Letter 2020: Forgive me for replying so quickly — I still owe something to my age: an unruly haste.
Ennodius to Constantius.
Forgive me for replying so quickly — I still owe something to my age: an unruly haste. Gravity and deliberation suit you better. So indulge a man who trusts you, and shield my trifles from the severity of public scrutiny. If my writing is a shaky and uncertain affair, it takes shelter under the patronage of your command — on the principle that no one disdains what has been ordered. And so, with a farewell, I commend what I have written for your reading: for in the future, having been well received, I will be spurred to obedience by the gentle goads of compliance.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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