Letter 8006: You must by this time be aware from my last letter that I just lately noticed the monument erected to Pallas, which...

To Montanus. You must by this time be aware from my last letter that I just lately noticed the monument erected to Pallas, which bore the following inscription :- "To him, because of his loyal services to his patrons, the senate decreed the honourable distinctions of praetorian rank together with five million sesterces, but he was content to lake the distinctions alone." * Subsequently I thought it worthwhile to look up the actual terms of the decree, and I found it couched in such exaggerated and fulsome language as to make even that pompous inscription on the monument look modest and humble by comparison. I won't speak of the ancient worthies, like the Scipios with their titles of Africanus, Achaicus and Numantinus; but if those who lived nearer our times, to go no farther back, like Marius, Sulla and Pompeius, were rolled into one, their eulogies would still fall short of those showered upon Pallas. Well, then, am I to consider that those who decreed these extravagant praises were merely gratifying his vanity or were acting like abject slaves ? I should say the former if such a spirit were becoming to a senate, and the latter but that no one is such an abject slave as to stoop to such servilities. Are we to ascribe it then to a desire to curry favour with Pallas, or to an insane passion to get on in the world? But who is so utterly mad as to wish to get on in the world at the price of his own shame and the disgrace of his country, especially when living in a state where the only advantage of holding the most honourable position was that the holder had the privilege of taking precedence in the senate in singing the praises of Pallas? I say nothing of the fact of praetorian distinctions being offered to such a slave, for they were slaves who offered them; I say nothing of their desire that he should not only be urged, but even compelled, to wear the golden rings, ** for if a man of praetorian rank wore iron ones he would be lowering the dignity of the senate. These are trifling details which call for no remark, but what does demand notice is the fact that it was in the name of Pallas - and the senate-house has never yet been purged of the disgrace - it was in the name of Pallas, I repeat, that the senate returned thanks to Caesar for having made honourable mention to them of Pallas, and for having given them an opportunity of testifying to the good will they bore him. For what could be more honourable to the senate than that they should show that they were properly grateful to Pallas ? Then come the following words:- "That Pallas, to whom every one heartily confesses his obligations, may enjoy the rewards for his matchless industry which he has so abundantly deserved." Why, you would fancy that the bounds of the Empire had been carried forward by him, or that he had safely brought back the armies of the State. But there is more to come:- "The senate and Roman people will never obtain a more welcome opportunity of showing their generosity than now that a chance is afforded them of assisting the financial position of the most trustworthy and scrupulously honest guardian of the Imperial finances that Emperor ever had." So this was the height of the senate's ambition, this was the passionate wish of the people, this was the most welcome opportunity for showing liberality - to be able to make Pallas richer by depleting the public purse ! Now listen to what follows: - "It was the wish of the senate to pass a decree giving him five million sesterces from the treasury, and the less inclined he was to hanker after such a sum, the more assiduously did the senate implore the Father of the State to compel Pallas to accede to the senate's wishes." The one thing they did not do was to address Pallas in their official capacity and beg him to give way to the senate's wishes, and make Caesar their advocate to induce him to reconsider his insolent refusal and get him not to scorn the five millions. But scorn them he did, and, considering the handsomeness of the offer and the fact that it was made by the State, his refusal showed greater arrogance than acceptance would have done, and he took the only step open to him to show it. Yet the senate with a tone of reproachfulness lauded even this refusal with eulogies. Here are the words:- "But whereas our most excellent Emperor and parent of the State has, at the request of Pallas, desired us to erase that portion of our decree which relates to the giving of five million sesterces from the treasury to Pallas, the senate hereby bears witness that their proposal to bestow that sum upon Pallas was freely undertaken as one of the list of honours worthily bestowed for loyal and faithful service, yet, at the same time, as on no occasion does the senate think it right to run counter to the Emperor's will, so now does it defer to his wishes." Just picture to yourself Pallas interposing his veto, as it were, upon the senate's decree, setting a limit to the honours to be paid him, and refusing as too much the offer of five millions, after accepting, as though it were a lesser gift, the distinctions of praetorian rank ! Just imagine Caesar deferring to the entreaties, or rather to the imperious command of a freedman in the presence of the senate, for it is tantamount to a command when a freedman makes a request of his patron in the senate-house! Just think of the senate declaring that, in proposing to decree this five millions among the other distinctions, they acted of their own free will, and were doing no more than Pallas deserved. Fancy them declaring that they would have persevered with their determination, but for the deference due to the wishes of the emperor, which, on every conceivable occasion, ought to be law with them ! In other words, to prevent Pallas taking those five millions out of the treasury it was necessary that Pallas should be modest and the senate obsequious, and even then they would not have shown that obsequiousness if they had thought there could be an occasion on which it was lawful for them to refuse obedience. Do you think that was all? Just wait and hear what is yet to come, even worse than what went before: - "And whereas it is to the public interest that the benignity of the Emperor, which is ever ready to lavish praises and rewards on those who deserve them, should be published as widely as possible, and especially in those places where persons entrusted with the affairs of state may be incited to follow such an excellent example, and where the well-proved loyally and virtue of Pallas may stir up others to honourable rivalry, it is hereby decreed that the Emperor's speech delivered in full meeting of the senate on 23rd January last, and the decrees of the senate passed on that occasion, shall be engraved on a brazen tablet, and the tablet itself be set up near the statue of the divine Julius Caesar in full armour." So it was not enough that the senate-house should be witness of such scandalous proceedings; no, a much more frequented site was chosen, where the disgraceful inscription could be read by those of our own and later generations. It was further resolved that all the honours that had been heaped upon this fastidious ex-slave should be engraved upon the tablet, both those which he had declined and those which he had accepted, as far as those who decreed them had it in their power to confer them. The praetorian distinctions of Pallas were chiselled and cut upon a memorial that will last for ages, as though they were ancient treaties or hallowed laws. Such was the - what shall I say? I am at a loss for a word - of the Emperor, of the senate, and of Pallas himself, as though they wished to be pilloried before the eyes of all men, Pallas as a monument of insolence, Caesar of complaisance, and the senate of servility. Nor did they feel a sense of shame in trying to veil their baseness by justifying it, by putting forward such an amazing and wonderful pretext as that others, when they saw the rewards heaped upon Pallas, might be stirred up to an honourable rivalry. So cheap were the honours they bestowed - even those which Pallas did not scorn to accept. Yet there were found men of honourable extraction who strove to attain distinctions which they saw bestowed on a freedman and promised to slaves ! How happy I am that my life did not fall in those evil times, which make me blush for shame as though I had lived in them ! I have not the least doubt that they affect you as they do me. I know how sensitive and honourable your disposition is, and that you will have no difficulty therefore in thinking my resentment to be under rather than over the mark, although in some passages perhaps I have let my indignation run away with me further than I ought to have done in a letter. Farewell. [Note: See letter vii. 29. ] [Note: The mark of a Roman knight, as an iron ring was of a slave.]

L To Montanus. You must by this time be aware from my last letter that I just lately noticed the monument erected to Pallas, which bore the following inscription :- "To him, because of his loyal services to his patrons, the senate decreed the honourable distinctions of praetorian rank together with five million sesterces, but he was content to lake the distinctions alone." * Subsequently I thought it worthwhile to look up the actual terms of the decree, and I found it couched in such exaggerated and fulsome language as to make even that pompous inscription on the monument look modest and humble by comparison. I won't speak of the ancient worthies, like the Scipios with their titles of Africanus, Achaicus and Numantinus; but if those who lived nearer our times, to go no farther back, like Marius, Sulla and Pompeius, were rolled into one, their eulogies would still fall short of those showered upon Pallas. Well, then, am I to consider that those who decreed these extravagant praises were merely gratifying his vanity or were acting like abject slaves ? I should say the former if such a spirit were becoming to a senate, and the latter but that no one is such an abject slave as to stoop to such servilities. Are we to ascribe it then to a desire to curry favour with Pallas, or to an insane passion to get on in the world? But who is so utterly mad as to wish to get on in the world at the price of his own shame and the disgrace of his country, especially when living in a state where the only advantage of holding the most honourable position was that the holder had the privilege of taking precedence in the senate in singing the praises of Pallas? I say nothing of the fact of praetorian distinctions being offered to such a slave, for they were slaves who offered them; I say nothing of their desire that he should not only be urged, but even compelled, to wear the golden rings, ** for if a man of praetorian rank wore iron ones he would be lowering the dignity of the senate. These are trifling details which call for no remark, but what does demand notice is the fact that it was in the name of Pallas - and the senate-house has never yet been purged of the disgrace - it was in the name of Pallas, I repeat, that the senate returned thanks to Caesar for having made honourable mention to them of Pallas, and for having given them an opportunity of testifying to the good will they bore him. For what could be more honourable to the senate than that they should show that they were properly grateful to Pallas ? Then come the following words:- "That Pallas, to whom every one heartily confesses his obligations, may enjoy the rewards for his matchless industry which he has so abundantly deserved." Why, you would fancy that the bounds of the Empire had been carried forward by him, or that he had safely brought back the armies of the State. But there is more to come:- "The senate and Roman people will never obtain a more welcome opportunity of showing their generosity than now that a chance is afforded them of assisting the financial position of the most trustworthy and scrupulously honest guardian of the Imperial finances that Emperor ever had." So this was the height of the senate's ambition, this was the passionate wish of the people, this was the most welcome opportunity for showing liberality - to be able to make Pallas richer by depleting the public purse ! Now listen to what follows: - "It was the wish of the senate to pass a decree giving him five million sesterces from the treasury, and the less inclined he was to hanker after such a sum, the more assiduously did the senate implore the Father of the State to compel Pallas to accede to the senate's wishes." The one thing they did not do was to address Pallas in their official capacity and beg him to give way to the senate's wishes, and make Caesar their advocate to induce him to reconsider his insolent refusal and get him not to scorn the five millions. But scorn them he did, and, considering the handsomeness of the offer and the fact that it was made by the State, his refusal showed greater arrogance than acceptance would have done, and he took the only step open to him to show it. Yet the senate with a tone of reproachfulness lauded even this refusal with eulogies. Here are the words:- "But whereas our most excellent Emperor and parent of the State has, at the request of Pallas, desired us to erase that portion of our decree which relates to the giving of five million sesterces from the treasury to Pallas, the senate hereby bears witness that their proposal to bestow that sum upon Pallas was freely undertaken as one of the list of honours worthily bestowed for loyal and faithful service, yet, at the same time, as on no occasion does the senate think it right to run counter to the Emperor's will, so now does it defer to his wishes." Just picture to yourself Pallas interposing his veto, as it were, upon the senate's decree, setting a limit to the honours to be paid him, and refusing as too much the offer of five millions, after accepting, as though it were a lesser gift, the distinctions of praetorian rank ! Just imagine Caesar deferring to the entreaties, or rather to the imperious command of a freedman in the presence of the senate, for it is tantamount to a command when a freedman makes a request of his patron in the senate-house! Just think of the senate declaring that, in proposing to decree this five millions among the other distinctions, they acted of their own free will, and were doing no more than Pallas deserved. Fancy them declaring that they would have persevered with their determination, but for the deference due to the wishes of the emperor, which, on every conceivable occasion, ought to be law with them ! In other words, to prevent Pallas taking those five millions out of the treasury it was necessary that Pallas should be modest and the senate obsequious, and even then they would not have shown that obsequiousness if they had thought there could be an occasion on which it was lawful for them to refuse obedience. Do you think that was all? Just wait and hear what is yet to come, even worse than what went before: - "And whereas it is to the public interest that the benignity of the Emperor, which is ever ready to lavish praises and rewards on those who deserve them, should be published as widely as possible, and especially in those places where persons entrusted with the affairs of state may be incited to follow such an excellent example, and where the well-proved loyally and virtue of Pallas may stir up others to honourable rivalry, it is hereby decreed that the Emperor's speech delivered in full meeting of the senate on 23rd January last, and the decrees of the senate passed on that occasion, shall be engraved on a brazen tablet, and the tablet itself be set up near the statue of the divine Julius Caesar in full armour." So it was not enough that the senate-house should be witness of such scandalous proceedings; no, a much more frequented site was chosen, where the disgraceful inscription could be read by those of our own and later generations. It was further resolved that all the honours that had been heaped upon this fastidious ex-slave should be engraved upon the tablet, both those which he had declined and those which he had accepted, as far as those who decreed them had it in their power to confer them. The praetorian distinctions of Pallas were chiselled and cut upon a memorial that will last for ages, as though they were ancient treaties or hallowed laws. Such was the - what shall I say? I am at a loss for a word - of the Emperor, of the senate, and of Pallas himself, as though they wished to be pilloried before the eyes of all men, Pallas as a monument of insolence, Caesar of complaisance, and the senate of servility. Nor did they feel a sense of shame in trying to veil their baseness by justifying it, by putting forward such an amazing and wonderful pretext as that others, when they saw the rewards heaped upon Pallas, might be stirred up to an honourable rivalry. So cheap were the honours they bestowed - even those which Pallas did not scorn to accept. Yet there were found men of honourable extraction who strove to attain distinctions which they saw bestowed on a freedman and promised to slaves ! How happy I am that my life did not fall in those evil times, which make me blush for shame as though I had lived in them ! I have not the least doubt that they affect you as they do me. I know how sensitive and honourable your disposition is, and that you will have no difficulty therefore in thinking my resentment to be under rather than over the mark, although in some passages perhaps I have let my indignation run away with me further than I ought to have done in a letter. Farewell. (*) See letter vii. 29. (**) The mark of a Roman knight, as an iron ring was of a slave.

C. PLINIUS MONTANO SUO S. Cognovisse iam ex epistula mea debes, adnotasse me nuper monumentum Pallantis sub hac inscriptione: 'Huic senatus ob fidem pietatemque erga patronos ornamenta praetoria decrevit et sestertium centies quinquagies, cuius honore contentus fuit.' Postea mihi visum est pretium operae ipsum senatus consultum quaerere. Inveni tam copiosum et effusum, ut ille superbissimus titulus modicus atque etiam demissus videretur. Conferant se misceantque, non dico illi veteres, Africani Achaici Numantini, sed hi proximi Marii Sullae Pompei — nolo progredi longius -: infra Pallantis laudes iacebunt. Urbanos qui illa censuerunt putem an miseros? Dicerem urbanos, si senatum deceret urbanitas; miseros, sed nemo tam miser est ut illa cogatur. Ambitio ergo et procedendi libido? Sed quis adeo demens, ut per suum, per publicum dedecus procedere velit in ea civitate, in qua hic esset usus florentissimae dignitatis, ut primus in senatu laudare Pallantem posset? Mitto quod Pallanti servo praetoria ornamenta offeruntur — quippe offeruntur a servis -, mitto quod censent non exhortandum modo verum etiam compellendum ad usum aureorum anulorum; erat enim contra maiestatem senatus, si ferreis praetorius uteretur. Levia haec et transeunda, illa memoranda quod nomine Pallantis senatus — nec expiata postea curia est -, Pallantis nomine senatus gratias agit Caesari, quod et ipse cum summo honore mentionem eius prosecutus esset et senatui facultatem fecisset testandi erga eum benevolentiam suam. Quid enim senatui pulchrius, quam ut erga Pallantem satis gratus videretur? Additur: 'Ut Pallas, cui se omnes pro virili parte obligatos fatentur, singularis fidei singularis industriae fructum meritissimo ferat'. Prolatos imperii fines, redditos exercitus rei publicae credas. Astruitur his: 'Cum senatui populoque Romano liberalitatis gratior repraesentari nulla materia posset, quam si abstinentissimi fidelissimique custodis principalium opum facultates adiuvare contigisset'. Hoc tunc votum senatus, hoc praecipuum gaudium populi, haec liberalitatis materia gratissima, si Pallantis facultates adiuvare publicarum opum egestione contingeret. Iam quae sequuntur? Voluisse quidem senatum censere dandum ex aerario sestertium centies quinquagies et quanto ab eius modi cupiditatibus remotior eius animus esset, tanto impensius petere a publico parente, ut eum compelleret ad cedendum senatui. Id vero deerat, ut cum Pallante auctoritate publica ageretur, Pallas rogaretur ut senatui cederet, ut illi superbissimae abstinentiae Caesar ipse patronus, ipse advocaretur, ne sestertium centies quinquagies sperneret. Sprevit, quod solum potuit tantis opibus publice oblatis arrogantius facere, quam si accepisset. Senatus tamen id quoque similis querenti laudibus tulit, his quidem verbis: sed cum princeps optimus parensque publicus rogatus a Pallante eam partem sententiae, quae pertinebat ad dandum ei ex aerario sestertium centies quinquagies, remitti voluisset, testari senatum, et se libenter ac merito hanc summam inter reliquos honores ob fidem diligentiamque Pallanti decernere coepisse, voluntati tamen principis sui, cui in nulla re fas putaret repugnare, in hac quoque re obsequi. Imaginare Pallantem velut intercedentem senatus consulto moderantemque honores suos et sestertium centies quinquagies ut nimium recusantem, cum praetoria ornamenta tamquam minus recepisset; imaginare Caesarem liberti precibus vel potius imperio coram senatu obtemperantem — imperat enim libertus patrono, quem in senatu rogat -; imaginare senatum usquequaque testantem merito libenterque se hanc summam inter reliquos honores Pallanti coepisse decernere et perseveraturum fuisse, nisi obsequeretur principis voluntati, cui non esset fas in ulla re repugnare. Ita ne sestertium centies quinquagies Pallas ex aerario ferret, verecundia ipsius obsequio senatus opus fuit in hoc praecipue non obsecuturi, si in ulla re putasset fas esse non obsequi. Finem existimas? Mane dum et maiora accipe: 'Utique, cum sit utile principis benignitatem promptissimam ad laudem praemiaque merentium illustrari ubique et maxime iis locis, quibus incitari ad imitationem praepositi rerum eius curae possent, et Pallantis spectatissima fides atque innocentia exemplo provocare studium tam honestae aemulationis posset, ea quae X. kal. Februarias quae proximae fuissent in amplissimo ordine optimus princeps recitasset senatusque consulta de iis rebus facta in aere inciderentur, idque aes figeretur ad statuam loricatam divi Iulii'. Parum visum tantorum dedecorum esse curiam testem: delectus est celeberrimus locus, in quo legenda praesentibus, legenda futuris proderentur. Placuit aere signari omnes honores fastidiosissimi mancipii, quosque repudiasset quosque quantum ad decernentes pertinet gessit. Incisa et insculpta sunt publicis aeternisque monumentis praetoria ornamenta Pallantis, sic quasi foedera antiqua, sic quasi sacrae leges. Tanta principis, tanta senatus, tanta Pallantis ipsius — quid dicam nescio, ut vellent in oculis omnium figi Pallas insolentiam suam, patientiam Caesar, humilitatem senatus. Nec puduit rationem turpitudini obtendere, egregiam quidem pulchramque rationem, ut exemplo Pallantis praemiorum ad studium aemulationis ceteri provocarentur. Ea honorum vilitas erat, illorum etiam quos Pallas non dedignabatur. Inveniebantur tamen honesto loco nati, qui peterent cuperentque quod dari liberto promitti servis videbant. Quam iuvat quod in tempora illa non incidi, quorum sic me tamquam illis vixerim pudet! Non dubito similiter affici te. Scio quam sit tibi vivus et ingenuus animus: ideo facilius est ut me; quamquam indignationem quibusdam in locis fortasse ultra epistulae modum extulerim, parum doluisse quam nimis credas. Vale.