Letter 13

Ennodius to Agapitus. My heart is troubled since your Greatness, so careful in observing fairness and so tenacious in friendship, has turned to this carelessness of forgetting me — so that, heedless of devotion, the blessings of a better age that have come through the advancement of your honors have been announced by rumor rather than by a welcome letter. Where are those holy recesses of your conscience, so venerable in their manner of life? When could a heart anxious about a friend's joy have found things more worthy of report? But I wonder whether some malicious person has let a south wind loose upon the flowers, or a destructive animal into the rose garden. For a friend's good fortune is never concealed without offense: it comes from ill will to keep silent to those far away about what brings you joy. Let the foulness of malice be far from your character. I think I have earned the right to know your blessings, since the frequency of my correspondence will be weighed against such silence. No cultivation of affection can console a friend who retreats from the desires of love. However you may paint these things, my lord, with the noble images of your learned words — rarely are misdeeds cured by conversations, and grief that descends from a real cause cannot be healed by talk; it will be hard to erase by writing what you despised to write. But I return to my purpose, from which — if God has mercy — one must never depart. I owe it to God that, despite your silence, I was the first in Liguria to learn of your good fortune. You have lost the fruit of your studious taciturnity: the prosperity of good men is celebrated by the tongue of the world; what has come to the highest cannot remain unknown. In honors, the things that are rendered back are more to be embraced: he who is raised to the fasces is poorly served if his mind does not recognize the evidence of its own light among its titles. A venerable, time-honored dignity has come to you — late, but owed. Your tongue summoned it, which it follows; your innocence demanded it, which once had age for its companion. But now I return to the grace of friendly address, even after your offense. Farewell, my lord, and what you have neglected to your damage of our pledged bond, restore by an abundance of speech.

XIII. AGAPITO ENNODIVS. Male est animo, postquam magnitudo tua aequi obseruantissima et amicitiarum tenax in hanc meae obliuionis se uertit incuriam, ut diligentiae inmemor bona melioris saeculi, quae accesserunt de profectu honorum tuorum, fama potius quam felici epistula nuntiasset. ubi sunt illa sanctae conscientiae tuae in conuersatione ueneranda penetralia? quando inuenire potuisset relatu digniora animus de amantis hilaritate sollicitus? sed quaero, ne malignorum quispiam austrum floribus aut petulcum animal rosetis inmiserit. numquam enim sine offensa amicis prosper euentus absconditur: a commotione euenit longe degentibus tacere quod gaudeas. procul a moribus uestris malitiae facessat obscenitas. puto bona uestra me meruisse Q 1 accipero BL formidandam V eorr. m. 1 3 depręhendere i. L 5 incipientum Sirm . cognosco V corr. m. 1 6 tenere B, tenerea L 8 manifestetnr Tl utuidetur 9 soluta scripsi, solita LPTVb, saluta B, saluto coni. Schot . 10 saltem Pb, saltim BLTV XIII. 12 ennodius agapito TV 14 obseruandissima B 15 amititiaram Bl in hanc T in ras . m. 2 17 adcessernnt B 18 sancte B 19 conuersatione Pb, consernatione LTV, consernatione amoris B 20 relato B 21 quaero] uereor fort . ne] ne forte B floribus scripsi, fontibus BLPTVb, &1. fetibus P* in mg . 22 petnlcum animal T in ras. m. 2 23 prosper B er in marg . add. deuenit T . nescire, quia sermonis frequentia pensabitur tale silentium. decedentem a desideriis amicum nulla delenire potest cultura caritatis. haec quantauis, mi domine, nobilibus scientiae tuae uerborum pingas imaginibus, raro curantur malefacta conloquiis, et dolor, qui a re descenderit, sanari non potest per loquelam uix erit, ut scribendo deleas, quod scribere contempsisti. sed reuertor ad propositum, a quo numquam est, si miseretur diuinitas, discedendum. deo debeo, quod prospera tua te silentium procurante in Liguria primus agnoui. perdidisti fructum studiosae taciturnitatis: bonorum felicitas mundi lingua celebratur: ignorari non potest quod summis accesserit. in honoribus illa magis amplectenda sunt quae redduntur: male ad fasces adtollitur cuius mens inter curiae sidera lucis suae suffragia non agnoscit in titulis. uenit ad uos cana dignitas [sera], sed debita. uocauit eam lingua, quam sequitur: exegit innocentia, quam habuit quondam aetate coniunctam. sed iam redeo ad gratiam familiaris alloquii etiam post offensam. salue, mi domine, et quod in damno promissi foederis neglexisti restitue ubertate sermonis.