Letter 7003: How is it that you persist in spending so much time first in Lucania and then in Campania ?
Pliny the Younger→Praesens|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger
friendshipimperial politics
To Praesens.
How is it that you persist in spending so much time first in Lucania and then in Campania ? "Oh," you say, "I belong to Lucania, and my wife to Campania." That is a sound reason for a rather protracted absence, but not for always being away. You really must come back to town, the only place where you can gain office, and dignities, and friendships, both with the great and the small. How long will you play the country despot, waking and sleeping at your own imperial will? How long will you leave your shoes unworn ? How long will leave your toga on holiday ? How long must you have all your days to yourself? It is high time you came back to look us up at our daily grind, if for no other reason than this, to prevent your pleasures from cloying from your having too much of them. Come and pay court to others for a little time, that you may get additional pleasure from someone paying court to you ; come and be hustled in the crowds here, that your solitude may charm you the more ! But how foolish of me to scare away the bird I am trying to coax to come to me ! For very likely my reasons only persuade you to wrap yourself up the tighter in the leisure which I wish you to forego for a while, but not to break with altogether. If I were to entertain you at dinner, I should mingle sharp and piquant dishes with the sweet ones, that the edge of your appetite, when blunted by the latter, might be whetted again by the former, and similarly now I heartily recommend you to season your present joyous mode of existence by an occasional dash of what I may term the bitters of life. Farewell.
L To Praesens.
How is it that you persist in spending so much time first in Lucania and then in Campania ? "Oh," you say, "I belong to Lucania, and my wife to Campania." That is a sound reason for a rather protracted absence, but not for always being away. You really must come back to town, the only place where you can gain office, and dignities, and friendships, both with the great and the small. How long will you play the country despot, waking and sleeping at your own imperial will? How long will you leave your shoes unworn ? How long will leave your toga on holiday ? How long must you have all your days to yourself? It is high time you came back to look us up at our daily grind, if for no other reason than this, to prevent your pleasures from cloying from your having too much of them. Come and pay court to others for a little time, that you may get additional pleasure from someone paying court to you ; come and be hustled in the crowds here, that your solitude may charm you the more ! But how foolish of me to scare away the bird I am trying to coax to come to me ! For very likely my reasons only persuade you to wrap yourself up the tighter in the leisure which I wish you to forego for a while, but not to break with altogether. If I were to entertain you at dinner, I should mingle sharp and piquant dishes with the sweet ones, that the edge of your appetite, when blunted by the latter, might be whetted again by the former, and similarly now I heartily recommend you to season your present joyous mode of existence by an occasional dash of what I may term the bitters of life. Farewell.
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To Praesens.
How is it that you persist in spending so much time first in Lucania and then in Campania ? "Oh," you say, "I belong to Lucania, and my wife to Campania." That is a sound reason for a rather protracted absence, but not for always being away. You really must come back to town, the only place where you can gain office, and dignities, and friendships, both with the great and the small. How long will you play the country despot, waking and sleeping at your own imperial will? How long will you leave your shoes unworn ? How long will leave your toga on holiday ? How long must you have all your days to yourself? It is high time you came back to look us up at our daily grind, if for no other reason than this, to prevent your pleasures from cloying from your having too much of them. Come and pay court to others for a little time, that you may get additional pleasure from someone paying court to you ; come and be hustled in the crowds here, that your solitude may charm you the more ! But how foolish of me to scare away the bird I am trying to coax to come to me ! For very likely my reasons only persuade you to wrap yourself up the tighter in the leisure which I wish you to forego for a while, but not to break with altogether. If I were to entertain you at dinner, I should mingle sharp and piquant dishes with the sweet ones, that the edge of your appetite, when blunted by the latter, might be whetted again by the former, and similarly now I heartily recommend you to season your present joyous mode of existence by an occasional dash of what I may term the bitters of life. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.