Letter 83
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 399 AD|symmachus
Here's my second letter, and I still haven't received a reply to the first. You'll claim the demands of travel have kept you from writing, and perhaps a dozen other excuses besides.
Out of my affection for you, I'll accept the apology without complaint. But with equal affection, I ask that when you do have a free moment, you make up for the enforced silence with a voluntary letter.
En tibi secnndas litteras meas et adhnc prioribns yicissitndo debetur. dic^ viandi i &
negotio impeditam din operam scriptionis et alia forsitan mnlta cansabere. ego prae
tni amore hanc yeniam non grayabor, sed eodem amore postnlo, nt cnm erit otinm,
mora necessarii silentii officio yolnntario snppleatur.
LXXXI (LXXV) .
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Here's my second letter, and I still haven't received a reply to the first. You'll claim the demands of travel have kept you from writing, and perhaps a dozen other excuses besides.
Out of my affection for you, I'll accept the apology without complaint. But with equal affection, I ask that when you do have a free moment, you make up for the enforced silence with a voluntary letter.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.