I thought I would post another of my favourite translations I completed, a letter from Pliny the Younger to Titinius Capitonius, Patron of the Arts. If you would like to read the letter in the original Latin I have included the link at the bottom of this post.
You are persuading me to write history, and you are not the only one to do so: many have often advised me to do this and indeed I am willing, not because I am confident that I will be able to do it expertly - you might be too rash to think that unless you are experienced - but because it seems to me an especially fine thing not to let those die to whom eternity is owed, and to extend other peoples' fame at the same as one's own.
In my case however, love and desire for a lasting reputation, the most worthy concerns among men, drive me in a way that nothing else does. This is especially the case for a man who is not conscious of any guilt on his part and who does not fear being remembered by later generations.
And consequently I ponder day and night, whether I may be able to elevate myself above the mundane level in any way for that is sufficient for my desire and it is beyond my desire that my victorious name should fly across the lips of men, Although!: but this is enough which history alone seems to promise.
Small thanks are given to oratory and poetry, unless our eloquence is the greatest: history delights in whatever way is has been written. For men are curious by nature and they are swept away even by the barest narration of facts, so that they are even lead astray by anecdotes and fables. And in my case indeed a family example also propels me toward this kind of study.
My uncle, who was also my father through adoption, composed histories most scrupulously. Moreover I find that wise men think that it is very honourable to follow in the footsteps of ones elders, provided that they had followed an honest route. Why then do I hesitate?
I have delivered many great cases. These I intend to revise even if for me the reward from this task is trivial, lest the great work I put into them may die alongside me, if I do not add what remains to be done. For if you have a view to posterity, whatever has not been finished is considered as not having been started.
You will say 'You can compose a history and write up your speeches at the same time.' If only! But each is so great a task that to finish one of them would be an achievement.
When I was eighteen I began to speak in the forum, and only now do I see, albeit however still dimly, what it takes for an orator to stand out.
What should happen if a new burden was added to this one? Indeed oratory and history have many things in common but they are very different in the aspects which they seem to share. History tells a story and oratory tells a story, but differently: oratory suits the humblest topics, base and common subjects, whereas history suits research, splendour and loftiness in all matters.
Oratory more often than not is bones, muscles and nerves, but history requires a body and a full mane as it were; oratory pleases either by it's great force, it's sharpness or it's urgency; whereas history is pleasing to use a sweet and even agreeable tone; lastly they use different words, a different tone and a different form.
For it matters greatly, as Thucydides says, whether something is a lasting glory or a glory for the moment; oratory is the latter of these, history is the former. For these reasons I am not persuaded to confound and mix two dissimilar genres which are diverse in the very way in which they are most important, lest I become confused as if in a great jumble and I do to the one what I ought to do to the other; meanwhile therefore I seek your pardon so that I do not retreat from my familiar language so that I can continue as an advocat.
However, think about what time period you think would be best for me to approach now. Ancient history, that has been prepared but the gathering together is burdensome. An untouched and new period? The offence is heavy and the thanks is light.
For on top of this, there is the fact that there are more things to be blamed than praised in the great vices of our men, moreover if you will have praised someone too sparingly you will be said to have been overly critical, or however fulsome you will have been towards that man you will have done this with too much reservation.
But these maters do not slow me down, for I have enough confidence in my ability, I ask only that you prepare the way for the task which you encourage and that you choose the material lest now that I am prepared to write no other just reason for delaying and hesitating again may not arise.
Farewell.
Pliny on History - Latin
Success is dependent on effort - Sophocles














