Letter 7015: You ask me how I am spending my time.
Pliny the Younger→Saturninus And Umbisus|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger
education booksfriendship
To Saturninus.
You ask me how I am spending my time. Just in the old way you know of; I am very busy ; I do what I can for my friends, I occasionally find time for study, and I should be much happier, though I do not say I should be better employed, if my studies were my constant and invariable, instead of only being my occasional, employment. As for yourself, I should be grieved to think you were engaged in a round of uncongenial work, did I not know that you were most honourably employed ; for there is no more laudable occupation than to look after the business of one's country and to arbitrate on the differences of one's friends. I felt sure that you would find our friend Priscus * a charming companion. I knew what an unaffected, courteous man he was, and now I find that he is also most grateful, since you say that he has pleasant recollections of the services I have done him. That was a trait in his character with which I was less familiar. Farewell.
[Note: See letter 8 of this book.]
L To Saturninus.
You ask me how I am spending my time. Just in the old way you know of; I am very busy ; I do what I can for my friends, I occasionally find time for study, and I should be much happier, though I do not say I should be better employed, if my studies were my constant and invariable, instead of only being my occasional, employment. As for yourself, I should be grieved to think you were engaged in a round of uncongenial work, did I not know that you were most honourably employed ; for there is no more laudable occupation than to look after the business of one's country and to arbitrate on the differences of one's friends. I felt sure that you would find our friend Priscus * a charming companion. I knew what an unaffected, courteous man he was, and now I find that he is also most grateful, inasmuch as you say that he has pleasant recollections of the services I have done him. That was a trait in his character with which I was less familiar. Farewell.
(*) See letter 8 of this book.
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To Saturninus.
You ask me how I am spending my time. Just in the old way you know of; I am very busy ; I do what I can for my friends, I occasionally find time for study, and I should be much happier, though I do not say I should be better employed, if my studies were my constant and invariable, instead of only being my occasional, employment. As for yourself, I should be grieved to think you were engaged in a round of uncongenial work, did I not know that you were most honourably employed ; for there is no more laudable occupation than to look after the business of one's country and to arbitrate on the differences of one's friends. I felt sure that you would find our friend Priscus * a charming companion. I knew what an unaffected, courteous man he was, and now I find that he is also most grateful, since you say that he has pleasant recollections of the services I have done him. That was a trait in his character with which I was less familiar. Farewell.
[Note: See letter 8 of this book.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.