Letter 6034: Although Your Greatness requires no elaboration from me, the obligations of friendship require at least a letter.
Ennodius of Pavia→Faustus Albus|c. 519 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendship
From: Ennodius, bishop of Pavia
To: Faustus Albus [a different Faustus, distinguished by the cognomen Albus]
Date: ~520 AD
Context: A letter to Faustus Albus, whose greatness is acknowledged but whose silence needs correction.
Ennodius to Faustus Albus.
Although Your Greatness requires no elaboration from me, the obligations of friendship require at least a letter. I write not to inform but to maintain — and to remind you, gently, that maintenance requires two parties.
A letter in return would be most welcome. Farewell.
XXXIIII. ENNODIVS FAVSTO ALBO.
Quamuis magnitudo uestra per longum silentium obliuionem
mei fuerit contestata et dum ab epistolaribus munus
2 hormisde TV, ormisdae b diochoro LVb, dioscorio T
3 religio∗∗sam (ni eras.) grandam L, grande religiosam T 4 nascantur
L 6 allegatio LTV 8 dominum Tb 9 qua b utilitate
espondente L 10 fuisse] suis fecisse L actum est om. b 11 diligendi
T1 inducias Vb 12 proteitetur T ∗∗∗∗nunc L (nunc
eras. uidetur), sed nunc b 13 quare poecitur b 14 eiusque b
I
15 compensit b domine b m T, mihi L Vb 16 dominum
b qui b, quo LV, om. T in exitu lineae sed ut s. I. m. 2
18 contestationem b moeroris b, meroris LTV 20 imminutione
TV suspitiat T\'
XXXIIII. 24 munis T
temperat, memoriam obsequentis abiecerit, attamen prouidentia
caelestis desideriis meis prospera uestra non patitur occultari
et uariis indiciis successum circa nos resignat optatum. nunc
tamen animus meus usque ad hoc deuinctione productus est,
Ut proprium ad nos dirigerem perlatorem, qui uiuis pastus
aspectibus bona ad me manifesta perducat. credite, domini,
magna me uobis esse obligatione constrictum nec ullas pectori
meo ferias dari, quibus uisionem uestram non plena intentione
disquiram. superest, ut reducta in ecclesia Romana concordia
occurrendi uobis contingat occasio. domine mi, salutationem reuerentiae
uestrae plenissimam dicens deprecor, ut suggestionem
portitoris hominis mei grato suscipiatis auditu et do felicitate
uestra uel totius domus statu recurrenti nos instruatis alloquio.
◆
From:Ennodius, bishop of Pavia
To:Faustus Albus [a different Faustus, distinguished by the cognomen Albus]
Date:~520 AD
Context:A letter to Faustus Albus, whose greatness is acknowledged but whose silence needs correction.
Ennodius to Faustus Albus.
Although Your Greatness requires no elaboration from me, the obligations of friendship require at least a letter. I write not to inform but to maintain — and to remind you, gently, that maintenance requires two parties.
A letter in return would be most welcome. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.