Letter 1003: SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR PHILIMATIUS, GREETINGS

SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR PHILIMATIUS, GREETINGS 1. Go ahead now and put me on trial for canvassing, and haul me before the Senate, for the fact that I labor with sleepless cares to attain an honor I might inherit — I whose father, father-in-law, grandfather, and great-grandfather have shone in the urban and praetorian prefectures, in the palatine and military masterships. 2. And look: my friend Gaudentius, hitherto merely of tribunician rank, has overleaped the drowsy indolence of our citizens with the title of vicar. The trampled nobility of our young men does indeed mutter, but the man who has surpassed the disparagers is moved for this reason alone — to rejoice. And so they venerate the one they formerly despised and, stunned by the gifts of sudden fortune, look up from their benches to the one they used to look down upon from his seat. He for his part, passing by, batters the ears of the snoring detractors with the raucous voice of the herald — men who, though they may be stirred against him by the goads of enmity, will nonetheless be assigned to friendly benches. 3. On this account, it will equally befit you to repair swiftly, by the privilege of the consultations of the prefecture into which you are pressed to participate, the loss of outdated honor, lest, if you enter the council without the prerogative of a councillor, you appear to have performed only the function of the vicars. Farewell.

EPISTULA III Sidonius Philimatio suo salutem. 1. I nunc, et legibus me ambitus interrogatum senatu move, cur adipiscendae dignitati hereditariae curis pervigilibus incumbam; cui pater socer, avus proavus praefecturis urbanis praetorianisque, magisteriis Palatinis militaribusque micuerunt. 2. et ecce Gaudentius meus, hactenus tantum tribunicius, oscitantem nostrorum civium desidiam vicariano apice transcendit. mussitat quidem iuvenum nostrorum calcata generositas, sed qui transiit derogantes in hoc solum movetur, ut gaudeat. igitur venerantur hucusque contemptum ac subitae stupentes dona fortunae quem consessu despiciebant sede suspiciunt. ille obiter stertentum oblatratorum aures rauci voce praeconis everberat, qui in eum licet stimulis inimicalibus excitentur, scamnis tamen amicalibus deputabuntur. 3. unde te etiam par fuerit privilegio consiliorum praefecturae, in quae participanda deposceris, antiquati honoris perniciter sarcire dispendium, ne, si extra praerogativam consiliarii in concilium veneris, solas vicariorum vices egisse videare. vale.