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quod fossa facienda est incidunt rivi; qui si diligenter colligantur, augebunt illud quod lacus dederit. Enimvero si placeat fossam 4 longius ducere et artius pressam mari aequare nec in flumen sed in ipsum mare emittere, repercussus maris servabit et reprimet, quidquid e lacu veniet. Quorum si nihil nobis loci natura praestaret, expeditum tamen erat cataractis aquae cursum temperare. Verum et haec et alia multo sagacius conquiret explorabitque 5 librator, quem plane, domine, debes mittere, ut polliceris. Est enim res digna et magnitudine tua et cura. Ego interim Calpurnio Macro, clarissimo viro, auctore te, scripsi ut libratorem quam maxime idoneum mitteret.

I fienda, Avant.

would be diverting the river from one channel to another.

quod... effundet, by making quod subject to effundet, Pliny virtually identifies the river with his projected canal. We should have expected quo intercluso et quo volumus averso,. . . tantum aquae... effundetur. Pliny, however, is so anxious to show that as far as the drain of water is concerned, there will be no difference caused, that he speaks of his canal as merely the river in a new bed.

tantum aquae, only just as much

water.

per id spatium per quod f. f. est incidunt rivi. The country south of Nicomedeia, as far as the hills which bound Nicaea to the north, is low-lying, and drained by numerous rills; 'incidunt' is rather used by Pliny in anticipation of the canal not yet made. We should have expected 'decidunt.'

augebunt illud quod lacus dederit, will be an addition to the water supplied by the lake, and so by implication will reduce the amount taken from the lake.

§ 4. fossam... artius pressam, cut more narrowly, i.e. to minimise the quantity of water contained by its greater length. Cf. Verg. Aen. x 296, 'sulcum premere,' Front. Strat. I, 5, 'fossam transversam

inter montes pressit.' Tac. Ann. xv 42, 'navigabilem fossam usque ad ostia Tiberina depressuros.'

mari aequare, to bring down to the level of the sea.

repercussus, the counter pressure.

si nihil praestaret. expeditum erat. See Roby Lat. Gram. § 1566, 'with apodosis in some part of infinite verb... the verb on which the inf. depends, or the auxiliary verb with the gerundive or participle is usually put in the indic. . . . and conveys a positive expression of duty, possibility, right, etc.' and exx. cited, cf. Liv. xlii 34, 'si mihi nec stipendia omnia emerito essent, necdum aetas vacationem daret, tamen aequum erat me dimitti.'

cataractis, used in the sense of 'watersluices'; only here and in one passage of Rutilius Namatianus.'

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LXII [LXX]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

Manifestum est, mi Secunde carissime, nec prudentiam nec diligentiam tibi defuisse circa

It is clear, my dear Pliny, that you are doing all that prudence and diligence can

istum lacum, cum tam multa

do to avert any danger of draining the lake away, and at the same time to

provisa habeas, per quae nec periclitetur exhauriri et magis in usus nobis futurus sit. Elige igitur id quod praecipue res ipsa suaserit. Calpurnium Macrum credo facturum ut te libratore instruat, neque provinciae istae his artificibus carent.

I habeat, Ald.

increase its usefulness. Take whatever course seems advisable. Calpurnius Macer will no doubt do his best to send you a librator, and there is no lack of such experts in the provinces adjoining

yours.

provisa habeas, see Roby, Lat. Gram. $ 1402; Caes. Bell. Gall. vii 54, 'multis iam rebus perfidiam Haeduorum perspectam habebat.' Cic. Div. ii 28, 'illud exploratum habeto.'

periclitetur exhauriri. For this postAugustan construction of periclitor cf.

2 elige, B., elice, Avant. and Ald.

Petron. 740, 'periclitabatur totam paene tragoediam evertere.'

elige. As Gesner remarks, the reading of the prima editio-elice—is here ἀπροσδιόνυσον.

provinciae istae. This may possibly refer to Upper and Lower Moesia, or it may refer to Bithynia and Pontus and the other provinces in that part of Asia Minor; in any case 'istae' means 'those near you.' Probably the former is right. 'Macer will do his best to send you one and will no doubt succeed as the Danube provinces near you, etc.

LXIII [XIII]

De tabellario regis Sauromatae

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Scripsit mihi, domine, Lycormas libertus tuus, ut, si qua legatio a Bosporo venisset urbem petitura, usque in adventum suum retineretur. Et legatio quidem, dumtaxat in eam civita

Lycormas, your freedman, has written to me that I should detain till his arrival any embassy on its way from the Bosporus to Rome. No embassy has come yet, at least not to the town in which I am at present, but a courier from King Sauromates has come, whom I have sent on with the courier who

brought Lycormas' message. By this means you will be able to learn from the despatches of Lycormas and the king's letter matters which are, perhaps, important.

libertus tuus. Cf. Ep. 27, 'Maximus libertus et procurator tuus. Lycormas was either (1) one of the procuratores of the emperor's domains, just sent from Rome, with orders to transmit this message to Pliny; or (2) he was one of the clerks of the emperor's secretary, ab epistulis; or (3) he was a freedman sent out on a special mission, as we find that Domitian sent a freedman to Agricola in Britain; Tac. Agric. 40, 'Credidere

On

plerique libertum ex secretioribus ministeriis missum ad Agricolam codicillos quibus ei Syria dabatur tulisse.' Trajan's treatment of liberti generally, see Panegyr. 88, 'scis enim praecipuum esse indicium non magni principis magnos libertos.'

a Bosporo. The Cimmerian Bosporus was the strait connecting the Euxine with the Lacus Moeotis, and formed with the river Tanais the eastern boundary of Europe. On the European side of this, the town of Panticapaeum, or Bosporus, was founded by the Milesians, which in the time of the Persian wars formed an independent state, half-Greek, half-barbarian. It continued to be governed by kings, many of whom were named Sparkotas, and Pairisides, till Pairisides III (?) in IIO B.C., handed over his kingdom, endangered by the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes, to Mithridates of Pontus. See Imhoof-Blumer, Porträt-köpfe auf Antiker Munzer Hellenischer Völker,

tem in qua ipse sum, nulla adhuc venit, sed venit tabellarius Sauromatae, quem ego, usus opportunitate quam mihi casus obtulerat, cum tabellario qui Lycormam ex itinere praecessit

I veniet, Avant. and Ald.

2 Sauromata cuius ego, Avant.

p. 36. The favourable position of the town, the excellent fisheries, and the corn-producing qualities of the neighbouring regions made the Bosporus kingdom important, and especially so to the Athenians; Strabo, vii p. 311; Demosth. in Lept. 466. After the fall of Mithridates and the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius, a period of unsettlement followed in the kingdom; and though Augustus conferred the kingdom on Polemon of Pontus, his early death and the foolish attempt of Caligula to put a child upon the throne prevented a permanent settlement till Claudius made Mithridates king, a descendant of Mithridates Eupator, and so of the family of the Achaemenidae (Tac. Ann. xii 18); and in his family it remained to the end, though the kings frequently intermarried with Thracian and Sarmatian tribes. From the time of Augustus the kings of Bosporus became and remained clients of Rome. While the other client kingdoms of Thrace, Mauretania, Cappadocia, Commagene, Arabia, one by one were incorporated with the empire, the Bosporan kingdom alone remained. Its commercial importance was great; it formed the medium of an important trade in skins, mineral wealth, salt, timber, slaves, and, above all, corn, which the barbarian tribes around brought to the Greek seaport towns to be transported into the empire. But while the towns of Olbia and Tyra, though nominally protected by Rome, were leit to their own government, and were almost helpless before the barbarians around, depending on occasional help sent from the Moesian legions, Bosporus, as more distant and more imimportant, was entrusted to a line of military kings, whose special duty it was to maintain an efficient army raised in their own territory. They were probably in a continual state of border warfare against the neighbouring Sarmatian tribes, and they had also to put down the piracy prevalent in the Euxine. In these duties the kings were helped by small permanent detachments from the Moesian legions, and by contingents from the Pontic fleet. We must not be mis

Sauromata quem ego, Ald.

Sauromatae quem ego, Schaeffer.

led by the term kingdom applied to their territory and Baoiλeús applied to themselves. The kingdom was little more than the town of Bosporus or Panticapaeum, with the addition of Theudosia on the Tauric Chersonese, and the port of Phanagoria, on the Asiatic side of the strait. The territory round was occupied by half-civilised chieftains of barbarians to whom a sort of black-mail was usually paid, and who in their turn kept off the purely barbarian tribes beyond. Nor were the kings themselves, in spite of their Persian court-ceremonial, and title οἱ βασιλεὺς βασιλέων μέγας τοῦ παντὸς BooTopov, anything more, apart from their military functions, than the burgomasters of Athens. However, the clientrelationship successfully answered its purpose. On only one occasion was a Roman army obliged to march against a king of Bosporus, and even in the disturbed times of the third century, when Tyra and Olbia were permanently lost, this client-kingdom not only survived, but, as we know from its coins, religiously supported the emperor, whom the senate of Rome officially acknowledged. Not till after the centre of the empire was shifted to Constantinople was Bosporus finally incorporated in the empire. See Momms. Rom. Gesch. v p. 286-294; Marquadt, Staatsverw, i p. 306; Tac. Ann. xii 15, 21; and ImhoofBlumer, ad loc. cit.

legatio a Bosporo. Wilmann has a funeral inscription to a legatus Phanegoritum; and to an interpres Sarmatarum, 535, ' ΗΔΥΚΟΣ ΕΥΟΔΟΥ ΠPECBEYTHC ΦΑΝΑΓΟΡΕΙΤΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΒOCIOΡΟΝ. ACΠΟΥΡΓΟΣ BIOMACON YIOC EPMHNETC CAPMATON воспоPANOC.

dumtaxat in eam civitatem. The civitas was Nicaea, as appears from Ep. 67, legato Sauromatae regis, cum sua sponte Nicaeae, ubi me invenerat, biduo substitisset.' On dumtaxat cf. on Ep. 33. In this restrictive sense of 'at least' it is frequently used by Cicero; see ad. Att. v 10, 5, 'valde me Athenae delectarunt: urbs dumtaxat et urbis ornamentum.' Suet. Tib. 66, 'non tantum virtutes cuius

mittendum putavi, ut posses ex Lycormae et ex regis epistulis pariter cognoscere quae fortasse pariter scire deberes.

I possis, Avant and Ald.

que digne prosecutus, sed vitia quoque et debita, dumtaxat modica, perpessus.'

tabellarius Sauromatae. Döring, and apparently all previous editors and translators have supposed this to mean 'a courier from the king of the Sauromatae'; a rendering no doubt countenanced by the reading of Avantius and Aldus 'tabellarius Sauromata.' The former read 'tabell. Sauromata cuius ego,' which Schaeffer has rightly emended into 'Sauromatae regis quem,' but without seeing the real meaning. In the first place, Sauromatae or Sarmatae (cf. Plin. h. n. iv 12, Sarmatae, Graecis Sauromatae) was the name given to all the tribes inhabiting the northern shores of the Euxine, and was applied to the Iazyges in the valley of the Theiss; cf. Tac. Hist. i 2; iii 24; iv 54: 'vulgato rumore a Sarmatis Dacisque Moesica ac Pannonica hiberna circumsederi.' So Plin. h. n. vi 7, 'Sarmatae . . . ipsi in multa genera divisi,' and he gives the names of a number of tribes. Accordingly there could be no rex Sarmatarum in any real sense. In the second place, even if we take the phrase to mean one of the kings of the Sarmatae, there are two difficulties in the way (1) so vague a phrase would have conveyed no information to Trajan, and (2) all intercourse with the barbarian tribes was carried on through the kings of the Bosporus, and not immediately.

Nor could any matters of importance be the subject of a 'legatio' between a barbarian tribe and the Roman emperor. In reality, Sauromates is the name of the Bosporan king. Not only did these kings intermarry with Thracian families, and so bear such names as Kotys and Rhascuporis (Tac. Ann. xii 18, etc.), but also apparently with Sarmatian families. After the close of the first century Sauromates becomes a not uncommon name among the kings of this line. We know from coins that one king of this name reigned from 92 or 93 A.D. till 124 A.D., and is therefore the Sauromates here mentioned by Pliny. See Imhoof-Blumer, p. 37, who mentions coins with the legend, 'TIBHPIOC IOVLIOC BACIAEVC CAVPOMATHC.' See also Wilm. 2689, 'Regem Ti. Iul. Sauromaten amicum imp. populi q. r. praestantissimum; C. I. Gr. 2123, βασιλέα βασιλέων μέγαν τοῦ παντὸς βοσπόρου Τιβέριον Ἰούλιον Σαυρομάτην υἱὸν βασιλέως Ρησκουπόριδος φιλοκαισαρα καὶ φιλορωμαιον εὐσεβῆ.

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tabellario qui Lycormam praecessit, i.e. the courier who brought the letter of Lycormas to Pliny.

quae fortasse pariter scire deberes, matters which perhaps you ought to learn simultaneously. That there might be important news from the king of the Bosporus about the movements of barbarian tribes we can well understand.

LXIIII [XIII]
Diploma commodasse

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Rex Sauromates scripsit mihi esse quaedam quae deberes quam maturissime scire. Qua ex causa festinationem tabellarii quem ad te cum epistulis misit diplomate adiuvi.

King Sauromates has written to me that there are certain matters which you ought to know at once. I have therefore promoted the speed of the courier whom I sent on to you by giving him a diploma for the postal service.

scripsit mihi. There were altogether three despatches from Sauromates—(1) the tabellarius whom already Pliny had sent on, and now assists with a diploma;

(2) a letter to Pliny mentioning that the first tabellarius had important news; (3) the legatus Sauromatae regis in Ep. 67.

cum epistulis. Cf. Ep. 63, 'ex regis epistulis.'

diplomate adiuvi. See note on Ep. 45. Gierig thinks that this letter should belong to the previous one. It was more likely a postscript, sent off however by a later tabellarius.

LXV [LXXI]

De adsertione ingenuorum qui servi educati sunt

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Magna, domine, et ad totam provinciam pertinens quaestio 1 est de conditione et alimentis eorum quos vocant OpeπToÚS. In qua ego auditis constitutionibus principum, quia nihil inve- 2 niebam aut proprium aut universale quod ad Bithynos referretur, consulendum te existimavi quid observari velles. Neque enim putavi posse me in eo quod auctoritatem tuam posceret exemplo esse contentum. Recitabatur autem apud me edictum 3

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§1. There is an important question, sire, and one which concerns the whole province, as to the condition and alimentation of the so-called Operтol. § 2. Among the constitutions of your predecessors I can find nothing referring to Bithynia, and therefore I have thought it best to consult you, as in a matter so important it seems hardly right to be content with precedents. § 3. Several edicts and letters are cited, of Augustus, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. These I have not sent, as the copies are not complete and of doubtful authenticity, and I felt sure that you have among your papers genuine and correct ones.

§ I. de conditione et alimentis, ¿.e. whether they were legally slaves, and whether, if not, those who had reared them could claim compensation for their bringing up.

quos vocant θρεπτούς. The word is explained in Trajan's answer, eos qui liberi nati expositi, deinde sublati a quibusdam et in servitute educati. θρεπτούς is the reading of the Aldine ed. Avantius omitted it in a lacuna, and Catanaeus read EKOETOÚs, which, however, does not fully correspond with Trajan's definition.

§ 2. constitutionibus principum. See on Ep. 58, 4.

proprium aut universale, either settling a particular case or giving a general rule. The former would be given in an epistle, the latter in an edict.

quod auctoritatem tuam posceret, which needs your authoritative decision.

4 referretur, Keil.

ferretur, Avant., feratur, Ald.

exemplum, Avant.

exemplo, with precedent, i.e. with the ordinary local custom of the province apart from an imperial rescript, which might either confirm or alter this. The reading 'exemplis' by 'mere copies of former edicts,' etc., as Gierig takes it, in no way suits the sense of the passage.

§ 3. edictum quod dicebatur divi Augusti. Pliny mentions two of his edicts relating to Bithynia, Ep. 79 and 84.

ad Asiam pertinens. I have ventured here to insert in the text a conjecture of my own. The reading of all the editions is ad Anniam pertinens, which it seems to me cannot possibly be right; for (1) an edict always concerned a class of people, and not an individual, see note on Ep. 58; and (2) even if it related to an individual, this Annia belonged to some other province not defined, and therefore would certainly not have been spoken of by her gentile name in this vague way. We know that Augustus spent some time in Asia settling the affairs of the province, and he may well have issued an edict relating to these θρεπτοί. Cf. Dio Cass. 54, 7, 'kai és τὴν ̓Ασίαν κομισθεὶς πάντα τά τε ἐκεῖ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ βιθυνίᾳ διέταξεν.

epistulae divi Vespasiani ad Lacedaemonios. Bruns Fontes, Iur. Rom. Antiq. p. 193, gives an example of such a letter, viz. 'Epistula Vespasiani ad Saborenses.' It begins 'Imp. Caes. Vespasianus Aug. pontifex maximus, tribuniciae potestatis viiii., imp. xix, consul viii, p. p. salutem dicit iiii viris et decurio

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