From: Emperor Anastasius I, Constantinople
To: Hormisdas, Pope of Rome
Date: ~July 516 AD
Context: The Emperor writes again, explaining that the long delay in sending his promised embassy was caused by the length of the journey and an unusually harsh winter. He sends two envoys to advance negotiations.
The Emperor Anastasius Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. Delivered by Theopompus and Severianus, men of distinction.
Everything that benevolence conceives is driven forward by a sweet eagerness of spirit and praiseworthy haste. Such desires grant themselves no rest until they have brought what is longed for to its most salutary fulfillment — and then the very haste finds its rest when the hope behind the prayers is realized.
This is exactly what we ourselves have experienced, waiting until heavenly favor might grant both an opening for our petition and a fruitful result for your promise. Since either the great length of the journey or a winter harsher than usual has made uncertain what we hoped for, we have for the time being kept our desires contained within our hearts, counting on the divine blessings that bring good outcomes through their own intervention.
Recognizing, then, that God's goodness has granted us a first favor — that the embassy sent to Your Beatitude returned safely — we have now proceeded to a second step: dispatching the promised embassy, through which both a review of the matters we discussed at length with the most holy men may be carried out, and — God willing — the full, clear light of both our petition and your grace may shine forth, granting the whole world the joy it has been waiting for.
And so, both by way of remembrance and in tribute of our greeting, we are sending to Your Holiness Theopompus, an illustrious man, Count of the Domestics and head of our sacred palace school — faithful to us both for his character and for his attachment to our native province — together with Severianus, a distinguished man, Count of our Sacred Consistory, who will testify in person to the content of this letter and urge speed in what is hoped for.
ANASTASIUS AUGCSTUS HORMISDAE PAPAE. PER THEOPOMPUll
ET 8EUER1ANITM uu. cc. Omnia, quae benignitas conceperit, animorum dulci ambitu et festinatione laudabili propagantur
10 nec sibi requiem putant posse praestari, donec ad efTectum saluberrimum desiderata perduxerint, et tunc quaedam ipsius festinationis fit requies, dum contigerit spes uotorum. quod 2 in praesenti nos certa ratione pertulimus, donec caelestis fauor et nosti*ae petitioni aditum et uestrae promissioni sercDum
\b donet effectum. ergo quia uel maxima itineris longitudo uel 3 ultra solitum morem hiemalis asperitas, quod optabamus, nobis fecit incertum, interim intra animos nostros desiderata compressimus, beneficia diuina captantes, quae bonae exitus rei sua interpositione decidunt. agnoscentes igitur, quod eius 4
20 pietas primam nobis gratiam condonauit, ut missa legatio ad beatitudinem tuam feliciter remearet, ad secundam processimus, ut dirigeretur a nobis promissa legatio, per quam et comme- moratio fieret eorum, quae cum sanctissimis uiris longa deli- beratione contulimus, et item deo auspice tam nostrae peti-
25 tionis quam uestrae gratiae ad integrum lux serena desplendeat et toto orbi gaudia expectata donentur. commemorationis 5
111* Dat. Constantinopoli a, 516 die IC lul. per Theopompum et Setierianum. Edd. Car. I* 445; Bar. ad a. 516, 4; CoUect. Concil.; Thiel 764. 7 per Theopompum et Seuerinum u. c. (corr. Car.) mtnu- iiore charactere V 12 ait F, corr. o contingerit V, corr. p 14 au- ditum Bar, promissionis F, correxi 19 decidunt agnoscentes. Igitur maU Carafam secutua Thiel 22 dirigetur V, corr. o 24 item scripsi: idem F, eodem p*, inde Bar. 25 integrum a ante cor- rectionem: integram V et a corr, resplendeat Car. 26 toti
Lahb.
504
Hormisda Anasfasio Augusto
itaque loco uel salutationis honorem reddendo Theopompum uirum illustrem, comitem domesticorum, agentem sacri nostri palatii scolam, fidelem nobis uel pro suis moribus uel pro ipsa affectione genitalis nostrae prouinciae, sed et Seuerianum u. c. comitem sacri nostri consistorii ad uestram direjcimus sanctitatem, qui ordinem litterarum propria uoce testantes ad celeritatem spectata prouocent, quae etiam caelesti miseri- cordiae credimus placuisse. Data XVIL Kal. Aug. Constanti- nop. Petro u. c. cons.
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From:Emperor Anastasius I, Constantinople
To:Hormisdas, Pope of Rome
Date:~July 516 AD
Context:The Emperor writes again, explaining that the long delay in sending his promised embassy was caused by the length of the journey and an unusually harsh winter. He sends two envoys to advance negotiations.
The Emperor Anastasius Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. Delivered by Theopompus and Severianus, men of distinction.
Everything that benevolence conceives is driven forward by a sweet eagerness of spirit and praiseworthy haste. Such desires grant themselves no rest until they have brought what is longed for to its most salutary fulfillment — and then the very haste finds its rest when the hope behind the prayers is realized.
This is exactly what we ourselves have experienced, waiting until heavenly favor might grant both an opening for our petition and a fruitful result for your promise. Since either the great length of the journey or a winter harsher than usual has made uncertain what we hoped for, we have for the time being kept our desires contained within our hearts, counting on the divine blessings that bring good outcomes through their own intervention.
Recognizing, then, that God's goodness has granted us a first favor — that the embassy sent to Your Beatitude returned safely — we have now proceeded to a second step: dispatching the promised embassy, through which both a review of the matters we discussed at length with the most holy men may be carried out, and — God willing — the full, clear light of both our petition and your grace may shine forth, granting the whole world the joy it has been waiting for.
And so, both by way of remembrance and in tribute of our greeting, we are sending to Your Holiness Theopompus, an illustrious man, Count of the Domestics and head of our sacred palace school — faithful to us both for his character and for his attachment to our native province — together with Severianus, a distinguished man, Count of our Sacred Consistory, who will testify in person to the content of this letter and urge speed in what is hoped for.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.