Pliny the Younger 109 CE · Tuscan villa
A carriage ride, still composing
10:30–12:00 · Estimated
Estimated by typical tue. 10:30–12:00 places the ride between the morning work and midday sleep; neither boundary nor the duration is stated.Source timing: After the morning walk, before the midday nap
“I ride in my carriage”
Short verbatim excerpt · Pliny the Younger
Open the original for the surrounding passage.
Letters, Book IX, Letter 36, to Fuscus
J. B. Firth translation · 1900 · Attalus transcription with minor wording changes
Book IX, Letter 36 · summer routine at his Tuscan villa; Letter 40 identifies the nap as a midday sleep
Passage: Letter 9.36 · after the terrace or portico
Timing & context
He continues thinking during the ride and finds that a change of scene refreshes his concentration. Horse riding is an occasional alternative, so it is not added as another daily appointment.
Letter 9.36 describes his recurring summer routine, with variations, rather than one recorded day. All clock times and block lengths here are editorial estimates. Roman daylight was divided into twelve seasonal hours; the calendar uses an illustrative summer day with daylight around 05:00–19:00, not an exact modern conversion. This is his country-villa routine, not a day of public duties in Rome. No weekday is specified.
109 CE is a representative display year chosen by Typical Tuesday from the conventional dating of Book IX. Letter 9.36 is not explicitly dated to that year, and the collection is not strictly chronological.
Dating of Book IX · Dickinson College Commentaries ↗