Letter 3012: Yes, I will come to dinner, but even now I must stipulate that the meal be short and frugal, and brimming over only...
Pliny the Younger→Catilius Severus|c. 100 AD|Pliny the Younger
imperial politics
To Catilius Severus.
Yes, I will come to dinner, but even now I must stipulate that the meal be short and frugal, and brimming over only with Socratic talk. No, even in this respect there must be a limit fixed, for there will be crowds of people going to make calls before day breaks, * and even Cato did not escape when he fell in with them, though Caius Caesar, in telling the story, blames him in such a way that it redounds to his praise. For he says that when those who met him drunk uncovered his head and saw who it was, they blushed at the sight, and he adds: "You would think it was not they who had caught Cato, but Cato who had caught them." What greater testimony could there be to Cato's character than that men respected him even when he was in liquor? But for our dinner let us agree not only to have a modest and inexpensive feast but to break up in good time, for we are not Catos that our enemies cannot censure us without praising us in the same breath. Farewell.
[Note: Officia antelucana, "visits of ceremony taking place before daylight." "Take care," says Pliny, "that our meal is not protracted till such a time that we will risk falling in with parties of clients etc., going to pay their morning visit of ceremony to their patrons and great friends, and who will discover us to have taken more than is good for us. Cato it is true (as related by Caesar) did this, etc. ; but we are not precisely Catos."]
L To Catilius Severus.
Yes, I will come to dinner, but even now I must stipulate that the meal be short and frugal, and brimming over only with Socratic talk. Nay, even in this respect there must be a limit fixed, for there will be crowds of people going to make calls before day breaks, * and even Cato did not escape when he fell in with them, though Caius Caesar, in telling the story, blames him in such a way that it redounds to his praise. For he says that when those who met him drunk uncovered his head and saw who it was, they blushed at the sight, and he adds: "You would think it was not they who had caught Cato, but Cato who had caught them." What greater testimony could there be to Cato's character than that men respected him even when he was in liquor? But for our dinner let us agree not only to have a modest and inexpensive feast but to break up in good time, for we are not Catos that our enemies cannot censure us without praising us in the same breath. Farewell.
(*) Officia antelucana, "visits of ceremony taking place before daylight." "Take care," says Pliny, "that our meal is not protracted till such a time that we shall risk falling in with parties of clients etc., going to pay their morning visit of ceremony to their patrons and great friends, and who will discover us to have taken more than is good for us. Cato it is true (as related by Caesar) did this, etc. ; but we are not precisely Catos."
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To Catilius Severus.
Yes, I will come to dinner, but even now I must stipulate that the meal be short and frugal, and brimming over only with Socratic talk. No, even in this respect there must be a limit fixed, for there will be crowds of people going to make calls before day breaks, * and even Cato did not escape when he fell in with them, though Caius Caesar, in telling the story, blames him in such a way that it redounds to his praise. For he says that when those who met him drunk uncovered his head and saw who it was, they blushed at the sight, and he adds: "You would think it was not they who had caught Cato, but Cato who had caught them." What greater testimony could there be to Cato's character than that men respected him even when he was in liquor? But for our dinner let us agree not only to have a modest and inexpensive feast but to break up in good time, for we are not Catos that our enemies cannot censure us without praising us in the same breath. Farewell.
[Note: Officia antelucana, "visits of ceremony taking place before daylight." "Take care," says Pliny, "that our meal is not protracted till such a time that we will risk falling in with parties of clients etc., going to pay their morning visit of ceremony to their patrons and great friends, and who will discover us to have taken more than is good for us. Cato it is true (as related by Caesar) did this, etc. ; but we are not precisely Catos."]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.