I did not omit or slur over in my speech, lest it might be suspected I passed over his glorious acts, not out of judgment, but forgetfulness.

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 magnificent, I doubt (as I said before) whether I should persuade you to act in this case as I did myself. In this, how ever, I am clear, that it was proper to offer to your consideration the plan I pursued. Farewell.

-MELMOTH-HUTCHINSON.

cising his justice, his wisdom, and his affability, and that in retirement, where they are laid most open to view? Various were the cases brought before him, which showed under several aspects the virtues of the judge. That of Claudius Ariston came on first. He is an Ephesian nobleman, of great munificence and unambitious popularity; having thus aroused the envy of persons his opposites in character, they had spirited up an informer against him; such being the facts, he was honourably acquitted. . . .

Thus you see how honourably and seriously we spent our days, which however were followed by the most agreeable recreations. We were every day invited to Cæsar's supper, which, for a prince, was a modest repast; there we were either entertained with interludes, or passed the night in the most pleasing conversation. On the last day he sent each of us presents at our departure, so unremitting is the benevolence of Cæsar! As for myself, I was not only charmed with the dignity of the proceedings, the honour paid to the assessors, the ease and unreserved freedom of the conversation, but with the place itself.

Here is a villa, surrounded by the most verdant meadows, and overhanging a bay of the coast where they are at this moment constructing a harbour. The left-hand mole of this port is protected by immensely solid masonry; the right is now being completed. An island is rising in the mouth of the harbour, which will break the force of the waves when the wind blows shorewards, and afford passage to ships on either side. Its construction is highly worth seeing; huge stones are transported hither in a broadbottomed vessel, and being sunk one upon the other, are fixed by their own weight, gradually accumulating in the manner, as it were, of a rampart. It already lifts its rocky back above the ocean, while the waves which beat upon it, being tossed to an immense height,

roar prodigiously, and whiten all the sea round. Το these stones are added wooden piles, which in time will give it the appearance of a natural island. This port will be, and already is, named after

its great author, and will prove of infinite benefit, by affording a haven to ships on a long stretch of harbourless coast. Farewell.

-MELMOTH-HUTCHINSON.

LITERARY FRIENDS

SILIUS ITALICUS 1

[Letters, III, 7]

The thought that most frequently presents itself to Pliny in the contemplation of men distinguished in any walk of life is the desirability of earthly immortality together with the industry necessary to attain it.

To Caninius Rufus

I am just now informed that Silius Italicus has starved himself to death, at his villa near Naples. Having been afflicted with an imposthume, which was deemed incurable, he grew weary of life under such uneasy circumstances, and therefore put an end to it with the most determined courage. He had been extremely fortunate through the whole course of his days, excepting only the loss of his younger son; however, that was made up to him in the satisfaction of seeing his elder, who is of a more amiable character, attain the consular dignity, and of leaving him in a very flourishing situation. He suffered in his reputation in the time of Nero, having been suspected of forwardly joining in some of the informations which were carried on in the reign of that prince; but he made use of his intimacy with Vitellius, with great discretion and humanity. He acquired much honour by his administration of the government of Asia; and by his proved behaviour after his retirement from business, cleared his character

'From The Loeb Classical Library, reprinted by permission.

PLINY

from that stain which his former intrigues had thrown upon it.

He lived among the nobility of Rome without power, and consequently without envy. He was highly respected and much sought after, and though he was bedridden, his chamber was always thronged with visitors, who came not merely out of regard to his rank. He spent his time in philosophical discussion, when not engaged in writing verses; these he sometimes recited, in order to try the sentiments of the public, but he discovered in them more industry than genius. Lately owing to declining years, he entirely quitted Rome, and lived altogether in Campania, from whence even the accession of the new Emperor did not draw him. A circumstance which I mention as well to the honour of the prince, who permitted such a liberty, as of Italicus, who was not afraid to take it.

He carried his taste for objects of virtú so far as to incur reprehension for greedy buying. He had several villas in the same districts, and the last purchase was always the chief favourite, to the neglect of the rest. They were all furnished with large collections of books, statues and portraits, which he more than enjoyed, he even adored; above all the portrait of Virgil, whose birthday he celebrated with more solemnity than his own, especially at Naples, where he used to approach his tomb with as much reverence as if it had been a temple.

In this tranquillity he lived to the seventy-sixth year of his age, with a delicate, rather than a sickly, constitution.

It is remarkable, that as he was the last person upon whom Nero conferred the consular office, so he was the last to die of all those who had been raised by him to that dignity; and again, that the last survivor of Nero's consuls was the one in whose year of office that prince was killed. When I consider this, I cannot forbear lamenting the transitory condition of mankind. Is there anything in nature so short and limited as human life, even in its most extended period? Does it not seem to you, my friend, but yesterday that Nero was upon the throne? and yet not one of all those who were consuls in his reign now remains! why should I wonder at a circumstance so common? Lucius Piso (the father of that Piso who was infamously assassinated by Valerius Festus in Africa) used to say he did not see one person in the Senate whom he had called upon to speak on the motion before the house when he was consul.

But

Such multitudes, however strong their vitality, are swept away in so short a space! I am therefore so far from thinking those historic tears of Xerxes need any apology, that in my judgment the story does honour to his character, which informs us, that when this prince had attentively surveyed his immense army, he could not refrain from weeping at the thought that so many thousand lives would so soon be extinct. Let us strive the more earnestly therefore to lengthen out our span of life-life that is poured out like water and falls as the leaf-if not by action (the means to which lie in another's power), yet in any case by study and research; and since it is not granted us to live long, let us transmit to posterity some memorial that we have at least lived. I well know, you want not any incitement to virtue; but the warmth of my affection for you inclines me to forward you in the course you already pursue; as I have often found myself encouraged by your generous exhorta

tions. "Good is the contention," when friends thus strive who shall animate each other most in their pursuit of immortal fame. Farewell.

-MELMOTH-HUTCHINSON.

AN EXHORTATION TO PUBLISH 1
[Letters, V, 10]

To Suetonius Tranquillus

It is time you should acquit the promise my hendecasyllabic verses gave to our common friends, of your works. The world is every day impatiently inquiring after them, and there is already some danger of their being served with an order to "produce documents." I am myself a good deal backward in publishing, but your slowness and hesitancy are more than a match for even mine. You must hasten your hand, however, otherwise the severity of my satiric verses may perhaps extort from you those self-same writings which the blandishments of my softer Muse could not obtain. Your work is already arrived to that degree of perfection, that the file can only weaken, not polish it. Allow me then the pleasure of seeing your title-page, and hearing that books of my dear Tranquillus are being copied out, sold, and read. It is but fair, and agreeable to our mutual friendship, that I should reap from you the same pleasure you enjoy from me. Farewell. -MELMOTH-HUTCHINSON.