Letter 8015: I have laden you heavily by sending you all these volumes at once, but I have done so, first, because you asked me...

Pliny the YoungerFaustus Junior|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger
education books

To Junior.

I have laden you heavily by sending you all these volumes at once, but I have done so, first, because you asked me to, and, secondly, because you tell me that your grape harvest is so slight that I may be quite certain that you will have time, as the saying goes, to read a book. I am getting similar reports from my own estates, and so I will have plenty of leisure to write compositions for you to read, if only I can find a place to buy paper. If the paper is rough or spongy I must either refrain from writing at all, or else, whatever I write, good or bad, I cannot help but smudge.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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