Letter 9013: Believe me when I say that I am a stranger in my own land with you absent.

XIII. Ennodius to Panfronius. You would believe that I am a sojourner upon my own native soil, now that you are absent from us, even if I were in good health. But when sickness presses upon me, and the infirmity of certain persons besides, caught between the two, what am I to do? Who can at one and the same time endure both diseases and treacherous men? Know that in our city, by no precaution and no innocence, are those things kept which were promised with God as witness. Everything is granted to good fortune, nothing to affection; toward the lowly, esteem is rare; the best man is held to be the one who stands higher. But I sigh over these things not out of regard for myself, for whom nothing remains that I might hope for: it grieves me that those whom I love are perishing. Your man will set out for you more fully the whole matter, and what ill will I have incurred on account of my zeal for you. I, bestowing upon you the honor of a greeting, ask that you straightway deliver my writings both to the lord Avienus and to the lord Liberius; and I adjure you, by Him who may grant our Panfronia to you in health, that you presently inform me what answer they have given: because, if the royal arrival is refused on account of some engagement, I, with my God supporting me, hasten to come to you under whatever frailty of my limbs.

XIII. PANFRONIO ENNODIVS. Peregrinari me in solo patrio nobis absentibus crederes, etiamsi ualerem. at cum aegritudo mihi et quorundam insistat infirmitas, inter utrasque quid faciam? quis uno tempore et morbos ferat et perfidos ? scias nulla cautione, nulla innocentia in ciuitate nostra quae deo medio promissa sunt custodiri: totum felicitati tribuitur, nil amori: circa humiles rara dignatio: optimus ille qui celsior. sed haec ego non pro mei, cui nihil superest quod sperem, consideratione suspiro: dolet mihi illos perire quos diligo. plenius uobis rem omnem et quam propter studium uestrum inuidiam contraxerim homo uester insinuabit. ego honorem salutationis inpertiens rogo, ut scripta mea et domno Auieno et domno Liberio protinus contradatis, et per ipsum, qui uobis Panfroniam nostram sanam tribuat, coniuro, ut mox me quid responsi dederint instruatis : quia si regius occupatione aliqua negatur aduentus, ego ad uos deo meo suffragante sub quauis membrorum meorum fragilitate uenire festino. 1 esse tui Pb 2 debis B nosse] nos B ee (alt . e 1 ex t corr.) L, om. B 3 m T, mihi BLV salotationem (em in ras.) B 4 me d.] medium. B de om. T 6 exspecto L XIII. 9 crederis B 10 ad B 11 utrasque B, utraque L PTVb 15 optin\' L 17 plenius-studium om, B 19 insinuat B ergo B 21 Pamfroniam Sirm . contribuat P V (con exp. V m. 1) b, ∗∗∗tribuat L 22 ciuro V, cu ̃ iuro T moi] uos Sirm . instruates B