Letter 7009: The grandeur you avoid in your letters you possess by nature.

Ennodius to Avienus. The stately splendor [of style] which you flee in your letters you nonetheless attain, and your way of speaking is nothing other than the preservation of the distinctive marks of formal oratory: this nature heaped up in you, this the unfailing care of reading, the mother of skill, amassed. But no consolation can come to my miseries, since the things I have deserved are set before my eyes, and by however much the man preferred has proved the more unworthy, by so much do the sins of the one passed over become manifest in the open. Why, most illustrious of men, do you strive to lift up my spirit? Why should it be permitted to reserve, for my tribulations, anything in a life that is full of grief? For the sake of the good ordering of heaven I have appointed an end together with my very life. To you, nevertheless, I render insufficient thanks, you who preserve toward me that solicitude by which you would offer me a station better than [you offer] even the most worthy. My lord, discharging the reverence of a greeting, I hope that you may by no means cease to pray for me, and that writings bringing aid for the solaces of my calamities may be sent.

VIIII. AVIENO ENNODIVS. Pompam quam in litteris fugitis optinetis, nec aliud est loqui uestrum nisi declamationum insignia custodire: hoc in uobis natura, hoc peritiae mater indeficiens lectionis cura congessit. sed miseriis meis euenire nulla consolatio potest, quando ante oculos sunt locata quae merui, et quantum praelatus indignior extiterit, tantum in aperto fiunt peccata superati. quid animum meum, inlustrissime hominum, conaris adtollere ? quid in uita, quae plena maeroris est, reseruare liceat tribulationibus meis? pro bono dispensationis caelestis finem uel cum uita constitui. uobis tamen insufficientes refero gratias, 2 inter Bb, intur T\', intra LT2V 8 aeoolasse B copul∗∗sam L habuit - T (me s. I. m . 2), me habuit fort . 6 habtmdantia LT 7 aut] ant ad Sirm. que B 8 eriperit B\', eripere b paruus L, pauug Bb 11 subleuandis L merorem Bb, meroris LTV 12 scriptionS L tuae B dedala BLTV germinaati T 13 rseruarie B, reseruariB b VIIII. 15 ennodius auieno T 16 pom∗pam (alt . p corr.) L fngetis optenetis B 18 paeritiae L eoncessit L 19 conlatio L 20 ante L 8. I . 28 meroris BLTV qui illam circa me seruatis diligentiam, qua potiorem nec dignissimis praestaretis. domine mi, salutationis reuerentiam soluens spero, ut orare pro me minime desistatis et ad calamitatum solacia ferentia opem scripta mittantur.