Letter 3001: SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR AVITUS, GREETINGS

SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR AVITUS, GREETINGS 1. From the earliest boyhood through whatever measure of youth we have now attained, the mutual concern of our affection had bound us in many bonds of devotion: first, because our mothers were joined by the closest tie of blood; then, because we ourselves, born in the same years, used the same teachers, were trained in the same disciplines, took our leisure in the same games, were advanced under the same commanders, and fulfilled our military service together. And what is more powerful and effective than all this for enlarging a friendship: we have competed in an equal judgment in cherishing and avoiding each particular person. 2. For all these reasons, beyond the conscience which shines far more excellently and eminently within you, the similarity of our outward conduct over the years had greatly united our inclinations. But — it must be admitted — once the engines of our mutual affection had long been raised on both sides, you yourself set a precious pinnacle upon them by enriching, at a most opportune offering, the church of the small town of the Arverni, over which I appear to preside, though undeservedly; and you contributed greatly to its possession by the suburban convenience of the estate at Cutiacum, condescending to enrich the brotherhood of our calling no less by the proximity of the location than by its revenue. 3. And though you and another appear to be joint heirs of your sister's inheritance, yet your surviving sister has been moved by the example of your loyalty to imitate your good work. Thus the merit of your own deed and the inspiration of another's is rightly rendered to you from heaven. The result is that you are found most worthy to be raised by the divine in an unaccustomed kind of successive blessings, which has not long delayed enriching devout generosity with hundredfold gifts, and which will, as we trust, bestow heavenly rewards no less readily, now that it has already discharged the earthly ones. For — in case you do not know it — the inheritance of Nicetius at Cutiacum was the heavenly price. 4. For the rest, I beg you that, just as you hold the care of our church, so may you hold an equal care of the city, which from this time forth ought, both for your own sake and for your estate's, to belong to your patronage. How great its worth may be — if your presence should visit it frequently — let the Goths themselves testify, who often enough even despise and surrender their own territory in Septimania, and now would fain possess even the desolate property of this resented corner of Gaul. 5. But it is right, under God's guidance, for you to conceive more tranquil hopes while mediating between them and the state — for even if they are pushing their boundaries of old possessions by every means of force and mass of settlement out to the Rhone and the Loire, your authority in the weight of your opinion will yet so moderate both sides that ours may learn what it ought to refuse when it is asked, and the adversary may cease to demand when it is refused. Farewell.

EPISTULA I Sidonius Avito suo salutem. 1. Multis quidem vinculis caritatis ab ineunte pueritia quicquid venimus in iuventutem gratiae sese mutuae cura nexuerat, primum, quia matribus nostris summa sanguinis iuncti necessitudo; dein, quod ipsi isdem temporibus nati magistris usi, artibus instituti lusibus otiati, principibus evecti stipendiis perfuncti sumus; et, quod est ad amicitias ampliandas his validius efficaciusque, in singulis quibusque personis vel expetendis aequaliter vel cavendis iudicii parilitate certavimus. 2. propter quae omnia praeter conscientiam, quae interius tibi longe praestantior eminentiorque, multum voluntates nostras copulaverat decursarum forinsecus actionum similitudo. sed, quod fatendum est, diu erectis utrimque amoris machinis ipse culmina pretiosa posuisti ecclesiam Arverni municipioli, cui praepositus, etsi inmerito, videor, peropportuna oblatione locupletando; cuius possessioni plurimum contulisti Cuticiacensis praedii suburbanitate, non minus nostrae professionis fraternitatem loci proximitate dignatus ditare quam reditu. 3. et licet sororiae hereditatis duo consortes esse videamini, exemplo tamen fidei tuae superstes germana commota est ad boni operis imitationem. itaque tibi caelitus iure redhibetur tui facti meritum, alieni incitamentum. quo fit, ut reperiare dignissimus, quem divinitas inusitato successuum genere sublimet, quae tamen nec diu distulit religiosam devotionem centuplicatis opulentare muneribus quaeque, ut confidimus, nihilo segnius caelestia largietur, cum terrena iam solverit. Nicetiana namque, si nescis, hereditas Cuticiaci supernum pretium fuit. 4. quod restat exposcimus, ut sicut ecclesiae nostrae ita etiam civitatis aeque tibi sit cura communis, quae cum olim, tum debebit ex hoc praecipue tempore ad tuum patrocinium vel ob tuum patrimonium pertinere. quod cuius meriti esse possit, quippe si vestra crebro illud praesentia invisat, vel Gothis credite, qui saepenumero etiam Septimaniam suam fastidiunt vel refundunt, modo invidiosi huius anguli etiam desolata proprietate potiantur. 5. sed fas est praesule deo vobis inter eos et rempublicam mediis animo quietiora concipere, quia, etsi illi veterum finium limitibus effractis omni vel virtute vel mole possessionis turbidae metas in Rhodanum Ligerimque proterminant, vestra tamen auctoritas pro dignitate sententiae sic partem utramque moderabitur, ut et nostra discat quid debeat negare, cum petitur, et poscere adversa desinat, cum negatur. vale.