Letter 4019: ---

From: Ennodius, deacon in Pavia To: Apollinaris Date: ~508 AD Context: A lament disguised as a rebuke — Apollinaris has fallen silent, and Ennodius argues that prolonged absence of letters is a cruelty worse than never having written at all. --- By prolonging your silence toward one who loves you, you have transferred your very spirit into the realm of bodily absence. By withholding your letters, the separation that until now amounted to nothing has swelled beyond all measure. Through this abstinence from the writing tablet, matters have come to such a pass that all the accumulated wisdom of the ancients contributes not a single thing to the cause of love. Affection grows rank and fetid when a miser of words disdains to fan it into life. Devotion is left without cultivation when it is not drawn back into use through the pages of a letter. The frequent exercise of the pen nourishes with living food the friendship planted deep within our hearts. It would have been easier for me, brother, if you had never granted what my longing desired than to withdraw gifts so often and so freely bestowed — for hearts do not know rest when a skilled shepherd has once stirred them with sweet nourishment [the image is of a craftsman-pastor who has trained his flock to expect feeding]. By continuing your letters for a time, you had made me wholly forgetful of our separation, as you set your venerable image before me in the gentle warmth of your words. But now I stand stripped bare, searching the empty hands of travelers as they pass. I do not wish, however, by some error of my own, to claim the faults of others — lest I be convicted of having committed the very thing I lament. Receive therefore, most upright of men, the consolations of longing that celestial grace assigns to those kept apart. And if you still hold me in any remembrance, show kindness to the bearers of this letter, that they may be spared the hardships of the road, since friendly recommendation will have brought them, among those you name, something of the homeland they seek. When they return to me, lift my spirits with news of your good health.

XVIIII. ENNODIVS APOLLINARI. Producendo circa amantem uestri silentia ad absentiam corporalem animum transmisistis: retinendo paginas in inmensum creuit quae hactenus diuisio nil ualebat. res eo rediit per abstinentiam tabellarum, ut ueteris aeui prouidentia conferat nil amori. rancescit caritas, quam uerborum auarus despicit uentilare: sine cultura est diligentia in usum non reducta per paginas: stili frequentia uiuaci pabulo insitam pectoribus nutrit amicitiam. facilius, frater, fuerat desideriis meis te nullo tempore cupita tribuisse, quam saepe indulta subtrahere, quia otium corda nesciunt, quae cibis dulcibus pastor artifex inritasti. aliquanto enim tempore continuando scriptionem inmemorem me sequestrationis effeceras, dum effigiem uenerabilem placido inserebas adloquio: at nunc commeantium uacuas manus nudus inquisitor inspicio. ego tamen nolo errore meo alienas culpas adserere, ut quod factum doleo admisisse conuincar. accipe ergo, emendatissime hominum, desideriorum solacia per caelestem gratiam absentibus adtributa et perlatores, si mei estis memores, subleuate, ut nesciant peregrinationis 1 mereat** L 2 contempti T solos T*Pb, solus BLV, solas uel sola T1 5 pcipua (p ex pre corr . m. ant.) Lj finit add. B XVIIII. 8 aestris B silentia] laetitia B 9 retendo L1 10 nalebit Ll 12 ranciscet B, rancessit L, ranceBsit T et Sirm . 18 dispicit B 15 amitidam T fater L 20 nnerabilem B ad B 21 aspicio V 22 quantum T quod 8. L m. 2 amisisse T 23 accipergo B 24 solatia LTV perlatoris T1 25 mei si V mei estes B, estis mei T mei si es|tis memoree L transpositionis signa add. m. tmt . esciant Tl incommoda, dum nominatis patriam commendatio amica contulerit. quibus remeantibus nuntio me uestrae ualitudinis subleuate.