Letter 5018: It is scarcely possible for a man absorbed in successful ventures to spare attention for the claims of correspondence.

Ennodius to Faustus. It is hardly possible for one absorbed in happy circumstances to foresee adversity: he rejects it like an ill omen, if, when understanding runs ahead of him, he should catch sight of anything of the harshness of things to come; certainly, lest at another, unsuitable time bitter things mingle themselves in, the very recognition of troubles makes him shudder. I used to believe that Ravenna, now unlovely, lay at no interval away, so long as it was full of my treasures: the spring did not invite me, thirsting, nor the breeze, sweltering, to itself as that rest invited me, who was not weary. But now I think that Rome itself has been moved off to a greater distance, on account of the burden of my sins. Where is that frequency of letters which used to be reckoned rare? Where the repeated sight of you? Where so many consolations of your attentiveness? Truly I speak for my own part: I loathe life, which is not hateful even to those set in hardship. Perhaps your eminence will allege that, by the dispensation from on high, the things it desired have fallen to it. Happiness is not complete when some one of your own people is afflicted by the miseries of a harsh separation. Believe me, by God, the things I weep for are not feigned, nor is the polished arrangement of a letter or the narrowness of speech sufficient to set out the tragedy of my heart. Christ, arbiter of all things, come to the aid of my own need, lest human frailty, not equal to the burden of an immense grief, sink down crushed. My lord, rendering you the services of greeting, I ask that the care of writing toward me be kept up, so that by this remedy at least my mind, set amid these surges, may breathe again.

XVIII. FAVSTO ENNODIVS. Vix est ut intentus rebus felicibus aduersa praenoscat: uelut sinistrum enim omen repudiat, si quid de austeritate futurorum intellectu praecedente respexerit: certe ne et alieno tempore amarae se misceant, ipsa molestiarum horret agnitio. nullo credebam interuallo nunc inamabilem Rauennam, dum erat thesauris meis plena, distare: non me sic sitientem fons, aestuantem aura, ut illa ad se non lassum requies inuitabat. at nunc ipsa Roma puto ad longiora pro peccatorum meorum fasce translata est. ubi est illa quae rara putabatur frequentia litterarum ? ubi crebra uisio? ubi tot solacia diligentiae? uere pro meis partibus loquor: detestor uitam, quae nec in aerumna constitutis est odio. adleget forsitan culmen tuum, sibi pro superna dispensatione cupita contigisse. non est plena felicitas, quando uestrorum aliquis miseriis durae sequestrationis adfligitur. deo credite, non sunt fucata quae defleo nec ad explicandam cordis tragoediam aut epistularis concinnatio sufficit aut sermonis angustia. Christe rerum arbiter, propriae succurre necessitati, ne humana fragilitas ad inmensi fascem doloris non sufficiens pressa subcumbat. domine mi, salutationis seruitia dependens rogo, ut paginalis circa me cura seruetur, ut uel hoc remedio inter aestus mens constituta respiret. - XVIII. 3 intus L 4 enim] animi Pb, - enim animi Sirm. 5 procedente B et om. Pb 6 amarae Sirm., amare BLP TYb, cum amaris Pl 7 rauennem T\' 8 thensaaris L\', thesanris (ea in ras.) B plena B in mg. add . deetare LP\'V 10 ad BlL 13 erumpna T 14 adleget scripsi, adlegit BLT V, allegit Pb, adlegat Sirm . tuum «ortpsi, suum BLPTVb 16 noBtrorum Sirm . 17 haeiplicandam (x ex c corr.) L 18 traguidiam B1 19 post sermonis 8-9 litt. eras . in B I 21 praeesa B m V, mihi BL seruitio B, ohsequia T 23 ms L respiceret B