102. lautum et diligentem: elegant (lit., well-washed, clean) and (at the same time) economical.
sordidum:mean, base, stingy; lit., dirty, filthy, and hence contrasting with and balancing lautum.
103. sumptuosum: extravagant, contrasting with diligentem; the hissing alliteration of s in sordidum simul…sumptuosum (a brilliant OXYMORON) is perhaps ONOMATOPOETIC, suggesting Pliny’s contempt for the man who had been his host.
opima…vilia et minuta (104): again note the antithetical balance, opima (rich and abundant) by itself serving as the opposite of the other two adjs.
104. parvulis lagunculis: the two diminutives further suggest Pliny’s contempt.
105. discripserat: discribere, to distribute, assign.
eligendi: eligere,to choose, select.
106. aliud…aliud…aliud (107): sc. genus, one kind…another…another.
gradatim: adv., step by step, by grades, graded; the satirist Juvenal similarly condemns the grading and disparate treatment of dinner-guests in his Satire Five, written just a few years after Pliny’s letter.
107. animadvertit: animadvertere, to give attention to, notice.
108. recumbebat: recumbere, to recline; the Romans reclined on couches at their meals.
an: conj., or, whether.
109. consuetudinem: consuetudo, custom, practice.
2.6.1–5
As Pliny relates to his young friend Junius Avitus, even the freedmen at his dinnerparties enjoy the same food and drink as he does himself, in contrast to some hosts of the day who served lesser fare to their guests of lower rank; written ca. A.D. 98.
C. Plinius Avito Suo S.
Banquet scene Etruscan fresco ca. 500 B.C. Tomb of the Leopards Tarquinia, Italy
Scala/Art Resource, NY.
100 Longum est altius repetere, nec refert, quemadmodum acciderit ut homo minime familiaris cenarem apud quendam, ut sibi videbatur, lautum et diligentem, ut mihi, sordidum simul et sumptuosum. Nam sibi et paucis opima quaedam, ceteris vilia et minuta ponebat. Vinum etiam parvulis lagunculis in tria genera 105 discripserat, non ut potestas eligendi, sed ne ius esset recusandi, aliud sibi et nobis, aliud minoribus amicis (nam gradatim amicos habet), aliud suis nostrisque libertis. Animadvertit, qui mihi proximus recumbebat, et an probarem interrogavit. Negavi. “Tu ergo,” inquit, “quam consuetudinem sequeris?” “Eadem 110 omnibus pono; ad cenam enim non ad notam invito cunctisque rebus exaequo quos mensa et toro aequavi.” “Etiamne libertos?” “Etiam; convictores enim tunc, non libertos puto.” Et ille: “Magno tibi constat.” “Minime.” “Qui fieri potest?” “Quia scilicet liberti mei non idem quod ego bibunt, sed idem ego 115 quod liberti.” Et hercule, si gulae temperes, non est onerosum, quo utaris ipse, communicare cum pluribus. Vale.
110. notam: degradation, referring to the mark (nota censoria) which the censor, in revising the citizen lists every five years, placed opposite the names of those guilty of some crime or moral turpitude and thus subject to the loss of voting rights or, in the case of magistrates, expulsion from the senate.
cunctis: = omnibus.
cunctis…rebus (111): ABL. OF SPECIFICATION.
111. toro: torus, couch, cushion.
libertos: libertus,freedman; a wealthy patronus would periodically invite his freedmen clients to dinner, a courtesy later replaced with the provision of take-out meals (the sportula) or cash payments.
112. convictores: convictor, associate, lit., one who lives with another.
113. magno…constat: lit., it stands at a great price = it costs a lot; ABL. OF PRICE.
minime: here, not at all, by no means.
qui: adv., how.
114. idem: sc. vinum.
quod ego: sc. bibo.
115. hercule: originally voc. of Hercules (help me, Hercules) but regularly used as a mild oath, = by God!
gulae: gula,gullet, gluttony, appetite.
temperes: temperare, + dat., to control, moderate; indef. 2nd pers. sg.
116. quo: sc. id as antecedent of quo and obj. of communicare.
117. Tacito: for Tacitus, see note on line 8 above.
118. avunculi: avunculus, uncle. Pliny’s maternal uncle, known as Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79), raised him and in his will adopted him and made him the heir to his entire estate; described by his nephew here and in another letter (3.5), in which his prodigious scholarly activity is recounted, the elder Pliny was a scientist and polymath, best known for his 37-book encyclopedia, the Naturalis Historia, which ranges over topics as diverse as art and zoology, medicine and metallurgy.
exitum: exitus,end, death.
quo: commonly used to introduce a REL. CL. OF PURPOSE containing a comparative degree adj. or adv.
tradere: here we see Tacitus researching his Histories, which covered the period A.D. 68–96; although the section of his work on the eruption of Vesuvius is not extant, we are fortunate to have Pliny’s exquisitely detailed account of the event.
