Letter 9004: If my humble petition still held any place in Your Eminence's memory, you would have made it known through frequent...
Ennodius of Pavia→Probinus, Patrician|c. 496 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendship
From: Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To: Probinus [a Roman aristocrat of the Anician family]
Date: ~496 AD
Context: A deferential letter to a powerful Roman nobleman, blending a complaint about neglect with careful flattery — navigating the patron-client dynamics of Ostrogothic Italy.
To Probinus, from Ennodius.
If my humble petition still held any place in Your Eminence's memory, you would have made it known through frequent correspondence. But as things stand, those of us in Liguria whom you once graciously called your own have been buried in forgetfulness. I suppose it is the way of the world: people separated by distance and wealth are not bound by the same rules of affection. You grant your full attention to those beneath you only when they deserve it, and your friendship operates on a simple principle — you need only glance in our direction, while we must love you.
It would be a proud condition for humble men if they expected anything more than words from the powerful. Still, I have come to this complaint at the command of affection itself. After the danger you witnessed me endure, you might have thought me worth a letter.
I do not ask for much. But even the forgotten deserve to know they are remembered. Farewell.
IIII. PROBINO ENNODIVS.
Si apud eminentiam uestram subplicatio mea recordatione
subsisteret, crebra scriptione patuisset, nec quos apud Liguriam
uestros dignatione uocabatis sepeliret obliuio. sed quia loco
et opibus diuisi nec diligentiae lege conparantur, ideo perfectam
subiectis caritatem, si digni sint, adlocutione praestatis, hac
in amicitiam discretione coeuntes, ut uos cogamini tantum
respicere, nos amare. erit uilium superba condicio, si plus a
potentibus quam uerba praestolentur. ad querelam descendi
caritatis imperio: debuistis me post periculum quod uideratis
dignum putare conloquio, uel quia recentis mysterii reuiuiscentem
conmendabat adsertio: puto quod digni sint honorum
gratia de sepulcris redemptoris nostri potentia redemptoris ego
tamen quamuis sim prodigus frontis et garrulus necdum de
me fiduciam gerens, propinquos insinuo. praesentium portitor
domni Faustini filius sufficienter bona pollicetur merita de
parente: hunc ut uos foueatis, imploro, quia bene nostis qua
sit creator eius morum luce conspicuus nec debet ad alios
festinare nisi ad uos quemcumque uitae auctoritas armat et
generis. ergo, domine mi, obsequio salutationis inpenso rogo,
ut prosperitatem uestram epistolaris cura manifestet.
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From:Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To:Probinus [a Roman aristocrat of the Anician family]
Date:~496 AD
Context:A deferential letter to a powerful Roman nobleman, blending a complaint about neglect with careful flattery — navigating the patron-client dynamics of Ostrogothic Italy.
To Probinus, from Ennodius.
If my humble petition still held any place in Your Eminence's memory, you would have made it known through frequent correspondence. But as things stand, those of us in Liguria whom you once graciously called your own have been buried in forgetfulness. I suppose it is the way of the world: people separated by distance and wealth are not bound by the same rules of affection. You grant your full attention to those beneath you only when they deserve it, and your friendship operates on a simple principle — you need only glance in our direction, while we must love you.
It would be a proud condition for humble men if they expected anything more than words from the powerful. Still, I have come to this complaint at the command of affection itself. After the danger you witnessed me endure, you might have thought me worth a letter.
I do not ask for much. But even the forgotten deserve to know they are remembered. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.