Letter 7030: I am much concerned at your loss of a pupil who, as you say, showed the greatest promise.
Pliny the Younger→Julius Genitor|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger|Human translated
education booksfriendshipgrief death
To Genitor.
I am much concerned at your loss of a pupil who, as you say, showed the greatest promise. I am sure that his illness and death must have interfered with your studies, for do I not know that you never lose a chance of looking after a friend, and that those whom you esteem you love with heart and soul? As for myself, I cannot escape even here from being as busy as though I were in town, for someone is always nominating me to act as judge or arbitrator. Besides, there are the country people and their squabbles, and they keep pouring into my ears their rights and wrongs, after my long absence, as they think they have a right to do. Again, I am never free from the exceedingly troublesome task of letting my farms, so difficult is it to meet with suitable tenants. Hence my studies are precarious, but yet I do study, for I write a little as well as read. It is when I read that I feel by comparison how badly I write, although you put fresh heart into me by comparing my treatise in vindication of Helvidius * with the speech of Demosthenes against Meidias. To tell you the truth, when I was composing my own work, I kept turning over the pages of that oration, not in the hope of rivalling it - for only a wretch or a fool would do that - but to imitate it and follow in the same strain as far as the differences in our genius - the infinitely great and the infinitely little - and the dissimilarity of the subject-matter would allow. Farewell.
[Note: See letter ix. 13.]
L To Genitor.
I am much concerned at your loss of a pupil who, as you say, showed the greatest promise. I am sure that his illness and death must have interfered with your studies, for do I not know that you never lose a chance of looking after a friend, and that those whom you esteem you love with heart and soul? As for myself, I cannot escape even here from being as busy as though I were in town, for someone is always nominating me to act as judge or arbitrator. Besides, there are the country people and their squabbles, and they keep pouring into my ears their rights and wrongs, after my long absence, as they think they have a right to do. Again, I am never free from the exceedingly troublesome task of letting my farms, so difficult is it to meet with suitable tenants. Hence my studies are precarious, but yet I do study, for I write a little as well as read. It is when I read that I feel by comparison how badly I write, although you put fresh heart into me by comparing my treatise in vindication of Helvidius * with the speech of Demosthenes against Meidias. To tell you the truth, when I was composing my own work, I kept turning over the pages of that oration, not in the hope of rivalling it - for only a wretch or a fool would do that - but to imitate it and follow in the same strain as far as the differences in our genius - the infinitely great and the infinitely little - and the dissimilarity of the subject-matter would allow. Farewell.
(*) See letter ix. 13.
C. PLINIUS GENITORI SUO S.
Torqueor quod discipulum, ut scribis, optimae spei amisisti. Cuius et valetudine et morte impedita studia tua quidni sciam? cum sis omnium officiorum observantissimus, cumque omnes quos probas effusissime diligas. Me huc quoque urbana negotia persequuntur; non desunt enim qui me iudicem aut arbitrum faciant. Accedunt querelae rusticorum, qui auribus meis post longum tempus suo iure abutuntur. Instat et necessitas agrorum locandorum, perquam molesta: adeo rarum est invenire idoneos conductores. Quibus ex causis precario studeo, studeo tamen. Nam et scribo aliquid et lego; sed cum lego, ex comparatione sentio quam male scribam, licet tu mihi bonum animum facias, qui libellos meos de ultione Helvidi orationi Demosthenis κατὰ . . . μειδίου confers. Quam sane, cum componerem illos, habui in manibus, non ut aemularer — improbum enim ac paene furiosum -, sed tamen imitarer et sequerer, quantum aut diversitas ingeniorum maximi et minimi, aut causae dissimilitudo pateretur. Vale.
◆
To Genitor.
I am much concerned at your loss of a pupil who, as you say, showed the greatest promise. I am sure that his illness and death must have interfered with your studies, for do I not know that you never lose a chance of looking after a friend, and that those whom you esteem you love with heart and soul? As for myself, I cannot escape even here from being as busy as though I were in town, for someone is always nominating me to act as judge or arbitrator. Besides, there are the country people and their squabbles, and they keep pouring into my ears their rights and wrongs, after my long absence, as they think they have a right to do. Again, I am never free from the exceedingly troublesome task of letting my farms, so difficult is it to meet with suitable tenants. Hence my studies are precarious, but yet I do study, for I write a little as well as read. It is when I read that I feel by comparison how badly I write, although you put fresh heart into me by comparing my treatise in vindication of Helvidius * with the speech of Demosthenes against Meidias. To tell you the truth, when I was composing my own work, I kept turning over the pages of that oration, not in the hope of rivalling it - for only a wretch or a fool would do that - but to imitate it and follow in the same strain as far as the differences in our genius - the infinitely great and the infinitely little - and the dissimilarity of the subject-matter would allow. Farewell.
[Note: See letter ix. 13.]
Human translation — Attalus.org
Latin / Greek Original
C. PLINIUS GENITORI SUO S.
Torqueor quod discipulum, ut scribis, optimae spei amisisti. Cuius et valetudine et morte impedita studia tua quidni sciam? cum sis omnium officiorum observantissimus, cumque omnes quos probas effusissime diligas. Me huc quoque urbana negotia persequuntur; non desunt enim qui me iudicem aut arbitrum faciant. Accedunt querelae rusticorum, qui auribus meis post longum tempus suo iure abutuntur. Instat et necessitas agrorum locandorum, perquam molesta: adeo rarum est invenire idoneos conductores. Quibus ex causis precario studeo, studeo tamen. Nam et scribo aliquid et lego; sed cum lego, ex comparatione sentio quam male scribam, licet tu mihi bonum animum facias, qui libellos meos de ultione Helvidi orationi Demosthenis κατὰ . . . μειδίου confers. Quam sane, cum componerem illos, habui in manibus, non ut aemularer — improbum enim ac paene furiosum -, sed tamen imitarer et sequerer, quantum aut diversitas ingeniorum maximi et minimi, aut causae dissimilitudo pateretur. Vale.