Letter 4006: My Tuscan farms have been lashed by hail; from my property in the Transpadane region I get news that the crops are...
To Julius Naso.
My Tuscan farms have been lashed by hail; from my property in the Transpadane region I get news that the crops are very heavy but the prices rule equally low, and it is only my Laurentian estate that makes me any return. It is true that all my belongings there consist of but a house and a garden, yet it is the only property which brings me in any revenue. For while I am there I write hard and I till - not fields, for I have none - but my own wits, and so I can show you there a full granary of manuscripts, * as elsewhere I can show you full barns of wheat. Hence if you are anxious for sure and fruitful farms, you too should sow your grain on the same kind of shore. Farewell.
[Note: Pliny uses the word scrinium, a kind of desk or box for keeping books and manuscripts.]
Human translation — Attalus.org
Latin / Greek Original
C. PLINIUS IULIO NASONI SUO S.
Tusci grandine excussi, in regione Transpadana summa abundantia, sed par vilitas nuntiatur: solum mihi Laurentinum meum in reditu. Nihil quidem ibi possideo praeter tectum et hortum statimque harenas, solum tamen mihi in reditu. Ibi enim plurimum scribo, nec agrum quem non habeo sed ipsum me studiis excolo; ac iam possum tibi ut aliis in locis horreum plenum, sic ibi scrinium ostendere. Igitur tu quoque, si certa et fructuosa praedia concupiscis, aliquid in hoc litore para. Vale.
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