Letter 3010: **From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia

**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Pavia **To:** Luminosus, Roman aristocrat and friend **Date:** ~500–505 AD **Context:** What begins as an elaborate meditation on friendship across distance quickly reveals its true purpose: Ennodius is calling in a debt of over four hundred gold solidi, disbursed on his personal guarantee for the Pope's needs at Ravenna, and he needs Luminosus to arrange repayment before his own honor is forfeit. --- The sacred bond of friendship, and the tender plant of grace that has grown up between us, might feel no wound from the distance that separates our regions — if what is denied to sight could be compensated by conversation, and if we, divided by the sluggish weight of our bodies, were united in soul through that portion of ourselves which we have drawn down from heaven. The tongue might set its seal upon the vows of our hearts as pure tokens of affection, if speech were made to serve the fullness of longing, and the innermost chamber of the mind, thrown open, were held fast within letters. Then affection would never grow stale through neglect; then the care of our mutual bond, polished bright by practice, would shine; and the memory we hold of one another would not be dulled by rough and sluggish silence. But what am I to do? The clouds of my own failings draw themselves across the clear sky that a true friend deserves, and my sins conspire to bring me into forgetfulness. Yet let it be far from my intention to imitate what I grieve was done — to take revenge for your silence through a silence of my own. Driven by this double goad, then, I have surrendered to words. I could not refuse the exchange of letters, which both the occasion and goodwill demanded. You know very well what your holy father [Luminosus's bishop, apparently a close patron], my lord the bishop, sought from you — both through me as intermediary and in his own voice directly — namely, that the expenditure which was made at Ravenna for the needs of my lord the Pope [likely Pope Symmachus, who had dealings at Ravenna during the turbulent years of the Laurentian Schism] should be repaid through reimbursement. For to certain powerful persons — whose names it would not be safe to commit to writing — God knows he disbursed more than four hundred gold solidi; and he disbursed these on the strength of my word of guarantee. My reputation with him cannot stand free until, as I fully trust it will, the promise is honored through your agency. I have therefore sent you the bearer of this letter, a man of both piety and trustworthiness, so that you might relieve me of the obligation and the injustice I have described. And so, tendering you the honor of my greeting with all humility, I beg and call to witness — through Him who looked with favor upon the prayers we offered together for the holy Pope — that you arrange, in whatever way is proper, how I may be delivered from this burden of anxiety. Yet if you do not consider it beneath your dignity, give me word, and I will restore from my own means whatever is established to have been spent through my guarantee by the holy bishop — for I hold letters from the holy Pope himself, in which he directed that whatever needed doing should be carried out on the surety of my name. If it falls to me to bear the labor, it will be for your care and discretion to settle the cost.

X. ENNODIVS LVMINOSO. Posset amicitiarum religio et adultae inter nos planta gratiae nulla discretarum sentire damna regionum, si quod negatur aspectui pensaretur alloquiis et pigro corporum onere diuisi 7 naratione T mi PTb, mihi BLV 8 gesseres B* scribus] flnit add. LPTV VIIII. 10 ennodias om. T marcellino T 11 habundare PT 13 pollicere L1 aliquae B immutatione b 16 domine mi P sapra Bx 17 ut T 9. I. m. 2 frequenti me] frequentissime B 18 mihi summum T 19 quos] quia Sirm . fidia B X. 22 ennodius om, T 23 possit Bb, poscit coni. Schottus 25 corpore T\' honere T per illam, quam e caelo sumpsimus partem, animis iungeremur. index merae affectionis uota pectorum lingua signaret, si ad desiderii copiam militaret oris officium et penetrale mentis resignatum teneretur in litteris: tunc nullo caritas neglectu ueteresceret, tunc diligentia mutuae deuinctionis usu polita fulgeret nec scabro memoria nostri torpore laederetur. sed quid faciam quod mihi meritorum meorum nebulae serenitatem bene amantis obducunt et obliuionem mei peccata conciliant? facessat a proposito meo imitari quod factum doleo et per silentium sumere de uestra taciturnitate uindictam. geminis ergo stimulis uerba concessi. negare non potui conmercium epistolare, quod et causa poposcit et gratia. scitis optime quae a uobis et per me et ore proprio sanctus pater uester domnus episcopus postulauit, ut expensa, quae pro necessitatibus domni papae Rauennae facta est, redibitione pensaretur. certis enim potentibus, quorum nomina tutum non est scripto signari, nouit dominus, quia plus quam quadringentos auri solidos erogauit: hos me fidem dicente concessit. frons mea apud ipsum libera esse non potest, donec per uos, sicut confido, pollicitatio compleatur. idcirco direxi praesentium perlatorem, hominem et religionis et fidei, ut ab hac me quam praefatus sum conuentione et iniuria subleuetis. unde salutationis honorem tota humilitate persoluens rogo per illum contestans, qui communia circa sanctum papam uota respexit, ut ordinetis qualiter ab huiusmodi inquietudine releuer. tamen si uerecundum esse non 1 sumsimus LPV animi si B 2 indix B maere LV, mere BT si om. B 3 cupiam B 4 a re I signatum T are add. m. 2 5 ueterasceret T\'b diligentia BP, diligenti LT Vb mutue B fulgent T1 6 nri B, uestri LPTVb 7 mihi B s. 1 . 8 mei peccata mea Sirm . 11 commercium BL, e, commertium T 12 proposuit B scit (s ex c corr.) L tum 14 pape BTV 16 tam B, tuum L scriptio L 17 qua- n drigentos V solidus L 20 iccirco T direxit T, direxit BLPVb et om. Sirm. 21 me ab hac T 24 eanctum] spm T creditis, indicate, et de propria facultate restituo quicquid me spondente a sancto episcopo constat expensum, quia litteras sancti papae habeo, quibus iussit quicquid opus esset fieri cum mea debere securitate compleri. si mereor laborare, uestrae erit prouisionis expendere.