BOOK I OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS.

CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS NOVOCOMENSIS TO HIS TITUS VESPASIANUS, GREETINGS.

The author recognizes the term imperator emperor/commander as a title of honor granted by soldiers to their leaders following a significant military victory.

I have decided to present these books of Natural History, a work of my own creation, to you in a somewhat more informal and approachable letter, most pleasant Emperor. May this preface truly be yours, as it matures under a father who is the greatest of men. For you were accustomed to consider my trifles to be worth something, so that I might dare to throw in my fellow-countryman Catullus referring to the Roman poet Catullus, who also dedicated his works to a patron.

He makes himself out to be rather harsh by changing the initial syllables, as he wished to be thought of as coming from his own domestic servants and household staff.

You recognize this military term. For he referring to a previous author, likely a poet using the Sotadic a type of reversal or palindrome verse style, as you know, made himself appear rather harsh by changing the initial syllables because he wanted to be considered one of his own household servants. At the same time, I wish for this boldness of mine to be accepted, just as you complained recently in another of our insolent letters that I have not yet arrived at some official proceedings. Let all people know that the imperial power lives with you on equal terms, along with the triumphale triumphal and censorium ius censorian right, and that you partake in the consular and tribunician power.

A contubernium military tent-sharing/companionship is a society of soldiers who fought under one standard and dined in the same tents. Pliny himself served under the Emperor Titus, where he began his history of the German wars.

And what have you done more noble than this? While you provide all these things to your father and to the equestrian order alike as commander of his Praetorian Guard, and everything else to the Republic. And to us, indeed, as you were during our time in the military camp. The greatness of your fortune changed nothing in you, except that you might have the same power to help as you have the will.

Perfricui faciem I have rubbed my face: a metaphorical expression for casting off shame or fear.

Therefore, while all those things lie open to others in their worship of you, only audacity remains for me to cultivate you more familiarly. You will therefore blame this on yourself, and you will forgive me for my own fault. I have rubbed my face an idiom for being bold or shameless, yet I have accomplished nothing. When you appear through another path, you are immense. And you push me even further away with the torches of your genius. Never has the power of eloquence been expressed more truly in any person than in the brilliance of your tribunician power. With what a voice do you thunder out your father’s praises? How much do you love your brother? How great you are in poetry! O great fertility of mind. You have even devised a way to imitate your brother.

The encyclopaedia circle of learning refers here to the comprehensive set of disciplines.

But who could assess these things without fear, especially when about to face the judgment of your genius, which has already been provoked? For the condition of those who publish works for the public is not the same as that of those who dedicate them to you by name. Then I could say: Why do you read these things, Emperor? They are written for the humble commoners, for farmers, for craftsmen, for the crowd, and finally for those who are idle in their studies. Why do you make yourself the judge? When I was organizing this work, you were not on this list. I knew you were too great for me to think you would descend to this level. Furthermore, there is a certain public rejection by the learned. Even Marcus Tullius Cicero, though placed beyond all risk to his talent, made use of it and defended it through an advocate. I do not want the most learned of all, Persius, to read this. I want Laelius and Decimus. If Lucilius, who first established this "nose" an allusion to satirical wit of style, thought it should be said of himself, and if Cicero thought it should be borrowed, especially when he was writing about the Republic, how much more cautiously must we be defended by some judge?

The term encyclopaedia the circle of instruction is used here to describe the totality of knowledge collected.

Indeed, I know that you, placed on the highest pinnacle of the human race and endowed with the greatest eloquence and the greatest learning, are approached religiously by those who greet you. And for that reason, an immense care rests upon me beyond that of others: that what I say to you may be worthy of you. Peasants and many nations supplicate the gods with milk and only salted meal, since they do not have incense. It was not considered a vice to worship the gods in whatever way one could. To my own temerity, this also has been added: that I have dedicated to you these books of a lighter work. For they are not capable of genius, which in any case was mediocre for us. Nor do they admit of digressions, speeches, dialogues, or marvelous accidents or varied outcomes—things not otherwise pleasant to speak of and agreeable to readers. Nature, that is, life, tells of sterile material. And this, in its most sordid part, is such that most of it must be set forth with either rustic words, or foreign, or even barbarian ones, provided they are introduced with a preface of honor. Furthermore, the path is not one traveled by many authors, nor one which the mind might seek to wander. There is no one among us who has attempted it. Among the Greeks, no one is found who has treated all these things. A large part of our studies seeks pleasantries. But things treated by others are pressed by the dark shadows of immense subtlety. Now, everything must be touched upon which the Greeks call encyclopaedias the circle of instruction, and yet these have been made unknown or uncertain to geniuses. Other things, however, are so worn out by many that they have become objects of disgust. It is a difficult task: to give novelty to the old, authority to the new, and to the obsolete...