Pliny the Younger 109 CE · Tuscan villa
Dinner, reading and entertainment
16:00–18:00 · Estimated
Estimated by typical tue. 16:00–18:00 is an illustrative late-afternoon interval for the meal and its entertainment. No exact start, finish or meal length is supplied.Source timing: After bathing; entertainment follows dinner
“book is read”
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 · paragraph beginning “While I am at dinner”
Timing & context
When dining with his wife or a few friends, he listens to a book. Afterwards they hear a comic actor or a musician; these are alternatives, not two mandatory performances.
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 ↗