Pliny shows his negative opinion of the races, this was unsual because they were favoured by many
in this letter pliny comes across as the following :
cynical
scornful
stubborn
superior
judgemental
snobby
“pleasure”
the fact that this is put in quotation marks in the letter, shows that he is being sarcastic and it emphasises how much he hates the sport
“ more worthless than tunic “
by using this comparayive phrase, it shows the clear class divison and how discrminatory he is towards class division. this presents him as a hypocrite as in letter 2.6, he talks about how you should treat all the classes the same. this is contridicting
“ a bit of coloured cloth they love”
here it is talking about the four factions, blue white red and green. this shows us how little the sport matters to him and he appears incredibly condescending
“ the influence in a dirt cheap tunic”
this sugests that they are controlled by the cloth because of how much they lovethe sport. The adjective “ dirt” and “ cheap” shows his clear disintrest and disgust for the sport
"no new twist, no variety"
the repetion of “no” emphasises the lack of added value that it has to him. it makes it clear to the reader of pliny' s pessimistic opinion. this shows how judgemental he can be
“ among my notes and books “
this shows how he sees reading as a high- level activity and sees racing as boring because he shows us that he would prefer to read than watch the racing from the quote “all this time”
