Letter 8002: It would be only fitting for Your Greatness to display the riches of your talent while following the teachings of...
Ennodius to Avienus.
It would be only fitting for Your Greatness to display the riches of your talent while following the teachings of your holy father, and to put to use the learning won by much toil as a proof of your devotion. A double praise would come to you from such a composition: as the devotion of those entrusted to your care grows, the triumph of your eloquence would be brought before the world. The very thing that reveals your love for us exalts you. By one and the same practice, both the splendor of your speech and the strength of your faith would be multiplied. Those who stand at the summit are believed to show their subjects only the affection they put into words. This, my lord, is what that most occupied father of yours, stationed at the heights of human affairs, still observes. For the man who has leisure and yet offers no words makes his contempt plain. I recall reading somewhere: "No honor attaches to a miser of words."
And so, having offered my greeting, I report that I am well. What remains is that my petition may rejoice in the abundance of a reply it has drawn forth.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
II. ENNODIVS AVIENO.
Par erat magnitudinem uestram ingenii sui opulentiam, dum
sancti patris sectatur instituta, depromere et multo adquisitam
sudore doctrinam pro diligentiae testimonio uentilare. gemina
uobis contingeret ex antefata concinnatione laudatio, quando
crescente susceptorum deuotione ferretur in medium palma
sermonis: res, quae nobis amorem uestrum reserat, uos extollit.
uno eodemque usu et oris pompa multiplicaretur et fidei. in
apice constituti illam subiectis adfectionem putantur inpendere,
quam locuntur. haec, mi domine, ille occupatissimus
pater et in humana locatus arce custodit. nam contemptum
manifestat qui in otio degens uerba non tribuit. legisse me
memini: sermonis auari nullus honor. nunc ergo seruitiis
salutationis exhibitis indico me ualere. superest, ut suggestio
mea eliciti gaudeat ubertate conloquii.
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