Letter 5

You certainly imitate the style of Menippean Varro, but you surpass his talent. Those epigrams you've recently been composing about our contemporaries — I think they outshine even his famous "Portraits of the Week." Your work is just as sober, yet more polished; his, though struck in good metal, never got the final buffing. And you're tackling harder material, if I'm not mistaken. Varro wrote about Pythagoras, who first argued that souls are eternal; about Plato, who made the case for the gods; about Aristotle, who reduced the art of speaking well to a system; about the poor but commanding Curius; about the stern Catos, the Fabian clan, the glory of the Scipios, and that whole triumphal Senate — and he covered them all with restrained praise. You, by contrast, are illuminating the living figures of our own age. It's a difficult feat to add luster to modest subjects. You ask me to append a few verses of my own to yours. But your own Horace wouldn't approve — not if we follow that opening principle of his Poetic Art: "Don't stick a horse's neck on a human head." I'd rather displease you by stubbornly refusing the task than by recklessly attempting it. We'll discuss this further in person, since I plan to follow this letter closely — or catch up with it. In the meantime, carry on with what you've started and be generous with that brilliant eloquence of yours. As for me: I may deny you the service of my tongue, but I'll gladly lend you my ears. Farewell.

Studium quidem Menippei Varronis imitaris, sed vincis ingenium. nam quae in nostrates viros nunc nuper condis epigrammata, puto hebdomadon elogiis praenitere; 1 0 quod haec aeque sobriS, f ^^^ tamen castigata sunt, illa bono metallo cusa, tomo exigi nescierunt. et duriorem materiam, nisi fallor, adniteris. ille Pythagoran, qui animas 2 in aetemitatem primus adserait, ille Platonem, qui deos esse persuasit, ille Aristotelen, qui naturam bene loquendi in artem redegit, ille pauperem Curium, sed divitibus im- perantem, ille severos Catones, gentem Fabiam, decora Scipionum, totumque illum 15 triumphalem senatum parca laude perstrinxit: tu mtuvam proximae aetatis inluminas. difficile factu est, ut honor angustis rebus addatur. me quoque iubes versibus tuis 3 nonnulla subnectere. haud ita Flaccus tuus praecepit in illis poeticae artis edictis, quomm hoc themini esse principium, ne humano capiti cervix equina iungatur. malo itaque tibi contumacia negati officii quam inprudentia promissi operis displicere. 20 plura de hoc coram loquemur, quando hanc epistulam sequi paramus aut consequi. tU' coepta perage et tam sollertis eloquii esto munificus : ego tibi ut linguae obsequia nego. ita aurium commodabo. V (II) ante a. 376.