From Republic to Empire: dive into great writing tips and quips from three of the most famous Roman writers.

1. Cicero
Seneca
Pliny
Volume 2
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2. Cicero
From Letters and ‘Brutus’ 68–43 BC
As to the Latin books, I don't know which way to turn; they are copied
and exposed for sale with such a quantity of errors!
Caesar . . . has certainly prevented all sensible men from attempting
to improve his plan. For in history, nothing is more pleasing than a
correct and elegant brevity of expression.
What you have said has entertained me so well, that instead of being
longer, it has been much shorter than expected.
Sometimes brevity is a real excellence, but it is very far from being
compatible with the general character of eloquence.

3. Cicero
From Letters and ‘Brutus’ 68–43 BC
When I read your writing, I seem to hear your voice, and when I write to
you, seem to be talking to you. I am therefore always best pleased with
your longest letter, and in writing I am often lengthy myself.
But now listen, best and dearest of brothers, to my answer to what you
wrote in your short letter in such a very business-like way.
The shortness of your letters makes me too write shorter ones, and to
tell you the truth, I have no clear idea on what I am to write.
My letter would have been longer had I not been asked for it at the
very moment when a post to you was starting – longer too, had it
contained some gossip.

4. Cicero
From Letters and ‘Brutus’ 68–43 BC
Nature itself will measure and limit our sentences by a convenient
device of words. And when they are confined to a moderate flow of
expression, they will often have a rhythmical flow, since the ear alone
can decide what is full and complete, and what is lacking. And the
course of our language will necessarily be regulated by our breath, in
which it is excessively disagreeable, not only to fail, but even to labour.
Let my secretary’s handwriting be proof that I am suffering from
inflammation of the eyes, and that is my reason for brevity.
I have written you a longer letter than usual, from an oversupply, not of
leisure, but of affection, because, if you remember, you asked me in
one of your letters to write you something to prevent you feeling sorry
at having missed the games.

5. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
I wish . . . you would not be too particular about arranging words; I
have greater matters for you than these. You should seek what to
write, rather than how to write it, and even that not just for writing but of
feeling it, that you may make what you have felt more your own and set
your seal on it. Whenever you notice a style too careful and polished,
you may be sure the mind is also absorbed in petty things.
How can a man end his life if he cannot end a letter?

6. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
We should not confine ourselves either to writing or to reading.
Continuous writing will cast a gloom over our strength and exhaust it;
the other will make our strength flabby and watery. It is better to use
them alternately, and to blend one with the other, so the fruits of one's
reading may be reduced to concrete form by the pen.
Fabianus has not spent a long time in working his matter over and
twisting it into shape. He was building up character rather than words,
and was writing those words for the mind rather than the ear. Had he
been speaking them, you would not have had time to consider the
details. The whole work would have so swept you along. For as a
rule, that which pleases by its speed is of less value when taken in
hand for reading.

7. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
But I must not exceed the bounds of a letter, which ought not to fill
the reader's left hand.
Let me tell you what delighted me in your letter. You have your words
under control. You are not carried away by your language, or taken
beyond the limits you have decided. Many writers are tempted by the
charm of some alluring phrase to some topic other than they had set
themselves to discuss. But this has not been so in your case; all your
words are compact, and suited to the subject. You say all you wish,
and you mean still more than you say. This is proof of the importance
of your subject matter, showing that your mind and your words have
nothing unnecessary or pompous.

8. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
You have been complaining that my letters to you are rather carelessly
written. Now, who talks carefully unless he also desires to talk
affectedly? I prefer that my letters should be spontaneous and easy,
just what my conversation would be if we were sitting in one another's
company or walking together. My letters have nothing strained or
artificial about them.
In answer to the letter, which you wrote me while travelling, a letter as
long as the journey itself, I shall reply later.

9. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
I wish you would share your studies with me, your meals, and your
walks. We should be living within too narrow limits if anything were
barred to our thoughts. I see you, my dear Lucilius, and at this very
moment I hear you; I am with you to such an extent that I hesitate
whether I should not begin to write you notes instead of letters.
Words should be spread like seed. No matter how small the seed
may be, if it has once found favourable ground, it unfolds its strength
and from an insignificant thing spreads to its greatest growth.

10. Seneca
From Letters to Lucilius 64 AD
I shall indeed carefully gather for you a selection of the notes you
request. But think on whether you may not get more help from the
customary method than from that which is now commonly called a
breviary, though in the good old days, when real Latin was spoken, it
was called a summary. The former is more necessary to one who is
learning a subject, the latter to one who knows it. One teaches, while
the other stirs the memory.
We do not need many words, only effective words.

11. Pliny the Younger
From Letters 100 AD
If you think I am right . . . make the letter as short as you like, for that
will confirm my judgment. If I am wrong, see that you write me a very
long letter. I feel sure I have not estimated you wrongly in asking you
for a short note if you agree with me, while laying on you the obligation
of writing at length if you disagree.
Write what you please, but make sure you send me as long a letter
as my own. Remember, I shall count not only the pages, but even the
lines and syllables.
.

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