Letter 7011: It pains me that a man so richly endowed with the gifts of eloquence should withhold them from one who would value...
Ennodius of Pavia→Agnellus|c. 502 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
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From: Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To: Agnellus
Date: ~502 AD
Context: A letter expressing frustration that a gifted friend is wasting his literary talents through silence — Ennodius takes it personally when eloquent men refuse to write.
Ennodius to Agnellus.
It pains me that a man so richly endowed with the gifts of eloquence should withhold them from one who would value them most. You have the talent; I have the appetite. The arrangement should be simple.
And yet you remain silent, hoarding your words as though they would lose their value by being spent on me. I assure you: the opposite is true. Words, unlike gold, increase with circulation. The more you write, the richer you become — and the richer you make those who receive your letters.
End this famine. Feed a hungry friend. Farewell.
XI. ENNODIVS AGNELLO.
Male est animo meo, quod de facundiae suae dotibus mihi
abundantia uestra nil tribuit et ita eloquentiae opibus incubat,
ut partem ex eis facere sacrilegium computetur. turpis est
1 seraastis T diligentiam — praesentaretis om. B add. a. I .
I
eorr . me portionS L 2 praesentaretis Bb m T, mihi
BLVb 3 calamitatis T 4 solatia LTV ferentiam B
mUtatis sirm.
X. 7 redibitionem BTV, redibilcionS L 8 debebat (bat corr.)
L ezolneret T 9 dicendam L 10 nericondiam B
I#
moliuntor V 11 uellit B qui raptores — epist. 13 p. 181, 36
ecce om. Bb, primM edd. Sirm . stimate L 18 pferendam L
14 reeignetis fort . 15 domine T m T, mihi LV 16 per]
per me L V1, om. Sirm . pro me sanctoB Sirm . 17 noetris Sirm.
XI. 21 est om. T facondie T\' 22 habondantia T et sic
saepius nihil Sirm.
12*
- equidem uniuersarum rerum auaritia: contigit tamen, si uerba
deneges, plus pudenda. saepe etiam euenit ut frequenter scribentes
minus diligant: numquam tamen accessit, ut aliquid
caritati reseruet qui in perpetua taciturnitate perdurat. potest
nasci de epistolaribus blandimentis ambiguitas: certa fides
est ab eo, qui seruat silentium, non amari. haec sunt, quae
in festinatione perlatoris celer scripsi, geminis stimulis incitatus
uel properationis baiuli uel doloris. ergo taedio animi
mei remedia incunctanter adhibete, ut quamuis defuerint hactenus
affectioni pabula sua, in statione esse tamen promissa
caritas innotescat. domine mi, salutem plenissimam dicens
quaeso, ut expectationi meae quod sufficit loquendi peritissimo
non negetur.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To:Agnellus
Date:~502 AD
Context:A letter expressing frustration that a gifted friend is wasting his literary talents through silence — Ennodius takes it personally when eloquent men refuse to write.
Ennodius to Agnellus.
It pains me that a man so richly endowed with the gifts of eloquence should withhold them from one who would value them most. You have the talent; I have the appetite. The arrangement should be simple.
And yet you remain silent, hoarding your words as though they would lose their value by being spent on me. I assure you: the opposite is true. Words, unlike gold, increase with circulation. The more you write, the richer you become — and the richer you make those who receive your letters.
End this famine. Feed a hungry friend. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.