Classical Gas

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Pliny The Younger


Rarum id quidem nihil enim aeque gratum est adeptis quam concupiscentibus.

As Boris Johnson is so terribly fond of exhibiting his Classical education and apparent erudition, he would do well to note the above from one of his undoubted literary heroes, Pliny the Younger:

'An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.'

This ably encapsulates his attitude to just about every public post he has ever held. A triumph of aspiration and vaulting ambition over both native ability and any willingness to put in the hard miles. c.f. his attitude to relationships and family.

Roy K. Gibson's 'Man of High Empire, The Life of Pliny the Younger' was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement of July 24th. by Rebecca Langlands. I quote:

     'Pliny had long been revered as an exceptionally stylish writer whose surviving letters remain a record of a man and his world.
     The life they reveal, however, in the words of Roy Gibson, is  "messy, compromised, and filled to the brim with its own sense of entitlement".'  Sound familiar?

"Look the point is … er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it." 
 Boris Johnson on being appointed Shadow Arts Minister, 2004.

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