Letter 22

**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia **To:** Opilio, senator and court official at Ravenna **Date:** ~511 AD **Context:** A letter of elegant reproach to the powerful senator Opilio [who held high office under Theoderic the Great], whose early warmth toward Ennodius had given way to silence — prompting this elaborately constructed appeal for renewed correspondence. --- Your Greatness had begun to lift up my insignificance with a hope that surpassed all prayer, and after the manner of heaven's own dispensation to make its gifts shine the more brightly — weighing my merits on no scale of judgment, or rather, careless of all reckoning, bestowing worth upon favors it had itself declared undeserved. For the affection shown toward the humble carries no obligation with it; it announces its own character through a clear and blazing splendor. Long upheld, then, by such confidence — second only to God — I did not fear whatever poison the tongues of detractors held in store for me. But when your forgetfulness drove me back to my old dust, as tends to befall those stripped of a protector and left without consolation, I sent forward letters that were, in a manner of speaking, carriers of complaint, promising myself a reply wrung out by their very importunity. Yet perhaps Your Eminence, through the mounting accumulation of pressing obligations, is signaling that you cannot find your way to such duties. I shall try again — since that same condition prevailed when Your Highness last directed pages my way. Still, I rein myself back to the proper measure of letter-writing, lest excessive piling-on add tedium, and the very plea that called these pages forth become the reason they go unanswered. My lord: I discharge the duty of salutation, and inquire after your health as one whose spirit is bound to yours, hoping that the news your reply brings may carry me to the fulfillment of a double longing.

XXII. OPILIONI ENNODIVS. Coeperat paruitatem meam magnitudo uestra spe, quae uota transiret, dignationis adtollere et caelestis instituti more 1 mestitiam BLTV mi T i in ras . 2 gerolum presentium B -ūc. BL, nunc Pb caras meas B 3 aolites B1 I I snscepite BV1, suscipte T pte in ras . 5 predictus B XXI. 9 aduentum PlT 10 indicio Pb 11 consueta. officia Sirm . 12 qua.nquam LV 13 snbpraesserim B 14 eero B, refero b et Sirm. merore BLPTV 16 expectat* T t\' in ras . allabitor LTV solatio LT 17 praecor F1 18 eorum B, meorum LPTVb 19 medilla B 21 literarum T XXII. 25 ceperat T 26 attollere LV, attoleret T1 VL 3 clariora facere beneficia sua, dum mea merita nulla iudicii lance pensabat, uel censurae neglegens dare pretium muneribus, quae esse monstrabat indebita, quoniam affectio, quae circa humiles exhibetur, non habet necessitatem et speciem suam per sudum rutilanti splendore significat. diu ergo tali fultus post deum praesumptione non timui quicquid obloquentium toxica promittebant. ast ubi me ad antiquum puluerem uestri reduxit obliuio, quod in solacio solet nudatis defensore contingere, quasi querelarum perlatrices litteras prorogaui, promittens mihi de earum inportunitate responsum. sed per occupationum forsitan amplitudo uestra praepedientium incrementa significat ad haec uos officia non uenire. replicabo, quia idem status fuit culminis uestri dudum paginas destinantis. ad morem tamen scriptionis epistulariae me reduco, ne addat prolixitas ingesta fastidium et denegari paginas faciat magis allegatio quae poposcit. domine mi, salutationis obsequium soluo et de ualitudine uestra ut animo obligatus interrogo, cupiens relationis indicio ad gemina desideria peruenire.