Ennodius of Pavia→Faustus|c. 509 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
illness
From: Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To: Faustus, senior Roman aristocrat and statesman
Date: ~507–509 AD
Context: A letter of legal intercession — Ennodius asks Faustus to intervene on behalf of his kinsman Julian, whose case against a certain Marcellinus is being deliberately sabotaged by Marcellinus's studied evasion of the very courts he claims to want.
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The business of Julian — my kinsman and your devoted admirer — is laboring under the manifold machinations of Marcellinus, a man who, prepared to do nothing but complain, nonetheless distrusts the very integrity of the tribunal he invokes. He avoids the examinations he professes to desire.
For after Marcellinus is said to have presented some kind of writ before Genisa [a local official], the aforementioned petitioner — your suppliant Julian — promptly made his way to the hearing at the court of Milan and, for thirty or forty days, placed himself before the public judge in precisely the manner the law requires. He called Geuica himself to witness — the man who, it was maintained, had been duly appointed as the instigator of these proceedings — and pressed him to send his charge to the adjudication. He also took care to inform Lord Trasemundus [a Gothic official of standing in Ostrogothic Italy], as you will be able to verify from Trasemundus's own letters. But none of this availed against a man for whom, in this wretched affair, the only possible remedy is concealment.
On Julian's behalf I make this request — though with Your Magnificence, petitions are hardly a necessary instrument wherever the truth can make itself known — since Julian has transmitted to you every document relating to this matter, so that by your direction he may at last be delivered from disturbances of this kind.
My lord, while I discharge the duties of greeting that I owe you, I cherish the hope that you will, with the attentiveness that is so characteristic of you, cause the harassment inflicted by the aforesaid Marcellinus to be removed — and that you will relieve my own anxiety about the state of your health and fortunes with a letter in return.
XX.. ENNODIVS FAVSTO.
Multiplicibus ueneratoris uestri adfinis mei Iuliani negotium
Marcellini laborat insidiis, qui ad querelam tantummodo paratus
de iudicii integritate diffidit: uitat quae optat examina.
nam postquam nescio quod praeceptum ad Genisam exhibuisse
perhibetur, praedictus supplex uester ad Mediolanensis fori
audientiam mox cucurrit et per triginta aut quadraginta dies
praesentiam suam publico, sicut oportebat, ingessit iudicis.
contestatus est ipsum Geuicam, qui ordinatus adserebatur inpulsor
: . ut susceptum suum ad indicia destinaret, admonuit.
domnum quoque Trasemundum, sicut ex litteris ipsius poteritis
agnoscere, fecit scire. sed nihil apud eum profuit, cui
solae latebrae in causa misera possunt esse remedio. pro quo
rogo, quamquam apud uos precibus opus non est, ubicumque
ueritas innotescit, quia omnia huius rei instrumenta
XVIIII. 3 iosta T mea om. Sirm. ne om. B a scripmODe
Pb, adieriptione B 5 exegit B nis BLTV, ius Pb, cf.
p. 81,6 6 iaditia LV 7 elapsu fort . 8 indioolum B
qui] quo fort . 9 sequanda B
XX. 12 neneratoris (s ita rcu.) B 18 querellam B 15 uegicam
LJ ,, exhibuisse (exbibn in ras.) T, exibuisse L poIt ras .
16 predictns B 17 conenrrit Pb xxx aut XL B 18 presentiam
B publico] snplioo T 19 adseribatnr B 21 dominum
B tnueemnndum (n eras.) L licteris Ll ut uidetur
21 suire type V scire s. h scr. et tygre deleuit m. 1 26 innotiscit B
transmisit, ut ordinatione uestra ab huiusmodi molestiis efficiatur
alienus. domine, salutationis obsequia deferens spero, ut et a
praedicto inquietudinem remoueri qua soletis cura faciatis et
meam sollicitudinem de prosperitatis uestrae statu litteris
subleuetis.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To:Faustus, senior Roman aristocrat and statesman
Date:~507–509 AD
Context:A letter of legal intercession — Ennodius asks Faustus to intervene on behalf of his kinsman Julian, whose case against a certain Marcellinus is being deliberately sabotaged by Marcellinus's studied evasion of the very courts he claims to want.
---
The business of Julian — my kinsman and your devoted admirer — is laboring under the manifold machinations of Marcellinus, a man who, prepared to do nothing but complain, nonetheless distrusts the very integrity of the tribunal he invokes. He avoids the examinations he professes to desire.
For after Marcellinus is said to have presented some kind of writ before Genisa [a local official], the aforementioned petitioner — your suppliant Julian — promptly made his way to the hearing at the court of Milan and, for thirty or forty days, placed himself before the public judge in precisely the manner the law requires. He called Geuica himself to witness — the man who, it was maintained, had been duly appointed as the instigator of these proceedings — and pressed him to send his charge to the adjudication. He also took care to inform Lord Trasemundus [a Gothic official of standing in Ostrogothic Italy], as you will be able to verify from Trasemundus's own letters. But none of this availed against a man for whom, in this wretched affair, the only possible remedy is concealment.
On Julian's behalf I make this request — though with Your Magnificence, petitions are hardly a necessary instrument wherever the truth can make itself known — since Julian has transmitted to you every document relating to this matter, so that by your direction he may at last be delivered from disturbances of this kind.
My lord, while I discharge the duties of greeting that I owe you, I cherish the hope that you will, with the attentiveness that is so characteristic of you, cause the harassment inflicted by the aforesaid Marcellinus to be removed — and that you will relieve my own anxiety about the state of your health and fortunes with a letter in return.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.