Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 385 AD|symmachus
I interrupt your busy schedule with my steady stream of letters — partly because I enjoy this kind of exchange myself, and partly because I believe it brings some comfort during your time away from home.
Your letters in return I look forward to but don't demand. It would be wrong to press hard for something you merely hope for, lest what should be freely given appear forced.
On another matter: I'm delighted that my friend Innocentius won your friendship even before I could write on his behalf — it makes recommending him much easier, since you already know and approve of him. So I ask just one thing: let a man who already stands on his own merit be loved all the more generously for the sake of my endorsement. Farewell.
Interpello occupationes tuas adsiduitate colloqnii. nam et ipse huiusmodi pascor
ift officio , et peregrinationem tuam solaciis talibus credo recreari. tuas autem vicissim
litteras expecto non exigo. iniurium quippe est magnopere flagitare, qnod speres, ne
qnod est voluntarium, videatur extortum. sane fratri meo Innocentio gratulor amici-
tias tnas, prinsquam scriberem, contigisse, qnia facilior mihi esse coepit eius commen-
datio, qnem probasti, quam fuisset incogniti. itaque hoc unum beneficii loco postnlo,
30 ut qni sni commendatione iam nititnr, testimonii nostri gratia cumulatius diligatur. vale.
10 Cic. pro Bo8C. Am. 13, 37.
2 Symmachiu Ausonio] (77), om. FF 3 tocitnm totienB F 4 instigare] 77, instare VF{r)
teria F decessio LaiinuM Laiiniui 7 aeqoe bene om, F 9 negglegentius V marcet] 77F,
mulcet Vr0 10 teraa] V, teneas F liuet] 77, liquet F, nitet V me legisse F saepe] F,
etiam F, etiam saepe (77) 11 seuerus F 12 aestimabis] (77), estlmaui VF sed om. (77)
tegere] haec tegere F 13 uti in F animositatis F expeto] Sute^ expecto VF
16 om. VM 17 occasionem parui 77 18 retuli] Af(77), reppuU V 19 te po9i salutationis
eoUoe. VM
3*
n
20 SYMBLA.CHI EPISTVLAE
XXXVII (XXXI) a. 370—379.
◆
I interrupt your busy schedule with my steady stream of letters — partly because I enjoy this kind of exchange myself, and partly because I believe it brings some comfort during your time away from home.
Your letters in return I look forward to but don't demand. It would be wrong to press hard for something you merely hope for, lest what should be freely given appear forced.
On another matter: I'm delighted that my friend Innocentius won your friendship even before I could write on his behalf — it makes recommending him much easier, since you already know and approve of him. So I ask just one thing: let a man who already stands on his own merit be loved all the more generously for the sake of my endorsement. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.