Ennodius of Pavia→Dominator|c. 512 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendshiptravel mobility
From: Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To: Dominator [identity uncertain; a person of rank in Ennodius's circle, the name possibly a title of address]
Date: ~508–512 AD
Context: Responding to a request for letters conveyed through a mutual acquaintance named Agnellus, Ennodius performs an elaborate act of self-deprecation and wit — excusing his silence, accepting the demand placed upon him, and inviting his correspondent to keep the exchange alive.
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Your desires — made known to me through the message of our brother Agnellus — ought by rights to have unlocked a letter in reply, with a preface of words sufficient to draw conversation out into the open. What you were owed could have been restored to you; and while you were speaking, I could have defended my silence from the page under no pretext whatsoever. It lay within your authority to exchange the idle holiday of my tongue for genuine exercise, and to scrub away the rust of a provincial eloquence [a characteristic Ennodian affectation of modesty about his own famously ornate style] through the diligent labors of the craft — for just as it is a wound to affection to withhold words from one who reaches out first, so to answer an offered letter with silence is a course recommended by neither the memory of friendship nor the claims of honor.
Now, however, the fact that you have commanded me to produce pages has made its way to my spirit — though this testimony is somewhat undercut by a habit of my own: I never put my strength to the test where love is concerned. Let it be far from any liberally cultivated mind to regard as an intolerable burden what a friend lays upon it. You, for your part, simply receive what has been required of you; and, keeping your critical faculties in check, put aside the stale fastidiousness of those who sit in judgment. Far be it from you to withhold encouragement from one who has obeyed. The man who pledges to you the obedience of his pen — however common the coin from which his words are struck [*moneta triuialis*: the currency of the crossroads, ordinary small change, not the gold of the imperial mint] — is drawn forward by the hope of some greater reward.
And so, farewell, my lord — for I have no wish to spin out lengthy conversations that have not been fashioned with the precision of a plumb-line. As for the harvest of your goodwill: restore it to me in full, as fertile soil restores what was sown, in accordance with the confidence I have placed in you. For it will henceforth rest entirely in your own judgment — if you wish to receive my letters with any frequency — to encourage me with these very obligations of correspondence.
XXIII. ENNODIVS DOMINATORI.
Oportuerat quidem desideria uestra, quae fratris Agnelli
patefecit allegatio, ut tabella reseraret et ad elicienda conloquia
formam sermo praeuius exhiberet, quia potuit tibi restitui
quod debebis nec ullo me colore defenderem te loquente a
paginis abstinendo. in tuo iure fuit linguae nostrae ferias
1 meam om. sirm . frnstetar T sic] si B 2 teneatis] finit
add. B emp. corr .
XXII. 4 symacho BT 5 sublimis B larentio T adsigstat
T 6 aobolis LTV 7 exsequatur LTV ampliore L
procedat B1 9 adatipolationem T tepidante X1 10 patram
P et Sirm. 18 me T ut uidetur paraolns B
14 quatenuB BPb, qaatinas LTV 15 mihi BLV 16 comprehensit
T1 17 pcatari B intelligat finit B
XXIII. 21 pateeoont allegatione b ut eac at T tn. 2 22 exiberet
T1 23 debebus P te ex to T M. 2 loquenta B
24 suo T
exercitio commutare et rubiginem rusticantis eloquii fabrilibus
studiis amouere, quia sicut damnum caritatis est primum cupienti
non dedicare sermonem, ita promulgatae scriptioni silentium
reddere nec amicitiae suadet memoria nec pudoris. nunc tamen
accessit ad genium meum quod paginas imperasti, etsi subtrahitur
testimonio, quod numquam in amore uires interrogo.
facessat ab ingeniis liberalibus, ut credas fascem esse intolerabilem,
quem amicus inponit. tu tantum exacta conplectere
et censuram castigans rancida iudicantum depone fastidia. absit
a te eum non fouere qui paruit. in spem altioris meriti trahitur,
etiamsi ueniat a moneta triuiali, qui tibi inpositum oris
mancipauit obsequium. ergo uale, mi domine, quia nolo fieri
prolixa quae non sunt ad perpendiculum fabricata conloquia.
tu messem gratiae iuxta fiduciam meam tamquam uber solum
restitue, quia in tuo posthac erit arbitrio, si crebro epistolas
meas accipere uolueris, his me muniis inuitare.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon of Pavia
To:Dominator [identity uncertain; a person of rank in Ennodius's circle, the name possibly a title of address]
Date:~508–512 AD
Context:Responding to a request for letters conveyed through a mutual acquaintance named Agnellus, Ennodius performs an elaborate act of self-deprecation and wit — excusing his silence, accepting the demand placed upon him, and inviting his correspondent to keep the exchange alive.
---
Your desires — made known to me through the message of our brother Agnellus — ought by rights to have unlocked a letter in reply, with a preface of words sufficient to draw conversation out into the open. What you were owed could have been restored to you; and while you were speaking, I could have defended my silence from the page under no pretext whatsoever. It lay within your authority to exchange the idle holiday of my tongue for genuine exercise, and to scrub away the rust of a provincial eloquence [a characteristic Ennodian affectation of modesty about his own famously ornate style] through the diligent labors of the craft — for just as it is a wound to affection to withhold words from one who reaches out first, so to answer an offered letter with silence is a course recommended by neither the memory of friendship nor the claims of honor.
Now, however, the fact that you have commanded me to produce pages has made its way to my spirit — though this testimony is somewhat undercut by a habit of my own: I never put my strength to the test where love is concerned. Let it be far from any liberally cultivated mind to regard as an intolerable burden what a friend lays upon it. You, for your part, simply receive what has been required of you; and, keeping your critical faculties in check, put aside the stale fastidiousness of those who sit in judgment. Far be it from you to withhold encouragement from one who has obeyed. The man who pledges to you the obedience of his pen — however common the coin from which his words are struck [*moneta triuialis*: the currency of the crossroads, ordinary small change, not the gold of the imperial mint] — is drawn forward by the hope of some greater reward.
And so, farewell, my lord — for I have no wish to spin out lengthy conversations that have not been fashioned with the precision of a plumb-line. As for the harvest of your goodwill: restore it to me in full, as fertile soil restores what was sown, in accordance with the confidence I have placed in you. For it will henceforth rest entirely in your own judgment — if you wish to receive my letters with any frequency — to encourage me with these very obligations of correspondence.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.