Letter 9006: Your name promises what I hope your character delivers: blessedness.
Ennodius of Pavia→Beatus, Chancellor|c. 498 AD|Ennodius of Pavia
friendship
From: Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To: Beatus
Date: ~498 AD
Context: A letter sustaining a friendship through correspondence during the politically volatile years of the Laurentian schism, when rival popes competed for the see of Rome.
To Beatus, from Ennodius.
Your name promises what I hope your character delivers: blessedness. A man called Beatus ought to live up to it — and from what I hear, you do.
I write to maintain the bond between us, because in these troubled times the ties of friendship are among the few things worth preserving. The world shifts around us, but affection — when it is rooted in something real — holds firm.
Send me word of how you fare. I am well, by God's grace, and I pray the same for you. Farewell.
VI. BEATO ENNODIVS.
Si proferenda temporibus de eruditionis messe pectoris
horreo condidisses, ieiunae ab epistolis tuis commeantium
dexterae non uenirent. sed quia neglegentiam et sterilitatem
tuam sermonis prodit abstinentia, nos necesse est iterum ad
culturam admonitionis adsurgere et terga iactis infecunda
seminibus recidiuis ad ubertatem sulcis urguere. ubi sunt
monita quae apud te adserebas esse uictura P ubi studium
conloquendi, per quod et scientia patescit et caritas ? clamant
silentia tua, te non adsecutum quod boni dignum possit esse
iudicio. nam sicut rara doctos, ita continua prodit taciturnitas
inperitos. ergo erubesce et tandem aliquando rumpe uincula
et impedimenta sermonum. ostende quam ualeas, ostende quid
promoueris, si tamen te iuxta uotum nostrum gratia superna
non deserit. nunc salutationis honorem accipe et breui contentus
epistula agnosce patri tuo quae longa conreptione
reserentur fuisse mandata.
4 oportune LTV, oportunae jB; oportuna Pb, inportune fort .
loquares B garroli B garruli imitatione uulgo coniungunt re-
Q
spode B 5 poscit B 7 naleret L
VI. 11 peccatoris B 12 condedissis B ad L 13 detterare
L aeniret B negligentiam B et st. tuam om. L
I
16 siminibus B urgere LTV 18 patiscet B, patescat V, patesoat
Pb 19 posit B 20 iuditio B, indicio coni. Schottus
sicutrara (tra corr . ex tic ?) L doctus B 21 erubisce B .
22 indimenta B quam B, quid LPTVb 24 deserit] dent B
25 correctione T
◆
From:Ennodius, deacon and literary figure in Pavia
To:Beatus
Date:~498 AD
Context:A letter sustaining a friendship through correspondence during the politically volatile years of the Laurentian schism, when rival popes competed for the see of Rome.
To Beatus, from Ennodius.
Your name promises what I hope your character delivers: blessedness. A man called Beatus ought to live up to it — and from what I hear, you do.
I write to maintain the bond between us, because in these troubled times the ties of friendship are among the few things worth preserving. The world shifts around us, but affection — when it is rooted in something real — holds firm.
Send me word of how you fare. I am well, by God's grace, and I pray the same for you. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.