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.