Pliny, Letters to Friends 18, to Junius Mauricius
“What could you ask me to do which would be more pleasant than to find a teacher for your nephews? Because of this favor, I am going back to school and it’s like I am returning to the sweetest time of my life. I sit among the young as I used to and I am even learning how much authority I have among them from my own writings.
Just recently they were joking among themselves in a full classroom when several senators were present. But when I came in, they were silent. I am telling you this only because it confers more praise on them than on me and I want you never to fear that your brother’s sons won’t learn properly. All that’s left is for me to write you what I think of each of the teachers once I have heard them lecture and to make it same like you have heard them all yourself, as much as I can do that with a letter!”
Plinius Maurico Suo S.
Quid a te mihi iucundius potuit iniungi, quam ut praeceptorem fratris tui liberis quaererem? Nam beneficio tuo in scholam redeo, et illam dulcissimam aetatem quasi resumo: sedeo inter iuvenes ut solebam, atque etiam experior quantum apud illos auctoritatis ex studiis habeam. Nam proxime frequenti auditorio inter se coram multis ordinis nostri clare iocabantur; intravi, conticuerunt; quod non referrem, nisi ad illorum magis laudem quam ad meam pertineret, ac nisi sperare te vellem posse fratris tui filios probe discere. Quod superest, cum omnes qui profitentur audiero, quid de quoque sentiam scribam, efficiamque quantum tamen epistula consequi potero, ut ipse omnes audisse videaris.
