Iam dies alibi, illic nox omnibus noctibus nigrior densiorque; 180 quam tamen faces multae variaque lumina solabantur. Placuit egredi in litus et ex proximo aspicere ecquid iam mare admitteret; quod adhuc vastum et adversum permanebat. Ibi super abiectum linteum recubans, semel atque iterum frigidam poposcit hausitque. Deinde flammae flammarumque praenuntius, 185 odor sulpuris, alios in fugam vertunt, excitant illum. Innixus servulis duobus, adsurrexit et statim concidit, ut ego colligo, crassiore caligine spiritu obstructo clausoque stomacho, qui illi natura invalidus et angustus et frequenter interaestuans erat. Ubi dies redditus (is ab eo, quem novissime viderat, tertius), 190 corpus inventum integrum, inlaesum opertumque ut fuerat indutus: habitus corporis quiescenti quam defuncto similior.
A victim of the Vesuvius eruption Pompeii, Italy
Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY.
192. ego et mater: APOSIOPESIS; in Lat. ego was quite lit. the pron. of the first pers. and was so placed in a list, but we say my mother and I.
194. me…persecutum (195): sc. esse; that I have set forth.
statim: i.e., right after the events.
195. potissima: the most useful things.
196. aliud…aliud (197): sc. scribere with each of the four instances of aliud, it is one thing to write…it is another to….
198. Macro: though the identification is not certain, probably Publius Calpurnius Macer, consul in A.D. 103 and the addressee also of Epistulae 5.18.
199. interest: impers., it is important.
a quo…fiat: an IND. QUEST. used as subj. of interest.
201. Larium: Larius, modern Lake Como, a beautiful Alpine lake in northern Italy, called nostrum because Pliny was a native of the city of Comum (modern Como) and Macer was apparently from the same general area.
202. etiam: here, in particular.
203. prominet: prominere, to jut out, project.
aliquando: adv., at some time, once.
municeps:citizen (of a free town, a municipium); with nostra,a fellow-citizen of mine, a woman from my town.
205. ulceribus: possibly cancer.
putrescebat: putrescere,to rot, fester.
206. exegit: here, demanded (that she).
indicaturum: sc. esse; implied IND. STATE.
207. vidit…hortata est: the rush of vbs. and the ASYNDETON help suggest the intensity of the wife’s concern.
208. immo: adv., on the contrary, indeed.
necessitas:the compelling reason.
209. mihi: DAT. OF AGENT, which became fairly common with any pass. form from the first cent. A.D. onward.
210. municeps: sc. sum.
nisi proxime: here, until very recently.
minus: sc. factum eius fuit, her deed was less (noble).
211. Arriae: the allusion is to the famous story of Arria, wife of A. Caecina Paetus, known from another of Pliny’s letters (3.16); determined to join her husband in suicide, Arria stabbed herself first and then withdrew the dagger from her chest and handed it to her husband, consoling him with the words, Paete, non dolet.
minor:less (famous).
These details are based largely on eye-witness accounts, and may be used by Tacitus in whatever ways suit his purposes.
Interim Miseni ego et mater—sed nihil ad historiam, nec tu aliud quam de exitu eius scire voluisti. Finem ergo faciam. Unum adiciam, omnia me, quibus interfueram, quaeque statim, 195 cum maxime vera memorantur, audieram, persecutum. Tu potissima excerpes; aliud est enim epistulam, aliud historiam, aliud amico, aliud omnibus scribere. Vale.
6.24 (excerpts)
Pliny tells his countryman, the senator Calpurnius Macer, about the devotion of a woman from Lake Como who courageously joined her diseased husband in death; possibly written A.D. 106.
C. Plinius Macro Suo S.
Quam multum interest a quo quidque fiat! Eadem enim 200 facta claritate vel obscuritate facientium aut tolluntur altissime aut humillime deprimuntur. Navigabam per Larium nostrum, cum senior amicus ostendit mihi villam atque etiam cubiculum, quod in lacum prominet: “Ex hoc,” inquit, “aliquando municeps nostra cum marito se praecipitavit.” Causam requisivi. Maritus 205 ex diutino morbo ulceribus putrescebat: uxor, ut inspiceret, exegit; neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturum possetne sanari. Vidit; desperavit; hortata est ut moreretur, comesque ipsa mortis, dux immo et exemplum et necessitas fuit. Nam se cum marito ligavit abiecitque in lacum. Quod factum ne mihi 210 quidem, qui municeps, nisi proxime auditum est, non quia minus illo clarissimo Arriae facto, sed quia minor ipsa. Vale.
212. Calpurniae: Calpurnia Fabata, Pliny’s third wife, considerably younger than he, whom he married ca. A.D. 100; the two were quite devoted to one another, and Pliny’s letters to her, despite a sometimes self-conscious and rhetorical style, reveal their mutual affection and were an important contribution to the theme of conjugal love in classical literature.
213. in causa: with est (understood), idiom, is the reason, is responsible.
214. inde: adv., thence, from this.
