6 surviving letters between Adeodatus and Ennodius of Pavia, spanning 498-520 AD.
Who could forget your affection and not be accounted inhuman?
I should have replied to your letter long ago, and the delay weighs on me.
My wishes have been fulfilled through your efforts, and I write to acknowledge both the result and the agent.
Bitter illness has laid me low, and from this bed I write to you with what strength remains.
How much your friendship has meant to me, only God fully knows — and perhaps you have some inkling.
The dispensation of heaven arranges our affairs with a wisdom we rarely appreciate at the time.