Pliny the Younger, Epistles 2.6
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, simply known as Pliny the Younger (c. 60–112 CE), was a writer and politician during Rome’s ‘high empire’, beginning his political career under Emperor Domitian and reaching consulship during Emperor Trajan’s reign (Gibson 2020, xv-xvi). He’s most popular for his eyewitness account of his adoptive uncle’s death during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, which Younger Pliny shared in a correspondence he later published in a volume of his Epistles, or Letters. He published nine volumes of literary correspondence, called his Epistles, over the last two decades of his life, edited and revised by himself, providing us with “rare glimpses of the ‘domestic’ life of the Roman elite” (ibid., 4).
Translation
Gaius Plinius says greetings to dear Avitus,
It would be a too long and unimportant story to tell how it ended up that I, not at all being a friend of his, was dining at the house of a certain person, who saw himself as an elegant and industrious man, but I saw him immediately as a foul and extravagant one. For he serves to himself and a few others the best dishes, but to the rest the cheap and meager stuff. He even assigned wine into three kinds with little flasks, not for the ability to choose, but so that it wasn’t fair to refuse. There was one kind for himself and us, another for his lesser friends—for he has his friends ranked—and another for his and our freedmen.
The man who was reclining next to me noticed this and asked if I approved. I said no. He said, “So what custom do you follow?” I replied, “I serve the same thing to everyone; for I invite them to a dinner, not to a branding, and in all aspects I treat equally those whom I have treated equally at the table and couch.” “Even the freedmen?” “Even them; for I think of them as dinner companions then, not as freedmen.” And he stated: “It must cost you a lot.” “No.” He asked, “How can that be?” “Because, of course, my freedmen don’t drink the same wine that I do, but I drink the same wine that they do.” And by Hercules, if you moderate your gluttony, it’s not difficult to share that which you yourself consume with several guests. Therefore that gluttony must be repressed, it must be, so you say, ‘brought in line’, if you wish to spare expenses, which you would be mindful of with your restraint far better than with insults to others.
Why do I say all this? So that these luxuries, under the guise of frugality, “at the table of certain men” won’t deceive “a promising young man like yourself.” It suits my affection for you, whenever any such thing occurs, for me, as an example, to forewarn what you ought to flee. Therefore remember that nothing should be more avoided than this novel affair of extravagance and cruelty; traits which are most repulsive separate and apart, yet more repulsive joined together. Goodbye.
Commentary
(alternate title: Take It From Me)
Iunius Avitus was a young senator who was a protege of Pliny and later tragically died in his late twenties “on the eve of a brilliant career” (Carlon 2016, 20). In Ep. VIII.23, Pliny writes an obituary for the man.
I, not at all being a friend of his, was dining: Roman dining was not purely a social event, but also an economic and political one. Candidates would host open convivia for their voters before it was outlawed in 64 BCE; however, Pliny in Ep. VI.19 reveals how people were still ignoring such laws (Dunbabin and Slater 2012, 455). Moreover, sportulae ‘food-money’ from within the patron-client relationship, became associated with handouts at cena and as part of convivia invitations, so the convivia guest list was complicated further with people coming for the money and being invited for their fame (456-457).
to himself and a few others the choice dishes, but to the rest the cheap and meager stuff: This complaint of “culinary stratification” was frequent in the Roman world from Martial to Juvenal to even Pliny the Elder, where he envies the time of Cato the Elder when there was no such custom (Whitton 2013, 123).
he had his friends ranked: As a patron’s number of clientes increased, some distinction became necessary. Terms like primi or secundi amici, according to Seneca, go back as far as the 130s BCE (Sherwin-White 1966, 153). Pliny himself also ‘grades’ his friends in 7.3, opposing his own critic here. freedmen: they were freed slaves but remained a part of their patron’s familia, joining his clientes; during the Imperial period, freedmen had three tiers: those with Roman citizenship, those under Latin law, and those under peregrine law (Cartledge and Heinrichs 2006).
not to a branding: Here, non ad notam has two possible connotations. The first is the metaphor nota censuria, meaning a public mark of censure; thus making the ‘branding’ a mark of disgrace (Whitton 2013, 124). The second focuses on the word nota, which could refer to a mark of quality, like the quality of wine or the grade of meat. With the earlier remark of ‘he has his friends ranked,’ I lean towards the quality reading.
drink the same wine that they do: Pliny keeps his expenses low because he downgrades his wine to the freedmen’s wine when he is hosting freedmen, so everyone drinks the same wine.
which you would be mindful of with your restraint far better than with insults to others: Pliny advises Avitus to control his expenses through his self-restraint, not through insulting others. His teachings lean philosophical here at the end, fitting with how Pliny calls himself Avitus’ formator morum “fashioner of morals” in 8.23 (Whitton 2013, 121).
Why do I say all this: Quorsus haec only translates to “why all this,” but I have supplied a dico essentially to fully construct the sentence: “Why do I say all this?” “at the table of certain men”: Here I’ve taken the exact translation for the phrase quorundam in mensa from Carlon’s commentary (Carlon 2016, 23)
“a promising young man like yourself”: Here I’ve taken the exact phrase for tibi, optimae indolis iuveni from Radice’s Loeb translation (Radice 1969, Plin. Ep. 2.6.6). While the Latin directly says “you, a young man of the best innate character,” I felt like the modern turn of phrase Radice used was an appropriate replacement.
“this novel affair:” The word societatem translates to more an “association, union” than an “affair,” but Pliny is disparaging the “union” of these two vices (extravagance and cruelty), calling it “more repulsive,” so using a word that conveys the negative connotations of their “union” felt more fitting.
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