Letter 9023: The infusion of heavenly mystery has granted me the opportunity to address Your Greatness, and I seize it with both...

Ennodius to Liberius. It has been granted to me, by the infusion of a heavenly mystery, to hold free judgments even when I am bound by benefactions. For it is the mark of a gift from above that one who is beholden should pronounce a frank opinion and that the vigor of his discernment should not take delight in the enormity of the favor. It is something divine, when one speaks without corruption of a man on whom he has conferred much, and when, subdued though he is by the riches of your gifts, he places nothing unjust in the scale of truth. For where the discourse concerns the most eminent matters, and the things being shaped are destined to go forth into the ears of the world, why should a private interest cast a shadow over public testimony? I owe indeed more to your loftiness than the whole community does; yet I do not wish to bring forth anything greater than the lips of the whole community can produce, and, content with the law of epistolary brevity, I take a sufficiently modest foretaste of that harvest of your merits. O most fortunate of men, upon this the enmity of its own forces labors with the whole expenditure of its strength, that throughout the entire world you alone should set in order the things that have been scattered. It remains for the estimation of what kind that one is whom you serve as a soldier, since things fallen, burned out, and ruined, when they have looked upon you, regain their strength. Italy was scarcely being fed at the cost of public sweat, when you, without any interval of time, converted it both to the hope of restoration and to the rendering of tribute. We began to be glad under your governance to bring into the public treasuries what we used to pay over with the greatest grief. Our abundance was ever your dispensation. Heavenly counsels aided your venerable plan; for the resources of the revenues you either nourished for the public good or bestowed. A man more sublime than all the heights, you were the first to make the royal funds flow without the harm of any private extortion. To you, after God, it is owed that, in the presence of a most powerful lord and conqueror everywhere, we declare our riches in security: for the opulence of subjects is then safe, when the ruler has no need. What of this, that you enriched those innumerable hordes of Goths with a lavish allotment of estates, while the Romans scarcely knew of it? For the victors desire nothing more, and the conquered felt no losses. I pass over, out of regard for the page of my eloquence, the honey of your fellowship and your endearments, instituted by heavenly precepts, ennobled no less by deeds than by words: I transfer my speech to those vows that are owed to your eminence, since the Gauls agree with me in this affirmation, that, with Christ the living God so disposing, once those have been set in order to whom you brought civil order after many cycles of years, those who before your time did not chance to taste the savor of Roman liberty, you may be brought back to your own Italy, both at our requesting and while they hold fast to you. Thus, a native of each world through your holy actions, may you exalt by the endowment of your happy presence the venerable house and its noble sons, together with all who possess Italy. As for me, having performed the services of greeting, I report that I am in good health, and from you I await that which may satisfy my wish.

XXIII. ENNODIVS LIBERIO. Datum est mihi caelestis infusione mysterii libera habere iudicia, etiam cum sim beneficiis obligatus. est enim superni muneris ut ingenuam sententiam ferat obnoxius nec delectetur 2 trigua T 3 otnittas] ef. Wienev studien II p. 233 X II. 7 quod (d ex s? corr.) B, quos P1b seruus L, seruos suos (suos add. m. 2) T 8 popilla B 10 imperia V conoeeai B, congessi LPTVb 11 sitis (alt. i corr.) B breaem T et Sirm., breue BLPVb 12 absentia ̃ T domini B2 .13 uos om. B membores B* 17 uentiis T1 18 solemnem LV, sole ̃ pnem T hilico P .._ XXIIL 25 innuam B delitetur B inmanitete gratiae uigor examinis. diuinum est, quando sine corruptions de te loquitur cui multa contuleris nec iniquum ponit aliquid in lance ueritatis donorum tuorum opibus subiugatus, nam ubi de potissimis sermo est et in aures mundi itura formantur, publicum testimonium priuata actio cur obumbret? debeo equidem celsitudini uestrae plus quam uniuersitas: sed nolo maius aliquid quam uniuersitatis possunt ora depromere et epistularis angustiae lege contentus satis modicum de illa meritorum messe praelibo felicissime hominum hoc totis hostilitas uirium suarum laborat inpendiis, ut per totum orbem tu solus dissipata conponas aestimationi remanet qualis sit ille cui militas, quando lapsa exusta perdita, cum te aspexerint, conualescunt. uix pascebatur Italia publici sudore dispendii, quando tu eam sine interuallo temporis et ad spem reparationis et ad praebitionem tributariam commutasti. laeti coepimus te moderante. inferre aerariis publicis quod cum maximo dolore solebamus accipere. fuit semper ubertas nostra dispensatio tua. iuuerunt uenerabile superna consilium.. nam uires uectigalium tu uel nutristi pro bono publico uel dedisti. culminibus omnibus homo sublimior, tu primus fecisti regales copias sine malo priuatae concussionis effluere. tibi post deum debetur, quod apud potentissimum dominum et ubique uictorem securi diuitias confitemur: tuta enim tunc est subiectorum opulentia, quando non indiget imperator. quid quod illas innumeras Gothorum cateruas uix scientibus Romanis larga praediorum conlatione ditasti? nihil enim amplius uictores cupiunt et nulla senserunt damna superati. taceo consideratione paginalis eloquii communionis et blandimentorum tuorum mella praeceptis caelestibus instituta non minus rebus nobilitata quam 1 rigor fort. \' 4 positissimis LV1 5 formantur T 6 aequidem B, quidem Z b 7 possint B .8 sati B 13 conualiscunt B 16 aerrariis B1 post pablicis ras. 6—8 litt. L. 17 soli- bamus B 18 iuberunt B 20 homo om. P et Sirm . 21 affluere Pb 23 dinitaaa Ll 24 a L et V s. l. m. 1 imperator om. Sirm . quid quod] quioqdid L 25 gotharu ̃ L ut. uid, cather- scl uas T sci aentientibus B 27 dampna LTV _. uerbis: orationem meam ad ea quae eminentiae tuae debentur uota transduco, quia mecum Galliae in hac adstipulatione conueniunt, ut Christo deo uiuo disponente ordinatis illis, quibus (ciuilitatem post multos annorum circulos intulisti, quos ante te non contigit saporem de Romana libertate gustare, ad Italiam tuam et poscentibus nobis et illis tenentibus reducaris. sic utriusque orbis per sanctas actiones indigena, uenerabilem domum et summates filios cum uniuersis Italiam possidentibus felicis praesentiae tuae dote sublimes. ego autem seruitiis. salutationis exhibitis ualere me nuntio et de uobis quod uoto meo satisfacere possit expecto.