He always began to study at mid-
night at the time of the feast of Vulcan, not for the sake of good luck, but for
learning's sake; in winter generally at one in the morning, but never later
than two, and often at twelve.
night at the time of the feast of Vulcan, not for the sake of good luck, but for
learning's sake; in winter generally at one in the morning, but never later
than two, and often at twelve.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v20 - Phi to Qui
11564 (#178) ##########################################
11564
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
Artotrogus [promptly] —
Here, beside
The man so valiant, kingly, fortunate,
Mars might not such a warrior call himself,
Nor dare to match your valor with his own!
Pyrgopolinices—
That one I saved on the Curculionian plains,
When Búmbomáchides Clýtomestóridysárchides,
Grandson of Neptune, was commander-in-chief —
Artotrogus-
I remember. He, you mean, in arms of gold,
Whose legions with your breath you puffed away,
As wind doth leaves and rushes good for thatch.
Pyrgopolinices-
Why, that is nothing!
[And the complacent warrior goes striding, with nodding helmet-plumes
and waving locks, up and down the stage; so that the weary flatterer, begin-
ning his return compliment, presently has an instant to tell us of the audience
- behind his hand-something of his real opinions. ]
Artotrogus
So forsooth it is,
To deeds I'll tell-
[Aside] which you did never do!
If you can find a more mendacious man,
Or one more boastful than this fellow is,
Take me and hold me for your chattel, then!
Just one thing: olive salad he can bolt!
Pyrgopolinices [turning]—
Where are you?
[The parasite pretends he has been all the time cataloguing the hero's
exploits: -]
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices —
How with a fisticuff you broke his arm!
Here! Then, there's that elephant:
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices -
Artotrogus-
What's that? his arm?
I didn't try to strike.
His thigh I meant, of course.
No! If you had,
With effort, through the creature's hide and heart
And through his bones your arm had made its way.
Pyrgopolinices [modestly] —
That doesn't matter.
Artotrogus-
No, 'tis not worth while
For me to tell, who know your valorous deeds.
## p. 11565 (#179) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11565
[Aside] -
My belly makes this misery; and my ears
Must hearken, lest my teeth have naught to do.
To every lie he tells I must assent!
Pyrgopolinices-
What am I saying?
Artotrogus-
I remember, it happened.
Pyrgopolinices-
Artotrogus [rather wearily]-
Pyrgopolinices [more sharply]
You remember - ?
Artotrogus [rapidly]—
Pyrgopolinices —
Yes, a hundred in Cilicia,
And fifty, a hundred in Scytholatronia,
Thirty from Sardis, sixty Macedonians,-
All of them in a single day you slew.
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices [complacently]-
Artotrogus-
-
What is the grand sum total?
Artotrogus
Pyrgopolinices-
―
-
Your memory's good.
Artotrogus-
I know what you would say:
-
So many should it be. You reckon well.
Pyrgopolinices —
Artotrogus-
What?
I have no records,-I remember it so.
Pyrgopolinices—
Whatever it is.
Seven thousand!
Pyrgopolinices [eagerly]—
Artotrogus-
While you shall play your part as you do now,
Table companion will I hold you still.
The tidbits prompt me aright!
What! In Cappadocia, at a single blow
You had slain five hundred! But-your sword was dull.
Poor wretched infantry, I let them live.
Why say what all men know, that on the earth
You only, Pyrgopolinices, live
In valor, beauty, deeds, unconqueredest ?
All women love you,- and good reason too,
You are so handsome. Like those yesterday
That plucked my cloak.
What did they say to you?
They asked me: "Is this Achilles? " so said one.
## p. 11566 (#180) ##########################################
11566
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
"Yes, 'tis his brother," said I. Then the other:
"Well, he is handsome, surely," so she said,
"And noble. See how well his hair becomes him!
Happy the women are with whom he wives! "
Pyrgopolinices-
Did they say so?
Artotrogus-
Why, yes! Both made me swear
To-day I'd bring you in procession by.
Pyrgopolinices [pensively]-
To be too handsome is a piteous thing!
Artotrogus-
It bores me! For they pray and crowd and beg,
So that I cannot get your business done.
[A movement of the soldier at this word "business" gives the quick-witted
flatterer his cue. ]
Pyrgopolinices-
Have you
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices —
Artotrogus-
You give your mind to mine right wittily.
Pyrgopolinices-
You mean your tablets? Yes, and pen.
'Tis fit that I should know your nature well,
And try to scent out that which you desire.
Artotrogus-
'Tis time, methinks, to hasten to the Forum;
For there must I bestow their wage upon
The hirelings I enlisted yesterday.
For King Seleucus begged me earnestly,
To gather and enroll him mercenaries.
Why, then, let's go.
Pyrgopolinices—
Attendants, follow me!
[Exeunt omnes.
[The prologue, rather singularly, is now spoken, at the opening of the
second act. It may be interesting to cite a few lines, though its literary merit
is small. ]
Palæstrio [a slave, appearing from the soldier's house, as Prologue]-
This argument I'll tell you courteously,
If you to listen will be mannerly.
Who will not listen, let him up and go,
So making room for one disposed to hear.
This comedy we are about to play,
## p. 11567 (#181) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11567
For sake of which you sit so festive there,-
Its argument and name I'll tell to you.
'Alazon is the drama's name in Greek,
And Braggadocio is our word for it. .
This's Ephesus. Yon soldier is my master,
Who went thence townward; boastful, insolent,
Filthy, and full of crapulence and lies.
He says the women chase him all unsought.
A laughing-stock he is, where he appears.
So, while with mocking lips they lead him on,
Most of the girls you'll see with mouths awry!
[The last line is perhaps a random jest aimed at the extravagant comic
masks. If so, it is an indication of post-Plautine date. One of the most
interesting prologues, that of the Casina,' was certainly composed for a late
revival of a remarkably coarse and brutal play. A few examples of these pro-
logues may be instructive. ]
PROLOGUE OF CASINA ›
THE
HE men who drink old wine I count as wise,
And those that gladly hear an ancient play.
Since antique words and phrases please you well,
An old-time drama should delight you more.
For the new comedies that now appear
Are even more debased than these new coins.
Now we have hearkened to the people's cry,
That you desire to hear the Plautine plays,
And so bring out this ancient comedy,
Which you approved; — that is, you elder men:
The younger sort, I am sure, have known it not;
But that you may, we earnestly shall strive.
All dramas it surpassed, when acted first.
The flower of poets still were living then,
Though now departed whither all must pass, -
In absence helpful still to those that are.
And with full earnestness we beg you all
Kindly to give attention to our troop.
-
Cast from your minds your cares and debts away.
Let no one stand in terror of his dun.
'Tis holiday. The banks keep holiday.
'Tis peace! The forum has its halcyon days.
## p. 11568 (#182) ##########################################
11568
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
PROLOGUE OF TRINUMMUS›
Enter Two Female Figures
M
OTHER - Follow, my daughter, to fulfill your task.
Daughter-I follow, ignorant what the end may be.
Mother-'Tis here: lo, yonder house; go straightway in.
[Exit daughter.
[To the audience] —
Now, lest you err, I'll give you guidance brief,-
At least if you will promise to attend.
Who then I am, and she who passed from here
Within, if you but hearken, I will tell.
First, Plautus made my name Extravagance,
And called my daughter yonder, Poverty.
But why impelled by me she entered there,
Hearken and lend your ears while I explain.
A certain youth, who in that house abides,
Has squandered, with my aid, his heritage.
And seeing he can no longer nourish me,
I have given my daughter to abide with him. -
Do not expect the argument of our play.
The old men coming yonder will make clear
The story.
In Greek, Thesaurus' was it called.
Philemon wrote it. Plautus rendering it
(
In barbarous speech, called it Trinummus': now
He begs the drama may retain the name.
That's all. Farewell. In silence now attend.
[As these characters do not appear again, Plautus "made their names »
here only. That is, this passage claims at least to be from the dramatist's
own hand. ]
WITH
PROLOGUE OF RUDENS›
Arcturus speaks, as Prologue
ITH him who moves all races, seas, and lands,
In the celestial city I abide.
Such am I as you see,
-a glorious star
That rises ever at the fitting time,
Here and in heaven. Arcturus is my name.
Shining by night in heaven amid the gods,
By day I walk on earth among mankind.
And other stars to earth from heaven descend:
## p. 11569 (#183) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11569
Jupiter, ruler over gods and men,
Among the several nations sends us forth,
To know the deeds, ways, piety, and faith
Of men, according to the means of each.
[Such poetic passages are rare. Equally characteristic of Roman com-
edy are the Epilogues. We give two very brief examples, illustrating the two
extremes of moral pretentiousness. ]
EPILOGUE OF THE CAPTIVES ›
TH
HIS our comedy, spectators, is for honest morals made.
No love-making is there in it, nor a love intrigue at all.
No false fathering of children, nor embezzlement of money.
Rarely do the poets fashion such a comedy as this,
Where the good are rendered better.
EPILOGUE OF THE ASINARIA)
F BEHIND his goodwife's back this old man had a little fun,
Nothing new or strange he did, nor different from the com-
mon run!
If you wish to beg him off and save him from his cudgeling,
This by loud applause you'll have no trouble in accomplishing.
[A few miscellaneous passages will indicate the various tones struck in
these rollicking comedies. Of course we rarely know how much is translation
from the Greek, how much original invention. ]
WHO
XX-724
BUSYBODIES
HO, knowing nothing, claim to know it all.
What each intends, or will intend, they know.
What in the queen's ear the king said, they know.
They know what Juno chatted of with Jove.
What never was or is, - they know it, though!
## p. 11570 (#184) ##########################################
11570
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
UNPOPULARITY OF TRAGEDY
Mercury speaks, in the Prologue of the Amphitruo
HE plot of this our tragedy next I'll tell-
Why did you knit your brows? Because I said
'Twould be a tragedy? I'm a god, I'll change it.
From tragedy I'll make it, if you will,
A comedy,- with every verse the same.
Will you, or not? - Why! stupid that I am,
As if, a god, I knew not your desire!
Upon this point I understand your minds.
I'll make a mixture, tragicomedy.
MIXTURE OF GREEK AND ROMAN MANNERS
From Prologue to 'Casina'
SOME
OME here, methinks, will say among themselves,
"Prithee, what's this? A wedding among slaves?
A strange thing this to play, that's nowhere done! "
I say, in Carthage this is done, and Greece,
And of our country, in Apulia too.
Yes, servile marriages more carefully
Are celebrated than a freeman's there.
REWARDS OF HEROISM
[From the Captives. ' Tyndarus, a slave, captured in war with the young
master who has been his lifelong comrade, exchanges name and station with
him, and the supposed slave has been sent off to secure the ransom. The
trick has just been discovered and acknowledged. ]
HR
EGIO- To your own utter misery this was done.
Tyndarus-Since for no sin I fall, little I reck.
If he who promised comes not, and I die,
This will be counted honor still, in death,
That I from servitude and hostile hands
Restored my master to his home and father;
And here I rather chose to put my life
In peril, than that he should be destroyed.
Hegio- Enjoy that glory, then, in Acheron!
## p. 11571 (#185) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11571
Tyndarus-
Hegio-
Tyndarus-
Hegio-
Tyndarus
I saved my lord; I exult that he is free,
Whom my old master trusted to my charge:
This you account ill done?
Most wickedly.
But I, opposing you, say—righteously:
Bethink you, if a slave of yours had wrought
For your son this, what thanks you'd render him.
Would you release him from his servitude?
Would he be in your eyes a slave most dear?
Answer.
I think so.
Why then wroth at me?
[In one note of sad defiance we seem to hear an echo of Antigone's voice:
it occurs a little later in the same scene. ]
Beyond my death no ill have I to fear.
And though I live to utmost age, the time
Of suffering what you threaten still is brief.
FISHERMEN'S LUCK
[This passage is of unique interest as the one notable choral ode in Plau-
tus. Its dramatic purpose is not very evident; and indeed, the fishermen do
little more than add "local color" to the scene of shipwreck. ]
M
OST wretched in every way is the life of men that are poverty-
stricken;
And especially those who have learnt no trade, who are des-
titute of employment.
Whatever they happen to have in the house, they perforce therewith
are contented.
But as for ourselves, how wealthy we are you may judge pretty well
from our costume.
These hooks that you see, and bamboo poles, are our means for
attaining a living;
And every day from the city we come to secure a subsistence hither.
Instead of gymnastics and boyish games, this toil is our exercise
only.
Sea-urchins and limpets we strive to secure, with oysters and scallops
and cockles;
The nettles as well, in the sea that dwell, and the striped crabs and
the mussels.
## p. 11572 (#186) ##########################################
11572
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
And among the rocks after that with our hooks and lines we go
a-fishing,
But if no luck is our por-
And we catch no fish, then, salted ourselves, well drenched in the
briny water,
To our homes we go, and slink out of sight, and to bed without any
To capture our food from out of the sea.
tion,
supper.
And unless we have eaten the cockles we caught, our dinner has
been no better.
[Lastly, we may echo the epitaph, in rather awkward hexameters, which
is said to have been composed by Plautus on himself. Gellius, who trans-
mits it, evidently doubts its authenticity, but cites it on the high authority of
Varro:-]
SIN
INCE he has passed to the grave, for Plautus Comedy sorrows;
Now is the stage deserted; and Play, and Jesting, and Laughter,
Dirges, though written in numbers yet numberless, join in la-
menting.
## p. 11573 (#187) ##########################################
11573
PLINY THE ELDER
(23-79 A. D. )
HILE the younger Pliny wins his place in literature chiefly by
his refined caste and fastidious sense of form, these traits
are so lacking in the uncle that his ponderous Cyclopædia
of Natural Sciences stands almost like a massive bowlder beside the
cultivated field of belles-lettres. It is indeed a sufficient proof of life-
long industry; but Pliny was not, like Humboldt, himself a master
of many sciences. He had, in numberless passages, not even sufficient
critical intelligence to translate or summarize correctly his learned
authorities. So while there are a thousand
subjects on which we appeal to him as our
sole authority, our gratitude is usually quer-
ulous, as gratitude, indeed, too often is!
Yet the courage, sincerity, and energy of
the man are rarely equaled.
2
Caius Plinius Secundus was a native of
Cisalpine Gaul; probably of Como, where
the family estates certainly lay. He rose
to high favor at court under the Fla-
vian emperors,- having been in fact an
old fellow-soldier of Vespasian before that
sturdy veteran's elevation to the throne,-
and ended his days as admiral of the fleet
at Misenum, as is so thrillingly related in
a famous letter of his nephew cited in the next article.
We are
indebted to the same filial hand for an account of the elder scholar's
methods of research.
PLINY THE ELDER
"He had a quick apprehension, marvelous power of application, and was
of an exceedingly wakeful temperament.
He always began to study at mid-
night at the time of the feast of Vulcan, not for the sake of good luck, but for
learning's sake; in winter generally at one in the morning, but never later
than two, and often at twelve. He was a most ready sleeper, insomuch that he
would sometimes, whilst in the midst of his studies, fall off and then wake up
again. Before daybreak he used to wait upon Vespasian (who also used his
nights for transacting business), and then proceed to execute the orders he
had received. As soon as he returned home, he gave what time was left to
## p. 11574 (#188) ##########################################
11574
PLINY THE ELDER
study. After a short and light refreshment at noon (agreeably to the good
old custom of our ancestors), he would frequently in the summer, if he was
disengaged from business, lie down and bask in the sun: during which time
some author was read to him, while he took notes and made extracts,— for
every book he read he made extracts out of; indeed, it was a maxim of his
that no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it. When this
was over, he generally took a cold bath, then some slight refreshment and
a little nap. After this, as if it had been a new day, he studied till supper-
time, when a book was again read to him, which he would take down run-
ning notes upon. I remember once, his reader having mispronounced a word,
one of my uncle's friends at the table made him go back to where the word
was and repeat it again; upon which my uncle said to his friend, 'Surely you
understood it? ' Upon his acknowledging that he did, 'Why then,' said he,
'did you make him go back again? We have lost more than ten lines by this
interruption. Such an economist he was of time! In the summer he used to
rise from supper at daylight, and in winter as soon as it was dark: a rule he
observed as strictly as if it had been a law of the State.
"Such was his manner of life amid the bustle and turmoil of the town; but
in the country his whole time was devoted to study, excepting only when he
bathed. In this exception I include no more than the time during which he
was actually in the bath; for all the while he was being rubbed and wiped,
he was employed either in hearing some book read to him or in dictating
himself. In going about anywhere, as though he were disengaged from all
other business, he applied his mind wholly to that single pursuit. A short-
hand writer constantly attended him, with book and tablets, who in the winter
wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the weather
might not occasion any interruption to my uncle's studies; and for the same
reason, when in Rome, he was always carried in a chair. I recollect his once
taking me to task for walking. You need not,' he said, 'lose those hours. '
For he thought every hour gone that was not given to study. Through this
extraordinary application he found time to compose the several treatises I
have mentioned; besides one hundred and sixty volumes of extracts, which
he left me in his will, consisting of a kind of commonplace, written on both
sides in very small hand,- so that one might fairly reckon the number con-
siderably more. He used himself to tell us that when he was comptroller of
the revenue in Spain, he could have sold these manuscripts to Largius Lici-
nus for four hundred thousand sesterces, and then there were not so many
of them. When you consider the books he has read, and the volumes he has
written, are you not inclined to suspect that he never was engaged in public
duties or was ever in the confidence of his prince? On the other hand, when
you are told how indefatigable he was in his studies, are you not inclined to
wonder that he read and wrote no more than he did? »
The mass of citations just mentioned was evidently in great
part utilized for the 'Historia Naturalis, or Cyclopædia. This great
work was provisionally completed, and presented to the prince-regent
Titus, in 77 A. D. The dedication is fulsome, and written in a style
utterly inferior to his younger kinsman's. The body of the work
## p. 11575 (#189) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11575
varies in manner with the subject and the source of the citations, but
our chief quarrel with it is for ambiguous or even nonsensical
statements on important questions of fact.
The arrangement is sufficiently logical. After a general descrip-
tion of the universe (Book ii. ), there follows Geography (Books iii. -
vi. ), Anthropology (vii. ). Zoölogy (viii. -xi. ), Botany (xii. -xxvii. ), and
Mineralogy (xxxiii. -xxxvii. ). Under Botany a digression of eight books
(xx. -xxvii. ) deals with the medicinal uses of plants; and thereupon
follows, somewhat out of place (xxviii. -xxxii. ), an account of cura-
tives derived from the animal world. Under Mineralogy the largest
and most important sections deal with the uses of metals, pigments,
and stones,-i. e. , with the history of the Fine Arts. Besides the
introductory book, on the scope of his work and his sources of in-
formation, Pliny prefixes to each subsection a list of his authorities.
These foot up nearly five hundred writers, more than two thirds of
them in Greek. It is evident, however, that many, if not most, were
cited at second or third hand from manuals, epitomes, etc.
Pliny's labors upon his Cyclopædia were apparently continued to
the last. In the form we now have it, the book has probably been
edited not very critically-by the nephew after the uncle's death.
Pliny's work influenced later antiquity powerfully, and has been
transmitted in many MSS. The most accessible edition is by Detlef-
son (Berlin, 1866-73) in six volumes. The Bohn translation (also in
six volumes) is fairly good, and is abundantly supplied with learned
and somewhat discursive foot-notes.
-
-
Our admiration for Pliny's iron energy increases to astonishment
over the catalogue of his lost works. Of these the most important
was perhaps the history of his own times, in thirty-one books; which
was however soon eclipsed by Tacitus's masterpiece, and passed into
oblivion. The wars in Germany were also treated in twenty books,
doubtful points of grammar in eight, the life of his friend Pomponius
Secundus in two, the art of oratory in three, and the hurling of the
javelin from horseback apparently in one.
But even the catalogue grows exhausting!
INTRODUCTION TO LITHOLOGY
From the Natural History>
I
T NOW remains for us to speak of stones, or in other words,
the leading folly of the day; to say nothing at all of our
taste for gems and amber, crystal and murrhine vases. For
everything of which we have previously treated, down to the
## p. 11576 (#190) ##########################################
11576
PLINY THE ELDER
present book, may, by some possibility or other, have the appear-
ance of having been created for the sake of man: but as to
the mountains, Nature has made those for herself, as a kind of
bulwark for keeping together the bowels of the earth; as also
for the purpose of curbing the violence of the rivers, of breaking
the waves of the sea, and so, by opposing to them the very hard-
est of her materials, putting a check upon those elements which
are never at rest. And yet we must hew down these mountains,
forsooth, and carry them off; and this for no other reason than
to gratify our luxurious inclinations: heights which in former days
it was reckoned a miracle even to have crossed!
Our forefathers regarded as a prodigy the passage of the
Alps, first by Hannibal, and more recently by the Cimbri; but
at the present day, these very mountains are cut asunder to
yield us a thousand different marbles, promontories are thrown
open to the sea, and the face of nature is being everywhere
reduced to a level. We now carry away the barriers that were
destined for the separation of one nation from another; we
construct ships for the transport of our marbles; and amid the
waves, the most boisterous element of nature, we convey the
summits of the mountains to and fro: a thing, however, that is
even less pardonable than to go on the search amid the regions
of the clouds for vessels with which to cool our draughts, and to
excavate rocks towering to the very heavens in order that we
may have the satisfaction of drinking from ice! Let each reflect,
when he hears of the high prices set upon these things, when
he sees these ponderous masses carted and carried away, how
many there are whose life is passed far more happily without
them. For what utility or for what so-called pleasure do mor-
tals make themselves the agents, or more truly speaking the vic-
tims, of such undertakings, except in order that others may take
their repose in the midst of variegated stones? Just as though,
too, the shades of night, which occupy one half of each man's
existence, would forbear to curtail these imaginary delights.
Indeed, while making these reflections, one cannot but feel
ashamed of the men of ancient times even. There are still in
existence censorial laws, which forbid the kernels in the neck
of swine to be served at table; dormice too, and other things too
trifling to mention: and yet there has been no law passed for-
bidding marble to be imported, or the seas to be traversed in
search of it!
## p. 11577 (#191) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11577
It may possibly be observed that this was because marble was
not then introduced. Such however is not the fact: for in the
ædileship of M. Scaurus, three hundred and sixty columns were
to be seen imported; for the decorations of a temporary thea-
tre, too,- one that was destined to be in use for barely a single
month. And yet the laws were silent thereon; in a spirit of
indulgence for the amusements of the public, no doubt. But
then, why such indulgence? or how do vices more insidiously
steal upon us than under the plea of serving the public? By
what other way, in fact, did ivory, gold, and precious stones,
first come into use with private individuals?
Can we say that there is now anything that we have reserved
for the exclusive use of the gods? However, be it so, let us
admit of this indulgence for the amusements of the public; but
still, why did the laws maintain their silence when the largest
of these columns, pillars of Lucullan marble, as much as eight-
and-thirty feet in height, were erected in the atrium of Scaurus?
a thing, too, that was not done privately or in secret; for the
contractor for the public sewers compelled him to give security
for the possible damage that might be done in the carriage of
them to the Palatium. When so bad an example as this was
set, would it not have been advisable to take some precautions
for the preservation of the public morals? And yet the laws still
preserved their silence, when such enormous masses as these
were being carried past the earthenware pediments of the tem-
ples of the gods, to the house of a private individual!
ANECDOTES OF ARTISTS
From the Natural History'
APELLES
A
CIRCUMSTANCE that happened to him in connection with Pro-
togenes is worthy of notice. The latter was living at
Rhodes, when Apelles disembarked there, desirous of seeing
the works of a man whom he had hitherto only known by reputa-
tion. Accordingly, he repaired at once to the studio; Protogenes
was not at home, but there happened to be a large panel upon
the easel ready for painting, with an old woman who was left in
## p. 11578 (#192) ##########################################
11578
PLINY THE ELDER
charge. To his inquiries she made answer that Protogenes was
not at home; and then asked whom she should name
as the
visitor. "Here he is," was the reply of Apelles; and seizing a
brush, he traced with color upon the panel an outline of a sin-
gularly minute fineness. Upon his return the old woman men-
tioned to Protogenes what had happened. The artist, it is said,
upon remarking the delicacy of the touch, instantly exclaimed
that Apelles must have been the visitor, for that no other per-
son was capable of executing anything so exquisitely perfect.
So saying, he traced within the same outline a still finer out-
line, but with another color; and then took his departure, with
instructions to the woman to show it to the stranger if he
returned, and to let him know that this was the person whom
he had come to see. It happened as he anticipated,- Apelles
returned; and vexed at finding himself thus surpassed, he took
up another color and split both of the outlines, leaving no possi-
bility of anything finer being executed. Upon seeing this, Pro-
togenes admitted that he was defeated, and at once flew to the
harbor to look for his guest. He thought proper, too, to trans-
mit the panel to posterity, just as it was; and it always con-
tinued to be held in the highest admiration by all,- artists in
particular. I am told that it was burnt in the first fire which
took place at Cæsar's palace on the Palatine Hill; but in for-
mer times I have often stopped to admire it. Upon its vast sur-
face it contained nothing whatever except the three outlines, so
remarkably fine as to escape the sight: among the most elabor-
ate works of numerous other artists it had all the appearance of
a blank space; and yet by that very fact it attracted the notice
of every one, and was held in higher estimation than any other
painting there.
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously
adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might
be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other;
a practice which has now passed into a proverb. It was also a
practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit
it to the view of the passers-by in some exposed place; while he
himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms
that were passed upon it: it being his opinion that the judgment
of the public was preferable to his own, as being the more dis-
cerning of the two. It was under these circumstances, they say,
that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the
## p. 11579 (#193) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11579
In
shoes with one shoe-string too little. The next day, the shoe-
maker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks
to his advice, began to criticize the leg; upon which Apelles, full
of indignation, popped his head out, and reminded him that a
shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes,- a piece
of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.
fact, Apelles was a person of great amenity of manners,—a cir-
cumstance which rendered him particularly agreeable to Alexander
the Great, who would often come to his studio. He had forbidden
himself by public edict, as already stated, to be represented by
any other artist.
On one occasion, however, when the prince was
in his studio, talking a great deal about painting without knowing
anything about it, Apelles quietly begged that he would quit the
subject, telling him that he would get laughed at by the boys
who were there grinding the colors: so great was the influence
which he rightfully possessed over a monarch who was otherwise.
of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as he was, Alex-
ander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high esti-
mation in which he held him: for having, in his admiration of
her extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint Pancaste un-
draped, the most beloved of all his concubines, - the artist while.
so engaged fell in love with her; upon which, Alexander, perceiv-
ing this to be the case, made him a present of her: thus showing
himself, though a great king in courage, a still greater one in self-
command, this action redounding no less to his honor than any
of his victories.
ww
――――
PRAXITELES
SUPE
UPERIOR to all the statues not only of Praxiteles, but of any
other artist that ever existed, is his Cnidian Venus; for the
inspection of which, many persons before now have pur-
posely undertaken a voyage to Cnidos. The artist made two
statues of the goddess, and offered them both for sale: one of
them was represented with drapery, and for this reason was pre-
ferred by the people of Cos, who had the choice; the second
was offered them at the same price, but on the grounds of pro-
priety and modesty they thought fit to choose the other. Upon
this, the Cnidians purchased the rejected statue, and immensely
superior has it always been held in general estimation. At a later.
period, King Nicomedes wished to purchase this statue of the
## p. 11580 (#194) ##########################################
11580
PLINY THE ELDER
Cnidians, and made them an offer to pay off the whole of their
public debt, which was very large. They preferred, however, to
submit to any extremity rather than part with it; and with good
reason, for by this statue Praxiteles has perpetuated the glory of
Cnidos. The little temple in which it is placed is open on all
sides, so that the beauties of the statue admit of being seen from
every point of view,- an arrangement which was favored by the
goddess herself, it is generally believed.
PHIDIAS
MONG all nations which the fame of the Olympian Jupiter has
reached, Phidias is looked upon, beyond all doubt, as the
most famous of artists; but to let those who have never
seen his works know how deservedly he is esteemed, we will
take this opportunity of adducing a few slight proofs of the
genius which he displayed. In doing this we shall not appeal
to the beauty of his Olympian Jupiter, nor yet to the vast pro-
portions of his Athenian Minerva, six-and-twenty cubits in height,
and composed of ivory and gold: but it is to the shield of this
last statue that we shall draw attention; upon the convex face of
which he has chased a combat of the Amazons, while upon the
concave side of it he has represented the battle between the gods
and the giants. Upon the sandals, again, we see the wars of the
Lapithæ and Centaurs; so careful has he been to fill every small-
est portion of his work with some proof or other of his artistic
skill. To the story chased upon the pedestal of the statue, the
name of the 'Birth of Pandora' has been given; and the figures
of new-born gods to be seen upon it are no less than twenty in
number. The figure of Victory, in particular, is most admirable;
and connoisseurs are greatly struck with the serpent and the
sphinx in bronze lying beneath the point of the spear. Let thus
much be said incidentally in reference to an artist who can never
be sufficiently praised.
## p. 11581 (#195) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11581
-
THE MOST PERFECT WORKS OF NATURE
Peroration to the Natural History>
H
AVING now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be as
well to take a sort of comparative view of her several pro-
ductions, as well as of the countries which supply them.
Throughout the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of
heaven extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which for
the productions of nature merits so high a rank, as Italy, that
ruler and second parent of the world; recommended as she is
by her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves,
her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of genius
which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally in her
favor: the salubrity and mildness of her climate; the easy access
which she offers to all nations; her coasts indented with so many
harbors; the propitious breezes, too, that always prevail on her
shores; advantages, all of them due to her situation, lying as
she does midway between the East and the West, and extended
in the most favorable of all positions. Add to this the abundant
supply of her waters, the salubrity of her groves, the repeated
intersections of her mountain ranges, the comparative innocuous-
ness of her wild animals, the fertility of her soil, and the singu-
lar richness of her pastures.
Whatever there is that the life of man ought not to feel in
want of, is nowhere to be found in greater perfection than here;
the cereals, for example, wine, oil, wool, flax, tissues, and oxen.
As to horses, there are none I find preferred to those of Italy
for the course; while for mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron,
so long as it was deemed lawful to work them, Italy was held
inferior to no country whatsoever. At the present day, teeming
as she is with these treasures, she contents herself with lavish-
ing upon us, as the whole of her bounties, her various liquids, and
the numerous flavors yielded by her cereals and her fruits.
Next to Italy, if we except the fabulous regions of India, I
would rank Spain, for my own part; those districts at least that
lie in the vicinity of the sea. She is parched and sterile in one
part, it is true; but where she is at all productive, she yields the
cereals in abundance, oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind.
In all these respects, Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on
the other hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartium and
## p. 11582 (#196) ##########################################
11582
PLINY THE ELDER
her specular stone, in the products of her desert tracts, in her
pigments that minister to our luxuries, in the ardor displayed by
her people in laborious employments, in the perfect training of
her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in their
general resoluteness of character.
As to the productions themselves, the greatest value of all,
among the products of the sea, is attached to pearls; of objects.
that lie upon the surface of the earth, it is crystals that are most
highly esteemed; and of those derived from the interior, adamas,
smaragdus, precious stones, and murrhine, are the things upon
which the highest value is placed. The most costly things that
are matured by the earth are the kermes-berry and laser; that
are gathered from trees,-nard and Seric tissues; that are derived
from the trunks of trees,-logs of citrus-wood; that are produced
by shrubs,-cinnamon, cassia, and amomum; that are yielded by
the juices of trees or of shrubs,-amber, opobalsamum, myrrh,
and frankincense; that are found in the roots of trees, - the per-
fumes derived from costus. The most valuable products furnished
by living animals on land are the teeth of elephants; by ani-
mals in the sea, tortoise-shell; by the coverings of animals, the
skins which the Seres dye, and the substance gathered from the
hair of the she-goats of Arabia, which we have spoken of under
the name of "ladanum "; by creatures that are common to both
land and sea, the purple of the murex. With reference to the
birds, beyond plumes for warriors' helmets, and the grease that
is derived from the geese of Commagene, I find no remarkable
product mentioned. We must not omit, too, to observe that gold,
for which there is such a mania with all mankind, hardly holds
the tenth rank as an object of value, and silver, with which we
purchase gold, hardly the twentieth!
Hail to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do thou
deign to show thy favor unto me, who, alone of all the citizens
of Rome, have in thy every department thus made known thy
praise.
## p. 11583 (#197) ##########################################
11583
PLINY THE YOUNGER
(CAIUS PLINIUS CECILIUS SECUNDUS)
(61-113? A. D. )
UBLIUS CECILIUS SECUNDUS, as he was at first named, was
in his eighteenth year when his uncle and guardian, the
elder Pliny, perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, 79 A. D. ,
leaving his fortune and his name to his ward. The boy had been
carefully educated by his mother, and his other guardian, the noble
Verginius Rufus, whose virtues he afterwards commemorated in one
of his epistles. Rich, well born, well educated, Pliny rapidly rose
to eminence in his profession as advocate,
pleading not only in the courts, but also
having a part in important cases before the
Senate. Not content with professional suc-
cess, however, he revised and published his
speeches, and aspired to be equally eminent
as a man of letters; in this and other mat-
ters (as he was not ashamed to admit) fol-
lowing the example of Cicero. More than
once his letters record the anxious care
which he and his friends bestowed upon
the elaboration of his orations; but nothing
of them has survived save one show-piece,
the so-called 'Panegyricus,' in praise of
his friend and patron the Emperor Trajan.
This is an ornate and labored production, which scarcely excites
regret that the rest have perished. There were not wanting friends
to tell him that his style was too daring, and Macrobius is probably
quite correct in assigning him to the luxuriant and florid type of
oratory.
PLINY THE YOUNGER
Pliny's advancement in office was equally rapid,- too rapid, per-
haps, since he owed much of his early success to the hated Domitian.
He was quæstor in 89, tribune 91, prætor 93, and subsequently filled
important posts connected with the Treasury. It seems, indeed, to
have been his unusual ability as a financier which commended him;
but he is careful to inform us that after Domitian's 'death, papers were
## p. 11584 (#198) ##########################################
11584
PLINY THE YOUNGER
found showing how narrowly Pliny had escaped the fate that over-
took all virtue under that odious tyranny. In the year 100 his offi-
cial career was crowned by an appointment as consul suffectus for the
months of September and October; a consulship which he can hardly
have enjoyed comparing with Cicero's. Some eleven years later he
was sent as proconsul to the province of Pontus and Bithynia;
and there, or shortly after his return to Rome, he seems to have
died.
The nine books of Letters' on which his fame now rests were
composed after the death of Domitian, and published at intervals
from 97 to 109. A tenth book was subsequently added, containing
his correspondence with Trajan while in his province, together with
the Emperor's very business-like answers. In this last book occurs
the famous letter concerning the Christians, probably the best-known
passage in the entire collection. There can be little doubt that Pliny
composed the vast majority of his epistles expressly for publication.
It has been pointed out, for example, that only twice is any one
of whom an unfavorable opinion is expressed, mentioned by name.
Pliny, according to his own account, is the most gallant of husbands,
the most amiable of friends; affectionate to all his relatives, generous
to all his dependents, on the best of terms with all the world save
Regulus; and Regulus dies betimes. It is not hard for some readers
of Pliny to vote him a prig, and to believe that his likeness to
Cicero resides chiefly in his vanity and his weakness. And it is not
easy for any one familiar with that period as depicted in the pages
of Tacitus, Juvenal, and Suetonius, to recognize it when viewed from
Pliny's standpoint. So much amiability in the writer, so much virtue
in his friends, seem a trifle suspicious. But it would be unjust to
consider Pliny a mere poseur, - a deliberate flatterer of himself or of
his age.
Amiable, clever, cultured, successful, he was disposed to look
upon the bright side of men and things. He too had lived through
the Reign of Terror, and can tell gloomy tales of men's baseness.
But it is much to his credit that he prefers to record the good that
survived to a happier epoch. Virtuous men and women, loyal friends,
domestic happiness, were still to be found in Rome; and the many
charming pictures drawn by Pliny are doubtless as free from exag-
geration as the gloomy scenes painted by the more skillful brushes
of his greater contemporaries.
While there is some attempt to observe chronological order in the
arrangement of the letters, it is evident that the author has tried to
heighten their attractiveness by varying his topics. With few excep-
tions each letter discusses but one subject, and the diction bears
every mark of labored simplicity. The correspondence thus lacks
that spontaneity and unconscious ease which are universally felt to
## p. 11585 (#199) ##########################################
PLINY THE YOUNGER
11585
be the highest charm of letter-writing,- those qualities which make
so much of Cicero's correspondence a delight, and the lack of which
makes Pope's letters a perpetual challenge to the reader's criticism.
But though Pliny has not "snatched a grace beyond the reach of
art," he is nevertheless very good reading. The style may smack of
artifice; but with the utmost good taste, good sense, and good humor,
he tells us (apparently) all about himself, and very much about the
age in which he lived. Literary gossip, anecdotes of famous or infa-
mous characters, ghost stories; descriptions of his villas, his poems,
his suppers, his uncle's library; the death of Martial, the eruption
of Vesuvius, an invitation to dinner; the deterioration of the law
courts, and the abuse of the ballot in the Senate; a plan to pur-
chase an estate, to write an epic, to build a temple,-on these and
a hundred other topics he affords us invaluable glimpses into the
life of his day. He is sufficiently piquant, without being spiteful;
sympathetic, without being sentimental; and while he can no longer
be esteemed a genius, he is better loved and more widely known as
a singularly pure man and a most entertaining companion.
It was
as a genius, however, that he had hoped to live in the
memory of posterity. The world of literature filled a large part of
his thoughts; and there is no reason to suppose him insincere when
he laments that his engagements, social and professional, prevent
him from devoting all his strength to the "pursuit of immortality. "
His uncle had been an indefatigable reader, writer, and collector of
books. Among Pliny's teachers was Quintilian, the great rhetorician
of the age.
Tacitus was his intimate friend. He patronized Martial,
and knew well Suetonius, Silius Italicus, and many other writers less
important in our eyes, because their works have perished.
We may
agree with Juvenal that authors' readings must have been a deadly
bore, but we need not conclude that Pliny was a hypocrite because
he was untiring in his attendance upon them. His poems (as good,
no doubt, as his model Cicero's), his orations, his narrative pieces,
are repeatedly mentioned, and were evidently the subject of his most
anxious thought. So generous a patron, so appreciative a friend,
could hardly have lacked favorable critics; and he very cordially
welcomes from his contemporaries any forestallment of the verdict
which he hoped from posterity. Yet it must be admitted that his
critical insight was quite good enough to rate his friends much as
later ages have ranked them. The vast merits of Tactitus he fully
recognized, and was unfeignedly glad to have his name coupled with
the great historian's as an eminent literary character. Of Silius Itali-
cus, on the other hand, he remarks that "he used to write verses
with more diligence than force," -a criticism which very few have
been found to dispute. On other topics than literature, moreover,
XX-725
## p. 11586 (#200) ##########################################
11586
PLINY THE YOUNGER
Pliny was often in striking agreement with modern sentiment.
11564
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
Artotrogus [promptly] —
Here, beside
The man so valiant, kingly, fortunate,
Mars might not such a warrior call himself,
Nor dare to match your valor with his own!
Pyrgopolinices—
That one I saved on the Curculionian plains,
When Búmbomáchides Clýtomestóridysárchides,
Grandson of Neptune, was commander-in-chief —
Artotrogus-
I remember. He, you mean, in arms of gold,
Whose legions with your breath you puffed away,
As wind doth leaves and rushes good for thatch.
Pyrgopolinices-
Why, that is nothing!
[And the complacent warrior goes striding, with nodding helmet-plumes
and waving locks, up and down the stage; so that the weary flatterer, begin-
ning his return compliment, presently has an instant to tell us of the audience
- behind his hand-something of his real opinions. ]
Artotrogus
So forsooth it is,
To deeds I'll tell-
[Aside] which you did never do!
If you can find a more mendacious man,
Or one more boastful than this fellow is,
Take me and hold me for your chattel, then!
Just one thing: olive salad he can bolt!
Pyrgopolinices [turning]—
Where are you?
[The parasite pretends he has been all the time cataloguing the hero's
exploits: -]
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices —
How with a fisticuff you broke his arm!
Here! Then, there's that elephant:
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices -
Artotrogus-
What's that? his arm?
I didn't try to strike.
His thigh I meant, of course.
No! If you had,
With effort, through the creature's hide and heart
And through his bones your arm had made its way.
Pyrgopolinices [modestly] —
That doesn't matter.
Artotrogus-
No, 'tis not worth while
For me to tell, who know your valorous deeds.
## p. 11565 (#179) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11565
[Aside] -
My belly makes this misery; and my ears
Must hearken, lest my teeth have naught to do.
To every lie he tells I must assent!
Pyrgopolinices-
What am I saying?
Artotrogus-
I remember, it happened.
Pyrgopolinices-
Artotrogus [rather wearily]-
Pyrgopolinices [more sharply]
You remember - ?
Artotrogus [rapidly]—
Pyrgopolinices —
Yes, a hundred in Cilicia,
And fifty, a hundred in Scytholatronia,
Thirty from Sardis, sixty Macedonians,-
All of them in a single day you slew.
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices [complacently]-
Artotrogus-
-
What is the grand sum total?
Artotrogus
Pyrgopolinices-
―
-
Your memory's good.
Artotrogus-
I know what you would say:
-
So many should it be. You reckon well.
Pyrgopolinices —
Artotrogus-
What?
I have no records,-I remember it so.
Pyrgopolinices—
Whatever it is.
Seven thousand!
Pyrgopolinices [eagerly]—
Artotrogus-
While you shall play your part as you do now,
Table companion will I hold you still.
The tidbits prompt me aright!
What! In Cappadocia, at a single blow
You had slain five hundred! But-your sword was dull.
Poor wretched infantry, I let them live.
Why say what all men know, that on the earth
You only, Pyrgopolinices, live
In valor, beauty, deeds, unconqueredest ?
All women love you,- and good reason too,
You are so handsome. Like those yesterday
That plucked my cloak.
What did they say to you?
They asked me: "Is this Achilles? " so said one.
## p. 11566 (#180) ##########################################
11566
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
"Yes, 'tis his brother," said I. Then the other:
"Well, he is handsome, surely," so she said,
"And noble. See how well his hair becomes him!
Happy the women are with whom he wives! "
Pyrgopolinices-
Did they say so?
Artotrogus-
Why, yes! Both made me swear
To-day I'd bring you in procession by.
Pyrgopolinices [pensively]-
To be too handsome is a piteous thing!
Artotrogus-
It bores me! For they pray and crowd and beg,
So that I cannot get your business done.
[A movement of the soldier at this word "business" gives the quick-witted
flatterer his cue. ]
Pyrgopolinices-
Have you
Artotrogus-
Pyrgopolinices —
Artotrogus-
You give your mind to mine right wittily.
Pyrgopolinices-
You mean your tablets? Yes, and pen.
'Tis fit that I should know your nature well,
And try to scent out that which you desire.
Artotrogus-
'Tis time, methinks, to hasten to the Forum;
For there must I bestow their wage upon
The hirelings I enlisted yesterday.
For King Seleucus begged me earnestly,
To gather and enroll him mercenaries.
Why, then, let's go.
Pyrgopolinices—
Attendants, follow me!
[Exeunt omnes.
[The prologue, rather singularly, is now spoken, at the opening of the
second act. It may be interesting to cite a few lines, though its literary merit
is small. ]
Palæstrio [a slave, appearing from the soldier's house, as Prologue]-
This argument I'll tell you courteously,
If you to listen will be mannerly.
Who will not listen, let him up and go,
So making room for one disposed to hear.
This comedy we are about to play,
## p. 11567 (#181) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11567
For sake of which you sit so festive there,-
Its argument and name I'll tell to you.
'Alazon is the drama's name in Greek,
And Braggadocio is our word for it. .
This's Ephesus. Yon soldier is my master,
Who went thence townward; boastful, insolent,
Filthy, and full of crapulence and lies.
He says the women chase him all unsought.
A laughing-stock he is, where he appears.
So, while with mocking lips they lead him on,
Most of the girls you'll see with mouths awry!
[The last line is perhaps a random jest aimed at the extravagant comic
masks. If so, it is an indication of post-Plautine date. One of the most
interesting prologues, that of the Casina,' was certainly composed for a late
revival of a remarkably coarse and brutal play. A few examples of these pro-
logues may be instructive. ]
PROLOGUE OF CASINA ›
THE
HE men who drink old wine I count as wise,
And those that gladly hear an ancient play.
Since antique words and phrases please you well,
An old-time drama should delight you more.
For the new comedies that now appear
Are even more debased than these new coins.
Now we have hearkened to the people's cry,
That you desire to hear the Plautine plays,
And so bring out this ancient comedy,
Which you approved; — that is, you elder men:
The younger sort, I am sure, have known it not;
But that you may, we earnestly shall strive.
All dramas it surpassed, when acted first.
The flower of poets still were living then,
Though now departed whither all must pass, -
In absence helpful still to those that are.
And with full earnestness we beg you all
Kindly to give attention to our troop.
-
Cast from your minds your cares and debts away.
Let no one stand in terror of his dun.
'Tis holiday. The banks keep holiday.
'Tis peace! The forum has its halcyon days.
## p. 11568 (#182) ##########################################
11568
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
PROLOGUE OF TRINUMMUS›
Enter Two Female Figures
M
OTHER - Follow, my daughter, to fulfill your task.
Daughter-I follow, ignorant what the end may be.
Mother-'Tis here: lo, yonder house; go straightway in.
[Exit daughter.
[To the audience] —
Now, lest you err, I'll give you guidance brief,-
At least if you will promise to attend.
Who then I am, and she who passed from here
Within, if you but hearken, I will tell.
First, Plautus made my name Extravagance,
And called my daughter yonder, Poverty.
But why impelled by me she entered there,
Hearken and lend your ears while I explain.
A certain youth, who in that house abides,
Has squandered, with my aid, his heritage.
And seeing he can no longer nourish me,
I have given my daughter to abide with him. -
Do not expect the argument of our play.
The old men coming yonder will make clear
The story.
In Greek, Thesaurus' was it called.
Philemon wrote it. Plautus rendering it
(
In barbarous speech, called it Trinummus': now
He begs the drama may retain the name.
That's all. Farewell. In silence now attend.
[As these characters do not appear again, Plautus "made their names »
here only. That is, this passage claims at least to be from the dramatist's
own hand. ]
WITH
PROLOGUE OF RUDENS›
Arcturus speaks, as Prologue
ITH him who moves all races, seas, and lands,
In the celestial city I abide.
Such am I as you see,
-a glorious star
That rises ever at the fitting time,
Here and in heaven. Arcturus is my name.
Shining by night in heaven amid the gods,
By day I walk on earth among mankind.
And other stars to earth from heaven descend:
## p. 11569 (#183) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11569
Jupiter, ruler over gods and men,
Among the several nations sends us forth,
To know the deeds, ways, piety, and faith
Of men, according to the means of each.
[Such poetic passages are rare. Equally characteristic of Roman com-
edy are the Epilogues. We give two very brief examples, illustrating the two
extremes of moral pretentiousness. ]
EPILOGUE OF THE CAPTIVES ›
TH
HIS our comedy, spectators, is for honest morals made.
No love-making is there in it, nor a love intrigue at all.
No false fathering of children, nor embezzlement of money.
Rarely do the poets fashion such a comedy as this,
Where the good are rendered better.
EPILOGUE OF THE ASINARIA)
F BEHIND his goodwife's back this old man had a little fun,
Nothing new or strange he did, nor different from the com-
mon run!
If you wish to beg him off and save him from his cudgeling,
This by loud applause you'll have no trouble in accomplishing.
[A few miscellaneous passages will indicate the various tones struck in
these rollicking comedies. Of course we rarely know how much is translation
from the Greek, how much original invention. ]
WHO
XX-724
BUSYBODIES
HO, knowing nothing, claim to know it all.
What each intends, or will intend, they know.
What in the queen's ear the king said, they know.
They know what Juno chatted of with Jove.
What never was or is, - they know it, though!
## p. 11570 (#184) ##########################################
11570
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
UNPOPULARITY OF TRAGEDY
Mercury speaks, in the Prologue of the Amphitruo
HE plot of this our tragedy next I'll tell-
Why did you knit your brows? Because I said
'Twould be a tragedy? I'm a god, I'll change it.
From tragedy I'll make it, if you will,
A comedy,- with every verse the same.
Will you, or not? - Why! stupid that I am,
As if, a god, I knew not your desire!
Upon this point I understand your minds.
I'll make a mixture, tragicomedy.
MIXTURE OF GREEK AND ROMAN MANNERS
From Prologue to 'Casina'
SOME
OME here, methinks, will say among themselves,
"Prithee, what's this? A wedding among slaves?
A strange thing this to play, that's nowhere done! "
I say, in Carthage this is done, and Greece,
And of our country, in Apulia too.
Yes, servile marriages more carefully
Are celebrated than a freeman's there.
REWARDS OF HEROISM
[From the Captives. ' Tyndarus, a slave, captured in war with the young
master who has been his lifelong comrade, exchanges name and station with
him, and the supposed slave has been sent off to secure the ransom. The
trick has just been discovered and acknowledged. ]
HR
EGIO- To your own utter misery this was done.
Tyndarus-Since for no sin I fall, little I reck.
If he who promised comes not, and I die,
This will be counted honor still, in death,
That I from servitude and hostile hands
Restored my master to his home and father;
And here I rather chose to put my life
In peril, than that he should be destroyed.
Hegio- Enjoy that glory, then, in Acheron!
## p. 11571 (#185) ##########################################
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
11571
Tyndarus-
Hegio-
Tyndarus-
Hegio-
Tyndarus
I saved my lord; I exult that he is free,
Whom my old master trusted to my charge:
This you account ill done?
Most wickedly.
But I, opposing you, say—righteously:
Bethink you, if a slave of yours had wrought
For your son this, what thanks you'd render him.
Would you release him from his servitude?
Would he be in your eyes a slave most dear?
Answer.
I think so.
Why then wroth at me?
[In one note of sad defiance we seem to hear an echo of Antigone's voice:
it occurs a little later in the same scene. ]
Beyond my death no ill have I to fear.
And though I live to utmost age, the time
Of suffering what you threaten still is brief.
FISHERMEN'S LUCK
[This passage is of unique interest as the one notable choral ode in Plau-
tus. Its dramatic purpose is not very evident; and indeed, the fishermen do
little more than add "local color" to the scene of shipwreck. ]
M
OST wretched in every way is the life of men that are poverty-
stricken;
And especially those who have learnt no trade, who are des-
titute of employment.
Whatever they happen to have in the house, they perforce therewith
are contented.
But as for ourselves, how wealthy we are you may judge pretty well
from our costume.
These hooks that you see, and bamboo poles, are our means for
attaining a living;
And every day from the city we come to secure a subsistence hither.
Instead of gymnastics and boyish games, this toil is our exercise
only.
Sea-urchins and limpets we strive to secure, with oysters and scallops
and cockles;
The nettles as well, in the sea that dwell, and the striped crabs and
the mussels.
## p. 11572 (#186) ##########################################
11572
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS
And among the rocks after that with our hooks and lines we go
a-fishing,
But if no luck is our por-
And we catch no fish, then, salted ourselves, well drenched in the
briny water,
To our homes we go, and slink out of sight, and to bed without any
To capture our food from out of the sea.
tion,
supper.
And unless we have eaten the cockles we caught, our dinner has
been no better.
[Lastly, we may echo the epitaph, in rather awkward hexameters, which
is said to have been composed by Plautus on himself. Gellius, who trans-
mits it, evidently doubts its authenticity, but cites it on the high authority of
Varro:-]
SIN
INCE he has passed to the grave, for Plautus Comedy sorrows;
Now is the stage deserted; and Play, and Jesting, and Laughter,
Dirges, though written in numbers yet numberless, join in la-
menting.
## p. 11573 (#187) ##########################################
11573
PLINY THE ELDER
(23-79 A. D. )
HILE the younger Pliny wins his place in literature chiefly by
his refined caste and fastidious sense of form, these traits
are so lacking in the uncle that his ponderous Cyclopædia
of Natural Sciences stands almost like a massive bowlder beside the
cultivated field of belles-lettres. It is indeed a sufficient proof of life-
long industry; but Pliny was not, like Humboldt, himself a master
of many sciences. He had, in numberless passages, not even sufficient
critical intelligence to translate or summarize correctly his learned
authorities. So while there are a thousand
subjects on which we appeal to him as our
sole authority, our gratitude is usually quer-
ulous, as gratitude, indeed, too often is!
Yet the courage, sincerity, and energy of
the man are rarely equaled.
2
Caius Plinius Secundus was a native of
Cisalpine Gaul; probably of Como, where
the family estates certainly lay. He rose
to high favor at court under the Fla-
vian emperors,- having been in fact an
old fellow-soldier of Vespasian before that
sturdy veteran's elevation to the throne,-
and ended his days as admiral of the fleet
at Misenum, as is so thrillingly related in
a famous letter of his nephew cited in the next article.
We are
indebted to the same filial hand for an account of the elder scholar's
methods of research.
PLINY THE ELDER
"He had a quick apprehension, marvelous power of application, and was
of an exceedingly wakeful temperament.
He always began to study at mid-
night at the time of the feast of Vulcan, not for the sake of good luck, but for
learning's sake; in winter generally at one in the morning, but never later
than two, and often at twelve. He was a most ready sleeper, insomuch that he
would sometimes, whilst in the midst of his studies, fall off and then wake up
again. Before daybreak he used to wait upon Vespasian (who also used his
nights for transacting business), and then proceed to execute the orders he
had received. As soon as he returned home, he gave what time was left to
## p. 11574 (#188) ##########################################
11574
PLINY THE ELDER
study. After a short and light refreshment at noon (agreeably to the good
old custom of our ancestors), he would frequently in the summer, if he was
disengaged from business, lie down and bask in the sun: during which time
some author was read to him, while he took notes and made extracts,— for
every book he read he made extracts out of; indeed, it was a maxim of his
that no book was so bad but some good might be got out of it. When this
was over, he generally took a cold bath, then some slight refreshment and
a little nap. After this, as if it had been a new day, he studied till supper-
time, when a book was again read to him, which he would take down run-
ning notes upon. I remember once, his reader having mispronounced a word,
one of my uncle's friends at the table made him go back to where the word
was and repeat it again; upon which my uncle said to his friend, 'Surely you
understood it? ' Upon his acknowledging that he did, 'Why then,' said he,
'did you make him go back again? We have lost more than ten lines by this
interruption. Such an economist he was of time! In the summer he used to
rise from supper at daylight, and in winter as soon as it was dark: a rule he
observed as strictly as if it had been a law of the State.
"Such was his manner of life amid the bustle and turmoil of the town; but
in the country his whole time was devoted to study, excepting only when he
bathed. In this exception I include no more than the time during which he
was actually in the bath; for all the while he was being rubbed and wiped,
he was employed either in hearing some book read to him or in dictating
himself. In going about anywhere, as though he were disengaged from all
other business, he applied his mind wholly to that single pursuit. A short-
hand writer constantly attended him, with book and tablets, who in the winter
wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the weather
might not occasion any interruption to my uncle's studies; and for the same
reason, when in Rome, he was always carried in a chair. I recollect his once
taking me to task for walking. You need not,' he said, 'lose those hours. '
For he thought every hour gone that was not given to study. Through this
extraordinary application he found time to compose the several treatises I
have mentioned; besides one hundred and sixty volumes of extracts, which
he left me in his will, consisting of a kind of commonplace, written on both
sides in very small hand,- so that one might fairly reckon the number con-
siderably more. He used himself to tell us that when he was comptroller of
the revenue in Spain, he could have sold these manuscripts to Largius Lici-
nus for four hundred thousand sesterces, and then there were not so many
of them. When you consider the books he has read, and the volumes he has
written, are you not inclined to suspect that he never was engaged in public
duties or was ever in the confidence of his prince? On the other hand, when
you are told how indefatigable he was in his studies, are you not inclined to
wonder that he read and wrote no more than he did? »
The mass of citations just mentioned was evidently in great
part utilized for the 'Historia Naturalis, or Cyclopædia. This great
work was provisionally completed, and presented to the prince-regent
Titus, in 77 A. D. The dedication is fulsome, and written in a style
utterly inferior to his younger kinsman's. The body of the work
## p. 11575 (#189) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11575
varies in manner with the subject and the source of the citations, but
our chief quarrel with it is for ambiguous or even nonsensical
statements on important questions of fact.
The arrangement is sufficiently logical. After a general descrip-
tion of the universe (Book ii. ), there follows Geography (Books iii. -
vi. ), Anthropology (vii. ). Zoölogy (viii. -xi. ), Botany (xii. -xxvii. ), and
Mineralogy (xxxiii. -xxxvii. ). Under Botany a digression of eight books
(xx. -xxvii. ) deals with the medicinal uses of plants; and thereupon
follows, somewhat out of place (xxviii. -xxxii. ), an account of cura-
tives derived from the animal world. Under Mineralogy the largest
and most important sections deal with the uses of metals, pigments,
and stones,-i. e. , with the history of the Fine Arts. Besides the
introductory book, on the scope of his work and his sources of in-
formation, Pliny prefixes to each subsection a list of his authorities.
These foot up nearly five hundred writers, more than two thirds of
them in Greek. It is evident, however, that many, if not most, were
cited at second or third hand from manuals, epitomes, etc.
Pliny's labors upon his Cyclopædia were apparently continued to
the last. In the form we now have it, the book has probably been
edited not very critically-by the nephew after the uncle's death.
Pliny's work influenced later antiquity powerfully, and has been
transmitted in many MSS. The most accessible edition is by Detlef-
son (Berlin, 1866-73) in six volumes. The Bohn translation (also in
six volumes) is fairly good, and is abundantly supplied with learned
and somewhat discursive foot-notes.
-
-
Our admiration for Pliny's iron energy increases to astonishment
over the catalogue of his lost works. Of these the most important
was perhaps the history of his own times, in thirty-one books; which
was however soon eclipsed by Tacitus's masterpiece, and passed into
oblivion. The wars in Germany were also treated in twenty books,
doubtful points of grammar in eight, the life of his friend Pomponius
Secundus in two, the art of oratory in three, and the hurling of the
javelin from horseback apparently in one.
But even the catalogue grows exhausting!
INTRODUCTION TO LITHOLOGY
From the Natural History>
I
T NOW remains for us to speak of stones, or in other words,
the leading folly of the day; to say nothing at all of our
taste for gems and amber, crystal and murrhine vases. For
everything of which we have previously treated, down to the
## p. 11576 (#190) ##########################################
11576
PLINY THE ELDER
present book, may, by some possibility or other, have the appear-
ance of having been created for the sake of man: but as to
the mountains, Nature has made those for herself, as a kind of
bulwark for keeping together the bowels of the earth; as also
for the purpose of curbing the violence of the rivers, of breaking
the waves of the sea, and so, by opposing to them the very hard-
est of her materials, putting a check upon those elements which
are never at rest. And yet we must hew down these mountains,
forsooth, and carry them off; and this for no other reason than
to gratify our luxurious inclinations: heights which in former days
it was reckoned a miracle even to have crossed!
Our forefathers regarded as a prodigy the passage of the
Alps, first by Hannibal, and more recently by the Cimbri; but
at the present day, these very mountains are cut asunder to
yield us a thousand different marbles, promontories are thrown
open to the sea, and the face of nature is being everywhere
reduced to a level. We now carry away the barriers that were
destined for the separation of one nation from another; we
construct ships for the transport of our marbles; and amid the
waves, the most boisterous element of nature, we convey the
summits of the mountains to and fro: a thing, however, that is
even less pardonable than to go on the search amid the regions
of the clouds for vessels with which to cool our draughts, and to
excavate rocks towering to the very heavens in order that we
may have the satisfaction of drinking from ice! Let each reflect,
when he hears of the high prices set upon these things, when
he sees these ponderous masses carted and carried away, how
many there are whose life is passed far more happily without
them. For what utility or for what so-called pleasure do mor-
tals make themselves the agents, or more truly speaking the vic-
tims, of such undertakings, except in order that others may take
their repose in the midst of variegated stones? Just as though,
too, the shades of night, which occupy one half of each man's
existence, would forbear to curtail these imaginary delights.
Indeed, while making these reflections, one cannot but feel
ashamed of the men of ancient times even. There are still in
existence censorial laws, which forbid the kernels in the neck
of swine to be served at table; dormice too, and other things too
trifling to mention: and yet there has been no law passed for-
bidding marble to be imported, or the seas to be traversed in
search of it!
## p. 11577 (#191) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11577
It may possibly be observed that this was because marble was
not then introduced. Such however is not the fact: for in the
ædileship of M. Scaurus, three hundred and sixty columns were
to be seen imported; for the decorations of a temporary thea-
tre, too,- one that was destined to be in use for barely a single
month. And yet the laws were silent thereon; in a spirit of
indulgence for the amusements of the public, no doubt. But
then, why such indulgence? or how do vices more insidiously
steal upon us than under the plea of serving the public? By
what other way, in fact, did ivory, gold, and precious stones,
first come into use with private individuals?
Can we say that there is now anything that we have reserved
for the exclusive use of the gods? However, be it so, let us
admit of this indulgence for the amusements of the public; but
still, why did the laws maintain their silence when the largest
of these columns, pillars of Lucullan marble, as much as eight-
and-thirty feet in height, were erected in the atrium of Scaurus?
a thing, too, that was not done privately or in secret; for the
contractor for the public sewers compelled him to give security
for the possible damage that might be done in the carriage of
them to the Palatium. When so bad an example as this was
set, would it not have been advisable to take some precautions
for the preservation of the public morals? And yet the laws still
preserved their silence, when such enormous masses as these
were being carried past the earthenware pediments of the tem-
ples of the gods, to the house of a private individual!
ANECDOTES OF ARTISTS
From the Natural History'
APELLES
A
CIRCUMSTANCE that happened to him in connection with Pro-
togenes is worthy of notice. The latter was living at
Rhodes, when Apelles disembarked there, desirous of seeing
the works of a man whom he had hitherto only known by reputa-
tion. Accordingly, he repaired at once to the studio; Protogenes
was not at home, but there happened to be a large panel upon
the easel ready for painting, with an old woman who was left in
## p. 11578 (#192) ##########################################
11578
PLINY THE ELDER
charge. To his inquiries she made answer that Protogenes was
not at home; and then asked whom she should name
as the
visitor. "Here he is," was the reply of Apelles; and seizing a
brush, he traced with color upon the panel an outline of a sin-
gularly minute fineness. Upon his return the old woman men-
tioned to Protogenes what had happened. The artist, it is said,
upon remarking the delicacy of the touch, instantly exclaimed
that Apelles must have been the visitor, for that no other per-
son was capable of executing anything so exquisitely perfect.
So saying, he traced within the same outline a still finer out-
line, but with another color; and then took his departure, with
instructions to the woman to show it to the stranger if he
returned, and to let him know that this was the person whom
he had come to see. It happened as he anticipated,- Apelles
returned; and vexed at finding himself thus surpassed, he took
up another color and split both of the outlines, leaving no possi-
bility of anything finer being executed. Upon seeing this, Pro-
togenes admitted that he was defeated, and at once flew to the
harbor to look for his guest. He thought proper, too, to trans-
mit the panel to posterity, just as it was; and it always con-
tinued to be held in the highest admiration by all,- artists in
particular. I am told that it was burnt in the first fire which
took place at Cæsar's palace on the Palatine Hill; but in for-
mer times I have often stopped to admire it. Upon its vast sur-
face it contained nothing whatever except the three outlines, so
remarkably fine as to escape the sight: among the most elabor-
ate works of numerous other artists it had all the appearance of
a blank space; and yet by that very fact it attracted the notice
of every one, and was held in higher estimation than any other
painting there.
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously
adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might
be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other;
a practice which has now passed into a proverb. It was also a
practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit
it to the view of the passers-by in some exposed place; while he
himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms
that were passed upon it: it being his opinion that the judgment
of the public was preferable to his own, as being the more dis-
cerning of the two. It was under these circumstances, they say,
that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the
## p. 11579 (#193) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11579
In
shoes with one shoe-string too little. The next day, the shoe-
maker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks
to his advice, began to criticize the leg; upon which Apelles, full
of indignation, popped his head out, and reminded him that a
shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes,- a piece
of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.
fact, Apelles was a person of great amenity of manners,—a cir-
cumstance which rendered him particularly agreeable to Alexander
the Great, who would often come to his studio. He had forbidden
himself by public edict, as already stated, to be represented by
any other artist.
On one occasion, however, when the prince was
in his studio, talking a great deal about painting without knowing
anything about it, Apelles quietly begged that he would quit the
subject, telling him that he would get laughed at by the boys
who were there grinding the colors: so great was the influence
which he rightfully possessed over a monarch who was otherwise.
of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as he was, Alex-
ander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high esti-
mation in which he held him: for having, in his admiration of
her extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint Pancaste un-
draped, the most beloved of all his concubines, - the artist while.
so engaged fell in love with her; upon which, Alexander, perceiv-
ing this to be the case, made him a present of her: thus showing
himself, though a great king in courage, a still greater one in self-
command, this action redounding no less to his honor than any
of his victories.
ww
――――
PRAXITELES
SUPE
UPERIOR to all the statues not only of Praxiteles, but of any
other artist that ever existed, is his Cnidian Venus; for the
inspection of which, many persons before now have pur-
posely undertaken a voyage to Cnidos. The artist made two
statues of the goddess, and offered them both for sale: one of
them was represented with drapery, and for this reason was pre-
ferred by the people of Cos, who had the choice; the second
was offered them at the same price, but on the grounds of pro-
priety and modesty they thought fit to choose the other. Upon
this, the Cnidians purchased the rejected statue, and immensely
superior has it always been held in general estimation. At a later.
period, King Nicomedes wished to purchase this statue of the
## p. 11580 (#194) ##########################################
11580
PLINY THE ELDER
Cnidians, and made them an offer to pay off the whole of their
public debt, which was very large. They preferred, however, to
submit to any extremity rather than part with it; and with good
reason, for by this statue Praxiteles has perpetuated the glory of
Cnidos. The little temple in which it is placed is open on all
sides, so that the beauties of the statue admit of being seen from
every point of view,- an arrangement which was favored by the
goddess herself, it is generally believed.
PHIDIAS
MONG all nations which the fame of the Olympian Jupiter has
reached, Phidias is looked upon, beyond all doubt, as the
most famous of artists; but to let those who have never
seen his works know how deservedly he is esteemed, we will
take this opportunity of adducing a few slight proofs of the
genius which he displayed. In doing this we shall not appeal
to the beauty of his Olympian Jupiter, nor yet to the vast pro-
portions of his Athenian Minerva, six-and-twenty cubits in height,
and composed of ivory and gold: but it is to the shield of this
last statue that we shall draw attention; upon the convex face of
which he has chased a combat of the Amazons, while upon the
concave side of it he has represented the battle between the gods
and the giants. Upon the sandals, again, we see the wars of the
Lapithæ and Centaurs; so careful has he been to fill every small-
est portion of his work with some proof or other of his artistic
skill. To the story chased upon the pedestal of the statue, the
name of the 'Birth of Pandora' has been given; and the figures
of new-born gods to be seen upon it are no less than twenty in
number. The figure of Victory, in particular, is most admirable;
and connoisseurs are greatly struck with the serpent and the
sphinx in bronze lying beneath the point of the spear. Let thus
much be said incidentally in reference to an artist who can never
be sufficiently praised.
## p. 11581 (#195) ##########################################
PLINY THE ELDER
11581
-
THE MOST PERFECT WORKS OF NATURE
Peroration to the Natural History>
H
AVING now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be as
well to take a sort of comparative view of her several pro-
ductions, as well as of the countries which supply them.
Throughout the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of
heaven extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which for
the productions of nature merits so high a rank, as Italy, that
ruler and second parent of the world; recommended as she is
by her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves,
her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of genius
which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally in her
favor: the salubrity and mildness of her climate; the easy access
which she offers to all nations; her coasts indented with so many
harbors; the propitious breezes, too, that always prevail on her
shores; advantages, all of them due to her situation, lying as
she does midway between the East and the West, and extended
in the most favorable of all positions. Add to this the abundant
supply of her waters, the salubrity of her groves, the repeated
intersections of her mountain ranges, the comparative innocuous-
ness of her wild animals, the fertility of her soil, and the singu-
lar richness of her pastures.
Whatever there is that the life of man ought not to feel in
want of, is nowhere to be found in greater perfection than here;
the cereals, for example, wine, oil, wool, flax, tissues, and oxen.
As to horses, there are none I find preferred to those of Italy
for the course; while for mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron,
so long as it was deemed lawful to work them, Italy was held
inferior to no country whatsoever. At the present day, teeming
as she is with these treasures, she contents herself with lavish-
ing upon us, as the whole of her bounties, her various liquids, and
the numerous flavors yielded by her cereals and her fruits.
Next to Italy, if we except the fabulous regions of India, I
would rank Spain, for my own part; those districts at least that
lie in the vicinity of the sea. She is parched and sterile in one
part, it is true; but where she is at all productive, she yields the
cereals in abundance, oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind.
In all these respects, Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on
the other hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartium and
## p. 11582 (#196) ##########################################
11582
PLINY THE ELDER
her specular stone, in the products of her desert tracts, in her
pigments that minister to our luxuries, in the ardor displayed by
her people in laborious employments, in the perfect training of
her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in their
general resoluteness of character.
As to the productions themselves, the greatest value of all,
among the products of the sea, is attached to pearls; of objects.
that lie upon the surface of the earth, it is crystals that are most
highly esteemed; and of those derived from the interior, adamas,
smaragdus, precious stones, and murrhine, are the things upon
which the highest value is placed. The most costly things that
are matured by the earth are the kermes-berry and laser; that
are gathered from trees,-nard and Seric tissues; that are derived
from the trunks of trees,-logs of citrus-wood; that are produced
by shrubs,-cinnamon, cassia, and amomum; that are yielded by
the juices of trees or of shrubs,-amber, opobalsamum, myrrh,
and frankincense; that are found in the roots of trees, - the per-
fumes derived from costus. The most valuable products furnished
by living animals on land are the teeth of elephants; by ani-
mals in the sea, tortoise-shell; by the coverings of animals, the
skins which the Seres dye, and the substance gathered from the
hair of the she-goats of Arabia, which we have spoken of under
the name of "ladanum "; by creatures that are common to both
land and sea, the purple of the murex. With reference to the
birds, beyond plumes for warriors' helmets, and the grease that
is derived from the geese of Commagene, I find no remarkable
product mentioned. We must not omit, too, to observe that gold,
for which there is such a mania with all mankind, hardly holds
the tenth rank as an object of value, and silver, with which we
purchase gold, hardly the twentieth!
Hail to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do thou
deign to show thy favor unto me, who, alone of all the citizens
of Rome, have in thy every department thus made known thy
praise.
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PLINY THE YOUNGER
(CAIUS PLINIUS CECILIUS SECUNDUS)
(61-113? A. D. )
UBLIUS CECILIUS SECUNDUS, as he was at first named, was
in his eighteenth year when his uncle and guardian, the
elder Pliny, perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, 79 A. D. ,
leaving his fortune and his name to his ward. The boy had been
carefully educated by his mother, and his other guardian, the noble
Verginius Rufus, whose virtues he afterwards commemorated in one
of his epistles. Rich, well born, well educated, Pliny rapidly rose
to eminence in his profession as advocate,
pleading not only in the courts, but also
having a part in important cases before the
Senate. Not content with professional suc-
cess, however, he revised and published his
speeches, and aspired to be equally eminent
as a man of letters; in this and other mat-
ters (as he was not ashamed to admit) fol-
lowing the example of Cicero. More than
once his letters record the anxious care
which he and his friends bestowed upon
the elaboration of his orations; but nothing
of them has survived save one show-piece,
the so-called 'Panegyricus,' in praise of
his friend and patron the Emperor Trajan.
This is an ornate and labored production, which scarcely excites
regret that the rest have perished. There were not wanting friends
to tell him that his style was too daring, and Macrobius is probably
quite correct in assigning him to the luxuriant and florid type of
oratory.
PLINY THE YOUNGER
Pliny's advancement in office was equally rapid,- too rapid, per-
haps, since he owed much of his early success to the hated Domitian.
He was quæstor in 89, tribune 91, prætor 93, and subsequently filled
important posts connected with the Treasury. It seems, indeed, to
have been his unusual ability as a financier which commended him;
but he is careful to inform us that after Domitian's 'death, papers were
## p. 11584 (#198) ##########################################
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PLINY THE YOUNGER
found showing how narrowly Pliny had escaped the fate that over-
took all virtue under that odious tyranny. In the year 100 his offi-
cial career was crowned by an appointment as consul suffectus for the
months of September and October; a consulship which he can hardly
have enjoyed comparing with Cicero's. Some eleven years later he
was sent as proconsul to the province of Pontus and Bithynia;
and there, or shortly after his return to Rome, he seems to have
died.
The nine books of Letters' on which his fame now rests were
composed after the death of Domitian, and published at intervals
from 97 to 109. A tenth book was subsequently added, containing
his correspondence with Trajan while in his province, together with
the Emperor's very business-like answers. In this last book occurs
the famous letter concerning the Christians, probably the best-known
passage in the entire collection. There can be little doubt that Pliny
composed the vast majority of his epistles expressly for publication.
It has been pointed out, for example, that only twice is any one
of whom an unfavorable opinion is expressed, mentioned by name.
Pliny, according to his own account, is the most gallant of husbands,
the most amiable of friends; affectionate to all his relatives, generous
to all his dependents, on the best of terms with all the world save
Regulus; and Regulus dies betimes. It is not hard for some readers
of Pliny to vote him a prig, and to believe that his likeness to
Cicero resides chiefly in his vanity and his weakness. And it is not
easy for any one familiar with that period as depicted in the pages
of Tacitus, Juvenal, and Suetonius, to recognize it when viewed from
Pliny's standpoint. So much amiability in the writer, so much virtue
in his friends, seem a trifle suspicious. But it would be unjust to
consider Pliny a mere poseur, - a deliberate flatterer of himself or of
his age.
Amiable, clever, cultured, successful, he was disposed to look
upon the bright side of men and things. He too had lived through
the Reign of Terror, and can tell gloomy tales of men's baseness.
But it is much to his credit that he prefers to record the good that
survived to a happier epoch. Virtuous men and women, loyal friends,
domestic happiness, were still to be found in Rome; and the many
charming pictures drawn by Pliny are doubtless as free from exag-
geration as the gloomy scenes painted by the more skillful brushes
of his greater contemporaries.
While there is some attempt to observe chronological order in the
arrangement of the letters, it is evident that the author has tried to
heighten their attractiveness by varying his topics. With few excep-
tions each letter discusses but one subject, and the diction bears
every mark of labored simplicity. The correspondence thus lacks
that spontaneity and unconscious ease which are universally felt to
## p. 11585 (#199) ##########################################
PLINY THE YOUNGER
11585
be the highest charm of letter-writing,- those qualities which make
so much of Cicero's correspondence a delight, and the lack of which
makes Pope's letters a perpetual challenge to the reader's criticism.
But though Pliny has not "snatched a grace beyond the reach of
art," he is nevertheless very good reading. The style may smack of
artifice; but with the utmost good taste, good sense, and good humor,
he tells us (apparently) all about himself, and very much about the
age in which he lived. Literary gossip, anecdotes of famous or infa-
mous characters, ghost stories; descriptions of his villas, his poems,
his suppers, his uncle's library; the death of Martial, the eruption
of Vesuvius, an invitation to dinner; the deterioration of the law
courts, and the abuse of the ballot in the Senate; a plan to pur-
chase an estate, to write an epic, to build a temple,-on these and
a hundred other topics he affords us invaluable glimpses into the
life of his day. He is sufficiently piquant, without being spiteful;
sympathetic, without being sentimental; and while he can no longer
be esteemed a genius, he is better loved and more widely known as
a singularly pure man and a most entertaining companion.
It was
as a genius, however, that he had hoped to live in the
memory of posterity. The world of literature filled a large part of
his thoughts; and there is no reason to suppose him insincere when
he laments that his engagements, social and professional, prevent
him from devoting all his strength to the "pursuit of immortality. "
His uncle had been an indefatigable reader, writer, and collector of
books. Among Pliny's teachers was Quintilian, the great rhetorician
of the age.
Tacitus was his intimate friend. He patronized Martial,
and knew well Suetonius, Silius Italicus, and many other writers less
important in our eyes, because their works have perished.
We may
agree with Juvenal that authors' readings must have been a deadly
bore, but we need not conclude that Pliny was a hypocrite because
he was untiring in his attendance upon them. His poems (as good,
no doubt, as his model Cicero's), his orations, his narrative pieces,
are repeatedly mentioned, and were evidently the subject of his most
anxious thought. So generous a patron, so appreciative a friend,
could hardly have lacked favorable critics; and he very cordially
welcomes from his contemporaries any forestallment of the verdict
which he hoped from posterity. Yet it must be admitted that his
critical insight was quite good enough to rate his friends much as
later ages have ranked them. The vast merits of Tactitus he fully
recognized, and was unfeignedly glad to have his name coupled with
the great historian's as an eminent literary character. Of Silius Itali-
cus, on the other hand, he remarks that "he used to write verses
with more diligence than force," -a criticism which very few have
been found to dispute. On other topics than literature, moreover,
XX-725
## p. 11586 (#200) ##########################################
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PLINY THE YOUNGER
Pliny was often in striking agreement with modern sentiment.
