Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 391 AD|symmachus
For my part, I'm secure enough in our friendship to take it in stride if someone who loves me slips up. But a man of your sterling reputation can't afford to neglect his correspondence — it's beneath you.
You think I'm complaining that you don't write at all, and you're ready to counter that you have, in fact, written. But I wouldn't be nearly as bothered by total silence as I am by this: you sent one letter — and a brief one at that — addressed to both me and my father. Are we really not worth a page apiece?
"It was meant as a compliment," you'll say, "linking you with your father." There are other things I hope to share with him, or to match; but let my affection be addressed to me personally.
So please — no more letters that read like official proclamations. Dispense with the false economy. But I'd better stop here, or my lengthy complaint will annoy you more than your stinginess annoys me.
Ego quidem secums amicitiae tuae aequi boniqne facio, si quid in me ab amante
i& peccatnr; sed tnos mores, quibns nihil desit ad landem, dedecet officii neglegentia.
qneri me opinaris, quod nihil scribas, et refellere mendacium paras, quia te aliquid
scripsisse meministi. ego vero minimum animi angerer, si taceres, prae nt hoc est,
qnod mibi et patri nnas atqne eas oppido breves litteras detulisti. ita tibi ambo digni
Bingnlis paginis non videmur? tui, inqnies, honoris interfuit, nt iungereris parenti. 2
20 alia snnt, quae cnm illo nobis vel communia opto vel paria; amor mihi meo nomine
deferatur. abstine igitur epistulis, quae sunt instar edicti; facessat omne fastidium,
ex qno nascitur cura conpendii. sed longnm de his loqni cautio est, ne tibi molestior
sit proiixitas qnerellae nostrae, quam mihi brevitas epistulae tuae. qnod snperest,
deos qnaeso, nt nos plenos gandii qnam primum revisas. facile erit angustias scrip-
3s torum tuomm multiloqnio repensare. vale.
LI(XXXXV) a. 383?
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For my part, I'm secure enough in our friendship to take it in stride if someone who loves me slips up. But a man of your sterling reputation can't afford to neglect his correspondence — it's beneath you.
You think I'm complaining that you don't write at all, and you're ready to counter that you have, in fact, written. But I wouldn't be nearly as bothered by total silence as I am by this: you sent one letter — and a brief one at that — addressed to both me and my father. Are we really not worth a page apiece?
"It was meant as a compliment," you'll say, "linking you with your father." There are other things I hope to share with him, or to match; but let my affection be addressed to me personally.
So please — no more letters that read like official proclamations. Dispense with the false economy. But I'd better stop here, or my lengthy complaint will annoy you more than your stinginess annoys me.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.