Letter 5010: Do, I beg of you, fulfil the promise I made in my verses * when I pledged my word that our common friends should see...
Pliny the Younger→Suetonius Tranquillus|c. 104 AD|Pliny the Younger|Human translated
education books
To Suetonius Tranquillus.
Do, I beg of you, fulfil the promise I made in my verses * when I pledged my word that our common friends should see your compositions. People are asking for them every day, clamouring for them even, and, if you are not careful, you may find yourself served with a writ to publish them. ** I myself am very slow to make up my mind to publish, but you are far more of a slow-coach than even I am. So either decide at once, or take care that I do not drag those books of yours from you by the lash of my satire, † as I have failed to coax them out by my hendecasyllables. The work is absolutely finished, and if you polish it any more you will only impair it without making it shine the more brightly. Do let me see your name on the title page; do let me hear that the volumes of my friend Tranquillus are being copied, read, and sold. It is only fair, considering the strength of our attachment, that you should afford me the same gratification that I have afforded you. Farewell.
[Note: Pliny's Hendecasyllables: see letter iv. 14.
]
[Note: He is in these opening sentences jocularly using the language of the courts.
]
(†) Literally, "by scazontes", a form of verse used in satire.
L To Suetonius Tranquillus.
Do, I beg of you, fulfil the promise I made in my verses * when I pledged my word that our common friends should see your compositions. People are asking for them every day, clamouring for them even, and, if you are not careful, you may find yourself served with a writ to publish them. ** I myself am very slow to make up my mind to publish, but you are far more of a slow-coach than even I am. So either decide at once, or take care that I do not drag those books of yours from you by the lash of my satire, † as I have failed to coax them out by my hendecasyllables. The work is absolutely finished, and if you polish it any more you will only impair it without making it shine the more brightly. Do let me see your name on the title page; do let me hear that the volumes of my friend Tranquillus are being copied, read, and sold. It is only fair, considering the strength of our attachment, that you should afford me the same gratification that I have afforded you. Farewell.
(*) Pliny's Hendecasyllables: see letter iv. 14.
(**) He is in these opening sentences jocularly using the language of the courts.
(†) Literally, "by scazontes", a form of verse used in satire.
C. PLINIUS SUETONIO TRANQUILLO SUO S.
Libera tandem hendecasyllaborum meorum fidem, qui scripta tua communibus amicis spoponderunt. Appellantur cotidie, efflagitantur, ac iam periculum est ne cogantur ad exhibendum formulam accipere. Sum et ipse in edendo haesitator, tu tamen meam quoque cunctationem tarditatemque vicisti. Proinde aut rumpe iam moras aut cave ne eosdem istos libellos, quos tibi hendecasyllabi nostri blanditiis elicere non possunt, convicio scazontes extorqueant. Perfectum opus absolutumque est, nec iam splendescit lima sed atteritur. Patere me videre titulum tuum, patere audire describi legi venire volumina Tranquilli mei. Aequum est nos in amore tam mutuo eandem percipere ex te voluptatem, qua tu perfrueris ex nobis. Vale.
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To Suetonius Tranquillus.
Do, I beg of you, fulfil the promise I made in my verses * when I pledged my word that our common friends should see your compositions. People are asking for them every day, clamouring for them even, and, if you are not careful, you may find yourself served with a writ to publish them. ** I myself am very slow to make up my mind to publish, but you are far more of a slow-coach than even I am. So either decide at once, or take care that I do not drag those books of yours from you by the lash of my satire, † as I have failed to coax them out by my hendecasyllables. The work is absolutely finished, and if you polish it any more you will only impair it without making it shine the more brightly. Do let me see your name on the title page; do let me hear that the volumes of my friend Tranquillus are being copied, read, and sold. It is only fair, considering the strength of our attachment, that you should afford me the same gratification that I have afforded you. Farewell.
[Note: Pliny's Hendecasyllables: see letter iv. 14.
]
[Note: He is in these opening sentences jocularly using the language of the courts.
]
(†) Literally, "by scazontes", a form of verse used in satire.
Human translation — Attalus.org
Latin / Greek Original
C. PLINIUS SUETONIO TRANQUILLO SUO S.
Libera tandem hendecasyllaborum meorum fidem, qui scripta tua communibus amicis spoponderunt. Appellantur cotidie, efflagitantur, ac iam periculum est ne cogantur ad exhibendum formulam accipere. Sum et ipse in edendo haesitator, tu tamen meam quoque cunctationem tarditatemque vicisti. Proinde aut rumpe iam moras aut cave ne eosdem istos libellos, quos tibi hendecasyllabi nostri blanditiis elicere non possunt, convicio scazontes extorqueant. Perfectum opus absolutumque est, nec iam splendescit lima sed atteritur. Patere me videre titulum tuum, patere audire describi legi venire volumina Tranquilli mei. Aequum est nos in amore tam mutuo eandem percipere ex te voluptatem, qua tu perfrueris ex nobis. Vale.