letters 9.6 pliny

Omne hoc tempus inter pugillares ac libellos iucundissima quiete transmisi.

I have spent all this time among my writing-tablets and little books, in the most delightful peace.

"Quemadmodum" inquis "in urbe potuisti?"

“How,” you ask, “could you do that in the city?”

Circenses erant, quo genere spectaculi ne levissime quidem teneor.

The Circus Games were on, a type of spectacle which does not hold my interest in the slightest.

Nihil novum, nihil varium, nihil quod non semel spectasse sufficiat.

Nothing new, nothing different, nothing worth seeing more than once.

Quo magis miror tot milia virorum tam pueriliter identidem cupere currentes equos, insistentes curribus homines videre.

So I am all the more amazed that so many thousands of men so childishly long, again and again, to watch galloping horses and men standing in chariots.

Si tamen aut velocitate equorum aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio non nulla;

If, however, they were attracted by the speed of the horses or the skill of the men, there would be some reason;

nunc favent panno, pannum amant,

but now they favour a piece of cloth, they love a piece of cloth,

et si in ipso cursu medioque certamine hic color illuc ille huc transferatur, studium fauorque transibit,

and if, in the very race and in the middle of the contest, one colour is switched to another, their enthusiasm and support changes sides,

et repente agitatores illos equos illos, quos procul noscitant, quorum clamitant nomina relinquent.

and suddenly they abandon those drivers, those horses, whom they recognise from afar and whose names they shout out.

Tanta gratia tanta auctoritas in una vilissima tunica!

Such influence, such authority in a single, cheapest of tunics!

Mitto apud vulgus, quod vilius tunica,

I pass over the common people, who are more worthless than the tunic

sed apud quosdam graves homines;

but [this happens] among certain serious men;

quos ego cum recordor, in re inani frigida assidua, tam insatiabiliter desidere,

and when I recall that they sit so insatiably at this empty, dull, repetitive business,

capio aliquam voluptatem, quod hac voluptate non capior.

I take a certain pleasure in the fact that I am not captivated by this pleasure.

Ac per hos dies libentissime otium meum in litteris colloco,

And during these days I most gladly devote my leisure to literature,

quos alii otiosissimis occupationibus perdunt.

while others waste it on the idlest of occupations.

admiration of charioteer

its not the individual charioteer who attracts admiration but his tunic