Trigger Warning: The relationship between Cicero and Tiro is a complex one. Tiro was originally Cicero's slave, then Cicero's freedman; at death, he became the publisher of Cicero's writings. Although modern readers would not glamorize or romanticize this relationship due to the power imbalance, the Roman author Pliny idealizes and idolizes the pair.
Cum libros Galli
legerem, quibus ille parenti
ausus de Cicerone
dare est palmamque decusque,
lascivum inveni
lusum Ciceronis et illo
spectandum
ingenio, quo seria condidit et quo
humanis salibus
multo varioque lepore
magnorum ostendit
mentes gaudere virorum.
Nam queritur quod
fraude mala frustratus amantem
paucula cenato
sibi debita savia Tiro
tempore nocturno
subtraxerit. His ego lectis
'cur post haec'
inquam 'nostros celamus amores
nullumque in
medium timidi damus atque fatemur
Tironisque dolos,
Tironis nosse fugaces
blanditias et
furta novas addentia flammas?'
--Pliny the Younger, Epistles VII.4.6
While reading the works of Gallus,
a man who dared to give glory & praise
To his parent over Cicero,
I found a flirty little ditty of Cicero’s
which reflects the man’s talent
that he had also used to compose serious matters;
this example shows that the minds of great men
rejoice in human wit of many types & genres.
For Cicero complained that Tiro had deceived his lover in an evil
deceit,
By leaving dinner at the end of the night
Without his usual kiss.
Reading this, I asked myself,
“Why do I hide my love [amores]*,
Why do I wholly give myself over to fear,
Why don’t I confess that I know my Tiro’s games,
That I know my Tiro’s coy affection,
that my Tiro’s withheld kisses add new flames to my heart?"
* amores in the plural can mean "relationship," "lover," or "love"
PLINY THE
YOUNGER
MAP:
Name: Gaius
Plinius Caecilius Secundus
Date: 61 BCE – 113 CE
Works:
Letters
REGION 1
BIO:
Timeline:
Pliny the Younger was an Italian born noble
and nephew of the famous natural historian Pliny the Elder. He is best known
for publishing his private correspondence, in which he flouts his connections
with other illustrious Romans (including the Emperor Trajan and the author
Tacitus). Two of the most famous examples of these are his “eyewitness”
account of the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE and his letter to the
emperor Trajan regarding the treatment of Christians.
SILVER AGE LATIN
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