Letter 5

**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan **To:** Faustus Niger, senator and former consul, head of one of Rome's most powerful aristocratic houses **Date:** ~502 AD **Context:** Avienus, son of Faustus, has just been appointed consul for the year — restoring, in Ennodius's telling, an honor to both their families — and Ennodius pours out a torrent of congratulation, theological reflection, and literary flattery that is really about kinship, nobility, and the mystery of divine favor. --- Having prayed for the abundant mercy of God, I commend to Him the auspices of this happy year, and — raised up by the gifts of His benefactions — I approach a man now of consular rank almost as though I were his equal. Until now, the splendor of the consular boot [*the trabea*, the striped robe, and the high *cothurnus*, the boot worn by Roman consuls on ceremonial occasions] was foreign ornament bestowed upon our family, and we rejoiced in belonging to him who gave the year his name more through affinity than through blood. It was a gift, not a right, that we were counted among the possessors of the curule chair in the careful conversations of men. How often did the tongue that exalted us before others make us its debtors — so that by an inversion of the natural order, the very insignia of our nobility came to be owed to the hired labors of strangers? But now let envy be gone. A consul has dawned who restores the fasces of the ancients, and as a vigorous force has thrown open the rotting doors of our dignities. The trembling thresholds of long-decaying hinges grow young again toward renewed health — thresholds which I believe, with God as their guardian, shall never again be shut with any bolt once they have stood open. For this is not merely *a* consulship for my Avienus — it is his *first*. Walking ahead of the eagles of his lineage, he has led the column of his forebears and shown the path of virtue toward the highest office of state. If there is any reverence for worldly dignities, if there is any honor in a man's living on after his burial, if the wisdom of the ancients devised any means by which the years granted to men might be transcended — then rightly are achievements of this kind thought to have found their own counsel, achievements whose longevity defeats both old age and its limit. Good God, what a thing it is that a single man's name, written into the dictation of laws, can either establish or dissolve the weight of all labor! Hail to you, young man of distinguished virtues, who along the overgrown path of your mother's lineage [*Avienus's mother came from an older consular line than his father's branch*] have brought the life-giving axes of honor, and by them have cut away the aged obstacles of your most splendid journey, lest they hold back those who come after you. Let the praises of the ancients yield to him — praises which the inventions of learned men manufacture as a kind of nobility, praises which purchase their merit from the man who relates them through the decorated arrogance of words. For the thinness of the subject must be amplified by the resources of the narrator, so that the dowry absent from the material itself may be supplied by the ornaments of the stylus. To say nothing of the Fabii, the Torquati, the Camilli, the Decii having been surpassed [*Rome's most celebrated Republican heroes*]: you yourself, my lord, who have surpassed them all — I believe you have been, by his very beginnings, happily outstripped. You walked along the hardened path worn by the staffs of your great-grandfathers and grandfathers, now the greater, walking almost shoulder to shoulder with those who went before, so that you advanced beneath the bond of a happiness never once interrupted. It belongs to the virtues of my still-young Avienus both to continue the fasces for your line and to restore them to mine. I give thanks for the purpose that will benefit our common advancement — through which, with God's blessing, the brilliance of a good birth, until now shut away in darkness, has shone forth again; through which a luminous bloodline has recognized its own day. How I would have wished to gaze upon the fulfillment of my prayers in person — were it not that the magnitude of my sins denies to my eyes what it could not deny to my desires, and it would be impious for a man to merit all he wishes at one and the same time. Yet this I believe must be counted among the greatest rewards of our Redeemer: that my consul has crossed the threshold of happy youth together with the honor of an elder. I anticipate in hope what is being prepared by his labors, when such things are displayed at his very beginnings. To him whom we see to have begun from the fasces themselves, the growth of his further progress shall come not upon inauspicious advances. How small a thing it is that old fame flatters itself with in the praises of the ancients concerning the outcome of prosperity. What gray-haired age worn down by the dust of long effort barely merited, what a life lived entirely under the fasces barely earned, what an old man desired while never certain of obtaining — all this the divine gift has bestowed repeatedly upon my young man, and early. Add to this that, trained in the best disciplines from the very beginning of his life, he appears to have merited what he has obtained; he does not deign to ascribe everything in himself to fortune, for in him yet more may be attributed to virtue. Having pursued his schooling and literary studies as an adornment of his nature, a devoted imitator of his father's perfection, his own industry has made him such a son as another could scarcely have dared to choose. Whatever is finest in the Attic tongue, whatever the Roman tongue has most distinguished, he has mastered. He has weighed the gold of Demosthenes and the iron of Cicero; as a Latin exponent he has filled out both modes of oratory. The constraints of grammatical training, and those narrow legal straits of expression, he has embraced in a spirit of freedom. By pursuing the full spectacle of oratory with the arms of a virile style, he has drawn his contemporaries toward oratory itself. But I recognize where the advancing momentum of an affection that refuses all limit is carrying me: divided from my purpose, I am addressing a learned consul with an inadequate wit. I turn back to you all, with whom I share a common joy, an equal longing, a like petition. Let us pray to God — for our desires refuse all measure — that He who has known no loss in His giving may make permanent what He has bestowed, and never set a limit upon His gifts to us, who have never suffered damage from largesse. Yet rejoice in so excellent a blessing, you to whom it is granted — after having worn the robes of state yourselves — to have a consular son in your service. If, however, heavenly power operates within my judgment and a mind bent under the weight of human failing does not entirely succumb, then the dignity obtained for your offspring is the repayment for your faithful prayers. Sufficient for a whole city are the intercessors held within a single household. Happy mother, mistress of so many emperors, a brave matron lifts you before God with her supplications. Through such great ones the kingdom of heaven suffers a kind of holy violence — through whose merits what is asked is wrested, as by right, from divine clemency. For we remember what is written, the Lord saying to his disciples: *"If two or three of you shall agree together, whatever you ask you shall obtain."* [Matthew 18:19] I believe the Redeemer, foreseeing the rarity of the truly just, declared that two praying for the salvation of others would suffice. One may judge by conjecture what can be denied to three who ask for the benefit of those most dear to them. Animated by these hopes, therefore, and elevated by kinship with the just, I am confident through the goodness from above that I too shall attain the abundance of the grace I desire. If Lot is counted among the throngs of the holy by the merits of Abraham, if those who lacked their own virtue have merited being led to high things by the virtue of their kinsmen — then this year shall bring forth dignities for your family. For if I am dear to your hearts, I am easily led, through the obtaining of what I ask, toward heavenly grace. My lord: paying you the reverence that this greeting demands, I beg pardon for the prolixity of my discourse — for it is difficult, when one rejoices in great things, to be content to speak of small ones.

V. FAVSTO ENNODIVS. Abundantem dei misericordiam precatus commendo ipsi anni felicis auspicia et beneficiorum eius muneribus sublimis iam consularem uirum quasi aequalis adgredior. hactenus trabealis coturni pompam familiae nostrae peregrina ornamenta tribuebant et pertinere nos ad eum magis adfinitate quam genere gaudebamus, qui anno nomen inposuit. munus erat, non debitum, quod inter curulium possessores diligentum fabulis addebamur. quotiens nos obnoxios sibi fecit lingua, quae apud alios exaltauit, ut commutato condicionis ordine alienis nostrae nobilitatis insignia stipendiis deberentur? at nunc facessat inuidia. 2 Tob. 2, 21 5 Terentius Eun. YB. 591; cf. August Conf. I c. 16 - la 1 comiMoribus T, commessoribaB B 4 flectitare L in a. , I. m. 2 hiltona. L 5 papirus PT homucio B, homnntio PT 7 fodetis B, fouetis LPTyfj 8 admessorem B 9 fa!btis si ecribri B 12 mulcare T sed c ex g corr., mnltare Pb V. 14 Ennodius Pausto TV 15 habundantem T 16 felicis \' L e in ras. 3 fere titt . et ex en L corr . 17 aequalem Plb aggredior LTV actenus B 18 familiae∗∗∗ L 19 affinitate LTV . genera. B 20..anno B, annoe LTV, ante noe Pb, anno suo ., (on . imposuit LTV debitur L , _21 cu*rulium L r eras. diligentium L1Pb fabulis in flbulis. corr. L man. rec . addebatur T\' 22 exaltabit B, eicitauit 1 23 conditionis LTV 24 deberentur stipendiis LPTVb ad B uetustorum reparator fascium nouellos consul inluxit et dignitatum nostrarum cariosas fores robustus reserauit inpulsor. ad rediuiuam ualitudinem tremebunda marcescentium cardinum limina iuueniscunt, quae nullis credo deo auspice quia posthaec obicibus claudenda patuissent. nam Auieni mei non unus, sed primus est consulatus. stirpis suae gestatura aquilas agmina praeuius antecessit et ad principalem militiam iter uirtutis ostendit. si qua est saecularium reuerentia dignitatum, si quis honos est hominem uiuere post sepulcra, si quid prouidit astutia ueterum, per quod ab hominibus anni uincantur indulti: iure fastus huiuscemodi putantur inuenisse consilia, quorum longaeuitas et senectutem refutat et terminum. deus bone, quantum est unius uocabulum hominis inpensum in dictandis legibus laborem uel stabilire posse uel soluere! macte insignium adulescens uirtutum, qui per oblitteratum materni stemmatis callem uitales honorum secures adtulisti, quibus annosas, ne posteritatem tuam retinerent, splendidissimi itineris obices amputares. cedant huic priscorum laudes, quibus nobilitatem doctorum commenta pepererunt, quae faleratis uerborum superciliis meritum a relatore mercantur. necesse enim est exilitatem. thematis narrantis opibus ampliari, ut dos, quae in materia non inuenitur, stili processionibus inseratur. ut taceam Fabios Torquatos Camillos Decios fuisse superatos: te ipsum, mi domine, qui uniuersos uicisti, eius primordiis existimo uotiue 1 dignitatis nostrae Pb 2 reserauit Sirm., reserabit LPTVb impulsor TV 8 tremibnnda B 5 patiscent fort . 6 consolatnts BL 9 bonus LV, onus B, bonos in T (in in ras.) est T 8. I . sepnlchra B 10 anni om. T indnlti BP, indnlgi LTV, Multi b 11 fastua BTVb, fatus L, fanstus P, fastos Sirm . consilia suspectum, fort. ex gloss . cons. (I. e. consulares) ortum longeuitas B 14 aduliscens B, adolescens PTb 15 oblitterarum Lx, obliteratum B stimmatis B, stematis LPTV d 16 attulisti LTV 17 splendiissimi L amputares Sirm., amputaris BLPTVb 19 faleratis BLV, fabulatis T 22 atilo B fabioa ex fauius V m. 1, fanius B 23 torquatns camillus decius BV. (em. m . 1 us in os) snperatus B 24 existimo b, extimo P, stemo BLTV uotiuae B cessisse. tu per duratum proauorum auorumque scipionum tramitem iam grandior, pene praecedentium conexus lateribus ambulasti, ita ut sub coniunctione numquam interpolatae felicitatis incederes. ad Auieni mei adhuc teneri uirtutes pertinet et tuo generi continuare fasces et nostro reddere. ago gratias intentioni in commune augmentum profuturae, per quam cum dei beneficio natalium bonorum claritas hactenus interclusa resplenduit, per quam diem suum lucidus sanguis agnouit. quam uoluissem uotorum meorum summam coram positus intueri, si non peccatorum magnitudo munus caeleste, quod non potuit desideriis, denegaret aspectibus, et nefas sit hominem uno eodemque tempore uniuersa optata promereri! illud tamen inter maximas redemptoris nostri remunerationes credo numerandum, quod limen felicis infantiae consul mens cum honore senis ingressus est. spe praecipio quid paretur laboribus, cum talia primordiis exhibentur. inauspicatis successibus illi profectuum incrementa uentura sunt, quem coepisse uidemus a fascibus. minus est quod sibi de prosperitatis euentu in antiquorum praeconiis uetus fama blanditur. quod adtrita puluere canities, quod uita sub fasce acta uix meruit, quod grandaeuus de inpetratione numquam certus optauit, hoc memorato saepius adulescenti meo supernum munus ingessit. additur quod in principio uitae disciplinis optimis institutus uidetur meruisse quod adeptus est, nec dignatur totum in se felicitati tribui, in quo possunt etiam dari plura uirtuti. naturae in decus scolas et litterarum studia consecutus, paternae perfectionis aemulator, talem se industria sua filium reddidit, qualem alter 1 aaorum B 8. I 2 conezibus T 3 nunquam V ..J 6 agmentum T 7 benificio B actenaa B .10 intueri L i Mtpra scr. tfI. ree . 14 felices B 15 spe] sed Sirm . praecipio BLV, percipio PTb 16 ex*ibentar L h in hac uoce saepislime eras . prouectuum b 17 cepiese BPT 19 attrita t LTV 20 grandeuos BLT 21 impetratione TV, imperatione L optabit B memorati LV, memorat B 22 aduliscenti B 24 in se totiun T 25 indeces (supra es ras.) B, indices toni. Schottue 26 colas B, scholas LPTVb 27 aemulatar B uix potuit elegisse. quicquid Attica, quicquid Romana praecipuum habet lingua cognouit, aurum. Demesthenis et ferrum Ciceronis expendit, utramque dicendi seriem Latinus relator impleuit. grammaticae instructionis repagula et illas dicendi legales angustias pro libertate conplexus est. oratoriam pompam sectando masculae dictionis brachiis aequales ad oratoriam eduxit. sed quo me rapiat processus affectionis terminum refutantis, agnosco: diuisus proposito consulem eruditum ingenio inpar appello. ad uos reuertor, cum quibus mihi commune gaudium, par desiderium, aequalis supplicatio est. oremus deum, quia uota nostra modum refutant, ut ipse faciat perenne esse quod tribuit nec umquam circa nos muneribus suis terminum ponat qui largiendo damna non sensit. nos gaudete tamen uestro tam excellenti bono, quibus fas est post trabeas suas habere filium in obsequio consularem. si tamen in sententia mea caelestis uigor operatur et tota mens humanis delictis inclinata non subiacet, fidelium orationum uestrarum retributio est circa sobolem dignitas inpetrata. urbi sufficerent quantos habet domus una precatores. felix mater, tot imperatorum domina, uos apud deum precibus suis matrona fortis adtollit. per tantos regnum caeleste uim patitur, quorum meritis a diuina clementia quod postulatur exigitur. scriptum enim meminimus dicente discipulis domino: si conuenerit duobus aut tribus uestrum, quicquid petieritis impetrabitis. credo redemptorem iustorum raritate prospecta prospecta salute petituros duos dixisse sufficere. licet 23 Matth. 18, 19 1 atteca B 2 ddmostertis B 3 utranque Pb, ntraque BLTV 4 grammatice B repagola B 5 augustas L complexus LTV 6 braciis B aequalis BLPVb, equal T 8 consule∗ T 9 impar LTV 10 equalis B saspicatio B 11 perhenne T 13 dampna LPV 15 consolarem B 18 impetrata LTV quantus B 19 praecatoree B 20 attoIGt TV 21 celesta L , a. T 22 mminimus L 23 domiao discipulis LPTVb conuenerint duo aut tres PT 24 imperabitis Ll 25 pspecta T . coniectura perpendi, si possit tribus aliquid denegari pro suorum utilitate poscentibus. his ergo: spebus animatus et iustorum cognatione sublimis, confido de superna benignitate etiam me ad optatae copiam gratiae peruenturum. si Abrahae meritis Loth sanctorum turbis adsciscitur, si hi qui caruere propriis propinquorum ad celsa perduci meruere uirtutibus: annus iste familiae, uestrae pariet dignitates. nam siuobis cordi sum, facile ad caelestem gratiam optata inpetratione perducor. domine mi, salutationis, reuerentiam soluens ueniam, , postulo. de prolixitate sermonis quia difficile est magna gaudentem parua loqui esse contentum.