Pliny: Natural History, Vol. I (Loeb)

PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY

PREFACE, 20-24

...so that it would not be judged that my lifetime was given over to ambition. I do a good turn to those who seize the vacant position, and indeed also to future generations, whom I know will challenge us just as we have challenged our predecessors.

21 You will deem it a proof of this pride of mine that I have prefaced these volumes with the names of my authorities. I have done so because it is, in my opinion, a pleasant thing and one that shows an honorable modesty to acknowledge those who were the means of one’s achievements, rather than doing as most of the authors to whom I have referred have done.

22 For you must know that when collating authorities, I have found that the most professedly reliable and modern writers have copied the old authors word for word, without acknowledgement—not in that valorous spirit of Virgil, for the purpose of rivalry, nor with the candor of Cicero, who in his Republic declares himself a companion of Plato, and in his Consolation to his daughter says, "I follow Crantor," and similarly regarding Panaetius in his De Officiis—volumes that you know to be worth having in one’s hands every day, nay, even learning by heart.

23 Surely it marks a mean spirit and an unfortunate disposition to prefer being detected in a theft to repaying a loan, especially as interest creates capital.

24 There is a marvelous neatness in the titles given to books among the Greeks. One they entitled Kērion (Honeycomb); others called their work Keras Amaltheias (Horn of Plenty)—so that you can hope to find a draught of "hen's milk" original: Ὀρνίθων γάλα, a proverbial rarity like pigeon's milk in the volume—and again Violets, Muses, Hold-alls, Handbooks, Meadow, Tablet, Impromptu—titles that might tempt a man to forfeit his bail.