Letter 1011: You ought to relieve one who loves you with the favor of conversation and reveal your devoted affection by the...
Ennodius of Pavia→Castorius, of Ariminum|c. 501 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
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Ennodius to Castorius and Florus.
You ought to relieve one who loves you with the favor of conversation and reveal your devoted affection by the testimony of your speech, since silent love nearly assumes the character of ingratitude, and through the abstinence of correspondence the force of love is intercepted. For absent friends, the offering of letters alone provides remedy — letters which, by a certain art of the mind, paint through writing the person with whom one converses. We think it superfluous to assert this before you, whom noble upbringing sharpens, for whom blood and learning and fellowship stand ready. There is nothing among the liberal arts that you could be ignorant of without the fault of negligence — you whom, after the light of your birth, the Roman glory Faustus has instructed. It must therefore rather be admitted that I do not deserve what I request, than that you do not know what you ought to offer.
My lords, paying the debt of greeting with the most effusive humility, I pray that at long last, not unmindful of our bond and my reminders, you will write back — work about which it does not become you to be idle, since neither a holy conscience nor a rich power of speech can be lacking to your way of life and your conversation.
XI. CASTORIO ET FLORO ENNODIVS.
Amantem uestri gratia deberetis releuare conloquii et amicam
diligentiam testimonio reserare sermonis, quia muta caritas
pene obtinet uices ingrati et per paginarum abstinentiam intercipitur
uis amoris. absentum animis sola litterarum medetur
oblatio, quae quodam mentis artificio pingit scriptione quocum
loquitur. haec apud uos superuacuum putamus adserere, quos
instituta nobilia acuunt, quibus praesto est sanguis doctrina
consortium. nihil est bonarum artium, quod nescire sine neglegentiae
culpa possitis, quos post lucem natalium Romanum
decus Faustus instituit. ergo magis fatendum est me non
mereri quod postulo, quam uos nescire quid debeatis offerre.
domini mi, salutationis debita effusissima humilitate persoluens
precor, ut tandem aliquando non inmemores admonitionis
et foederis rescribatis, circa quae opera pigros uos esse non
conuenit, quia nec conuersationi uestrae sancta conscientia nec
uber sermo potest deesse conloquiis.
2 praepara. L t? eras . 3 affectum T 4 perueniunt T
XI. 7 reuelare L 9 poene optinet B uieces B intercipeturB10umB,etabeentiumPb;absenntium-litte-
cipetur B 10 abientem B, et abeentium Pb; absentium — litterarum
T in ras . m. 2 11 artifico L scribtione B quocum
scripei, quod LPTVb, quos B 12 asserere TYb 14 ne-
Ui
gligentiae T et sic saepius 15 positis LT, poBsides B tis 8. I. m.
rec. (Schotti ?) post lucemj p\' luce B 16 me—quod T in ras .
m. 2 17 postolo Y corr. m. 1 18 domini] dum Pb mi
scripsi, mihi BLTYb, uichi P efifnauma L, et effusissima B
19 inmemores T mores Mt ras . m. 2 20 pigrus B
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Ennodius to Castorius and Florus.
You ought to relieve one who loves you with the favor of conversation and reveal your devoted affection by the testimony of your speech, since silent love nearly assumes the character of ingratitude, and through the abstinence of correspondence the force of love is intercepted. For absent friends, the offering of letters alone provides remedy — letters which, by a certain art of the mind, paint through writing the person with whom one converses. We think it superfluous to assert this before you, whom noble upbringing sharpens, for whom blood and learning and fellowship stand ready. There is nothing among the liberal arts that you could be ignorant of without the fault of negligence — you whom, after the light of your birth, the Roman glory Faustus has instructed. It must therefore rather be admitted that I do not deserve what I request, than that you do not know what you ought to offer.
My lords, paying the debt of greeting with the most effusive humility, I pray that at long last, not unmindful of our bond and my reminders, you will write back — work about which it does not become you to be idle, since neither a holy conscience nor a rich power of speech can be lacking to your way of life and your conversation.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.