Page images
PDF
EPUB

I

I

opto ut existimes constare rationem, cum omnia facta dicta

que mea probare sanctissimis moribus tuis cupiam.

me a senatu petierunt.' The senate then passed a decree, if it consented, that this patronus should be assigned, if he was willing to act. But the form of sortitio was still observed. Hence the words

used in this letter. Cf. Ep. v. 20, I, ' quem nuper adversus Bassum advocatum et postularant et acceperant ?'

tam

moderatae voluntati; with

reference to the wording 'ut pateremur,'

etc.

§ 3. constare rationem; that my reasons were well grounded. Professor Mayor on iii 18, 10, points out that it was originally a mercantile phrase. He cites among other passages, i 5, 16; ii 4, 4; and Panegyr. § 38.

sanctissimis. See supra on Ep. i I.

III B [XXI]

TRAIANUS PLINIO S.

Quas

Et civis et senatoris boni partibus functus es obsequium amplissimi ordinis, quod iustissime exigebat, praestando. partes inpleturum te secundum susceptam fidem confido.

In obeying the senate you have discharged the duty of a good citizen and a good senator. I am confident that you

will perform loyally what you have undertaken.

IIII [III]

Petit latum clavum amico

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Indulgentia tua, imperator optime, quam plenissimam ex, perior, hortatur me ut audeam tibi etiam pro amicis obligari ; inter quos sibi vel praecipuum locum vindicat Voconius Roma

Of

§ I. I am emboldened by your kindness to me to ask favours for my friends. these none has a greater claim on me than my comrade and fellow-student Voconius Romanus. §2. I had begged your deified father to admit him into the senate, but his mother had not completed a deed of gift which she had promised, and so the favour is still to grant. § 3-4. These preliminaries have now been arranged, and I venture to appeal to you for my friend, who has cultivated tastes, the entire confidence of his own family, as well as hereditary éclat and considerable wealth. § 5-6. I hope you will consider my interest in him to be an additional recommendation, and that you will confer another distinction on me by honouring my friend.

The letter was evidently written shortly after the death of Nerva, and so probably in 98.

§1. quam plenissimam experior. Cf. Ep. 51, 2, and 94, 3.

Voconius Romanus. Mommsen gives his full title, C. Licinius Voconius Romanus, from C. I. L. ii 3866. Pliny writes to him i 5, iii 13, and probably ii 1, vi 15, vi 33, viii 8, ix 7, ix 28. In ii 13 Pliny says that his father was ' in equestri gradu,' that his mother was of a noble family; that he was adopted by his stepfather; that he was ' eruditum in causis agendis,' and 'epistulas scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas.' According to Mommsen's reading of the passage, he was 'flamen Hispaniae citerioris':

: a condiscipulus and contubernalis of Pliny, who obtained for him from Nerva the ius trium liberorum, and in ii 13 asks for some appointment for him from Neratius Priscus legate of Pannonia.

condiscipulus et contubernalis

nus, ab ineunte aetate condiscipulus et contubernalis meus. Quibus ex causis et a divo patre tuo petieram ut illum in am- 2

meus. Cf. ii 13, 'Hunc ego, cum simul studeremus, arte familiariterque dilexi: ille meus in urbe, ille in secessu contubernalis, cum hoc seria, cum hoc iocos miscui.'

ut illum in amplissimum ordinem promoveret. Under the republic there were two means of entering the senate, (1) by the lectio of the censors; (2) by the tenure of the necessary offices, such as the quaestorship, etc. Iulius Caesar had

made use of a third means, viz. his own direct nomination, as dictator, and so had filled the senate with Gauls and others, who, it was mockingly said, would have to be shown the way to the senate house. Augustus renounced this right of direct nomination by the princeps. Under him entry into the senate and the various grades of senatorial dignity were gained by passing through the qualifying offices, the quaestorship, the tribunate or aedileship, the praetorship, and the consulship; and the only influence so far exercised by the emperor was by means of his recommendation of the candidati Caesaris, by which a certain number of magistracies, and thus indirectly of admissions to the senate, was virtually in his hands. He was, however, strictly limited by the three necessary qualifications for senatorial rank—(1) free birth, (2) a census of 1,200,000 sesterces, Suet. Aug. 41, 'senatorum censum ampliavit ac pro octingentorum millium summa duodecies sestertio taxavit,' and Dio Cass. 55, 13; (3) the attainment of the twenty-fifth year, Dio Cass. 52, 20; Tac. Ann. xv 28. While Augustus, however, as princeps, had a very limited power of appointing to the senate, by the possession of the censoria potestas, granted for certain periods and renewed, he could by what was now called 'adlectio' exceed the nominal number of the senate by fresh appointments; Orelli 3146, 'a Tiberio Claudio Caesare Augusto Germanico censore adlecto in senatum,' and Henzen 6005. But by means of the adlectio the emperor could do more than merely admit to the senate; he could promote his nominee at once to one of the higher grades of senatorial rank, although he had not held the offices entitling to the lower ones; see note on decuriones, Ep. 8. Thus Orelli 3559, 'adlecto inter praetorios a divis Vespasiano et Tito censoribus'; and Pliny, 14, 5, 'Min

ucius Macrinus equestris ordinis princeps. adlectus a divo Vespasiano inter praetorios'; also Orelli 1170. So too he could promote a senator from a lower to a higher class; Henzen, 6461. Although Augustus had limited the senate to those living in Italy (Dio Cass. 52, 20), later emperors admitted many from the provinces; Tac. Ann. iii 55, 'simul novi homines e municipiis et coloniis et etiam provinciis in senatum crebro adsumpti domesticam parsimoniam intulerunt'; especially Claudius, Tac. Ann. xi 23-25; and Vespasian, Suet. Vesp. 9. In all these cases, however, up to the time of Domitian it was not as princeps, but as censor, that the emperors made these appointments; and no adlectio on the part of any of those emperors is recorded who did not have the censorial power. But Domitian in 84 assumed the censorship for life; Dio Cass. 67, 4, ‘τιμητής διὰ βίου πρῶτος δὴ καὶ μόνος τῶν ἰδιωτῶν καὶ αὐτοκρατόρων ἐχειροτονήθη ̓; and with it the right of appointing to the senate at any time without restriction. Nerva also, and Trajan, and the later emperors, although they did not retain the perpetual censorship, still retained an unlimited power with regard to senatorial nomination without it. It is of this period that Dio Cass. says (53, 17),

καὶ τοὺς μὲν καταλέγουσι καὶ εἰς τὴν ἱππάδα καὶ ἐἰς τὸ βουλευτικόν, τοὺς δὲ καὶ ȧπaλeípovσw.' So Wilmann, 2243, 'huic divos Hadrianus latum clavum cum quaestura optulit,' Henzen, 5970, and 5317; Plin. Ep. ii 9, 'Ego Sexto latum clavum a Caesare nostro. impetravi.' In the case of impoverished senators it was not unusual for the emperor to make up the requisite census; Tac. Ann. ii 48, xii 52; Suet. Aug. 41'; Tib. 47; Vespas. 17; Dio Cass. 52, 19, and 54, 17.

§ 2. liberalitatem sestertii quadragiens. The largeness of the sum 40,000,000 sesterces, if we read 'quadringentiens' with Aldus, has always been a difficulty, to meet which Gronovius conjectured 'sestertii quater decies,' and Gesner CCCC HS., or 400,000 sesterces. The Bodleian copy (B.), I think, solves this difficulty by reading 'quadragiens.' 'Quadringentiens,' it is true, is in the margin also in the scribe's hand, but deleted. This reading is confirmed by a citation of the passage in Budaeus, De

plissimum ordinem promoveret. Sed hoc votum meum bonitati tuae reservatum est, quia mater Romani liberalitatem sestertii quadragiens, quod conferre se filio codicillis ad patrem tuum scriptis professa fuerat, nondum satis legitime peregerat ; quod 3 postea fecit admonita a nobis. Nam et fundos emancipavit et

2 quadragiens, B. and Budaeus.
quadringentiens, Ald.

Asse., bk. iii, who also has 'quadragiens.' On the relation of Budaeus to the Codex Parisiensis, see Introduction, p. 67. It is not necessary to suppose that the money was given to make up the senatorial census of 1,200,000 HS. A provincial with only the minimum census, unless his other claims had been overpowering, would probably have had little chance of receiving the honour. Voconius had already received the inheritance of his father, and Pliny specially recommends him on the ground of the 'paternarum facultatum splendor'; and the bounty of his mother was not so much a sine qua non as a splendid endowment for the promised dignity. After all the property was not extraordinarily large. The fortune of Cn. Lentulus, the augur, and Nero's freedman Narcissus, was ten times as large. As Mommsen says, Rom. Gesch. v 68, no places enjoyed greater facilities for trade than the towns on the east coast of Spain; and Saguntum, apparently the native town of Voconius (C. I. L. ii 3866 and 3865a), not far from the mouth of the navigable river Pallantias, had long been rich and prosperous.

codicillis. Here in its ordinary sense of a letter or petition; cf. Tac. Ann. iv 39, 'componit ad Caesarem codicillos'; Suet. Tib. 51; Claud. 5, etc. Sometimes it means a diploma, or cabinet order of the emperor, Suet. Tib. 22, 'hunc tribunus militum custos appositus occidit, lectis codicillis, quibus ut id faceret, jubebatur'; also id. Calig. 18, 'sed et senatori ob eandem causam codicillos, quibus praetorem eum extra ordinem designabat.' As a legal term it was a short addition to a will already made; cf. Plin. Ep. ii 16, 1, and Tac. Ann. 15, 64.

§ 3. fundos emancipavit. The 'mancipatio' was the old ceremonial sale 'per aes et libram.' In it, owing to the non-existence of documentary forms, a number of symbolical acts had to be performed, the most important being the traditio or actual delivery of the thing sold or its symbol. Mancipatio could

2 quater decies, Gronovius.
CCCC HS., Gesner.

only take place between citizens, and in
regard to 'res mancipi,' of which land
and slaves were the most important.
Besides the vendor ('qui mancipio dat ')
and the purchaser (qui mancipio ac-
cipit'), five witnesses were required and
a libripens with the scales; see Gaius,
i 119, and Maine, Ancient Law, p. 278.
In later times the form of mancipatio
was observed as a 'venditio imaginaria'
in the cases (1) of making a 'testamentum
per aes et libram,' see Maine, p. 217;
(2) of emancipating a son from the
patria potestas; and (3) of making a
donatio or liberalitas to any one con-
sisting of things, included under 'res
mancipi.' So in the present instance the
fundi were made over to Voconius by his
mother by means of a fictitious sale with
all its formalities, 'quae in emancipatione
inplenda solent exigi.' He would have
to place a sesterce in the scales held by
the libripens, and say 'hanc ego rem
ex iure Quiritium meam esse aio, eaque
mihi empta est hoc aere aeneaque libra.'
In this sense the phrase 'nummo uno
addicere' is used, because the buyer put
down a sesterce, 'dicis causa,' i.e. for
form's sake; cf. Hor. Sat. ii 5, 106-8,
'si quis Forte coheredum senior male
tussiet, huic tu Dic, ex parte tua seu fundi
sive domus sit Emptor, gaudentem nummo
te addicere.' Cic. Rab. Post. 17, 45,
'ecquis est ex tanto populo qui bona C.
Rabirii Postumi nummo sestertio sibi ad-
dici velit?' Suet. Caes. 50, 'cui bello civili
super alias donationes amplissima praedia
ex auctionibus hastae nummo addixit.'
Orelli, 4358, D. M. M. Herenni Proti.
V. A. xxii. M. ii. D. vi. fecerunt parentes
M. Herennius Agricola et Herennia
Lacena filio: chirographum: ollaria n. iiii,
cineraria n. liii intrantibus parte laevaque
sunt in monumento T. Flavi Artemidori
quod est via Salaria in agro Volusi Basil-
ides ientibus ab urbe parte sinistra dona-
tionis causa mancipio accepit M. Heren-
nius Agricola de T. Flavio Artemidoro
HS. n. I. libripende M. Herennio
Iusto"; also Nos. 4421 and 4425.

cetera quae in emancipatione inplenda solent exigi consummavit. Cum sit ergo finitum quod spes nostras morabatur, 4 non sine magna fiducia subsigno apud te fidem pro moribus Romani mei, quos et liberalia studia exornant et eximia pietas, qua hanc ipsam matris liberalitatem et statim patris hereditatem et adoptionem a vitrico meruit. Auget haec et natalium 5 et paternarum facultatum splendor; quibus singulis multum commendationis accessurum etiam ex meis precibus indulgentiae tuae credo. Rogo ergo, domine, ut me exoptatissimae 6

3 subsigno apud te, Ald.2
subsigno. Adit te, Ald.1

subsigno. Adverte, B.
subsigno. Auget, Cat.

5 patriis, Ald.

I

84. subsigno apud te fidem. pledge my good name with you; cf. Ep. iii 1, 12, idque iam nunc apud te subsigno.' Apud te is the reading of the second Aldine edition. The first edition had 'adit te' after a full stop. B. has the unintelligible reading 'Adverte fidem.' liberalia studia. Cf. ii 13, 6 and 7, where Pliny says of Voconius, 'Mira in sermone, mira etiam in ore ipso vultuque suavitas. Ad hoc ingenium excelsum, subtile, dulce, facile, eruditum in causis agendis.' In vi 33 he sends him a speech for criticism and revision.

He may possibly be the Voconius of whom Appuleius (Apol. i p. 95, ed. Lugd. 1604) relates Divus Hadrianus cum Voconii amici sui poetae tumulum versibus veneraretur ita scripsit-lascivus versu, mente pudicus erat'; Pauly, Real Encyclop. vol. vii p. 2722.

The

statim patris hereditatem. greatest honour which a father could show to a son was to make him his sole heir. Cf. Cic. pro Quint. iv, 'moritur in Gallia Quintius, et moritur repen

[ocr errors]

tino; heredem testamento reliquit hunc P. Quintium, ut, ad quem summus moeror morte sua veniebat, ad eundem summus honos quoque perveniret.' Testamentary dispositions were looked upon as the 'suprema iudicia' of the deceased. Suet. Aug. 66, amicorum tamen suprema iudicia morosissime pensitavit.' So on the other hand for a son to refuse the hereditas was most dishonourable; see Cic. Phil. ii 16, 'Quamquam hoc maxime admiratus sum mentionem te hereditatum ausum esse facere, cum ipse hereditatem patris non adisses.'

adoptionem a vitrico. Cf. ii 13, 4, 'clarior vitricus, immo pater alius: nam huic quoque nomini pietate succes

sit.' The double gentile name Licinius and Voconius points to the fact of the adoption, the former being that of the adoptive father. See Mommsen, Hermes, iii, on adoption and change of names among the Romans.

§ 5. natalium, pedigree; cf. iii 20, 6, 'Non numquam candidatus aut natales competitoris aut annos aut etiam mores arguebat'; and vi 23, 3, 'Quod si cui, praestare Rusoni meo debeo, vel propter natales ipsius, vel propter eximiam mei caritatem'; and Juv. viii 231, Quid, Catalina, tuis natalibus atque Cethegi Inveniet quisquam sublimius?' Cf. also infra Ep. 12 and 72. Professor Mayor also cites Tac. Hist. iv 15; Ann. xi 21. Though the father of Voconius was only of equestrian rank, the importance of the family in Hispania Citerior is evidenced by the two Saguntine inscrip., and also by Pliny's words in ii 13, 4.

paternarum facultatum splendor. See supra.

exoptatissimae mihi gratulationis. 'A joy which I so exceedingly covet.' Cf. Cic. pro Mur. 5, 'hic parenti suo solatio in laboribus, gratulationi in victoria fuit.'

§ 6. honestis, ut spero, adfectibus meis, to what I hope is an honourable affection. For the plural used in this sense, cf. Juv. xii 10, 'Si res ampla domi similisque adfectibus esset,' on which passage Professor Mayor cites Plin. Ep. ii 1, 8, ille mihi tutor relictus adfectum parentis exhibuit'; iv 19, 1; viii II, 1; and ix 13, 16; to which add Panegyr. 79, 'temptabitque adfectus nostros, ut solet, cohibere, nec poterit,' where I think Lewis and Short are wrong in explaining it as 'low or ignoble passion.'

I

mihi gratulationis conpotem facias et honestis, ut spero, adfectibus meis praestes ut non in me tantum verum et in amico gloriari iudiciis tuis possim.

iudiciis tuis. For iudicia in the sense of 'recognition of a person's merits,' see Tac. Ann. iv 39, (Seianus) benevolentia patris Augusti, et mox plurimis Tiberii iudiciis ita insuevisse'; Cic. Ros. Am. 37, 108, de quo nomine vos tanta et tam praeclara iudicia fecistis.' Cic.

eum

ad Fam. x 1, 4, 'quicquid in
iudicii officiique contuleris,' and xiii 46,
'ut . . . hominem probatum existimares
qui patroni iudicio ornatus esset'; also
Plin. Ep. iv 8, 1, ‘gravissimi Principis
iudicium.'

V [IIII]

Civitatem Romanam Harpocrati iatraliptae suo petit

C. PLINIUS TRAIANO IMPERATORI

Proximo anno, domine, gravissima valitudine usque ad periculum vitae vexatus, iatralipten adsumpsi; cuius sollicitudini et studio tuae tantum indulgentiae beneficio referre gratiam 2 parem possum. Quare rogo des ei civitatem Romanam.

§ 1. During my dangerous illness of last year I called in an iatraliptes whom I can only adequately reward with your help. § 2. I therefore beg that you will confer on him the 'civitas.' At present he is a peregrinus, having been emancipated by his patrona Thermuthis now dead. I also beg you to grant the 'ius Quiritium' to two freed women of Antonia Maximilla, at whose request I make this petition.

From Ep. 8, 3, infra, it appears that Pliny's illness was either simultaneous with or only just before the fatal illness of Nerva; i.e. either at the end of 97 or the beginning of 98. This letter is probably written therefore in 99; or it may be 98, as Keil decides.

§ 1. gravissima valitudine; see Ep. 8, 3, 'sed primum mea deinde patris tui valitudine.'

iatralipten, a physician standing half way between the γυμναστής and the ιατρός, whose treatment depended on diet, bodily exercise, and systematic rubbing and anointing of the body. The elder Pliny (Nat. Hist. 29, 2) assigns the invention of the treatment to Prodicus of Selymbria 'Nec fuit postea quaestus modus, quoniam Prodicus Selymbriae natus . . . instituens quam vocant Iatralipticen reunctoribus quoque medicorum ac mediastinis vectigal invenit.' Cf. Plato, de Repub. 406 A.C. who gives the name as Herodicus. Cf. Celsus, i

Est

1. Some members of this profession made the training of gladiators a speciality, Juv. iii 76; others made a more dishonourable use of their professional attendance, Juv. vi 422. The gymnasium, without which no villa was complete (Ep. ii 17, 7), was principally designed for purposes of iatraliptice. The treatment was the subject of conversation at a banquet given by Apicius, at which Isidorus one of its votaries was present, hale and hearty in his ninety-first year, Aelian, ed. Hercher, ii 240, quoted by Friedländer, vol. ii p. 469; Petron, c. 28.

[ocr errors]

gratiam parem: an adequate thankoffering. Cf. Cic. pro Sull. 16, 47. magno meo beneficio affecti cumulatissime mihi gratiam rettulerunt,' and Phil. iii 15, 39.

§ 2. civitatem Romanam. Under the republic the political rights involved in the civitas had been (1) ius suffragii (2) ius honorum (3) ius provocationis. Of those under the empire the last alone remained absolute. The ius suff. had lost all meanimg, while the ius honorum, as far at least as the senatorial " cursus honorum' was concerned, was subject to certain modifications. Thus the Roman citizens in Gaul were definitely excluded from the senate by Augustus, Tac. Ann. xi 23. By Claudius and other later emperors indeed they were admitted, but Trajan by enacting that all provincial

« PreviousContinue »