Letter 10039: The theatre at Nicaea, Sir, the greater part of which has already been constructed, though it is still incomplete,...
Pliny the Younger→Trajan|c. 112 AD|Pliny the Younger|Human translated
education booksimperial politics
To Trajan.
The theatre at Nicaea, Sir, the greater part of which has already been constructed, though it is still incomplete, has already cost more than ten million sesterces, - so at least I am told, for the accounts have not been made out, - and I am afraid the money has been thrown away. For the building has sunk, and there are great gaping crevices to be seen, either because the ground is soft and damp, or owing to the brittleness and crumbling character of the stone, and so it is worth consideration whether it should be finished or abandoned, or even pulled down. For the props and buttresses by which it is shored up seem to me to be more costly than strength-giving. Many parts of this theatre were promised by private persons, as for example the galleries and porticos above the pit, but all these are postponed now that the work, which had to be finished first, has come to a stop. The same people of Nicaea began, before my arrival here, to restore the public gymnasium, which had been destroyed by fire, on a more extensive and wider scale than the old building, and they have already disbursed a considerable sum thereon, and I fear to very little purpose, for the structure is not well put together, and looks disjointed. Moreover, the architect - though it is true he is the rival of the man who began the work - declares that the walls, in spite of their being twenty-two feet thick, cannot bear the weight placed upon them, because they have not been put together with cement in the middle, and have not been strengthened with brickwork. The people of Claudiopolis, again, are excavating rather than constructing an immense public bath in a low-lying situation with a mountain hanging over it, and they are using for the purpose the sums which the senators, who were added to the local council by your kindness, have either paid as their entrance fee, * or are paying according as I ask them for it. Consequently, as I am afraid that the public money at Nicaea may be unprofitably spent, and that - what is more precious than any money - your kindness at Claudiopolis may be turned to unprofitable account, I beg you not only for the sake of the theatre, but also for these baths, to send an architect to see which is the better course to adopt, either, after the money which has already been expended, to finish by hook or by crook the works as they have been begun, or to repair them where they seem to require it, or if necessary change the sites entirely, lest in our anxiety to save the money already disbursed we should lay out the remaining sums with just as poor results.
[Note: In Bithynia those elected to the local senates paid no entrance fee, but those admitted on the Emperor's nomination paid either one or two thousand denarii, according to circumstances; see letter 112 of this book.]
L To Trajan.
The theatre at Nicaea, Sir, the greater part of which has already been constructed, though it is still incomplete, has already cost more than ten million sesterces, - so at least I am told, for the accounts have not been made out, - and I am afraid the money has been thrown away. For the building has sunk, and there are great gaping crevices to be seen, either because the ground is soft and damp, or owing to the brittleness and crumbling character of the stone, and so it is worth consideration whether it should be finished or abandoned, or even pulled down. For the props and buttresses by which it is shored up seem to me to be more costly than strength-giving. Many parts of this theatre were promised by private persons, as for example the galleries and porticos above the pit, but all these are postponed now that the work, which had to be finished first, has come to a stop. The same people of Nicaea began, before my arrival here, to restore the public gymnasium, which had been destroyed by fire, on a more extensive and wider scale than the old building, and they have already disbursed a considerable sum thereon, and I fear to very little purpose, for the structure is not well put together, and looks disjointed. Moreover, the architect - though it is true he is the rival of the man who began the work - declares that the walls, in spite of their being twenty-two feet thick, cannot bear the weight placed upon them, because they have not been put together with cement in the middle, and have not been strengthened with brickwork. The people of Claudiopolis, again, are excavating rather than constructing an immense public bath in a low-lying situation with a mountain hanging over it, and they are using for the purpose the sums which the senators, who were added to the local council by your kindness, have either paid as their entrance fee, * or are paying according as I ask them for it. Consequently, as I am afraid that the public money at Nicaea may be unprofitably spent, and that - what is more precious than any money - your kindness at Claudiopolis may be turned to unprofitable account, I beg you not only for the sake of the theatre, but also for these baths, to send an architect to see which is the better course to adopt, either, after the money which has already been expended, to finish by hook or by crook the works as they have been begun, or to repair them where they seem to require it, or if necessary change the sites entirely, lest in our anxiety to save the money already disbursed we should lay out the remaining sums with just as poor results.
(*) In Bithynia those elected to the local senates paid no entrance fee, but those admitted on the Emperor's nomination paid either one or two thousand denarii, according to circumstances; see letter 112 of this book.
C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI
Theatrum, domine, Nicaeae maxima iam parte constructum, imperfectum tamen, sestertium - ut audio; neque enim ratio operis excussa est - amplius centies hausit: vereor ne frustra. Ingentibus enim rimis desedit et hiat, sive in causa solum umidum et molle, sive lapis ipse gracilis et putris: dignum est certe deliberatione, sitne faciendum an sit relinquendum an etiam destruendum. Nam fulturae ac substructiones, quibus subinde suscipitur, non tam firmae mihi quam sumptuosae uidentur. Huic theatro ex priuatorum pollicitationibus multa debentur, ut basilicae circa, ut porticus supra caveam. Quae nunc omnia differuntur cessante eo, quod ante peragendum est. Iidem Nicaeenses gymnasium incendio amissum ante aduentum meum restituere coeperunt, longe numerosius laxiusque quam fuerat, et iam aliquantum erogauerunt; periculum est, ne parum utiliter; incompositum enim et sparsum est. Praeterea architectus, sane aemulus eius a quo opus incohatum est, adfirmat parietes quamquam uiginti et duos pedes latos imposita onera sustinere non posse, quia sine caemento medii farti nec testaceo opere praecincti.
Claudiopolitani quoque in depresso loco, imminente etiam monte ingens balineum defodiunt magis quam aedificant, et quidem ex ea pecunia, quam buleutae additi beneficio tuo aut iam obtulerunt ob introitum aut nobis exigentibus conferent. Ergo cum timeam ne illic publica pecunia, hic, quod est omni pecunia pretiosius, munus tuum male collocetur, cogor petere a te non solum ob theatrum, uerum etiam ob haec balinea mittas architectum, dispecturum utrum sit utilius post sumptum qui factus est quoquo modo consummare opera? ut incohata sunt, an quae uidentur emendanda corrigere, quae transferenda transferre, ne dum servare uolumus quod impensum est, male impendamus quod addendum est.
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To Trajan.
The theatre at Nicaea, Sir, the greater part of which has already been constructed, though it is still incomplete, has already cost more than ten million sesterces, - so at least I am told, for the accounts have not been made out, - and I am afraid the money has been thrown away. For the building has sunk, and there are great gaping crevices to be seen, either because the ground is soft and damp, or owing to the brittleness and crumbling character of the stone, and so it is worth consideration whether it should be finished or abandoned, or even pulled down. For the props and buttresses by which it is shored up seem to me to be more costly than strength-giving. Many parts of this theatre were promised by private persons, as for example the galleries and porticos above the pit, but all these are postponed now that the work, which had to be finished first, has come to a stop. The same people of Nicaea began, before my arrival here, to restore the public gymnasium, which had been destroyed by fire, on a more extensive and wider scale than the old building, and they have already disbursed a considerable sum thereon, and I fear to very little purpose, for the structure is not well put together, and looks disjointed. Moreover, the architect - though it is true he is the rival of the man who began the work - declares that the walls, in spite of their being twenty-two feet thick, cannot bear the weight placed upon them, because they have not been put together with cement in the middle, and have not been strengthened with brickwork. The people of Claudiopolis, again, are excavating rather than constructing an immense public bath in a low-lying situation with a mountain hanging over it, and they are using for the purpose the sums which the senators, who were added to the local council by your kindness, have either paid as their entrance fee, * or are paying according as I ask them for it. Consequently, as I am afraid that the public money at Nicaea may be unprofitably spent, and that - what is more precious than any money - your kindness at Claudiopolis may be turned to unprofitable account, I beg you not only for the sake of the theatre, but also for these baths, to send an architect to see which is the better course to adopt, either, after the money which has already been expended, to finish by hook or by crook the works as they have been begun, or to repair them where they seem to require it, or if necessary change the sites entirely, lest in our anxiety to save the money already disbursed we should lay out the remaining sums with just as poor results.
[Note: In Bithynia those elected to the local senates paid no entrance fee, but those admitted on the Emperor's nomination paid either one or two thousand denarii, according to circumstances; see letter 112 of this book.]
Human translation — Attalus.org
Latin / Greek Original
C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI
Theatrum, domine, Nicaeae maxima iam parte constructum, imperfectum tamen, sestertium - ut audio; neque enim ratio operis excussa est - amplius centies hausit: vereor ne frustra. Ingentibus enim rimis desedit et hiat, sive in causa solum umidum et molle, sive lapis ipse gracilis et putris: dignum est certe deliberatione, sitne faciendum an sit relinquendum an etiam destruendum. Nam fulturae ac substructiones, quibus subinde suscipitur, non tam firmae mihi quam sumptuosae uidentur. Huic theatro ex priuatorum pollicitationibus multa debentur, ut basilicae circa, ut porticus supra caveam. Quae nunc omnia differuntur cessante eo, quod ante peragendum est. Iidem Nicaeenses gymnasium incendio amissum ante aduentum meum restituere coeperunt, longe numerosius laxiusque quam fuerat, et iam aliquantum erogauerunt; periculum est, ne parum utiliter; incompositum enim et sparsum est. Praeterea architectus, sane aemulus eius a quo opus incohatum est, adfirmat parietes quamquam uiginti et duos pedes latos imposita onera sustinere non posse, quia sine caemento medii farti nec testaceo opere praecincti.
Claudiopolitani quoque in depresso loco, imminente etiam monte ingens balineum defodiunt magis quam aedificant, et quidem ex ea pecunia, quam buleutae additi beneficio tuo aut iam obtulerunt ob introitum aut nobis exigentibus conferent. Ergo cum timeam ne illic publica pecunia, hic, quod est omni pecunia pretiosius, munus tuum male collocetur, cogor petere a te non solum ob theatrum, uerum etiam ob haec balinea mittas architectum, dispecturum utrum sit utilius post sumptum qui factus est quoquo modo consummare opera? ut incohata sunt, an quae uidentur emendanda corrigere, quae transferenda transferre, ne dum servare uolumus quod impensum est, male impendamus quod addendum est.