Pliny the Younger and translation in antiquity - Epistulae VII, 9; IV, 18; V, 15 (2nd century)

Abstract

Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or Pliny the Younger (ca.61-114), was a speaker, poet, jurist, politician and governor of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. He is better known as a writer of 368 letters, published in ten volumes, in which he reveals details of his life, both in Rome and in the countryside, public lectures and readings, as well as of the literary figures and social life of his time. He wrote his letters with the intention to have them published and each one usually covered a single topic. Pliny did not produce any lengthy or systematic reflection on translation. His opinions on the topic, representative of the entire classical era, from Cicero to Quintilian, can largely be found in a letter he wrote to Fuscus Salinator, a lawyer. The letter (VII, 9), probably written in the first decade of the 2^nd century, is a response to the young lawyer who asked for advice on how to develop his oratorical skills through exercises during a sojourn in the countryside. Among the various recommended activities, translation is the first to be mentioned.