Pliny the Younger 109 CE · Tuscan villa
Compose, then dictate
05:30–09:30 · Estimated
Estimated by typical tue. 05:30 represents an early summer waking time; 09:30 is an illustrative finish. Roman daylight hours changed length with the season.Source timing: Around the first Roman daylight hour; before the fourth or fifth hour
“think it over”
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 · opening paragraphs, waking and composing
Timing & context
He composes mentally with the windows closed, then admits daylight and repeatedly calls a shorthand writer to take dictation. The letter describes habitual summer work, with variable hours.
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 ↗