Letter 6032: **From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan (later bishop of Pavia)
Ennodius of Pavia→Unknown|c. 518 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendshipillness
**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan (later bishop of Pavia)
**To:** Avienus, young Roman nobleman of senatorial family
**Date:** ~507–511 AD
**Context:** A pointed reproach masked as affection — Avienus has gone silent, and Ennodius frames the absence of letters not merely as rudeness but as a spiritual abandonment that threatens his very health.
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Though the exchange of letters between those who love each other is always a delight — and from such gifts, even when Spartan brevity governs the pen, long rivers of joy flow forth — and though correspondence of this kind serves as a remedy for those who are separated and a fulfillment of longing for those who are anxious, still: a soul that is sick with worry is tossed on the waves of uncertainty about the welfare of those upon whom it depends. It breathes only through that one cure — and when the man who wavers at nothing uncertain denies that cure to those who are anxious, he as much as declares that he is held by no bond of care.
For a long time the conversations sent from Your Greatness have fed my spirit and furnished it with nourishment proper to gladness. But now their absence does not merely visit me with sadness — it drives me toward ruin. What once served the cause of affection could equally have served the cause of my health; yet the sacred obligation of friendship has been abjured, since words that would profit my well-being are withheld from me.
You have learned, I think, what your silences have done. Hasten now to remedy them. For if forgetfulness of me has not in truth established its dominion over you, then let writing change things — let it change them now.
My lord, praying to God for your most abundant health, I beg that the dispensation of heaven's favor may come to meet the fever of my longing, and may move you to share with me, as some consolation amid my sorrows, the very news whose knowing would give delight.
XXXII. ENNODIVS AVIENO.
Cum semper sint litterarum inter amantes iucunda commercia
et ex his muniis, etiam si Spartana adhibeatur breuitas, gaudia
prolixa nascantur sintque huiusmodi officia remedio absentibus,
uotiua sollicitis, attamen aeger animus super eorum de quibus
pendet prosperitate iactatur et hac tantum curatione respirat,
quam cum negat anxiis is, qui nullo labascit incerto, resignat
se diligentia non teneri. pauerunt diu animum meum a magnitudine
uestra destinata colloquia et hilaritati congrua pabula
praestiterunt. quorum nunc abstinentia non adfert tristitiam,
sed cogit ad exitium. potuit enim saluti opem tribuere quod
ante militauit affectui: abiurata est caritatis religio, quando
profutura meae ualitudini uerba denegantur. agnouistis quid
fecerunt silentia uestra, quibus emendatione succurrite: nam
apud uos si mei non dominatur obliuio, scriptione mutantur.
domine mi, salutem largissimam referens deum deprecor, ut
aestibus meis superni dispensatio fauoris occurrat et in solacio
maerorum meorum illa a uobis indicari faciat, quae delectet
agnosci.
1 expertes T 2 ex b, de LTV fructu b 8 reddunt L
5 capere T\'b, cuperem LTXV et Sinn . m T, mihi L Vb famulatis
Tl 7 dominus 11
XXXII. 11 iocunda Tb 14 eger LTV 15 pendet T*,
pendit LT1Vb 17 se] sed b 20 eiitum b 22 ualetudini b
23 fecerint b 24 dominantur L mutentur fort . 25 mihi
L Vb dominam b precor T 26 diepensatio scripsi, dispositio
LTV et Sinn., dispoeitione b occurat L solatio LT
Vb 27 moerorum b, merorum L TV
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**From:** Ennodius, deacon of Milan (later bishop of Pavia) **To:** Avienus, young Roman nobleman of senatorial family **Date:** ~507–511 AD **Context:** A pointed reproach masked as affection — Avienus has gone silent, and Ennodius frames the absence of letters not merely as rudeness but as a spiritual abandonment that threatens his very health.
---
Though the exchange of letters between those who love each other is always a delight — and from such gifts, even when Spartan brevity governs the pen, long rivers of joy flow forth — and though correspondence of this kind serves as a remedy for those who are separated and a fulfillment of longing for those who are anxious, still: a soul that is sick with worry is tossed on the waves of uncertainty about the welfare of those upon whom it depends. It breathes only through that one cure — and when the man who wavers at nothing uncertain denies that cure to those who are anxious, he as much as declares that he is held by no bond of care.
For a long time the conversations sent from Your Greatness have fed my spirit and furnished it with nourishment proper to gladness. But now their absence does not merely visit me with sadness — it drives me toward ruin. What once served the cause of affection could equally have served the cause of my health; yet the sacred obligation of friendship has been abjured, since words that would profit my well-being are withheld from me.
You have learned, I think, what your silences have done. Hasten now to remedy them. For if forgetfulness of me has not in truth established its dominion over you, then let writing change things — let it change them now.
My lord, praying to God for your most abundant health, I beg that the dispensation of heaven's favor may come to meet the fever of my longing, and may move you to share with me, as some consolation amid my sorrows, the very news whose knowing would give delight.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.