No More Learning

An Intellectual Defends the Study of Literature
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29. AN INTELLECTUAL PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS UNCLE'S LITERARY OUTPUT
INTRODUCTION
Pliny the Younger (62-114 CE) was a noted diplomat, statesman, author, and epistler. Still extant are 247 letters that he wrote to friends. An additional 121 letters also remain, written to and received from the emperor Trajan while Pliny was serving as his representative in the province of Pontus-Bithynia.
The document consists of the introductory portions of a letter that he wrote to his friend Baebius Macer. This friend had asked Pliny for a "complete list" of all the books that his illustrious uncle, Pliny the Elder, had written. The document is the Younger Pliny's response to this request.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Many of the letters of Pliny the Younger are not written in a chatty, informal mode, but are more like informational essays. The letter about his uncle's literary accom- plishments clearly falls into the latter category.
2. Pliny, of course, did not have available to him any of the modern technologies that writers make use of today. Books always had to be written out longhand, either by the authors themselves or by scribes to whom they dictated their words.
3. As an educated and well-traveled civil servant, Pliny had many friends and acquaint- ances throughout the Roman world, and so it should come as no surprise that his surviving letters reflect a great deal of variety. Many of the individuals to whom he addressed letters are known to us, but Baebius Macer (the recipient of the letter that provides the text for the fourth document) is unknown to us. This is the only one of the 247 letters that was written to Macer.
Document: How Pliny the Elder Was Able
to Write So Many Books
I am delighted to hear that your close study of my uncle's books has made you wish to possess them all. Since you ask me for a complete list, I will provide a
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bibliography, and arrange it in chronological order, for this is the sort of information also likely to please scholars.
Throwing the Javelin from Horseback . . . a work of industry and talent, written when he was a junior officer in the cavalry.
The life of Pomponius Secundus . . . My uncle was greatly loved by him and felt he owed this as an act of hom- age to his friend's memory.
The German Wars . . . covering all the wars we have ever had with the Germans. He began this during his mili- tary service in Germany, as the result of a dream; in his sleep he saw standing over him the ghost of Drusus Nero, who had triumphed far and wide in Germany and died there. He committed his memory to my uncle's care, begging him to save him from the injustice of oblivion.
The Scholar . . . in which he trains the orator from his cradle and brings him to perfection.
Problems in Grammar . . . This he wrote during Nero's last years [Nero died in 68 CE] when the slavery of the times made it dangerous to write anything at all inde- pendent or inspired.
A Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus . . .
A Natural History [Pliny's only surviving work]-- thirty-seven volumes, a learned and comprehensive work as full of variety as nature itself.
You may wonder how such a busy man was able to complete so many volumes, many of them involving detailed study, and wonder still more when you learn that up to a certain age he practiced at the bar, that he died at the age of fifty-five [in 79 CE, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius], and throughout the intervening years his time was much taken up with the important offices he held and his friendship with the Emperors. But he combined a penetrating intellect with amazing powers of concentra- tion and the capacity to manage with the minimum of sleep.
From the fest of Vulcan onwards he began to work by lamplight, not with any idea of making a propitious start, but to give himself more time for study, and would rise halfway through the night; in winter, it would often be at midnight or an hour later, and two at the latest. Admittedly, he fell asleep very easily, and would often doze and wake up again during his work. Before daybreak, he would visit the Emperor Vespasian [in his role as one of the "friends of the emperor"] (who also made use of his nights), and then go to attend to his official duties. On returning home, he devoted any spare time to his work. [More of his work habits are described next, including an incident that illustrated his near-obsession with using time
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Aufidius Bassus: This historian lived during the time of the emperor Tiberius, and wrote a history that covered the end of the Roman Republic, down to the reign of the emperor Claudius (reigned 41-54 CE). This was the book that Pliny apparently completed. Quintilian [10. 1. 103] admired the dignity that Bassus brought to the writing of history and said that he was "always praiseworthy. "
Drusus Nero: The stepson of the emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BCE- 14 CE), and brother of the emperor Tiberius (reigned 14-37 CE); Drusus died in 9 BCE.
friendship: It became customary for Roman emperors to gather about them the so-called amici principis--"friends of the emperor"--who constituted a consilium, or "advisory council"; this council offered advice to the emperor on legal and judicial mat- ters, and perhaps on other issues as well. It was a mark of the high esteem in which Pliny the Elder was held that he was selected for this consilium by several emperors.
his official duties: The nature of Pliny's official duties is not known. junior officer: The praefectus alae. The word ala literally means "wing"; in military parlance, it referred to the wing of an army. So a praefectus alae was in charge of one wing of an army, usually composed of cav- alry, as indicated in the document. Pomponius Secundus: He was "the most important tragedian of the time of the Empire, probably the last who wrote for the stage" [Harper's]. He also served as a poli- tician (as consul in 44 CE) and as a military general. Both Tacitus and
Quintilian respected his work.
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wisely. It seems that on one occasion, a passage from a book was being read to Pliny and some of his friends; Pliny took copious notes during the recitation At one point, the reader mispronounced a word, whereupon one of the hearers asked him to go back and correct him- self. Pliny asked his friend whether he had understood the word the first time, and the man replied in the affirmative. "Then why make him go back? " said Pliny. "Your interruption has lost us at least ten lines. "] [Tr. Betty Radice. Pliny: Letters and Panegyricus (3. 5). Volume I. LCL, 1969. Page numbers: 173, 175, 177. ]
AFTERMATH
In the remainder of the letter, Pliny informs us that his uncle's gift
of focused concentration enabled him to work on his writing in
almost any circumstance: while in the country; while traveling from place to place; while being rubbed down after a bath--he dictated to a scribe in that instance! Pliny relates that his uncle often chided him for walking, instead of being transported in a litter, because walk- ing wasted time that could have been devoted to writing. He claims that compared to his uncle, even the most industrious person would seem like an unabashed slacker.
In conclusion, he expresses the hope that the friend to whom he addressed the letter would be motivated to try to "produce something similar. "
ASK YOURSELF
1. What is your impression of the list of the Elder Pliny's published works? Do you notice any similarities among them, or does each one seem quite different and dis- tinct? Is there any way to categorize or classify the letters?
2. What do you think of Pliny's work schedule? Does it seem reasonable? Doable? A little bit extreme?
An Intellectual Pays Tribute to His Uncle's Literary Output
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Problems in Grammar: Quintilian [3. 1. 21] had a favorable opinion of Pliny's book on grammar, writ- ing that Pliny's book ranks highly because of its accuracy.
Vulcan: "The 23rd of August, when sunrise is about a quarter past five; the date chosen for the first light- ing lamps before daylight, because Vulcan was the god of fire. This was with most persons merely a ceremony . . . but Pliny really began to study. " [Westcott, p. 178]
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? HOW MUCH MONEY FOR A BOOK?
At one point in his letter, Pliny writes that his uncle had left him 160 notebooks, with all text written in very small letters and on both sides of the page--unusual, given that most manuscripts were written on one side only. He also claims that had his uncle wished to sell those notebooks, he would have been able to command a sale price of 400,000 sesterces for them. But how would that figure compare with the sale prices for other works of literature at various times in the history of the ancient world?
The essayist Aulus Gellius writes that although the philosopher Plato was hardly a wealthy man, he once paid 10,000 denarii (the equivalent of 40,000 sesterces) for three books written by the Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus. He also reports that Aristotle bought "a very few books of the philosopher Speusippus" for the equiv- alent of 72,000 sesterces. [3. 17]
On the other hand, John C. Rolfe, in his translation of the essays of Aulus Gellius, states that "the first book of [the Roman poet] Martial's Epigrams, 700 lines, in an elegant form, cost only [20 sesterces], and cheaper edi- tions could be bought for from 6 to 10 sesterces. "
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? TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e The survival rate of the works of ancient authors often presents modern readers with some interesting questions. In the case of Pliny the Elder, for example, why do you suppose that out of his vast array of multivolume books, only one of them, Natural History, survives to the present day? Was this mere coincidence? Or could there be other reasons for the disap- pearance of his other written works?
e Pliny seems to have mastered the art of time management, which in part accounts for his ability to produce so many lengthy books. Do you know of any contemporary, or near-contemporary, prolific authors who observe similarly strict time management rules? (Hint: Research the writing sched- ules of Mark Twain or Charles Dickens for starters. )
e Letter writing is a generally accepted literary genre. Should it be? How would Pliny's letters compare with the letters written by other famous epis- tlers of the ancient world, such as Cicero or St. Paul?
Further Information
Bell, Albert. All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger. Boone, NC, 2002.
Sherwin-White, A. N. The Letters of Pliny: A Social and Historical Commentary. Oxford, 1966.
Websites
Ancient History Sourcebook: Pliny the Younger (61 or 62-113 CE): Selected Letters, c. 100 CE). http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-letters. html
The Letters of Pliny the Younger. http://www. vroma. org/~hwalker/Pliny/
Bibliography for Document
Radice, Betty (tr. ). Pliny. Letters and Panegyricus. Volume I. Cambridge and London, 1969. Westcott, J. H. (ed. ). Selected Letters of Pliny, with an Introduction and Notes. Norman, OK,
new edition 1965.
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POLITICS
Political campaigning, speechmaking, lawyering . . . these were the lifeblood of the public arena in both ancient Greece and Rome. Oratorical skills were highly prized essentials for anyone desiring a career in the sometimes topsy-turvy world of ancient politics. Lawyers and politicians abounded in both societies; we have numerous sources and documents attest- ing to that fact. The four documents selected for this chapter will hopefully be representative of the many that are still available to us.
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30. OUT WITH HIM! AN ATHENIAN METHOD OF RIDDING THE CITY OF TIRESOME POLITICIANS
INTRODUCTION
The ancient Athenians had a unique method of dealing with politicians who became too egotistical, or who seemed dangerously inclined toward dictatorship, or who were viewed as displaying some other seriously inappropriate attitude or behavior pattern: ostracism. Under the Athenian system, ostracism meant something far more severe than simply social isolation, which, of course, is what the word suggests today.
An ostracized politician was required to leave the city--to be exiled--for a period of 10 years. A preliminary vote on whether to conduct an ostracism was held every year; if a majority of voters assented, the vote itself was held. As long as at least 6,000 votes were cast, the one politician who received the most was considered ostracized.
The practice was reportedly introduced somewhere around 509 BCE, by the lawgiver Cleisthenes, and first employed early in the fifth century. The last known ostracism occurred in 417.
The intent of an ostracism may have been noble--to protect Athenian democracy from unscrupulous politicians or military leaders who might seek to undermine it--but some- times, decent and honest politicians fell victim to an ostracism vote conducted by an elector- ate with less than honorable motives. Such was the case of the fifth-century BCE politician Aristides. In his biography of Aristides, Plutarch provides not only the details surrounding the ostracism of Aristides, but also a most concise and understandable explanation of how the system worked.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. In the fifth century BCE, the Athenian democracy was in full flower, and great politi- cal debates occurred frequently. The heart of the democracy was the Assembly, which met about 40 times per year; all Athenian citizens were permitted to attend and participate in Assembly meetings. In the Assembly, the major issues of the day were discussed and voted upon, including ostracisms.
2. In ancient Greek (and Roman) times, punishment for criminal behavior was quite different than punishments meted out today. Nowadays, felonious lawbreakers are usually sentenced to prison terms. But although the Greeks and Romans both had places of confinement for criminal defendants, incarceration was generally used only
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to keep these accused persons in custody prior to their trials; prison sentences, as punishments, were virtually unknown. Much more often, a convicted defendant would be executed or fined, or, as in the case with the "winner" of an ostracism vote, exiled.
3. Plutarch, our source for this document, habitually included much anecdotal infor- mation in the biographies he wrote. This kind of information helps to give us a complete picture of the true nature of the individual. The story of Aristides writing his own name on the ostracism ballot--in effect, voting for his own exile! --is an example of how he came to be given the nickname The Just. Most people, in a sim- ilar situation, probably would have greeted such a request with an expletive, or worse. A truly just person, however, would comply with the request.
Document: The Ostracism of a Just Man
This sentence of ostracism was not in itself a punishment for wrongdoing. It was described for the sake of appearan- ces as a measure to curtail and humble a man's power and prestige in cases where these had grown oppressive; but in reality, it was a humane device for appeasing the people's jealousy, which could thus vent its desire to do harm, not by inflicting some irreparable injury, but by a sentence of ten years' banishment. Later on the penalty came to be inflicted on various ignoble creatures, the scum of the political world, and it was then abandoned, the last man to be ostracized being Hyperbolus [in ca. 417 BCE]. Hyperbolus's banishment is said to have been brought about in this way. Alcibiades and Nicias, the two most powerful men in the state, were the leaders of the two opposing parties. So when the people were on the point of carrying out an ostracism and were obviously going to vote against one or the other, the two men came to terms, combined their rival factions and so arranged matters that Hyperbolus was ostracized. The people were enraged at this and felt that the institution of ostracism had been abused and degraded, and so they not only ceased to resort to it but formally abolished the practice.
The procedure, to give a general account of it, was as follows: Each voter took an ostrakon, or piece of earthen- ware, wrote on it the name of the citizen he wished to be banished and carried it to a part of the market-place which was fenced off with a circular paling. Then the archons first counted the total number of votes cast, for if there were less than six thousand, the ostracism was void. After this they sorted the votes and the man who had the most recorded against his name was proclaimed to be exiled for ten years, with the right, however, to receive the income from his estate.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Alcibiades and Nicias: As Plutarch notes, these individuals were two of the major players on the Athenian political stage in the late fifth cen- tury. In 415--just two years after the ostracism of Hyperbolus--the two of them locked horns over the question of whether to send an Athenian military expedition to the island of Sicily. Alcibiades was in favor, Nicias opposed. They engaged in a very heated debate about this in the Assembly. Alcibiades prevailed, and the ex- pedition proceeded. The invasion of Sicily turned out to be a major disaster for the Athenians; most of the some 50,000 soldiers whom they sent to Sicily never returned.
Plutarch's biographies of Alci- biades and Nicias are both extant.
archons: The Greek word archon liter- ally means "ruler," or "commander. " Later, it came to refer to the chief magistrate, or administrative officer, of a Greek polis; one of their func- tions, as indicated by the document, was to preside over ostracism votes. In fifth-century Athens, there were nine archons. As democracy took hold in Athens, the power and
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Out with Him! An Athenian Method of Ridding the City of Tiresome Politicians
The story goes that on this occasion, while the votes were being written down, an illiterate and uncouth rus- tic handed his piece of earthenware to Aristides and asked him to write the name Aristides on it. The latter was astonished, and asked the man what harm Aristides had ever done him. 'None whatever,' was the reply, 'I do not even know the fellow, but I am sick of hearing him called The Just everywhere! ' When he heard this, Aristides said nothing, but wrote his name on the ostrakon and handed it back. At the last, as he was leaving the city, he lifted his hands to heaven and uttered a prayer, which, it appears, took the opposite form to the prayer of Achilles; in it he begged that no crisis might befall the Athenians which would force them to remember Aristides. [Tr. Ian Scott-Kilvert. Plutarch: The Rise and Fall of Athens; Nine Greek Lives. (Aristides 7. ) Penguin Classics, 1960. Page numbers: 116, 117. ]
AFTERMATH
Sometimes, under certain circumstances, ostracism votes could be reversed, and this fortunate outcome befell Aristides. His ostracism began around 483 or 482 BCE, but less than three years later, the mighty Persian army had advanced westward, with the goal of overrunning Greece. The Athenians realized that at this critical moment, they needed all their best citizens, so Aristides was recalled from exile and given an important leadership position in the Athenian army. In 479, he found himself leading the Athenian forces in the decisive Battle of Plataea, in which the Persians were turned back.
Little is known of Aristides's life after that famous battle. It is thought that he may have died around 468, apparently in the depths of poverty. Plutarch records that his estate did not even cover his funeral expenses. Still, Aristides was held in such high esteem that when his daughters married, each received a dowry of 3,000 drachmas from the public treasury, and his son, Lysimachus, was given 100 minas, 100 acres of vineyard farmland, and a four- drachma per day pension.
ASK YOURSELF
1. The "official" explanation (according to Plutarch) for the abolition of ostracism votes was that they were being imposed upon degenerate characters like Hyperbolus. But the story of the ostracism of Aristides--not to mention other ostracism victims like Themistocles--implies that
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? influence of the archons gradually
diminished.
Hyperbolus: Ironically, ostracism was
often viewed as a dignified penalty, reserved for prominent citizens who had strayed, perhaps inexpli- cably, from appropriate patterns of behavior. The ostracism of Hyperbolus, a low-born dema- gogue, was apparently viewed as having trivialized the process; Hyperbolus, it seems, was not altogether worthy of such a punish- ment! He was exiled to the island of Samos, where, a few years later, he met his end in the unrest caused by pro- and antidemocracy factions there. The fifth-century historian Thucydides writes that Hyperbolus was ostracized because he was a totally disreputable character, not because the Athenian citizens feared his political status or objectives. In his biography of Alcibiades, Plutarch claims that Hyperbolus was such a buffoon that the local satirists of the time used him unceasingly as ready material for their jokes, but that Hyperbolus did not mind at all because of his total disregard for any criticism, humorous or otherwise.
market-place: The Greek word agora is almost universally translated as "market-place," a somewhat mis- leading rendering. Nearly every ancient Greek city had an agora, and the agora was much more than a section of town devoted merely to shops and markets, as the word "market-place" implies. A better translation would be "downtown"; the agora of a Greek city was home to law courts and public squares, meeting halls and shops, streets with sometimes snarled traffic, conmen
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there may have been additional reasons for its discontinu-
ation. What might some of these reasons be?
2. Talk about a political comeback! To be the "winner" of an ostracism vote--as happened to Aristides around 482-- was probably not an event that any ancient Athenian politician would want to list on his resume. And yet three years later, Aristides experienced a huge upturn in his fortunes; not only was his ostracism revoked (long before the 10-year requirement had expired), but he was placed in a position of great authority, as the Athenian leader at the Battle of Plataea. Can you think of any modern paral- lels in American politics where a political leader's career seemed to be over, perhaps because of a scandal of some kind, only to see that individual rise to prominence once
again?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e The Athenian ostracism procedure has rightly been called an "unpopularity contest. " Is there anything comparable to it in the modern American political system? Do you think Athenian-style ostracism would work today? Why or why not?
e AlcibiadesandNiciasweretwoofthemorecolor- ful characters in fifth-century Athenian history; Alcibiades, especially, seemed to be an unpredict- able man of many moods. Briefly research the lives of these two individuals; Plutarch's biographies would be a good place to start. Why do you sup- pose they were such intractable political enemies? Can you find any instances (other than the one cited in the document) where they cooperated with one another?
e Plutarch uses some pretty uncomplimentary terms--illiterate, uncouth, and rustic (as men- tioned in the notes above, "rustic" was a word equating to "hick")--to describe the farmer who asked Aristides to write his own name on the ostrakon. The farmer's level of ignorance is reinforced by the fact that he did not even know Aristides by sight. Do you suppose that Plutarch here is at least subtly hinting that democracy has its flaws, and that maybe the worst of these is that even the most uninformed or unintelligent citizens are allowed to vote in elections? Or would that be reading too much into the text?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? and muggers. . . in other words, much the same kinds of phenomena that one would find in the down- town area of a modern city.
opposing parties: Care must be taken not to understand "opposing parties" in the modern sense, like Democrats and Republicans. The Greek word used by Plutarch, and here translated as "party," is stasis, which refers more accurately to factions or voting blocs within the political system. The word seems to have a slightly pejora- tive meaning, with overtones of sedition or gang activities.
ostrakon: As Plutarch states, an ostrakon was a "piece of earthenware," or a broken piece of poverty, a potsherd. These ostraka served as ballots in ostracism votes; voters scratched or carved (not really "wrote") on the potsherd the name of the person whom they wished to see ostra- cized. Archaeologists have discov- ered hundreds of these sherds.
the prayer of Achilles: In Book 1 of Homer's Iliad, the mighty Achilles bitterly complained to his mother, the goddess Thetis, about how greatly he had been disrespected and humiliated by Agamemnon, king of the Greeks. He ended his entreaty to her with a plea that she ask Zeus to aid the Trojans (against the Greeks! ) in the Trojan War. By contrast, the just Aristides prayed just the opposite kind of prayer, that the Athenians might be safe during his period of exile.
rustic: The Greek word agroikos, trans- lated as "rustic," can have a negative connotation, as it probably does here, akin to our words "hick" or "hillbilly. "
sentence of ostracism: Notable victims of ostracism votes (in addition to
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Further Information
Hansen, Mogens Herman. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes. Oxford, 1987.
Thomsen, Rudi. The Origins of Ostracism: A Synthesis. Copenhagen, 1972.
Vanderpool, Eugene. Ostracism at Athens. Cincinnati, 1970. Website
Ostracism. http://www. livius. org/on-oz/ostracism/ostracism. html
Bibliography for Document
Scott-Kilvert, Ian. Plutarch: The Rise and Fall of Athens; Nine Greek Lives. New York, 1960.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Aristides) included: Xanthippus, the father of Pericles; Themistocles, the Athenian general whose leadership in the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE) helped turn the tide against the invading Persians; Cimon, another Athenian general who achieved many military successes in the 470s and 460s.
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31. WOMEN IN POLITICS? IN ANCIENT ATHENS?
INTRODUCTION
For the second document in this chapter, we turn once again to the biographer/essayist Plutarch. Although we will find no women as the subjects of any of the 50 biographies that Plutarch wrote, there was at least one who certainly could have occupied that niche: Aspasia, a woman from Miletus, which was a powerful city located in what is now southwestern Turkey. Aspasia immigrated to Athens, where she became a force to be reckoned with in both the political and social life of the city. She regularly rubbed elbows with some of the most noteworthy politicians and philosophers of the time, including Pericles and Socrates. The second document is excerpted from Plutarch's biography of Pericles, in which the biog- rapher provides us with a considerable amount of information about Aspasia.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. It was a fact of ancient Athenian life that women generally did not play a prominent role in public life. Women never held any of the political offices in the government, and they were not even allowed to participate in the proceedings of the Assembly, which was the focal point of Athenian democracy. And since, therefore, women do not appear prominently in the writings of historians and biographers, it is not surprising that the lives of Athenian women are not as well attested as the lives of their male counterparts. But if any ancient author would be likely to tell us anything about the topic, that author would be Plutarch, a man whose wide-ranging mind was not constrained by the social expectations of the time.
2. Even though the western world's first functioning democracy arose in fifth-century Athens, it was not without its shortcomings.