Pliny

I finished reading Pliny the Younger's letters last week, but never got around to writing my reaction down. I enjoyed them! Like Montaigne's essays, a real sense of personality came through the writing, although of course, the sense of similarity evoked by something written in the 1st century CE is going to be a lot less than something written in the late 16th century on the brink of the scientific revolution. In addition, while both men published their work during their lifetime, Montaigne makes it clear that he feels free to be candid thanks to his early retirement; Pliny, on the contrary, who worked as a prominent lawyer and magistrate until his death, is certainly out to shape his own image. His personal goal, as he reiterates unashamedly throughout his letters, is to achieve immortality through his writing (though of course he meant his poetry and speeches, not his letters).

Now for some of my favorite lines (I dog-eared my copy something fierce):

"It is better to have no work to do than work at nothing." So says Pliny, the fairly wealthy landowner, to a friend working too hard in the city, telling him to devote himself to literature or lesiure. His letters feature several lengthy descriptions of his villa at Laurentum; it's never been uncovered, but his description is so detailed that scholars have been able to precisely reconstruct it, as you can see here.

"...votes are counted, their value is not weighted, and no other method is possible in a public assembly. Yet this strict equality results in something very different from equity, so long as men have the same right to judge but not the same ability to judge wisely." Pliny is dissatisfied with the results of a corruption case decided by the Senate. Roman senators weren't democratically elected, but I think the point carries. People are stupid.

After failed crops at his other properties, Pliny says of his seaside villa: "For there I do most of my writing, and instead of the land I lack, I work to cultivate myself, so that I have a harvest in my desk to show you in place of full granaries elsewhere."

On a silver-tongued opponent in court: "Scarcely anyone has the gift of eloquence...but what Candidus calls loquacity is common to many people and the special gift of every impudent rascal."

To his friend, the historian Tacitus: "There may be writers who are ranked higher than either of us, but if we are classed together our position does not matter; for me the highest position is the one nearest to you." Aww. Buddies.

Pliny does not agree with Machiavelli in this advice to a friend, headed to take up the reins in a Greek province: "Affection is more effective than fear in gaining you your ends. Fear disappears at your departure, affection remains, and, whereas fear engenders hatred, affection develops into genuine regard." OK, technically I think M. said "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both" but who has ever been both, really?

Self-assurance is not an issue. "I do think all your written works are very fine, but especially those that deal with me. For...you are at your best in writing about your friends, and I find it your best when it is about myself."

Writing to his boss, the emperor Trajan, Pliny described a new religious sect as "nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths." It was Christianity, of course.

Three Cheers!

Sean was accepted into Yale today! Out of 130-odd applicants they made five offers, and he was one of them! I couldn't be prouder of my husband :-)

What a Week

This semester has been pretty rough from the start. I really dislike my schedule, for one thing; all of my classes are in the evening, but the classes I teach/TA are in the morning, so I feel like I'm constantly rushing to something, or just wiped from being on campus all day. It takes about five hours to do the readings for each of my classes, and I usually wind up reviewing them and my notes before each class, which takes up a lot of time. Heritage requires a good deal of prep because it's my first time teaching it, and being head TA for AWW is just a constant string of minor tasks and annoyances. I work seven days a week every week, and although this in no way compares to the physical/mental taxation of the same number of hours in an office job, it's really tiring. My shoulders feel like one solid knot of tension lately.

Recent weeks have also been stressful on other fronts. Sean (briefly) lost his job at the library due to the fact that he's no longer eligible for work-study now that he's finished with full-time coursework. Happily, his boss figured out a way to fix this and get him back, but for about a week we didn't know how he would be able to support himself until the fall, considering jobs in Charlottesville are few and far between and he's locked into his lease until August. We're also still waiting for word from graduate schools. UPenn was a negative, which Sean had predicted, but he came out of the Yale open house with positive feelings today, and he thinks his Harvard interview went really well. It's really stressing me out (and Sean too, naturally) not to know the shape of our future for the next few years.

There are some things I'm really looking forward to, on a more positive note. Our Turkey trip plans are becoming more crystallized. We're going to fly from Istanbul to Izmir, a 1-hr flight that will save us an 8-hour bus ride, and rent a car for four days to drive around to all of the ancient sites--Pergamon, Afrodisias, Ephesus, Didyma, Priene, and Miletus.

Further ahead, I'm really looking forward to next semester. No more courses (although I'll be sitting in on Dr. Cooper's seminar, and possibly an Italian class), no more semester projects, no more teaching (at least for one year). Just reading, and research, and exam prep. Who knew that could sound like heaven?

Yay!!!

Sean got his first acceptance to a PhD program today!! It's Ohio State, which is not his first choice, but they do boast one of the top guys in his field, who called Sean personally (although he had to leave a voicemail) to tell him he was accepted. That says quite a bit about Sean's qualifications, I'd say! He has a phone interview with Harvard tomorrow, and he's been invited to Yale's open house the 16-18th of this month. Things are looking quite good! I'm so proud of him :-)

Awesome Sauce

A couple of months ago Jen and I switched financial advisers from Ron (who was terrible at responding to calls, tended to blow off our concerns, and on more than one occasion simply told me a flat "no" about something to do with my own damned money) to Gene, who has been a friend of Sean's family for decades and was a guest at our wedding. It was a good move. Even though I'm Gene's client and not Sean, he considers our needs as a couple, and doesn't just act like Sean doesn't exist (like Ron).

Anyway, after discussing the issue with Gene a few weeks ago, today I paid off one third of the student loan debt that Sean and I collectively owe. Sean's debt, in particular, we were able to cut in half! Ron wouldn't even hear of addressing Sean's debt before mine was completely paid off, but Gene was more reasonable in terms of looking at which loans have higher interest and are costing you more money in the long run, etc., and it clearly made more sense to clear out a bunch of high-interest loans that Sean had, rather than focus on my low-interest loans. Granted, I'm sure that the fact that Gene's known Sean since birth (and is Sean's brother's godfather) makes him less likely to suspect him of trying to make off with my money, but still. I'm a firm believer that when you marry someone, you're pooling everything--resources and debts.

Sean quipped that he could imagine my dad somewhere saying "But I don't even know this kid!" as I used what was once his money to pay Sean's loans. True, but my mother would have shut him up immediately; she loved Sean like a son (and occasionally, yes, perhaps a little better than her own daughter...banana bread...) Ultimately, though, I think my parents had the same financial ethos about marriage. You're in together. And now, thanks to Gene, there's a little less of it to be in! Yay!!