Letter 10008: When, Sir, your late father, * both by a very fine speech and by setting them a most honourable example himself,...
Pliny the Younger→Trajan|c. 112 AD|Pliny the Younger|Human translated
illnessproperty economics
To Trajan.
When, Sir, your late father, * both by a very fine speech and by setting them a most honourable example himself, urged every citizen to deeds of liberality, I sought permission from him to transfer to a neighbouring township all the statues of the emperors which had come into my possession by various bequests and were kept just as I had received them ill my distant estates, and to add thereto a statue of himself. He granted the request and made most flattering references to myself, and I immediately wrote to the decurions asking them to assign me a plot of ground upon which I might erect a temple ** at my own cost, and they offered to let me choose the site myself as a mark of appreciation of the task I had undertaken. But first my own ill-health, then your father's illness, and subsequently the anxieties of the office you bestowed upon me, have prevented my proceeding with the work. However, I think the present is a convenient opportunity for getting on with it, for my month of duty ends on the Kalends of September and the following month contains a number of holidays. I ask, therefore, as a special favour, that you will allow me to adorn with your statue the work which I am about to begin ; and secondly, that in order to complete it as soon as possible, you will grant me leave of absence. It would be alien to my frank disposition if I were to conceal from your goodness the fact that you will, if you grant me leave, be incidentally aiding very materially my private finances. The rent of my estates in that district exceeds 400,000 sesterces, and if the new tenants are to be settled in time for the next pruning, the letting of the farms must not be any further delayed. Besides, the succession of bad vintages we have had forces me to consider the question of making certain abatements, and I cannot enter into that question unless I am on the spot. So, Sir, if for these reasons you grant me leave for thirty days, I will owe to your kindness the speedy fulfilment of a work of loyalty and the settlement of my private finances. I cannot reduce the length of leave I ask for to narrower limits, since the township and the estates I have spoken of are more than a hundred and fifty miles from Rome.
[Note: The emperor Nerva.
]
[Note: See letter iii. 4.]
L To Trajan.
When, Sir, your late father, * both by a very fine speech and by setting them a most honourable example himself, urged every citizen to deeds of liberality, I sought permission from him to transfer to a neighbouring township all the statues of the emperors which had come into my possession by various bequests and were kept just as I had received them ill my distant estates, and to add thereto a statue of himself. He granted the request and made most flattering references to myself, and I immediately wrote to the decurions asking them to assign me a plot of ground upon which I might erect a temple ** at my own cost, and they offered to let me choose the site myself as a mark of appreciation of the task I had undertaken. But first my own ill-health, then your father's illness, and subsequently the anxieties of the office you bestowed upon me, have prevented my proceeding with the work. However, I think the present is a convenient opportunity for getting on with it, for my month of duty ends on the Kalends of September and the following month contains a number of holidays. I ask, therefore, as a special favour, that you will allow me to adorn with your statue the work which I am about to begin ; and secondly, that in order to complete it as soon as possible, you will grant me leave of absence. It would be alien to my frank disposition if I were to conceal from your goodness the fact that you will, if you grant me leave, be incidentally aiding very materially my private finances. The rent of my estates in that district exceeds 400,000 sesterces, and if the new tenants are to be settled in time for the next pruning, the letting of the farms must not be any further delayed. Besides, the succession of bad vintages we have had forces me to consider the question of making certain abatements, and I cannot enter into that question unless I am on the spot. So, Sir, if for these reasons you grant me leave for thirty days, I shall owe to your kindness the speedy fulfilment of a work of loyalty and the settlement of my private finances. I cannot reduce the length of leave I ask for to narrower limits, inasmuch as the township and the estates I have spoken of are more than a hundred and fifty miles from Rome.
(*) The emperor Nerva.
(**) See letter iii. 4.
C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI
Cum divus pater tuus, domine, et oratione pulcherrima et honestissimo exemplo omnes cives ad munificentiam esset cohortatus, petii ab eo, ut statuas principum, quas in longinquis agris per plures successiones traditas mihi quales acceperam custodiebam, permitteret in municipium transferre adiecta sua statua. Quod quidem ille mihi cum plenissimo testimonio indulserat; ego statim decurionibus scripseram, ut assignarent solum in quo templum pecunia mea exstruerem; illi in honorem operis ipsius electionem loci mihi obtulerant. Sed primum mea, deinde patris tui valetudine, postea curis delegati a vobis officii retentus, nunc videor commodissime posse in rem praesentem excurrere. Nam et menstruum meum Kalendis Septembribus finitur, et sequens mensis complures dies feriatos habet. Rogo ergo ante omnia permittas mihi opus quod incohaturus sum exornare et tua statua; deinde, ut hoc facere quam maturissime possim, indulgeas commeatum. Non est autem simplicitatis meae dissimulare apud bonitatem tuam obiter te plurimum collaturum utilitatibus rei familiaris meae. Agrorum enim, quos in eadem regione possideo, locatio, cum alioqui CCCC excedat, adeo non potest differri, ut proximam putationem novus colonus facere debeat. Praeterea continuae sterilitates cogunt me de remissionibus cogitare; quarum rationem nisi praesens inire non possum. Debebo ergo, domine, indulgentiae tuae et pietatis meae celeritatem et status ordinationem, si mihi ob utraque haec dederis commeatum XXX dierum. Neque enim angustius tempus praefinire possum, cum et municipium et agri de quibus loquor sint ultra centesimum et quinquagesimum lapidem.
◆
To Trajan.
When, Sir, your late father, * both by a very fine speech and by setting them a most honourable example himself, urged every citizen to deeds of liberality, I sought permission from him to transfer to a neighbouring township all the statues of the emperors which had come into my possession by various bequests and were kept just as I had received them ill my distant estates, and to add thereto a statue of himself. He granted the request and made most flattering references to myself, and I immediately wrote to the decurions asking them to assign me a plot of ground upon which I might erect a temple ** at my own cost, and they offered to let me choose the site myself as a mark of appreciation of the task I had undertaken. But first my own ill-health, then your father's illness, and subsequently the anxieties of the office you bestowed upon me, have prevented my proceeding with the work. However, I think the present is a convenient opportunity for getting on with it, for my month of duty ends on the Kalends of September and the following month contains a number of holidays. I ask, therefore, as a special favour, that you will allow me to adorn with your statue the work which I am about to begin ; and secondly, that in order to complete it as soon as possible, you will grant me leave of absence. It would be alien to my frank disposition if I were to conceal from your goodness the fact that you will, if you grant me leave, be incidentally aiding very materially my private finances. The rent of my estates in that district exceeds 400,000 sesterces, and if the new tenants are to be settled in time for the next pruning, the letting of the farms must not be any further delayed. Besides, the succession of bad vintages we have had forces me to consider the question of making certain abatements, and I cannot enter into that question unless I am on the spot. So, Sir, if for these reasons you grant me leave for thirty days, I will owe to your kindness the speedy fulfilment of a work of loyalty and the settlement of my private finances. I cannot reduce the length of leave I ask for to narrower limits, since the township and the estates I have spoken of are more than a hundred and fifty miles from Rome.
[Note: The emperor Nerva.
]
[Note: See letter iii. 4.]
Human translation — Attalus.org
Latin / Greek Original
C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI
Cum divus pater tuus, domine, et oratione pulcherrima et honestissimo exemplo omnes cives ad munificentiam esset cohortatus, petii ab eo, ut statuas principum, quas in longinquis agris per plures successiones traditas mihi quales acceperam custodiebam, permitteret in municipium transferre adiecta sua statua. Quod quidem ille mihi cum plenissimo testimonio indulserat; ego statim decurionibus scripseram, ut assignarent solum in quo templum pecunia mea exstruerem; illi in honorem operis ipsius electionem loci mihi obtulerant. Sed primum mea, deinde patris tui valetudine, postea curis delegati a vobis officii retentus, nunc videor commodissime posse in rem praesentem excurrere. Nam et menstruum meum Kalendis Septembribus finitur, et sequens mensis complures dies feriatos habet. Rogo ergo ante omnia permittas mihi opus quod incohaturus sum exornare et tua statua; deinde, ut hoc facere quam maturissime possim, indulgeas commeatum. Non est autem simplicitatis meae dissimulare apud bonitatem tuam obiter te plurimum collaturum utilitatibus rei familiaris meae. Agrorum enim, quos in eadem regione possideo, locatio, cum alioqui CCCC excedat, adeo non potest differri, ut proximam putationem novus colonus facere debeat. Praeterea continuae sterilitates cogunt me de remissionibus cogitare; quarum rationem nisi praesens inire non possum. Debebo ergo, domine, indulgentiae tuae et pietatis meae celeritatem et status ordinationem, si mihi ob utraque haec dederis commeatum XXX dierum. Neque enim angustius tempus praefinire possum, cum et municipium et agri de quibus loquor sint ultra centesimum et quinquagesimum lapidem.