Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus sends greetings to his friend Tacitus.

Please send my warmest greetings to your Julia. My  dear Calpurnia asks you to remember her to her old friend. We also hope that Publius, Gaius, and little Cornelia are all well.

Well you might ask, as you did in your last letter, how it was that I ended up exiled on this forgotten chunk of dirt (1). You noted that the sins for which I was condemned were those of my uncle, and not my own, and you ask why I, too, should be exiled You need look no further than the salutation of this letter to find your explanation.

As you can see, I am no longer signing myself Gaius Caecilius (2). Among the many documents that came to light during my uncle’s trial, it came out that the old man intended to adopt me in his will. The court saw fit to use that fact to condemn me as guilty in a plot of which I knew nothing. In turn, I find it amusing to style myself Gaius Plinius, thus anticipating the only part of my inheritance still extant – for of course, all of my uncle’s property was seized at the moment the sentence of exile was pronounced.

The conditions of our exile are not so harsh as some have experienced, nor so pleasant as some have been blessed with. We have not been sent to some outpost on the Danube, as happened to Ovid, but nor are we enjoying the famous red mullet of Massilia as Caelius did during his exile (3). Still, I can not complain. The terms of the exile were remarkably generous; so far as we are not in peninsular Italy – including Gallia Cisalpina - we are free to live where we wish. A school-friend of my mother’s married a man from Ilva, so she, at least, had a friend here, who has helped us to settle in on the island. True, we are far from the bustle and intrigues of the City, and the accommodations are not so commodious as they were at my villa in Como. Still, the air is fresh with healthful sea breezes, and we have taken a house at the brow of a hill. We are not even completely devoid of culture here – just yesterday we attended a production of Terance’s Andria. Ilva is a pleasant island, and close enough to Rome that I hope you will someday condescend to visit us. If you travel directly, it will take you less than a single market interval to reach us.

I am sure that your young sons would especially enjoy a visit. The sea here teems with life. Indeed, my uncle has become so enamored of the sea life and birds here on the island that he is completely rewriting the relevant sections of his Historia Naturalis. Alas, I would tell you more, but the messenger complains that he will have difficulty making the boat back to the mainland, and is looking anxious.

Farewell.

KAL. MAI.

(1)   Textual evidence indicates that the exile of the Pliny family began no earlier than March of 91 A.D.

(2)   Pliny the younger’s father is believed to have been named Gaius Caecilius Cilo.

(3)   The references are to the poet Publius Ovidius Naso, and to Marcus Caelius Rufus, the subject of Cicero’s oration Pro Caelio