Pliny Epistula 7.20
Commentary by Jacques Bailly

In this letter, Pliny tries to firmly tie his star to Tacitus. Sherwin-White dates the letter to 106-107 and thinks that the book mentioned here sent by Tacitus to Pliny is different from the book mentioned in Pliny Epistula 8.7.

Text from thelatinlibrary.com.


C. PLINIUS TACITO SUO S.

1 Librum tuum legi et, quam diligentissime potui, adnotavi quae commutanda, quae eximenda arbitrarer. Nam et ego verum dicere assuevi, et tu libenter audire. Neque enim ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. 2 Nunc a te librum meum cum adnotationibus tuis exspecto. O iucundas, o pulchras vices! Quam me delectat quod, si qua posteris cura nostri, usquequaque narrabitur, qua concordia simplicitate fide vixerimus! 3 Erit rarum et insigne, duos homines aetate dignitate propemodum aequales, non nullius in litteris nominis — cogor enim de te quoque parcius dicere, quia de me simul dico -, alterum alterius studia fovisse. 4 Equidem adulescentulus, cum iam tu fama gloriaque floreres, te sequi, tibi 'longo sed proximus intervallo' et esse et haberi concupiscebam. Et erant multa clarissima ingenia; sed tu mihi — ita similitudo naturae ferebat — maxime imitabilis, maxime imitandus videbaris. 5 Quo magis gaudeo, quod si quis de studiis sermo, una nominamur, quod de te loquentibus statim occurro. Nec desunt qui utrique nostrum praeferantur. 6 Sed nos, nihil interest mea quo loco, iungimur; nam mihi primus, qui a te proximus. Quin etiam in testamentis debes adnotasse: nisi quis forte alterutri nostrum amicissimus, eadem legata et quidem pariter accipimus. 7 Quae omnia huc spectant, ut invicem ardentius diligamus, cum tot vinculis nos studia mores fama, suprema denique hominum iudicia constringant. Vale.


§1-2
Pliny fawns on Tacitus. The principle that those who most deserve to be praised accept criticism best is surely empirically not true, but it sounds good and heightens Pliny's praise of Tacitus, as does the claim that Pliny tells the truth, truth which Tacitus gladly hears. The socially obligated reciprocity of reading ("I'll read yours if you'll read mine") is clearly a feature of literary society of the time: it is a frequent subject of mirth in Martial's humorous epigrams (he doesn't want to recite his poems, because he knows that then he'll have to listen to someone else's poems).

1 Librum tuum legi et, quam diligentissime potui, adnotavi quae commutanda, quae eximenda arbitrarer. Nam et ego verum dicere assuevi, et tu libenter audire. Neque enim ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. 2 Nunc a te librum meum cum adnotationibus tuis exspecto. O iucundas, o pulchras vices! Quam me delectat quod, si qua posteris cura nostri, usquequaque narrabitur, qua concordia simplicitate fide vixerimus!

librum: It is not precisely clear to which work this refers: likely Dialogues or Histories, according to Sherwin-White's commentary. | quam diligentissime: quam + superlative = "as ____ as possible." | quae commutanda, quae eximenda arbitrer: commutanda ... eximenda (sc. esse). arbitrer subjunctive in indirect question. | commutanda: the prefix com- often adds the meaning "completely" or "thoroughly" to  the verb it is prefixed to. It does  so later in this letter once again in concupiscebam. | o iucundas, o pulchras vices: accusatives of exclamation.
Sentence Structure (each indentation = one level of subordination)

quam: not a relative pronoun. | quod: also not a relative pronoun. | si qua posteris cura nostri: 1) qua: remember, after si, nisi, num, and ne, every ali- drops away. 2) posteris dative of possession dependent on cura (arma sunt mihi means "I have arms"); 3) cura (sc. fuerit); 4) the genitive pronouns nostri, vestri, sui, tui, and mei are most often objective/subjective genitives (there are, however, adjective forms that are identical in spelling but can be either genitive sg. or nominative pl.). | qua concordia simplicitate fide: asyndeton.


§3-4
Pliny hitched his star to Tacitus', because as an adulescentulus, he thought he was able to follow in Tacitus' footsteps and thought that was a most worthwhile thing to do. The relative ages of Tacitus and Pliny are not precisely known, but this passage offers vague evidence that Tacitus was older, although not by much: Tacitus was praetor in 88 and Pliny in 93, and there is not much other evidence for their relative ages.

3 Erit rarum et insigne, duos homines aetate dignitate propemodum aequales, non nullius in litteris nominis — cogor enim de te quoque parcius dicere, quia de me simul dico -, alterum alterius studia fovisse. 4 Equidem adulescentulus, cum iam tu fama gloriaque floreres, te sequi, tibi 'longo sed proximus intervallo' et esse et haberi concupiscebam. Et erant multa clarissima ingenia; sed tu mihi — ita similitudo naturae ferebat — maxime imitabilis, maxime imitandus videbaris.


erit rarum et insigne: aside from this main clause, everything else in this sentence is a longish acc. + inf. (homines ... fovisse) with a parenthetical sentence inside of it (cogor ... dico). The acc. + inf. is the subject of erit; rarum et insigne is thus a predicate nominative. Alternatively, with no difference in meaning, rarum et insigne could be the subject and the large acc. + inf. could be the predicate nominative. | aetate dignitate propemodum aequales: aetate and dignitate in asyndeton, dependent on aequales. | non nullius nominis: litotes, genitive of description, and alliterative, describing the homines.| parcius: comparative adverb: the rule is that the accusative neuter sg. of the comparative adjective is used as the comparative adverb. | cum ... floreres: cum clauses referring to the past have subjunctives if they primarily specify circumstances in which, the indicative if they primarily specify time at which the main verb occurred (A&G §546). The difference between circumstances and time at which is often just a matter of how the writer presents it, not something that we can decide independently of the author's intention. | te sequi ... tibi ... proximus ... et esse et haberi: complementary infinitives dependent on concupiscebam. | tibi 'longo sed proximus intervallo': 1)  proximus takes dat.; 2)  longo intervallo is an ablative of degree of difference; 3) the quotation is from Aeneid 5.320. | Et erant multa clarissima ingenia: sc. tum cum adulescentulus eram. | similitudo ferebat: "require, demand" is a rare meaning of fero which typically occurs with an abstract subject.


§5-7
And now it gives Pliny joy to find that he and Tacitus' are often mentioned in the same breath. And society confirms their bond by the fact that they tend to be mentioned equally in people's wills (one extant will, in Fontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani 3.48, mentions both).


5 Quo magis gaudeo, quod si quis de studiis sermo, una nominamur, quod de te loquentibus statim occurro. Nec desunt qui utrique nostrum praeferantur. 6 Sed nos, nihil interest mea quo loco, iungimur; nam mihi primus, qui a te proximus. Quin etiam in testamentis debes adnotasse: nisi quis forte alterutri nostrum amicissimus, eadem legata et quidem pariter accipimus. 7 Quae omnia huc spectant, ut invicem ardentius diligamus, cum tot vinculis nos studia mores fama, suprema denique hominum iudicia constringant. Vale.


Sentence Structure (indentation = one level of subordination)

Quo: "wherefore," an adverb modifying gaudeo, which takes the following quod clause as its object. | qui utrique nostrum praeferantur: 1) the antecedent of qui is the plural subject of desunt; 2) utrique is declined as uter is declined + que (remember UNUS NAUTA, a mnemonic for unus, nullus, ullus, solus, neuter, alter, uter, totus, and alius, all of which are 1st/2nd declension except that they have dat. sg. in -i and gen. sg. in -ius), and so utrique is dative, because praefero takes a dative; 3) nostrum is yet another genitive of the  personal pronoun nos (the other genitive is nostri: we saw it in §2: see note above). This nostrum is used almost exclusively as a partitive genitive (note that both nostrum and nostri have identically spelled counterparts that are not pronouns, but rather adjective forms of noster, nostra, nostrum); 4) praeferantur is subjunctive because it is in a relative clause of characteristic. | nihil interest mea: 1) nihil is adverbial "not" or "not at all," as it is frequently; 2) interest is quasi-impersonal (see next note, about quo loco); it usually takes a genitive of a person, but it takes the ablative mea, tua, or sua instead of a genitive for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular. | quo loco: refers to the place/rank in the ranking of people discussed earlier. quo loco (sc. iungamur) is also an indirect question, and that indirect question is technically the subject of the 'quasi'-impersonal interest. | mihi primus, qui a te proximus: as has happened several times in this letter, a form of esse is omitted as well as an antecedent. Fully spelled out, the sentence would be mihi primus est is, qui a te proximus est. Dative mihi is a special kind of 'dative of reference,' namely a 'dative of the person judging' (A&G 378). | adnotasse: syncopated form of adnotavisse. We may call these and other forms of the perfect that leave out a syllable 'alternate' forms, but they occur so frequently that it is obvious that to a native speaker they were in no way remarkable or unusual. | alterutri nostrum amicissimus: 1) alteruter declines like uter: the first stem, alter-, does not decline; 2) nostrum, as a previous note said, is a genitive form of nos that is used almost exclusively for partitive genitives; 3) amicissumus, like the positive form amicus, takes a dative. | eadem legata: sc. sunt. | Quae omnia huc spectant, ut ... : 1) quae is a "linking relative," which means that its antecedent is in the previous sentence (in this case, it is the whole thought of the previous sentence), and so it links the sentences rather than introduces a subordinate clause; 2) omnia modifies quae; 3) huc prepares for the result clause ut ... diligamus. | cum ... studia mores fama, suprema denique hominum iudicia ... constringant: causal cum clause (hence subjunctive) with a compound subject in asyndeton.


Vocabulary

accipio, accipere, accepi, acceptus, receive

adnotatio, -onis, f., remark

adnoto (1), remark, observe

adulescentulus, -e, m., youth

aequalis, -e, equal

aetas, -atis, f., age

alteruter, alterutra, alterutrum, one or the other

amicus, -a, um, friendly; friend (as a substantive)

arbitror (1), think, judge

ardeo, ardere, arsi, arsum,  be on fire, burn

assuesco, assuescere, assuevi, assuetum, be accustomed to, be used to

clarus, -a, -um, illustrious, brilliant

cogo, cogere, coegi, coactum, constrain, compel, force

commuto (1), change, revise

concordia, -ae, f., harmony, concord

concupisco, concupiscere, concupi(v)i, concupitum, desire very much

constringo, constringere, constrinxi, constrictum, tie together, bind together

debeo, debere, debui, debitum, ought, should

delecto (1), delight

denique, finally

dignitas, -atis, f., dignity

diligens, -entis, careful

diligo, diligere, dilexi, dilectum, love, value, esteem

equidem = ego + quidem

eximo, eximere, exemi, exemptum, remove, delete

exspecto (1), await

fama, ae, f., reputation
fero, ferre, tuli, latus, require, demand (with an abstract subject: a rare meaning)

floreo, florere, florui, flourish, be in top condition

forte, adv., perhaps

foveo, fovere, fovi, fotum, cherish, foster

gaudeo, gaudere, gavisus sum, enjoy (+abl.)

gloria, -ae, f., renown, glory

huc, to this place, hither

iam, at the time (whatever time, whether it is present or past or future)

imitabilis, -e, imitable

imitor/imito (1), imitate, copy

ingenium, -i, n., nature, character, intellect

insignis, -e, distinguished, eminent, noted

interest mea, it matters to me

intervallum, -i, n., distance, difference

invicem, by turns, one after another, alternately

iucundus, -a, -um, joyful, pleasant, pleasurable

iudicium, -i, n., decision, opinion

iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctum, join

lego (1), leave as a legacy, appoint in a will

lego, legere, legi, lectum, read

libenter, willingly, gladly

liber, libri, m., book

loquor, loqui, locutus sum, speak, talk

maxime, especially

mereor, mereri, meritus, deserve, merit

mos, moris, m., habit; mores, morum, m. pl., character

narro (1), tell, narrate

nihil, nothing; not at all (adverbial use)

nisi, if ... not, unless

nomino (1), name, mention

occurro, occurrere, occurri, occursum, suggest itself to one's mind, occur,

parcus, -a, -um, sparing, frugal

pariter, equally

patiens, -entis, patient

posteri, -orum, m. pl., those who follow, posterity

praefero, praeferre, praetuli, praelatus, esteem more, prefer

propemodum, nearly, almost

proximus, -a, -um, very near, very close; nearest

pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum, beautiful, pretty
quam, how much, to what degree

quia, because

quidem, indeed

quin etiam, yes, indeed; no, indeed

quod, the fact that

reprehendo, reprehendere, reprehendi, reprehensum, criticize

sermo, -onis, m., conversation, discourse

similitudo, -inis, f., similarity

simplicitas, -atis, f., candor, frankness, naturalness

specto (1), look at), gaze at

statim, immediately, at once

studium, -i,. n., study, zeal

supremus, -a, -um, last, final, extreme

testamentum, -i, n., will

tot, so many

una, adv., together, in the same place

usquequaque, everywhere, at every time

uterque, utraque, utrumque, each

vicis, (no genitive occurs, but it is 3rd declension), f., exchange, alternating (often in plural)

vinculum, -i, n., bond

vivo, vivere, vixi, victum, live