From: Ennodius, deacon and man of letters, in Pavia
To: Euprepia, his sister and mother of Lupicinus
Date: ~504 AD
Context: A letter of elaborate reproach to his long-absent sister, who had failed to write for so long that her silence amounted, in Ennodius's telling, to a kind of living death — until a single letter brought her back.
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By the dispensation of a heavenly mystery, the affection of a sister was restored to me and the affection of a mother to Lupicinus, both at the same moment — and the bond of our twofold kinship has earned the right to receive back its wanderer after so long an absence.
You came back to life among us, after the death of love you yourself had arranged, through the gift of your letter: we watched affection rise, as it were, from a particular tomb. The news of your well-being reached our ears unexpectedly — your well-being, belonging to one whom we had believed, through sheer contempt of us, to have fulfilled the functions of the grave while still breathing. We believe that you have suffered hard things; but I confess that you have inflicted upon us the hardest things of all. What you endured you share in common with the good; what you did, you share with the cruel.
In what corner of the world, pray tell, has your maternal care been hiding itself all this time? Where has the debt you owed your brother gone astray? Your soul had traveled to greater distances than your body. If adversity, companion to your wandering, had driven you to the uttermost limits of the earth, then the loyalty of a sister and the anxious care of a mother ought to have followed you there. But you — near the setting of the sun [that is, far off in the West] as they tell us you have been — carried in your breast a heart cold toward devoted love. You ought to have imitated the heavenly body [the moon] whose eclipse is followed by a fortunate rebirth into its full and proper radiance; you ought not to have maintained a spirit perpetually on holiday from all grace. Instead, you adopted the outlook of the provincials among whom you settled: you changed your region, and in doing so you renounced your resolution of dutiful affection. For in abjuring all communion with Italy, you drove away not only friends but even the most intimate pledges of the heart.
In the end, a change of soul came upon you together with the change of land.
How greatly I fear the effect of pursuing your neglect with these long complaints! What will offense accomplish, when even without offense you showed nothing but contempt? I have given righteous grief to the endeavors of one who does not love — and yet I have also introduced arguments that might make you appear innocent. But this reproach, if it is considered purely in itself, is harsh; if its source is examined, it is seasoned with all the honey of sweetness. A man bears hard the neglect of one he loves who, speaking freely, dares to charge a kinswoman with silence.
You can correct your errors — if physical presence is beyond you — through the abundance of your letters. Offering therefore the grace of greeting, I ask that you remember me: I who went before your prayers and your vows on behalf of our common son [Lupicinus], having already considered what I owed before I came to know what you would wish. Now you — appease God with devout worship, and offer up your unceasing prayers for us; may He look upon the intention I hold for the boy's advancement, and upon the hidden things of my heart, so that what I pledge through my own labor, He may bring to fulfillment through His aid.
XV. EVPREPIAE ENNODIVS.
Caelestis dispensatione mysterii uno tempore mihi sororis,
Lupicino refusus est matris affectus, et geminae copula necessitudinis
peregrinantem recipere meruit post interualla.
reuixisti apud nos post dilectionis quem procuraueras obitum
beneficio litterarum: uidimus amorem quasi de quadam sepultura
surgentem. inauspicato nobis incolumitatis uestrae nuntius
accessit auditu, quam credebamus per contemptum nostri uiuentem
busta conplesse. credimus te dura perpessam, sed confiteur
inrogasse durissima. quod sustinuisti commune cum
bonis est, cum crudelibus quod fecisti. ubinam gentium materna
hactenus cura delituit? ubi quod fratri debebatur errauit?
ad longiora animus tuus quam corpus abscesserat. si te ad
ultima terrarum confinia peregrinationi socia dispulisset aduersitas,
illuc sequi debuit germanae fides et sollicitudo genetricis.
sed in occasu solis, cui proxima fuisse narraris, frigidum pii
amoris pectus habuisti. imitata fuisses aetherii sideris circa
debitam diligentiam defectum feliciter renascentem et feriatum
a gratia non perpetuo animum gessisses. suscepisti mentem
prouincialium, quos adisti: mutasti regionem et propositum
pietatis abdicasti. nam abiurans Italiae communionem, non
solum circa amicos, sed etiam circa interna pignora reppulisti.
XV. 4 effectus T 5 inter∗nalla B 6 obitil B supra u
ras. 8 inauepecato B 9 adcessit B nostrum Sirm., nestri
Pb 10 coplesse T 11 sustenuisti B, sustinuisti V ti et proxima
syllaba com in rcu. cfoTin ras . 13 «actenus L, haotinus B
deli|tuit L li ex le eorr. m. rec . 14 abcesserat T 15 peregrinationis
ocia (otia T) LTV1 dispolisset B 16 illuc P et Sirm.,
illic BLTVb genitricis T 17 occasu L\' pio B 18 amores
B habuistis T etherii BL, etherei PV, etberi T 20 ani.
h
mam om. in textu add. in mg. V m. 1 gesiassee B suscepti
B 21 preuintialium V 22 abdi∗casti (s ? erat.) L, om. V sed
abdi add. m. 1, abdicasse| B nam (a ex u corr.) V, ntl in mg.
add. B, non Pb non s. c. a. a. etiam Y in ras . m. 1 italiam
aut curam circa scribendum uidetur 23 prius circa T 9. 1. m. 2, alt .
circa V s. I. m. 1 repulisti T
postremo animae tibi mutatio accessit cum mutatione telluris.
quam timeo quod longis incuriam tuam incesso conloquiis!
quid offensa faciet quae inlaesa contempsit ? dedi iustum dolorem
studiis non amantis: quae te innocentem faciant causas
ingessi. sed exprobratio ista, si per se respiciatur, . aspera
est, si origo eius inquiratur, omni dulcedinis melle condita.
grauiter fert circa caritatem neglegentiam qui parentis silentium
liber accusat. poteris errata corrigere, si praesentia non
uales, scriptione multiplici. salutis ergo gratiam praesentans
quaeso, ut mei memineris, qui preces tuas circa communem
filium et uota praecessi. ante enim quid debuissem consideraui,
quam quid uelles agnoscerem. tu deum religione placa
et precum circa nos adsiduitate conpone, qui intentionem meam
in eius profectum et cordis secreta respiciat, ut quod ego
labore polliceor ille praestet auxilio.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon and man of letters, in Pavia
To:Euprepia, his sister and mother of Lupicinus
Date:~504 AD
Context:A letter of elaborate reproach to his long-absent sister, who had failed to write for so long that her silence amounted, in Ennodius's telling, to a kind of living death — until a single letter brought her back.
---
By the dispensation of a heavenly mystery, the affection of a sister was restored to me and the affection of a mother to Lupicinus, both at the same moment — and the bond of our twofold kinship has earned the right to receive back its wanderer after so long an absence.
You came back to life among us, after the death of love you yourself had arranged, through the gift of your letter: we watched affection rise, as it were, from a particular tomb. The news of your well-being reached our ears unexpectedly — your well-being, belonging to one whom we had believed, through sheer contempt of us, to have fulfilled the functions of the grave while still breathing. We believe that you have suffered hard things; but I confess that you have inflicted upon us the hardest things of all. What you endured you share in common with the good; what you did, you share with the cruel.
In what corner of the world, pray tell, has your maternal care been hiding itself all this time? Where has the debt you owed your brother gone astray? Your soul had traveled to greater distances than your body. If adversity, companion to your wandering, had driven you to the uttermost limits of the earth, then the loyalty of a sister and the anxious care of a mother ought to have followed you there. But you — near the setting of the sun [that is, far off in the West] as they tell us you have been — carried in your breast a heart cold toward devoted love. You ought to have imitated the heavenly body [the moon] whose eclipse is followed by a fortunate rebirth into its full and proper radiance; you ought not to have maintained a spirit perpetually on holiday from all grace. Instead, you adopted the outlook of the provincials among whom you settled: you changed your region, and in doing so you renounced your resolution of dutiful affection. For in abjuring all communion with Italy, you drove away not only friends but even the most intimate pledges of the heart.
In the end, a change of soul came upon you together with the change of land.
How greatly I fear the effect of pursuing your neglect with these long complaints! What will offense accomplish, when even without offense you showed nothing but contempt? I have given righteous grief to the endeavors of one who does not love — and yet I have also introduced arguments that might make you appear innocent. But this reproach, if it is considered purely in itself, is harsh; if its source is examined, it is seasoned with all the honey of sweetness. A man bears hard the neglect of one he loves who, speaking freely, dares to charge a kinswoman with silence.
You can correct your errors — if physical presence is beyond you — through the abundance of your letters. Offering therefore the grace of greeting, I ask that you remember me: I who went before your prayers and your vows on behalf of our common son [Lupicinus], having already considered what I owed before I came to know what you would wish. Now you — appease God with devout worship, and offer up your unceasing prayers for us; may He look upon the intention I hold for the boy's advancement, and upon the hidden things of my heart, so that what I pledge through my own labor, He may bring to fulfillment through His aid.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.