Letter 9004: I should be afraid of your thinking the speech which you will receive with this letter to be of undue length, were...

Pliny the YoungerMacrinus|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger
barbarian invasion

To Macrinus.

I should be afraid of your thinking the speech which you will receive with this letter to be of undue length, were it not one of those which seem to be constantly beginning afresh and coming to new terminations. For each accusation may be considered a fresh subject. So, wherever you begin and wherever you leave off, you will be able to take up the thread of what follows as though you were commencing anew and it all hung together ; and, though the work as a whole may seem very long, its separate parts are very short. Farewell.

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

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