Letter 8014: I would have kept my difficulties to myself, had I not understood that your concern for me makes my silence a form...
Ennodius of Pavia→Faustus|c. 504 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendship
From: Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To: Faustus [Faustus Niger]
Date: ~503 AD
Context: A rare moment of vulnerability — Ennodius would have kept his troubles to himself, but knows that Faustus's genuine concern makes silence a kind of betrayal.
Ennodius to Faustus.
I would have kept my difficulties to myself, had I not understood that your concern for me makes my silence a form of dishonesty. You worry when you do not hear from me, and you would worry more if you learned that I had suffered in silence rather than burdening you with the truth.
So here it is: times are hard. The specifics I spare you — not from distrust but from the knowledge that the bearer can fill in what the page leaves out. What matters is that I am still standing, and that your friendship is one of the reasons I am.
Pray for me, as I do for you. Farewell.
XIIII. ENNODIVS FAVSTO.
Tacerem molestias meas, nisi intellexissem, quod sollicitudo
uestra me subleuat. nondum agnoscitis, quam uariis
14 cf. Sallasi Cat. c. 1
4 uinat] niuat sic B 5 acantos suos B, sanctis suis PTb
faciet LPITI V coequari B 6 simpliciter T quatinus
LTV petionem B 7 cogitet deum B 8. I . cogites SWm.,
cogite b cogitee Sirm., cogite Pb 8 maius circa me T
9 praestare em. Schottus et Sirm., stare BLPTVb
XIII. 11 ennodiua om. T 12 afflictionem L mencior B
13 quamuiz locatum B 14 et quia BLTVb, et deleui ceteris]
teris B inperator B 16 captiuos B 17 ualitudine B
19 remmuneror B adcepta B restituenstes B 20 nre B
XlIII. 28 tarem B 24 sublenet L non (o corr.) T, nam B
LPVb agnoscitis Bb, agnoscetis LPTY, cognoscitis Sirm .
VI.
14
morborum fatigor incommodis, pro peccatis meis febribus frequenter
addicor et uires, quae uidebantur restitutae, franguntur. ergo
uos remedia consueta praestate et usum illum sanctae conuersationis
inpendite, ut quicquid medicina mortalium non
ualet fusis ad deum nostrum precibus inpetretis.
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To:Faustus [Faustus Niger]
Date:~503 AD
Context:A rare moment of vulnerability — Ennodius would have kept his troubles to himself, but knows that Faustus's genuine concern makes silence a kind of betrayal.
Ennodius to Faustus.
I would have kept my difficulties to myself, had I not understood that your concern for me makes my silence a form of dishonesty. You worry when you do not hear from me, and you would worry more if you learned that I had suffered in silence rather than burdening you with the truth.
So here it is: times are hard. The specifics I spare you — not from distrust but from the knowledge that the bearer can fill in what the page leaves out. What matters is that I am still standing, and that your friendship is one of the reasons I am.
Pray for me, as I do for you. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.