Being a patronus
in ancient Rome implied that you had to sustain your clientes and invite them for dinner. In return the clientes supported a patronus when he was striving for some
office. Pliny describes in this letter to his young friend Avitus how some patronus cut down the expenses of a meal
by serving different qualities of wine and food for the guests, depending on
their social status. Pliny felt uneasy about this and disapproved it.
Apparently this phenomenon was something new in Rome and spreading, maybe under
the pressure of economic circumstances or because of a sharper articulation of
differences in social class. Martial too (III. 60) is complaining about this, but
unlike Pliny, he belonged to the lower social strata and got the cheaper
dishes.
It is as at a Christmas dinner, where friends and family
are invited, the host serves cheaper dishes to the new boyfriend of his
daughter, as he is not familiar with him, or to other people not belonging to
his inner circle. There would be some frowning amongst the guests. Well, it
could be a good means to get rid of unwelcome people next Christmas.
C. PLINIUS
AVITO SUO S.
[1] Longum est altius repetere nec refert, quemadmodum
acciderit, ut homo minime familiaris cenarem apud quendam, ut sibi videbatur,
lautum et diligentem, ut mihi, sordidum simul et sumptuosum. [2] Nam sibi et paucis opima quaedam, ceteris
vilia et minuta ponebat. Vinum etiam parvolis lagunculis in tria genera
discripserat, non ut potestas eligendi, sed ne ius esset recusandi, aliud sibi
et nobis, aliud minoribus amicis (nam gradatim amicos habet), aliud suis
nostrisque libertis. [3] Animadvertit qui mihi proximus recumbebat, et an
probarem interrogavit. Negavi. 'Tu ergo' inquit 'quam consuetudinem sequeris?'
'Eadem omnibus pono; ad cenam enim, non ad notam invito cunctisque rebus
exaequo, quos mensa et toro aequavi.' [4] 'Etiamne libertos?' 'Etiam;
convictores enim tunc, non libertos puto.' Et ille: 'Magno tibi constat.'
'Minime.' 'Qui fieri potest?' 'Quia scilicet liberti mei non idem quod ego
bibunt, sed idem ego quod liberti.' [5] Et hercule si gulae temperes, non est
onerosum quo utaris ipse communicare cum pluribus. Illa ergo reprimenda, illa
quasi in ordinem redigenda est, si sumptibus parcas, quibus aliquanto rectius
tua continentia quam aliena contumelia consulas.
[6] Quorsus
haec? ne tibi, optimae indolis iuveni, quorundam in mensa luxuria specie
frugalitatis imponat. Convenit autem amori in te meo, quotiens tale aliquid
inciderit, sub exemplo praemonere, quid debeas fugere. [7] Igitur memento nihil
magis esse vitandum quam istam luxuriae et sordium novam societatem; quae cum
sint turpissima discreta ac separata, turpius iunguntur. Vale.
altius repetere:
to go into the matter too deeply
nec refert: and
it is not of importance
minime familiaris:
hardly familiar
ceno (-are): to dine
ut sibi videbatur, …,
ut mihi: as he appeared to himself…, so he appeared to me
lautus:
refined
sumptuosus:
lavish, extravagant
opina: rich
dishes
minuta: poor
dishes
parvolus:
rather small
laguncula: a
small bottle
tria genera:
serving two unequal sorts of wine was considered not done, let alone three
describo descripsi
descriptum: to distribute
non ut potestas
eligendi, sed ne ius esset recusandi: not in order that there would be
possibility of choosing, but that there was no right to refuse, i.e. those
served the chateau migraine had to
drink it as there was no alternative
gradatim: in
different social classes
libertus:
freedman
animadverto = animam adverto: to turn ones attention
recumbo recubui:
to lie down ( = accumbo, remember
that the Romans did not sit at around the table but were half lying on
couches.)
probo (-are): approve
non ad notam:
not ad degradation (referring to the nota
censoria, the mark or note which the censors affixed in their lists of
citizens to the name of any one whom they censured for immorality or want of
patriotism.
(ex)aequo (-are): to make/regard as equal
torus: cushion
(on which the guests were lying.)
etiamne libertos? Etiam:
even the freedman? Even them
convictor –oris
(m.): table companion, guest
consto (-are): to cost (with magno as abl. of price)
quia scilicet
(of course, namely) … ego quod liberti:
i.e. Pliny drinks the cheaper wine
gula: throat,
lavish eating and drinking
tempero (-avi) + dat.: to be moderate in
onerosus: burdensome,
costly
quo utaris: what
one eats
communico: to share
divide
illa (gula)
reprimo repressi
repressum: to restrain
ordinem redigenda:
to be brought down in rank (properly said of a centurion who was reprimanded
and lowered in rank.)
sumptus –us (m.):
expense
parco
peperci/parsi parsum + abl. : to spare
quibus aliquanto
rectius tua continentia quam aliena contumelia consulas: by which you take
somewhat better care for containing your expenses than caring for the reproaches
of others
quorsus: for
what purpose
optimae indolis
iuveni (agreeing with tibi): best
youthful character = you promising young man
luxuria specie
frugalitatis: self-indulgence in the guise of thriftiness
impono imposui
impositum: (here) to deceive someone
(dat.)
convenit: it
behoves
amori meo in te:
by my affection towards you
sub exemplo: by
way of example
praemoneo -ui –itum:
to warn beforehand
vito (-are): to avoid
societatem;
alliance
sordes -is
(f.): meanness,
turpis –is:
ugly
discretus: set
apart, individual
Translation by J.B.Firth (1900)
It would be a long story - and it is of no importance -
to tell you how I came to be dining - for I am no particular friend of his -
with a man who thought he combined elegance with economy, but who appeared to
me to be both mean and lavish, for he set the best dishes before himself and a
few others and treated the rest to cheap and scrappy food. He had apportioned
the wine in small decanters of three different kinds, not in order to give his
guests their choice but so that they might not refuse. He had one kind for
himself and us, another for his less distinguished friends - for he is a man
who classifies his acquaintances - and a third for his own freedmen and those
of his guests. The man who sat next to me noticed this and asked me if I
approved of it. I said no. "Then how do you arrange matters?" he
asked. "I set the same before all," I answered, "for I invite my
friends to dine not to grade them one above the other, and those whom I have set at equal places at
my board and on my couches I treat as equals in every respect." "What! even the freedmen?" he
said. "Yes," I replied, "for then I regard them as my guests at
table, not as freedmen." He went on: "It must cost you a
lot." "Not at all," said
I. "Then how do you manage it?"
"It's easily done; because my freedmen do not drink the same wine
as I do, but I drink the same that they do." And, by Jove, the fact is
that if you keep off gluttony it is not at all ruinously expensive to entertain
a number of people to the fare you have yourself. It is this gluttony which is
to be put down, to be reduced as it were to the ranks, if you wish to cut down expenses,
and you will find it better to consult your own moderate living than to care
about the nasty things people may say of you. What then is my point? Just this,
that I don't want you, who are a young man of great promise, to be taken in by
the extravagance with which some people load their tables under the guise of
economy. Whenever such a concrete instance comes in my way it becomes the
affection I bear you to warn you of what you ought to avoid by giving you an
example. So remember that there is nothing you should eschew more than this new
association of extravagance and meanness; they are abominable qualities when
separated and single, and still more so when you get a combination of
them. Farewell.
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