Ennodius of Pavia→Euprepia|c. 515 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
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From: Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To: Euprepia, his kinswoman
Date: ~510 AD
Context: A pointed rebuke to a female relative whose letter arrived cold and perfunctory — and who, Ennodius charges, carries her suspicious, ungracious nature with her wherever she goes.
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Although the letter I received from Your Charity came attended by nothing more than the bare formalities of duty — suited neither to genuine feeling nor to the bond of kinship between us — the situation nonetheless demanded that I answer with a like exchange, dispatching my diligence abroad in the guise of the pen, lest the failure to render the service of a reply reveal, not that your cleverness had made itself known to me, but rather that my own inadequacy stood nakedly exposed.
I have no wish, sister Euprepia, for you to take shelter behind the hardships of your province, or — as you have claimed — behind the intrusions of tiresome people. Wherever you withdraw to, experience makes plain enough, you do not leave your over-credulous mind behind: we do not escape our faults by changing our address.
Your manner toward those close to you has been of such a kind that you have weighed their acts of kindness by no fair reading, and corrected their missteps with rather more reproach than those missteps deserved.
But why should a letter of grief be made longer than need be? Your character is not something that any abundance of eloquence can alter. So: farewell, my lady, and arrange the ordering of your life and your soul as best serves you.
Know, however, that I shall render to Lupicinus [a person connected to Euprepia, whose exact relation to her is unclear from the surviving evidence] not what I owe you — but what is fitting for my own soul. For that affection alone deserves the greater reward from God: the affection that is freely given, without having been provoked by any human merit whatsoever.
XXVIII. ENNODIUS EVPREPIAE.
Quamuis caritatis uestrae paginam sollemnibus tantum accepissem
muniis obsecutam nec affectui nec necessitudini congruentem,
res tamen postulauit me uicariis per stili similitudinem
peregrinante diligentia respondere conloquiis, ne subtracit
sermonis officium non uestram innotuisse mihi astutiam,
1 perhennitate T 2 quae Bb 3 uale om. T et Sirm .
XXVII. 6 cebra B 7 ezhibeo Pb 8 meo] in eo T ut uidetur
9 reteretnr (etur in ras.) B 10 snbrepere b, rabripere
BTV fugientem fagientem T 11 Bi f ex sin ut uidetur m. !
...........I..
corr. ita ras. T, si in Pb 12 alias B actenni B 13 preocnpatos
T, preoccupatus B diligentiam T 15 mi domine b
recte fort . 18 taxandum malim 17 nale om. Sirm.
XXVIII. 20 accipisaem mnniis B, muniis accepimem PTb, mnnHs
accepuaem mnniis LV 24 mihi innotnisBe Sirm .
sed nostram reuelaret infantiam. nolo, soror Euprepia, quicquam
4* prouinciarum malis uel, sicut dixisti, hominum inmissione
causeris. quocumque abscesseris, quantum res docet, mentem
male credulam non omittis: uitia nostra regionum mutatione
non fugimus. circa propinquos tibi fuit tale propositum, ut
nec benefacta ipsorum insta interpretatione pensares nec excessus
debita tantum reprehensione corriperes. sed quid opus
est doloris epistulam fieri longiorem? ingenium uestrum nulla
eloquii poterit mutare affluentia. quod restat, uale, m; domina,
et prout expedit ordinem uitae tuae animaeque conpone. me
tamen Lupicino noueris non quod tibi debeo, sed quod animae
meae conueniat impensurum, quia sola est, quae maiorem a
deo retributionem meretur, affectio, cum nullis hominum dotibus
prouocata conceditur.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To:Euprepia, his kinswoman
Date:~510 AD
Context:A pointed rebuke to a female relative whose letter arrived cold and perfunctory — and who, Ennodius charges, carries her suspicious, ungracious nature with her wherever she goes.
---
Although the letter I received from Your Charity came attended by nothing more than the bare formalities of duty — suited neither to genuine feeling nor to the bond of kinship between us — the situation nonetheless demanded that I answer with a like exchange, dispatching my diligence abroad in the guise of the pen, lest the failure to render the service of a reply reveal, not that your cleverness had made itself known to me, but rather that my own inadequacy stood nakedly exposed.
I have no wish, sister Euprepia, for you to take shelter behind the hardships of your province, or — as you have claimed — behind the intrusions of tiresome people. Wherever you withdraw to, experience makes plain enough, you do not leave your over-credulous mind behind: we do not escape our faults by changing our address.
Your manner toward those close to you has been of such a kind that you have weighed their acts of kindness by no fair reading, and corrected their missteps with rather more reproach than those missteps deserved.
But why should a letter of grief be made longer than need be? Your character is not something that any abundance of eloquence can alter. So: farewell, my lady, and arrange the ordering of your life and your soul as best serves you.
Know, however, that I shall render to Lupicinus [a person connected to Euprepia, whose exact relation to her is unclear from the surviving evidence] not what I owe you — but what is fitting for my own soul. For that affection alone deserves the greater reward from God: the affection that is freely given, without having been provoked by any human merit whatsoever.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.