Pliny IX, 36: how I spend my day.

Fuscus, a good friend of Pliny, asks how Pliny spends his day at his summer-house in Toscana. What follows is an elaborate list of activities during the day of a rich – very rich – man. At his disposal were lots of slaves, among them a secretary to whom he dictated his letters, actors and musicians. Further a private hippodrome and a private bathhouse. As a chroniqueur of daily life and teller of anecdotes Pliny never disappoints.

IX.36

C. PLINIUS FUSCO SUO S.

 [1] Quaeris, quemadmodum in Tuscis diem aestate disponam. Evigilo cum libuit, plerumque circa horam primam, saepe ante, tardius raro. Clausae fenestrae manent; mire enim silentio et tenebris ab iis quae avocant abductus et liber et mihi relictus, non oculos animo sed animum oculis sequor, qui eadem quae mens vident, quotiens non vident alia. [2] Cogito, si quid in manibus, cogito ad verbum scribenti emendantique similis, nunc pauciora nunc plura, ut vel difficile vel facile componi tenerive potuerunt. Notarium voco et die admisso quae formaveram dicto; abit rursusque revocatur rursusque dimittitur. [3] Ubi hora quarta vel quinta (neque enim certum dimensumque tempus), ut dies suasit, in xystum me vel cryptoporticum confero, reliqua meditor et dicto. Vehiculum ascendo. Ibi quoque idem quod ambulans aut iacens; durat intentio mutatione ipsa refecta. Paulum redormio, dein ambulo, mox orationem Graecam Latinamve clare et intente non tam vocis causa quam stomachi lego; pariter tamen et illa firmatur. [4] Iterum ambulo ungor exerceor lavor. Cenanti mihi, si cum uxore vel paucis, liber legitur; post cenam comoedia aut lyristes; mox cum meis ambulo, quorum in numero sunt eruditi. Ita variis sermonibus vespera extenditur, et quamquam longissimus dies bene conditur. [5] Non numquam ex hoc ordine aliqua mutantur; nam, si diu iacui vel ambulavi, post somnum demum lectionemque non vehiculo sed, quod brevius quia velocius, equo gestor. Interveniunt amici ex proximis oppidis, partemque diei ad se trahunt interdumque lasso mihi opportuna interpellatione subveniunt. [6] Venor aliquando, sed non sine pugillaribus, ut quamvis nihil ceperim non nihil referam. Datur et colonis, ut videtur ipsis, non satis temporis, quorum mihi agrestes querelae litteras nostras et haec urbana opera commendant. Vale.

quemadmodum: how, in what way

aestas –atis (f.): summer

diem dispono: to arrange the day

evigiilio (-are): to wake up

cum libuit: as it pleased (me)

plerumque: often

horam primam: in summer around 6 a.m. (look at the link below for further information)

saepe: often

tardius: later

clausus: closed (The bedrooms in Pompeian houses…and in Italy ...up to this day, go far to prove that man can live without oxygen. Elmer Truesdel  Merril, Selected Letters of the Younger Pliny (London, 1924)

mire: wonderful, astonishing

silentio et tenebris ab iis quae avocant abductus: in the silence and darkness/shadows I am separated from the things which divert (me)

mihi relictus: left to myself

non oculos animo sed animum oculis sequor: i.e. In this darkness he is able to think and imagine (I follow (sequor secutus) with my eyes my mind/thoughts.)

quae mens (videt)

quotiens: as often as

cogito: i.e. thinking of what to write

quid in manibus: engaged in something

ad verbum: word by word

emendo (-are): to improve

paucus: little, few

ut: according to

componi tenerive: to be written down or to be kept in memory

notarius: secretary, stenographer

die admisso: after having let in daylight

formo (-are): composed (in the mind)

rursus: again

dimitto dimisi dimissum: to send away

hora quarta vel quinta: see link

dimetior dimensum: to measure out

dies: weather

suadeo suasi suasum: to recommend, urge

xystus: an open colonnade or portico, or a walk planted with trees

cryptoporticusa: a covered gallery, hall

confero: to bring oneself, go

relicta: what has been left, remains

meditator meditatus: to consider

vehiculum ascendo: Pliny had a private hippodrome

ibi:  there

idem (facio)

iaceo iacui: to lie down, rest

duro (-are): to continue

intentio –onis (f.): concentration

reficio refeci refectum: to renew

paulum: a little

redormio: i.e. a siesta

clare et intente: clear and concentrated (with lego)

non tam vocis causa quam stomachi: not so much because of the voice, as for the stomach (reading aloud – the normal procedure- was also recommended by physicians for a better digestion.)

pariter: at the same time

illa = vox

iterum: again

ungo (ungeo) unxi unctum: to anoint with oil (ungor either passive or, like exerceor, medial)

exerceor: taking exercises was recommended before taking a bath (lavo, lavor medial)

ceno: to dine

lyristes –ae: luteplayer

meis: his slaves and freedmen (Pliny was very kind to his slaves and considered them as fellow humans.)

vespera = vesper

quamquam longissimus dies bene conditur: whatever a very long day, it is closed well

non nunquam: not never = sometimes

diu: all day, a little too long

post…demum: (but) not till after

velocius: a horse under saddle goes faster than a  harnessed horse

equo gestor: to ride a horse (gestor medial)

interveniunt: intervenio refers to an unwelcome, distracting visit, subvenire (+ dat.) a pleasant visit

oppidum: town

ad se traho: to demand

interdum: sometimes, now and then

lassus: tired

opportuna interpellatione: with a welcome interruption

venor venatus: to hunt

aliquando: sometimes

pugilaris –is (n.): writing tablet (Pliny was not a very successful and devoted huntsman, as he confesses in letter I.6)

ut quamvis: if in case

referam: if he catches no game, he has at least something written down to take back home. A true man of letters!

datur: subject tempus

colonus: farmer (working on Pliny’s estate)

agrestes querelae: boorish complaints (agrestis `belonging to the countryside’, as opposed to urbanus `urbane, civilised’)

commendo (-are): to make agreeable  (Pliny uses these querelae as anecdotes for his letters)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_timekeeping#Subdivision_of_the_day_and_night

Translation by J.B. Furth (1900)

[36] L   To Fuscus.

You ask me how I spend the day on my Tuscan villa in summer time. Well, I wake at my own sweet will, usually about the first hour, though it is often before, and rarely later. I keep my windows shut, for it is remarkable how, when all is still and in darkness, and I am withdrawn from distracting influences and am left to myself, and free to do what I like, my thoughts are not led by my eyes, but my eyes by my thoughts; and so my eyes, when they have nothing else to look at, only see the objects which are present before my mind. If I have anything on hand, I think it over, and weigh every word as carefully as though I were actually writing or revising, and in this way I get through more or less work, according as the subject is easy or difficult to compose and bear in mind. I call for a shorthand writer, and, after letting in the daylight, I dictate the passages which I have composed, then he leaves me, and I send for him again, and once again dismiss him.

At the fourth or fifth hour, according as the weather tempts me - for I have no fixed and settled plan for the day - I betake myself to my terrace or covered portico, and there again I resume my thinking and dictating. I ride in my carriage, and still continue my mental occupation, just as when I am walking or lying down. My concentration of thought is unaffected, or rather is refreshed by the change. Then I snatch a brief sleep and again walk, and afterwards read aloud a Greek or Latin speech, as clearly and distinctly as I can, not so much to exercise the vocal organs as to help my digestion, though it does at the same time strengthen my voice. I take another walk, then I am anointed, and take exercise and a bath. While I am at dinner, if I am dining with my wife or a few friends, a book is read to us, and afterwards we hear a comic actor or a musician; then I walk with my attendants, some of whom are men of learning. Thus the evening is passed away with talk on all sorts of subjects, and even the longest day is soon done.

Sometimes I vary this routine, for, if I have been lying down, or walking for any length of time, as soon as I have had my sleep and read aloud, I ride on horseback instead of in a carriage, as it takes less time, and one gets over the ground faster. My friends come in from the neighbouring towns to see me, and take up part of the day, and occasionally, when I am tired, I welcome their call as a pleasant relief. Sometimes I go hunting, but never without my tablets, so that though I may take no game, I still have something to bring back with me. Part of my time too is given to my tenants - though in their opinion not enough - and their clownish complaints give me a fresh zest for my literary work and my round of engagements in town.   Farewell.

Pliny II,6: a parsimonious host.

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.

Pliny, Letters, II,6

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.

Pliny 6, 24: a drastic measure.

Romans had another view of suicide than we do: it was seen as a heroic act in case no other possibility remained. This letter by Pliny is for two reasons interesting: first he notices that the fame of a deed depends on the person who commits it. The same deed done by an unknown person will be unheard of. Secondly, the mentioning of a venereal disease. Given the fact that prostitution was considered normal and that hardly or no effective protecting measures were available, venereal diseases must have been quite common. Syphilis however came probably from pre-Columbian America, so this disease was something else. The measure the wife took is rather drastic and it again underlines how much we differ from the Romans, though we tend to think that they were like us.

I came to this letter by a severely reworked text in a book for use at schools: no mention of the spot of the disease…

Pliny, Book 6, 24              

C. PLINIUS MACRO SUO S.

1 Quam multum interest quid a quoque fiat! Eadem enim facta claritate vel obscuritate facientium aut tolluntur altissime aut humillime deprimuntur. 2 Navigabam per Larium nostrum, cum senior amicus ostendit mihi villam, atque etiam cubiculum quod in lacum prominet: 'Ex hoc' inquit 'aliquando municeps nostra cum marito se praecipitavit.' 3 Causam requisivi. Maritus ex diutino morbo circa velanda corporis ulceribus putrescebat; uxor ut inspiceret exegit; neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturum, possetne sanari. 4 Vidit desperavit hortata est  ut moreretur, comesque ipsa mortis, dux immo et exemplum et necessitas fuit; nam se cum marito ligavit abiecitque in lacum. 5 Quod factum ne mihi quidem, qui municeps, nisi proxime auditum est, non quia minus illo clarissimo Arriae facto, sed quia minor ipsa. Vale.

quam multum interest: how much it makes a difference

tollo sustuli sublatum: to lift up, raise

Larius: a lake in Gallia Cisalpina, on which Comum lay, now Lago di Como. Pliny lived there.

cubiculum: bedroom

promineo prominui: to overhang (apparently the bedroom was hanging over a cliff above the lake.)

aliquando: once

municeps municepis (m. and f.): citizen

maritus: husband

praecipito: to throw down

diutinus: of long duration

morbus: disease

circa velanda corporis: around the private parts (lit. the things to be hidden) of his body

ulcus ulceris (n.): sore, ulcer

putresco: tp putrify, rot

uxor ut inspiceret exegit = uxor exiget ut inspiceret

exigo exegi exactum: to ask, demand

neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturum, possetne sanari: a verb endorsing her question must be supplied: (she said) that there was in fact not a person who could more trustworthy tell (indicarurum, supply esse), if he could not be cured

vidit desperavit hortata est: asyndeton to give more effect to the situation

comes, comitis (m. and f.): companion, partaker

dux, exemplum et necessitas: referring to the wife

ligo: to bind

ne quidem…nisi: not even...but

proxime: recently

Arria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecina_Paetus

Translation by J.B. Firth (1900)

To Macer.

How much our estimation of any deed depends upon the doer ! For the self-same actions may be lauded to the skies or looked down upon with contempt according to whether those who perform thorn are famous or obscure. I was sailing across our Larian Lake, *   when a friend, who is well on in years, pointed out to me a villa, and more especially a bedchamber which was built out over the lake. "From that window," he said, "a townswoman of ours some years ago threw herself into the lake with her husband." I asked the cause. It appears that the husband had been suffering for a long time from festering ulcers in the private parts. His wife begged him to let her see the sore, and promised that she would tell him faithfully whether or not a cure was possible. After an examination she saw there was no hope, and advised him to die, not only sharing death with him but taking the lead, inspiring him by her example, and leaving him no loophole for escape ; for she tied herself to her husband, and then they hurled themselves into the lake. Yet I never heard of this incident until just recently, although I was born in the same town; not because her deed was less heroic than the famous deed of Arria,  but because she herself was a person of less distinction.   Farewell.

Pliny: fire-brigades.

Pliny (61-113) spent his final years as imperial governor of Bithynia and Pontus, a Roman province located in Anatolia on the Black Sea. Pliny was, as we know, a prolific writer of letters and, more important, being convinced of his qualities as an author, he published these letters. Book x of his collection of letters consists of the correspondence between him and Trajan and it gives a unique insight into the daily problems of running a province. With his collection of letters Pliny has done historians a great favour and readers Latin in general.

In letter 10.33 he describes a fire at Nicomedia and the inertia of the population to do anything to curb that fire. Fires were not uncommon in cities and as wood was often used as building material, a fire could easily spread. Pliny noticed that the population did nothing to curb the fire and he blames this on the fact that no equipment was available. However, there were often social tensions between the rich and the poor and the latter were unlikely to help when a rich part of the city was on fire. Pliny asked Trajan if he approves the institution of a fire-brigade, made up of volunteers. Trajan thinks this not a good idea, as such a brigade could well be a cover-up for illegal actions against the Romans. Better a city on fire than riots!

Pliny, Letters, 10, 33

C. Plinius Traiano Imperatori

Cum diversam partem provinciae circumirem, Nicomediae vastissimum incendium multas privatorum domos et duo publica opera, quamquam via interiacente, Gerusian et Iseon absumpsit. [2] Est autem latius sparsum, primum violentia venti, deinde inertia hominum quos satis constat otiosos et immobiles tanti mali spectatores perstitisse; et alioqui nullus usquam in publico sipo, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia compescenda. Et haec quidem, ut iam praecepi, parabuntur; [3] tu, domine, dispice an instituendum putes collegium fabrorum dumtaxat hominum CL. Ego attendam, ne quis nisi faber recipiatur neve iure concesso in aliud utantur; nec erit difficile custodire tam paucos.

10,34

Traianus Plinio

Tibi quidem secundum exempla complurium in mentem venit posse collegium fabrorum apud Nicomedenses constitui. Sed meminerimus provinciam istam et praecipue eas civitates eius modi factionibus esse vexatas. Quodcumque nomen ex quacumque causa dederimus iis, qui in idem contracti fuerint, hetaeriae eaeque brevi fient. [2] Satius itaque est comparari ea, quae ad coercendos ignes auxilio esse possint, admonerique dominos praediorum, ut et ipsi inhibeant ac, si res poposcerit, accursu populi ad hoc uti.

diversus: distant

provinciae: Bithynia

circumeo: to travel around

Nicomediae: locative! At Nicomedia (modern Ismit)

incendium: fire

privatus: individual

via interiacente: streets were often not wide enough to stop a fire

Gerusian: a building where the gerusia –a body of elders – had is meetings

Iseon: temple of Isis

absumo absumsi absumptum: to destroy

(incendium) est

spargo sparsi sparsum: to spread

violentia, inertia: ablatives

quos satis constat: of who it is sufficient to say that

otiosus: idle, doing nothing

presto perstiti: to stand firm, remain on one’s place

alioqui: besides

sipo (sipho) siponis (m.): a kind of fire engine

hama: fire bucket

compesco compescui: to repress, curb

praecipio praecepi praeceptum: to instruct

paro: to provide

dispicio dispexi dispectum: to consider

collegium fabrorum: a guild of craftsmen (= firemen. In Italy and the Western provinces there were associations of craftsmen, which were also used as fire-brigades. Such collegia were unknown in the Greek provinces.)

dumtaxat: at least

nisi faber: collegia could also be a cover-up for a secret society with anti-Roman purposes

neve iure concesso in aliud utantur: or that they don’t use the granted right (of being a collegium) for something else

secundum exempla complurium (civitatum): As other cities had such fire-brigades too

constituo constitui constitutum: to establish (constitui: pass inf!)

praecipue: especially

factio factionis (f.): faction, party

vexo: to harass

contractus: assembled

hetaeria: brotherhood, fraternity

brevi (tempore)

comparo: to provide

ea (instumenta)

auxilio: dative of purpose: for aid/ as aid

praedium: real estate

inhibeo inhibui inhibitum: to hold back, keep in storage (the instruments for fire-fighting are meant. Indeed, it would be more effective to have these placed around the city, than at a central store, which would hamper a quick transport to the place of fire.)

posco poposci (-ere): to demand

accursus –us (m.): onrush

Translated by J.B.Firth (1900)

[33] L   To Trajan.

While I was visiting a distant part of the province a most desolating fire broke out at Nicomedia and destroyed a number of private houses and two public buildings, the almshouse and temple of Isis, although a road ran between them. The fire was allowed to spread farther than it need have done, first, owing to the violence of the wind, and, secondly, to the laziness of the inhabitants, it being generally agreed that they stood idly by without moving and merely watched the catastrophe. Moreover, there is not a single public fire-engine or bucket in the place, and not one solitary appliance for mastering an outbreak of fire. However, these will be provided in accordance with the orders I have already given. But, Sir, I would have you consider whether you think a guild of firemen, of about 150 men, should be instituted. I will take care that no one who is not a genuine fireman should be admitted, and that the guild should not misapply the charter granted to it, and there would be no difficulty in keeping an eye on so small a body.

[34] L   Trajan to Pliny.

You have conceived the idea that a guild of firemen might be formed in Nicomedia on the model of various others already existing. But it is to be remembered that your province of Bithynia, and especially city states like Nicomedia, are the prey of factions. Whatever name we may give to those who form an association, and whatever the reason of the association may be, they will soon degenerate into secret societies. It is better policy to provide appliances for mastering conflagrations and encourage property owners to make use of them, and, if occasion demands, press the crowd which collects into the same service.