LETTER X
Sidonius to his dear Hesperius, greetings.
1. I love in you your love of letters, and I strive to honor with the fullest praise the generosity of a dedication through which you commend not only your own beginnings but our own efforts as well. For when we see the talents of the younger generation growing up in this very discipline for which we ourselves once submitted our hands to the schoolmaster's rod, we reap the richest fruit of our own labor. Add to this that the crowd of the idle has grown so large that unless you and a very few others rescue the pure character of the Latin language from the rust of common barbarisms, we shall soon have to mourn it as abolished and dead. So all the purple of noble speech will be bleached away by the neglect of the common herd.
2. But enough of that for now. In the meantime, accept what you have asked for. You ask that if any little verses have flowed from my pen since we last parted, I pay them out to you as a sort of interest on the delay. I obey, for though you are young, you possess such maturity of mind that even your elders wish to oblige you. A church was recently built at Lyons, which reached the summit of the work begun through the zeal of Bishop Patiens -- a holy, energetic, strict, and merciful man who, through his abundant generosity and humanity toward the poor, raises himself to no lesser heights of a good conscience.
3. On the outer walls of this building, at the request of the aforesaid bishop, I inscribed a hasty poem in triple trochees, a meter still familiar to me and soon to be so to you. For the side walls flanking the altar are distinguished by the hexameters of the eminent poets Constantius and Secundinus -- poets whom my modesty especially forbids me to admit onto this page, since the comparison with better verse weighs down a writer who publishes his casual efforts with some trepidation.
4. For just as nothing becomes a new bride less than a more beautiful bridesmaid, and just as if you dress in white, any dark person looks blacker still, so my work -- such as it is -- surrounded by the more powerful trumpets, is reduced to a worthless straw, which is pronounced the more contemptible for being placed in the middle, last in merit, not merely by lack of skill but by arrogance too. But why go on? Let the poor little stalk of the song you demanded murmur its tune:
"You who here praise the labor of our pontiff and father Patiens: with prayer granted in answer to your vow, may you find that what you ask is given.
The lofty building gleams and does not lean to left or right, but faces with its towered front the equinoctial sunrise.
Within, the light sparkles, and the sun is drawn to the gilded ceiling so that it seems to wander in its own golden hue.
Marble of varied brilliance runs across ceiling, floor, and windows, and beneath multicolored figures a living, verdant crust bends sapphire-blue stones through green glass.
A triple portico is attached to this, proud on its Aquitanian columns. Beyond it, to match its splendor, a second portico encloses the further courts, and a stone forest of columns, set far apart, clothes the open field between.
On this side the rampart resounds, on that the Saone echoes. Here the pedestrian and the horseman turn, and the driver of creaking carriages. And here the chorus of bent-backed haulers raises their river-chant of Alleluia to Christ, the banks echoing their response.
So, so sing your psalms, you sailor and you traveler -- for this is a place all must seek, where every road leads to salvation."
5. There, I have obeyed your instructions like a junior following orders. You just remember that I am to be repaid with compound interest, and to make this easier and more enjoyable for you, it is essential that you read without pretense and study without end. And do not let the wife who is soon to be happily led to your home deflect you from this purpose. Keep firmly in mind that once upon a time Marcia held the candle for Hortensius, Terentia for Cicero, Calpurnia for Pliny, Pudentilla for Apuleius, and Rusticiana for Symmachus as they read and studied.
6. And if you complain that the company of women dulls the poetic gift and the polish of your tongue that frequent study has sharpened on its whetstones, remember that Corinna often completed a verse with her Ovid, Lesbia with Catullus, Cesennia with Gaetulicus, Argentaria with Lucan, Cynthia with Propertius, and Delia with Tibullus. From which it is perfectly clear that marriage provides the studious with an occasion for learning, and the lazy merely with an excuse. So press on, and do not let the crowd of the uneducated cheapen your literary endeavors -- for it is a law of nature that in all the arts, the display of knowledge is more precious the rarer it is. Farewell.
EPISTULA X
Sidonius Hesperio suo salutem.
1. Amo in te quod litteras amas et usquequaque praeconiis cumulatissimis excolere contendo tantae diligentiae generositatem, per quam nobis non solum initia tua verum etiam studia nostra commendas. nam cum videmus in huiusmodi disciplinam iuniorum ingenia succrescere, propter quam nos quoque subduximus ferulae manum, copiosissimum fructum nostri laboris adipiscimur. illud appone, quod tantum increbruit multitudo desidiosorum, ut, nisi vel paucissimi quique meram linguae Latiaris proprietatem de trivialium barbarismorum robigine vindicaveritis, eam brevi abolitam defleamus interemptamque; sic omnes nobilium sermonum purpurae per incuriam vulgi decolorabuntur.
2. sed istinc alias: interea tu quod petis accipe. petis autem, ut si qui versiculi mihi fluxerint, postquam ab alterutro discessimus, hos tibi pro quadam morarum mercede pernumerem. dicto pareo; nam praeditus es quamquam iuvenis hac animi maturitate, ut tibi etiam natu priores gerere morem concupiscamus. ecclesia nuper exstructa Lugduni est, quae studio papae Patientis summum coepti operis accessit, viri sancti strenui, severi misericordis quique per uberem munificentiam in pauperes humanitatemque non minora bonae conscientiae culmina levet.
3. huius igitur aedis extimis rogatu praefati antistitis tumultuarium carmen inscripsi trochaeis triplicibus adhuc mihi iamque tibi perfamiliaribus. namque ab hexametris eminentium poetarum Constantii et Secundini vicinantia altari basilicae latera clarescunt, quos in hanc paginam admitti nostra quam maxume verecundia vetat, quam suas otiositates trepidanter edentem meliorum carminum comparatio premit.
4. nam sicuti novam nuptam nihil minus quam pulchrior pronuba decet, sicuti, si vestiatur albo, fuscus quisque fit nigrior, sic nostra, quantula est cumque, tubis circumfusa potioribus stipula vilescit, quam mediam loco, infimam merito despicabiliorem pronuntiari non imperitia modo sed et arrogantia facit. quapropter illorum iustius epigrammata micant quam istaec, quae imaginarie tantum et quodammodo umbratiliter effingimus. sed quorsum ista? quin potius paupertinus flagitatae cantilenae culmus immurmuret.
Quisquis pontificis patrisque nostri
conlaudas Patientis hic laborem,
voti compote supplicatione
concessum experiare quod rogabis.
aedes celsa nitet nec in sinistrum
aut dextrum trahitur, sed arce frontis
ortum prospicit aequinoctialem.
intus lux micat atque bratteatum
sol sic sollicitatur ad lacunar,
fulvo ut concolor erret in metallo.
distinctum vario nitore marmor
percurrit cameram solum fenestras,
ac sub versicoloribus figuris
vernans herbida crusta sapphiratos
flectit per prasinum vitrum lapillos.
huic est porticus applicata triplex
fulmentis Aquitanicis superba,
ad cuius specimen remotiora
claudunt atria porticus secundae,
et campum medium procul locatas
vestis saxea silva per columnas.
hinc agger sonat, hinc Arar resultat.
hinc sese pedes atque eques reflectit
stridentum et moderator essedorum,
curvorum hinc chorus helciariorum
responsantibus alleluia ripis
ad Christum levat amnicum celeuma.
sic, sic psallite, nauta vel viator;
namque iste est locus omnibus petendus,
omnes quo via ducit ad salutem.
5. Ecce parui tamquam iunior imperatis. tu modo fac memineris multiplicato me faenore remunerandum, quoque id facilius possis voluptuosiusque, opus est ut sine dissimulatione lectites, sine fine lecturias; neque patiaris, ut te ab hoc proposito propediem coniunx domum feliciter ducenda deflectat, sisque oppido meminens, quod olim Marcia Hortensio, Terentia Tullio, Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Rusticiana Symmacho legentibus meditantibusque candelas et candelabra tenuerunt.
6. certe si praeter oratoriam contubernio feminarum poeticum ingenium et oris tui limam frequentium studiorum cotibus expolitam quereris obtundi, reminiscere, quod saepe versum Corinna cum suo Nasone complevit, Lesbia cum Catullo, Cesennia cum Gaetulico, Argentaria cum Lucano, Cynthia cum Propertio, Delia cum Tibullo. proinde liquido claret studentibus discendi per nuptias occasionem tribui, desidibus excusationem. igitur incumbe, neque apud te litterariam curam turba depretiet imperitorum, quia natura comparatum est, ut in omnibus artibus hoc sit scientiae pretiosior pompa, quo rarior. vale.
◆
LETTER X
Sidonius to his dear Hesperius, greetings.
1. I love in you your love of letters, and I strive to honor with the fullest praise the generosity of a dedication through which you commend not only your own beginnings but our own efforts as well. For when we see the talents of the younger generation growing up in this very discipline for which we ourselves once submitted our hands to the schoolmaster's rod, we reap the richest fruit of our own labor. Add to this that the crowd of the idle has grown so large that unless you and a very few others rescue the pure character of the Latin language from the rust of common barbarisms, we shall soon have to mourn it as abolished and dead. So all the purple of noble speech will be bleached away by the neglect of the common herd.
2. But enough of that for now. In the meantime, accept what you have asked for. You ask that if any little verses have flowed from my pen since we last parted, I pay them out to you as a sort of interest on the delay. I obey, for though you are young, you possess such maturity of mind that even your elders wish to oblige you. A church was recently built at Lyons, which reached the summit of the work begun through the zeal of Bishop Patiens -- a holy, energetic, strict, and merciful man who, through his abundant generosity and humanity toward the poor, raises himself to no lesser heights of a good conscience.
3. On the outer walls of this building, at the request of the aforesaid bishop, I inscribed a hasty poem in triple trochees, a meter still familiar to me and soon to be so to you. For the side walls flanking the altar are distinguished by the hexameters of the eminent poets Constantius and Secundinus -- poets whom my modesty especially forbids me to admit onto this page, since the comparison with better verse weighs down a writer who publishes his casual efforts with some trepidation.
4. For just as nothing becomes a new bride less than a more beautiful bridesmaid, and just as if you dress in white, any dark person looks blacker still, so my work -- such as it is -- surrounded by the more powerful trumpets, is reduced to a worthless straw, which is pronounced the more contemptible for being placed in the middle, last in merit, not merely by lack of skill but by arrogance too. But why go on? Let the poor little stalk of the song you demanded murmur its tune:
"You who here praise the labor of our pontiff and father Patiens: with prayer granted in answer to your vow, may you find that what you ask is given.
The lofty building gleams and does not lean to left or right, but faces with its towered front the equinoctial sunrise.
Within, the light sparkles, and the sun is drawn to the gilded ceiling so that it seems to wander in its own golden hue.
Marble of varied brilliance runs across ceiling, floor, and windows, and beneath multicolored figures a living, verdant crust bends sapphire-blue stones through green glass.
A triple portico is attached to this, proud on its Aquitanian columns. Beyond it, to match its splendor, a second portico encloses the further courts, and a stone forest of columns, set far apart, clothes the open field between.
On this side the rampart resounds, on that the Saone echoes. Here the pedestrian and the horseman turn, and the driver of creaking carriages. And here the chorus of bent-backed haulers raises their river-chant of Alleluia to Christ, the banks echoing their response.
So, so sing your psalms, you sailor and you traveler -- for this is a place all must seek, where every road leads to salvation."
5. There, I have obeyed your instructions like a junior following orders. You just remember that I am to be repaid with compound interest, and to make this easier and more enjoyable for you, it is essential that you read without pretense and study without end. And do not let the wife who is soon to be happily led to your home deflect you from this purpose. Keep firmly in mind that once upon a time Marcia held the candle for Hortensius, Terentia for Cicero, Calpurnia for Pliny, Pudentilla for Apuleius, and Rusticiana for Symmachus as they read and studied.
6. And if you complain that the company of women dulls the poetic gift and the polish of your tongue that frequent study has sharpened on its whetstones, remember that Corinna often completed a verse with her Ovid, Lesbia with Catullus, Cesennia with Gaetulicus, Argentaria with Lucan, Cynthia with Propertius, and Delia with Tibullus. From which it is perfectly clear that marriage provides the studious with an occasion for learning, and the lazy merely with an excuse. So press on, and do not let the crowd of the uneducated cheapen your literary endeavors -- for it is a law of nature that in all the arts, the display of knowledge is more precious the rarer it is. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.