Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 401 AD|symmachus
Late consolation only reopens wounds. We owe each other mutual silence about our misfortunes, lest the injuries dealt by fortune — which are slowly forming scar tissue with the passage of time — break open again from being touched too soon.
Let me turn our conversation instead toward something that might encourage you to look after your health. Every internal ailment worsens in winter's harsh conditions, and if you don't travel on sunny days and in healthy air, I'm seriously worried that neglect will make things worse.
I've sent you the remedies you said you found helpful, along with others that my own experience has shown to be effective. My highest hope is that these treatments forestall the need — that your own health returns of itself — or, if any trace of illness lingers, that these cures may clear it away. The greatest gift you can give our friendship is this: relieve without delay the worry your illness has stirred in me by sending better news.
Instanrant dolorem sera solacia, et ideo mntnnm silentinm calamitatibns nostris
praestare debemns, ne fortnnae vnlnera, qnae cicatricem processn temporis dncnnt,
intempestive contrectata cmdescant. in alia potins sermo vertendns est, qnae te ad
cnram sanitatis hortentnr. omnis qnippe intemns corporis dolor hiemali crescit in-
inria, ac nisi iter apricis diebns et anris salnbribns egeritis, male metno, ne vitinm 10
2 contemptns exaggeret. nnnc ea, qnae remedio adcommoda credidisti, vel qnae nobis
commendavit ntendi exploratio, ad te misi inter votomm snmma constitnens, nt reme-
diomm talinm necessitatem spontanea incolnmitate praevenias, ant si qnae morbi reli-
qniae fnerint, nt his cnrationibns tergeantur. satis antem mnneris commnni amicitiae
dabiSy si eam soUicitudinem , quae mihi ex aegritndine tua oborta est, prosperiore i&
nnntio nihil moratns exemeris.
CI (LXXXXV) a. 380.
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Late consolation only reopens wounds. We owe each other mutual silence about our misfortunes, lest the injuries dealt by fortune — which are slowly forming scar tissue with the passage of time — break open again from being touched too soon.
Let me turn our conversation instead toward something that might encourage you to look after your health. Every internal ailment worsens in winter's harsh conditions, and if you don't travel on sunny days and in healthy air, I'm seriously worried that neglect will make things worse.
I've sent you the remedies you said you found helpful, along with others that my own experience has shown to be effective. My highest hope is that these treatments forestall the need — that your own health returns of itself — or, if any trace of illness lingers, that these cures may clear it away. The greatest gift you can give our friendship is this: relieve without delay the worry your illness has stirred in me by sending better news.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.