Letter 8007: It was not as one master to another, nor as one pupil to another, that you sent me your book - though you say it was...

To Tacitus. It was not as one master to another, nor as one pupil to another, that you sent me your book - though you say it was the latter - but it was as a master to his pupil, for you are the master and I am the pupil, and whereas you summon me back to school, I am for extending the holidays. There, could I possibly have written a more involved sentence than that? * Does it not absolutely prove that, so far from being worthy to be called your master, I do not deserve to be even called your pupil? None the less, I will put on the master's gown, and I will exercise the right of correcting your book which you have granted me, and will do so all the more freely because, in the meanwhile, I will not send you any book of mine upon which you may take your revenge. Farewell. [Note: Literally, "could I have stretched hyperbaton further ...".]

L To Tacitus. It was not as one master to another, nor as one pupil to another, that you sent me your book - though you say it was the latter - but it was as a master to his pupil, for you are the master and I am the pupil, and whereas you summon me back to school, I am for extending the holidays. There, could I possibly have written a more involved sentence than that? * Does it not absolutely prove that, so far from being worthy to be called your master, I do not deserve to be even called your pupil? None the less, I will put on the master's gown, and I will exercise the right of correcting your book which you have granted me, and will do so all the more freely because, in the meanwhile, I shall not send you any book of mine upon which you may take your revenge. Farewell. (*) Literally, "could I have stretched hyperbaton further ...".

C. PLINIUS TACITO SUO S. Neque ut magistro magister neque ut discipulo discipulus — sic enim scribis -, sed ut discipulo magister — nam tu magister, ego contra; atque adeo tu in scholam revocas, ego adhuc Saturnalia extendo — librum misisti. Num potui longius hyperbaton facere, atque hoc ipso probare eum esse me qui non modo magister tuus, sed ne discipulus quidem debeam dici? Sumam tamen personam magistri, exseramque in librum tuum ius quod dedisti, eo liberius quod nihil ex me interim missurus sum tibi in quo te ulciscaris. Vale.