Letter 6009: You commend to my notice the candidature of Julius Naso.
Pliny the Younger→Cornelius Tacitus|c. 104 AD|Pliny the Younger
illnessimperial politics
To Tacitus.
You commend to my notice the candidature of Julius Naso. But fancy commending Naso to me ! Why, it is like commending to me a candidature of my own ! However, I don't mind, and I forgive you. I should have sent a similar recommendation to you, if I had been out of Rome and you had been staying in town. When one is really anxious, one thinks that everything is of pressing importance. Nevertheless, I think you had better go on asking others for their interest, and I will back your entreaties, and second them and assist them as far as I can. Farewell.
L To Tacitus.
You commend to my notice the candidature of Julius Naso. But fancy commending Naso to me ! Why, it is like commending to me a candidature of my own ! However, I don't mind, and I forgive you. I should have sent a similar recommendation to you, if I had been out of Rome and you had been staying in town. When one is really anxious, one thinks that everything is of pressing importance. Nevertheless, I think you had better go on asking others for their interest, and I will back your entreaties, and second them and assist them as far as I can. Farewell.
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To Tacitus.
You commend to my notice the candidature of Julius Naso. But fancy commending Naso to me ! Why, it is like commending to me a candidature of my own ! However, I don't mind, and I forgive you. I should have sent a similar recommendation to you, if I had been out of Rome and you had been staying in town. When one is really anxious, one thinks that everything is of pressing importance. Nevertheless, I think you had better go on asking others for their interest, and I will back your entreaties, and second them and assist them as far as I can. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.