Letter 2

Ennodius to Florus. I know I have undertaken a hard campaign and am lifting a heavy burden on weak shoulders — I who have roused your Sublimity, quiet enough as far as I am concerned, with the goads of words. So does feeble youth provoke beasts that bare their fangs, and in challenging what exceeds its strength, reckons the spectacle it hopes for to be just that — a spectacle, not a battle. So does a mind ignorant of combat pledge its affection to contests before it knows the danger. The fury of a lion and whatever beast Libya nourishes — I judge these milder of tongue than you. What ignorance drove me headlong? What fervor of spirit, a stranger to your acquaintance, led me astray, so that I did not know what a man ought to fear who provokes the one who is always first to hurl insults, who in the gymnasiums of abuse has never consented to take second place? He is certainly the most practiced slanderer among the clergy, who has always bared the bite of his sharp new tooth at them — a man whom even a life polished to the fingertip could not escape, before whom all learning yields, and whom the entire company of the devout flees as from a comet. And I, shameless and brazen, have roused this man! With such confidence I might have provoked the winds to blow, the rivers to run, my dear Faustus to eloquence — just as I have spurred you, a man sparing of speech, into garrulity with the iron-shod kicks of words. Forgive me, I beg, and since you consider silence in others a virtue — scorn those who love it, refrain from replies, punish your provocateur with contempt. Let some man drawn from the heart of the senate floor contend with you; against a Gaul by lineage, hold your tongue. Let him be punished by the retaliation of your silence — if you can manage it. Take care, my lord, lest by provoking a lesser man to loquacity you come to be considered a humble person yourself. For what labor is it to overcome one who is already down, and to claim a triumph over one who confesses himself unequal before the fight even begins? Yet be my bond with Lord Faustus, if you wish to escape my complaints, however meager and rough they be.

II. ENNODIVS FLORO. Noui me duram cepisse prouinciam et grauem sarcinam humeris infirmis adtollere, qui sublimitatem tuam quantum ad me quietam uerborum stimulis excitaui. sic minaces dente bestias inualida lacessit adulescentia et dum maiora uiribus prouocat, quod euenire optat spectaculum putat esse, non proelium. sic mens congressionis ignara certaminibus ante periclum debet affectum. leonis rabiem et quam Libya alit bestiam quam te lingua censeo mitiorem. quae me praecipitauit inscitia? qui animi feruor a cognitione tui peregrinantem 1 uicini T adiangens T, adnrgee fort . 2 aUceris L adaliscentia B, adolescentiae Pb 8 perfectionem B, om. LPTVb; quae primordii ee momtrant fort. (cf. Wiener Studien II p. 234) 4 exortationia LPV 6 reum noti L celestia LPT etaic hi pie- rwnque . 7 unum T num minoribus Utteris ita mg. add . mei] Bedulo add. B 9 aepistulae B 10 quem BL 12 solet in quibusdam eese LPTVb praeuii in te] praeuii sine re coni. Bar- tMM 13 potetur B ezstitiwe L II. 16 prouintiam LTV 17 umeris L h eras . infirmus B attollere LPTV 18 minaois LllV 19 sinualida B aduliscentia JB, adole- LPTV 21 prelium L 22 periclum BL, periculum TV libya B, libia LPTV alet B 24 inscicia T, insicia P, inscia b qui animi BPb, quia nimis TV, qui animis L 1* duxit in deuium, ut nescirem quid intentioni lacessitus deberet, qui semper contumelias primus incipit, qui in iniuriarum. gymnasiis numquam meruit posthaberi? clericorum certe exereitaissimus maledictor, qui ad eos semper nouelli et acuti dentis morsus exhibuit quem euadere ad unguem ducta uita non meruit, cui cessit omnis eruditio et quasi cometen sidus religiosorum fugit uniuersitas: hunc ego inprobus et fronte debilis excitaui. hac fiducia prouocassem uentos ad flandum, ad cursum flumina, Faustum meum ad facundiam, qua te ad garrulitatem loquendi parcus ferratis uerborum calcibus animaui. ignosce, quaeso, et quod in aliis uitium putas, taciturnitatem amantes sperne, abstine a responsis, prouocantem damna contemptu. tecum decertet de mediis curiae sinibus eductus: circa Gallum prosapia conticesce: silentii tui, si praeuales, talione multetur. caue, mi domine, ne incipias minorem loquacitate prouocando humilis aestimari. quid enim laboris est iacentem in ea parte superare et triumphum de eo ducere, qui se ante conflictum inparem confitetur? esto mihi tamen apud domnum Faustum amoris mei fibula, si querelas quamuis angustas et rusticas studes euadere.