Plinii Epistula VIII.7
Commentary by Jacques Bailly
C. PLINIUS TACITO SUO S.
1 Neque ut magistro magister neque ut discipulo discipulus — sic
enim scribis -, sed ut discipulo magister — nam tu magister, ego
contra; atque adeo tu in scholam revocas, ego adhuc Saturnalia
extendo — librum misisti. 2 Num potui longius hyperbaton facere,
atque hoc ipso probare eum esse me qui non modo magister tuus, sed
ne discipulus quidem debeam dici? Sumam tamen personam magistri,
exseramque in librum tuum ius quod dedisti, eo liberius quod nihil
ex me interim missurus sum tibi in quo te ulciscaris. Vale.
Another fawning letter to his literary friend Tacitus reporting that
he will send comments on Tacitus' book (perhaps a different book
from the book of Tacitus mentioned similarly in Pliny Epistula 7.20).
Text from theLatinLibrary.com.
Commentary
1 Neque ut magistro magister neque ut discipulo
discipulus — sic enim scribis -, sed ut discipulo magister — nam tu
magister, ego contra; atque adeo tu in scholam revocas, ego adhuc
Saturnalia extendo — librum misisti.
Structure of first sentence:
Neque ut magistro magister (sc. librum mittit)comparative clause
neque ut discipulo discipulus (sc. librum mittit)
comparative clause
sed ut discipulo magister (sc. librum mittit)
comparative clause in antithesis to previous two clauses
sic enim scribis parenthetical clause
nam tu magister (sc. es), parenthetical
clause
ego contra (sc. discipulus sum); parenthetical
clause in antithesis to previous clause
atque adeo tu in scholam revocas, parenthetical
clause (along with the next clause, this corrects the previous
clause)
ego adhuc Saturnalia extendo parenthetical clause in
antithesis to previous clause
librummisisti main clause
atque adeo: "or rather," "nay rather," or "and moreover": atque
adeo appends an important addition or correction.
2 Num potui longius hyperbaton facere, atque hoc ipso
probare eum esse me qui non modo magister tuus, sed ne discipulus
quidem debeam dici? Sumam tamen personam magistri, exseramque in
librum tuum ius quod dedisti, eo liberius quod nihil ex me interim
missurus sum tibi in quo te ulciscaris. Vale.
num: indicates that this is going to be a question, one that
expects 'no' as an answer.| longius hyperbaton:
refers to the sentence he just wrote. hyperbaton, a
Greek-derived word, first occurs in Latin in Pliny (here only) and
Quintilian (only a few times). It refers to unusual word order or a
transposition of elements, but here it seems to mean something like
"jumbled-up run-on sentence."| hoc ipso: abl. of
means, referring to the longius hyperbaton just mentioned.| probare eum esse me: probarecomplementary
infinitive dependent on potui. Then a further acc. + inf. eum
esse medepends on probare. eum is
predicate accusative, me is the subject of esse.| qui non modo magister tuus, sed ne discipulus quidem
debeam dici: non modo ..., sed ne ... quidem the
sense requires "not only not ... but not even ... ,"
but logically that seems to need another non. The text is
correct, however, because, as Lewis & Short put it (entry non),
"
When the verb of the second clause is the common predicate of both
clauses, the second non is omitted in the first clause." debeam
subjunctive in a relative clause of characteristic, primary
sequence, on which the complementary infinitive dici
depends.| exseram ... ius: exsero means
"stick out," "stretch out" in a literal physical sense, but here, it
is figurative, and hence "I shall stretch out a ius" means
"I shall avail myself of the right...." The prepositional in
librum tuum must be "adjusted" into good English: we say "a
right over something" instead of "a right in
something," but quite often neither "over" nor "in" and neither in
nor super are meant in their literal physical meanings. The
take-home lesson is that prepositions are highly idiomatic, and one
must "adjust" them into proper idiomatic English or Latin.|
eo liberius: liberius comparative adverb modifying exseram.
eo ablative of degree of difference: literally something like
"more freely to the degree" or "more freely by this much," but more
smoothely in good idiomatic English "all the more freely" (which,
when you think about it, would be just as hard to explain to a
non-native English speaker as eo liberius is for us
non-native Latin speakers to grasp logically).| quod:
not a relative pronoun here. | missurus sum: periphrastic
future, equivalent to a regular future. | in quo ... ulciscaris:
relative clauses of characteristic take what mood?
Vocabulary
adeo (see note ad loc.)
adhuc, still, til now
atque, and
contra, the reverse, conversely, vice-versa
discipulus, -i, m., pupil, student
exsero, exserere, exserui, exsertum, take out,
thrust out; uncover, reveal; make use of, avail oneself of