Letter 90
Pliny the Younger→Trajan|c. 112 AD|pliny younger
To Trajan.
The people of Sinope, Sir, are short of a proper water-supply, though a good and plentiful supply might be brought from a distance of about sixteen miles. However, there is a dangerously soft piece of ground a little more than a mile from the source, which I have in the meanwhile ordered to be surveyed, to see whether it could bear the weight of an aqueduct. If we undertake to build the funds will not be lacking, if you, Sir, grant permission to this healthy and pleasantly placed but very thirsty colony to begin the work.
L To Trajan.
The people of Sinope, Sir, are short of a proper water-supply, though a good and plentiful supply might be brought from a distance of about sixteen miles. However, there is a dangerously soft piece of ground a little more than a mile from the source, which I have in the meanwhile ordered to be surveyed, to see whether it could bear the weight of an aqueduct. If we undertake to build the funds will not be lacking, if you, Sir, grant permission to this healthy and pleasantly placed but very thirsty colony to begin the work.
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To Trajan.
The people of Sinope, Sir, are short of a proper water-supply, though a good and plentiful supply might be brought from a distance of about sixteen miles. However, there is a dangerously soft piece of ground a little more than a mile from the source, which I have in the meanwhile ordered to be surveyed, to see whether it could bear the weight of an aqueduct. If we undertake to build the funds will not be lacking, if you, Sir, grant permission to this healthy and pleasantly placed but very thirsty colony to begin the work.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.