PLINY NATURAL HISTORY 

 PREFACE 



PlINIUS SeCUNDUS TO HIS DEAR VeSPASIAN " GREETINO 



MosT Gracious Highness (let this title, a supremely 

 true one, be yours, while that of ' Most Eminent ' 

 grows to old age with your sire) — I have resolved to 

 recount ^" to you, in a somewhat presumptuous letter, 

 the offspring of my latest travail, my volumes of 

 Natural History (a novel task for the native Muses of 

 your Roman citizens) — 



For 'twas e'er your way 

 To deem my trifles something worth * 



— to give a passing touch of poHsh to my ' opposite 

 number ' '^ — you recognize even this service slang — 

 Catullus (for he, as you know, by interchanging the 

 first syllables * made himself a trifle harsher / than he 

 wished to be considered by his * darhng Veraniuses 

 and Fabulluses ') ? and at the same time that my 

 present sauciness may effect what in the case of 

 another impudent letter of mine lately you complained 



• Catullus wrote meas esse aliquid putare nugas. 

 ' Perhaps alter Latin to give ' made it a little harsher than 

 he wished it to be thought.' 

 ' Catuilus xii. 16, ut Veraniolum tneum et Fabullum. 



