Letter 2018: No, you could not have given me a pleasanter commission than to find a teacher of rhetoric for your brother's children.
Pliny the Younger→Junius Mauricus|c. 100 AD|Pliny the Younger
education books
To Mauricus.
No, you could not have given me a pleasanter commission than to find a teacher of rhetoric for your brother's children. For, thanks to you, I go to school again, and, as it were, enjoy once more the happiest days of my life. I sit among young people, as I used to do, * and I can judge what authority I have among them owing to my literary pursuits. Just recently in a full class-room, before a number of members of our order, ** the boys were joking among themselves quite loudly; the moment I entered they were quiet as mice. I should not mention the incident except that it redounded more to their credit than to mine, and that I wish you to feel sure that your brother's sons can attend the lectures to their advantage. Moreover, when I have heard all the lectures, I will write and tell you what I think about each one of them, and so - as far as I can by a letter - I will make you think that you have heard them all yourself. I owe this to you, and I owe it to the memory of your brother to deal loyally by him and take this interest, especially on such an important subject. For what can touch you more closely than that these children - I should say your children, but that you love them more than if they were your own - should be found worthy of such a father and such an uncle as yourself. Even if you had not asked me to look after them, I should have done so on my own account. I do not forget that in choosing a public teacher one is apt to give offence, but on behalf of your brother's sons I must risk giving offence and even incurring animosity with as little compunction as a parent would in looking after his own children. Farewell.
[Note: It was a public teacher, to whose modest lectures he might send his nephews, that Mauricus required. Pliny accordingly attended several of their classes, in order to judge of their respective qualifications.
]
[Note: Grown-up people often attended the classes of the more eminent lecturers.]
L To Mauricus.
No, you could not have given me a pleasanter commission than to find a teacher of rhetoric for your brother's children. For, thanks to you, I go to school again, and, as it were, enjoy once more the happiest days of my life. I sit among young people, as I used to do, * and I can judge what authority I have among them owing to my literary pursuits. Just recently in a full class-room, before a number of members of our order, ** the boys were joking among themselves quite loudly; the moment I entered they were quiet as mice. I should not mention the incident except that it redounded more to their credit than to mine, and that I wish you to feel sure that your brother's sons can attend the lectures to their advantage. Moreover, when I have heard all the lectures, I will write and tell you what I think about each one of them, and so - as far as I can by a letter - I will make you think that you have heard them all yourself. I owe this to you, and I owe it to the memory of your brother to deal loyally by him and take this interest, especially on such an important subject. For what can touch you more closely than that these children - I should say your children, but that you love them more than if they were your own - should be found worthy of such a father and such an uncle as yourself. Even if you had not asked me to look after them, I should have done so on my own account. I do not forget that in choosing a public teacher one is apt to give offence, but on behalf of your brother's sons I must risk giving offence and even incurring animosity with as little compunction as a parent would in looking after his own children. Farewell.
(*) It was a public teacher, to whose modest lectures he might send his nephews, that Mauricus required. Pliny accordingly attended several of their classes, in order to judge of their respective qualifications.
(**) Grown-up people often attended the classes of the more eminent lecturers.
◆
To Mauricus.
No, you could not have given me a pleasanter commission than to find a teacher of rhetoric for your brother's children. For, thanks to you, I go to school again, and, as it were, enjoy once more the happiest days of my life. I sit among young people, as I used to do, * and I can judge what authority I have among them owing to my literary pursuits. Just recently in a full class-room, before a number of members of our order, ** the boys were joking among themselves quite loudly; the moment I entered they were quiet as mice. I should not mention the incident except that it redounded more to their credit than to mine, and that I wish you to feel sure that your brother's sons can attend the lectures to their advantage. Moreover, when I have heard all the lectures, I will write and tell you what I think about each one of them, and so - as far as I can by a letter - I will make you think that you have heard them all yourself. I owe this to you, and I owe it to the memory of your brother to deal loyally by him and take this interest, especially on such an important subject. For what can touch you more closely than that these children - I should say your children, but that you love them more than if they were your own - should be found worthy of such a father and such an uncle as yourself. Even if you had not asked me to look after them, I should have done so on my own account. I do not forget that in choosing a public teacher one is apt to give offence, but on behalf of your brother's sons I must risk giving offence and even incurring animosity with as little compunction as a parent would in looking after his own children. Farewell.
[Note: It was a public teacher, to whose modest lectures he might send his nephews, that Mauricus required. Pliny accordingly attended several of their classes, in order to judge of their respective qualifications.
]
[Note: Grown-up people often attended the classes of the more eminent lecturers.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.