322 Fair dealing. Rural conditions 



No doubt there were many landlords more effectively qualified to 

 wring an income out of rustic estates than this delicate and gentle 

 literary man. Indeed he knew this himself and made no secret of it. 

 Writing to a friend 1 he says 'When others go to visit their estates, it 

 is to come back the richer ; when I do so, it is to come back the poorer 

 for the trip.' He then tells the story of a recent experience. He had 

 disposed of the year's vintage on some estate (evidently the hanging 

 crop) by auction to some speculative buyers, who were tempted by 

 the apparent prospects of a rise in price to follow. Things did not 

 turn out as expected, and Pliny felt bound to make some abatement 

 in the covenanted price. Whether this was simply owing to his own 

 scrupulous love of fair dealing, or whether some stipulation in the 

 contract of sale had automatically become operative, does not seem 

 quite clear: I should give him the benefit of the doubt. How to 

 make the abatement equitably, so as to treat each case with perfect 

 fairness, was a difficult problem. For, as he shews at length, the cir- 

 cumstances of different cases differed widely, and a mere ' flat rate ' 

 remission of so much per cent all round would not have worked out 

 so as to give equal relief to all. After careful calculation he devised a 

 scheme that satisfied his conscientious wish to act fairly by each and 

 all. Of course this left him a large sum out of pocket, but he thought 

 that the general approval of the neighbourhood and the gratitude of 

 the relieved speculators were well worth the money. For to have a 

 good name among the local dealers was good business for the future. 

 Many an honest gentleman since Pliny's time has similarly consoled 

 himself for his losses of honour, and some of them have not missed 

 their well-earned recompense. 



Among his many country properties, a certain Tuscan villa was 

 one of his favourite resorts. In a long description of it and its various 

 attractions he mentions 2 incidentally that the Tiber, which ran right 

 through the estate, was available for barges in winter and spring, and 

 thus enabled them to send their farm-produce by water-carriage to 

 Rome. This confirms the evidence of other writers, as does also the 

 letter describing the wide-spread devastation 3 caused by a Tiber flood. 

 More notable as throwing light on conditions of life in rural Italy is a 

 letter 4 in reply to a correspondent who had written to inform him of 

 the disappearance of a Roman of position and property when on a 

 journey, apparently in the Tiber country. The man was known to 

 have reached Ocriculum, but after that all trace of him was lost. Pliny 

 had small hopes from the inquiry that it was proposed to conduct. He 

 cites a similar case from his own acquaintance years before. A fellow- 

 burgess of Comum had got military promotion as centurion through 



1 vin 2. 2 v 6 12. 3 vin 17. 4 vi 25. 



