Letter 8015: Before the test, the loyalty of friends is hidden.
Ennodius to Edasius.
Before the test, the loyalty of friends is hidden. Only adversity strips away the mask and reveals who stands with you and who does not. The fire that melts wax hardens clay, and the same trial that exposes a false friend confirms a true one.
I write to you because you have passed that test. You stood when others left, and the memory of your constancy is one of the few things the hard years have given me that I would not trade.
My gratitude is real, and so is my friendship. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
XV. ENNODIVS EDASIO.
Ante experimentum amicorum fides occulta est: postquam
in lucem processerit, eorum qui aliquid saporis habuerint sibi
mentes obligat. est tamen nimis libera seruitus, quae caris
exhibetur. confiteor magnitudini tuae: latebat me ante relationem
hominis mei quid in sublimitate tua et saporis et
gratiae sub nobili humilitate delitesceret: didici hominem, qui
canam in fide beatitudinem, dum amicorum absentiam bene
tractat, exsuperat. plura quidem discedens promiseras, sed ad
genium conscientiae tuae maiora praestitisti. domine fili, salutationis
effusissimae munus inpertiens ago atque habeo insufficientes
gratias de his, quae mihi in prima notitiae fronte
conlata sunt. quod restat, deprecor, ut residua illa mancipia
teneri iam facias. ecce fiduciam de bonis praecedentibus descendentem:
qui ante ignoto preces metuebat offerre, iam non
dubitat imperare.
Related Letters
Great are the commands of joy: the man who lacks happiness lacks the ability to understand it.
It has been a long time — if you will take my word for it, or if you judge rightly from our mutual affection — since...
The faith of reputation is not lame when it rests on the testimony of trustworthy witnesses.
Forgive me for replying so quickly — I still owe something to my age: an unruly haste.
I have not forgotten my debt to you, nor have I withdrawn from the duties that affection requires.