|
|
Letters
Contents:
Show Summary
Hide Summary
General SummaryPLINY (about 61–113 A. D.), called the Younger, to distinguish him from his famous uncle, the Elder Pliny, was a Roman gentleman fitted by birth and education for a brilliant public career. He filled many offices of state, traveled extensively, knew everybody worth knowing, and lived a happy, useful life, surrounded by his books and his friends. Of his letters more than three hundred have been preserved. They do not rise to a very high level as literature; Pliny’s letters seem stilted and artificial when compared with the animated correspondence of Cicero. But there are few works by ancient authors which make pleasanter reading. Moreover, they afford us an attractive picture of Roman society during the most interesting period of the Early Empire.
105. A Visit to Spurinna2
I don’t think I ever spent a more delightful time than during my recent visit at Spurinna’s house. Indeed, I enjoyed myself
so much that, if it is my fortune to grow old, there is no one more than Spurinna whom I should prefer to take as my model in old age, as there is nothing more methodical than that time of life. Personally, I like to see men map out their lives with the regularity of the fixed courses of the stars, and especially old men. While one is young, a little disorder and rush, so to speak, is not unbecoming. But for old folks, whose days of exertion are past and in whom personal ambition is disgraceful, a placid and well-ordered life is highly suitable. That is the principle upon which Spurinna acts most religiously. Even trifles, or what would be trifles were they not of daily occurrence, he goes through in a fixed and regular order.
In the morning he keeps his couch; at the second hour he calls for his shoes and walks three miles, exercising mind as well as body. If he has friends with him, the time is passed in conversation on the noblest of themes, otherwise a book is read aloud, and sometimes this is done even when his friends are present, but never in such a way as to bore them. . . . Then he sits down, and there is more reading aloud or more conversation. Afterwards he enters his carriage, taking with him either his wife or one of his friends. . . . After riding seven miles he walks another mile, then he again resumes his seat or betakes himself to his room and his pen. For he composes, both in Latin and Greek, the most scholarly poems. . . . When he is told that the bathing hour has come — which is the ninth hour in winter and the eighth in summer — he takes a walk naked in the sun, if there is no wind. Then he plays at ball for a long spell, throwing himself heartily into the game, for it is by means of this kind of exercise that he battles with old age. After his bath he lies down and waits a short time before taking food, meanwhile listening to the reading of some light and pleasant book. All this time his friends are at perfect liberty to imitate his example or do anything else they prefer. Then dinner is served, the table being as bright as it is modest, and the silver plain and old-fashioned. . . . The dinner is often relieved by actors of comedy, so that the pleasures of the table may have a
seasoning of letters. Even in the summer the meal lasts well into the night, but no one finds it long, for it is kept up with such good humor and charm.
The consequence of this mode of living is that, though Spurinna has passed his seventy-seventh year, his hearing and eyesight are as good as ever, his body is still active and alert, and the only symptom of his age is his wisdom. This is the sort of life that I have vowed and determined to forestall, and I shall enter upon it with zest as soon as my age justifies me in beating a retreat. . . .
2 Pliny, iii, 1.
Contents:
Chicago: "A Visit to Spurinna," Letters in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 242–243. Original Sources, accessed September 15, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8TFIV6FVJMZX2IV.
MLA: . "A Visit to Spurinna." Letters, Vol. iii, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, pp. 242–243. Original Sources. 15 Sep. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8TFIV6FVJMZX2IV.
Harvard: , 'A Visit to Spurinna' in Letters. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.242–243. Original Sources, retrieved 15 September 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8TFIV6FVJMZX2IV.
|