To Eutropius [a Gallo-Roman aristocrat who had been appointed to a prefecture].
If you recall faithfully the bonds of our old comradeship and the friendship that has deepened with each passing day, then you surely understand that as you have risen to the heights of high office, so we have risen to the heights of longing. For we all rejoice in your appointment so warmly that we consider it to have elevated not merely your household but our friendship. Witness that deliberation in which my encouragement played no small part.
You could barely be persuaded to add the prefecture to your philosophy, since your devotion to the doctrines of Plotinus — in the tradition of your fellow disciples — had drawn you away into the depths of untimely retirement on the Platonic model. I argued at the time that you would be free to profess philosophy only once you had discharged your duty to your family. Besides, a contempt for public service looked more like laziness when spiteful critics claimed that men of good character were unable rather than unwilling to rise to office.
Therefore, as is right to do first, we give abundant thanks to Christ, who has now crowned the standing of Your Excellency with the same distinction of title that your parents' nobility had long adorned — and with our spirits thus lifted, it is right to hope for still better things ahead. Certainly the common talk of the province is this: a good year should be judged not so much by great harvests as by great magistrates. Therefore it is your duty, my honored elder, to reward our expectations with appropriate governance. For mindful of your lineage, the entire body of nobles has persuaded itself that so long as we are ruled by a member of the Sabinus family, we need not fear the family of Sabinianus [evidently a rival or oppressive figure]. Farewell.
EPISTULA VI
Sidonius Eutropio suo salutem.
1. Si veteris commilitii, si deinceps innovatae per dies gratiae bene in praesentiarum fides vestra reminiscitur, profecto intellegitis ut vos ad dignitatum sic nos ad desideriorum culmina ascendere. ita namque fascibus vestris gratamur omnes, ut erectam per illos non magis vestram domum quam nostram amicitiam censeamus. testis est ille tractatus, in quo exhortationis meae non minimum incitamenta valuerunt.
2. quibus vix potuistis adduci, ut praefecturam philosophiae iungeretis, cum vos consectanei vestri Plotini dogmatibus inhaerentes ad profundum intempestivae quietis otium Platonicorum palaestra rapuisset, cuius disciplinae tunc fore adstruxi liberam professionem, cum nil familiae debuisses. porro autem desidiae vicinior putabatur contemptus ille militiae, ad quam iactitant lividi bonarum partium viros non posse potius quam nolle conscendere.
3. igitur, quod loco primore fieri par est, agimus gratias uberes Christo, qui statum celsitudinis tuae ut hactenus parentum nobilitate decorabat, ita iam nunc titulorum parilitate fastigat; simul et animorum spebus erectis fas est de cetero sperare meliora. certe creber provincialium sermo est: annum bonum de magnis non tam fructibus quam potestatibus aestimandum. qua de re vestrum est, domine maior, exspectationem nostram competentibus dispositionibus munerari. nam memor originis tuae nobilium sibi persuasit universitas, quamdiu nos Sabini familia rexerit, Sabiniani familiam non timendam. vale.
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To Eutropius [a Gallo-Roman aristocrat who had been appointed to a prefecture].
If you recall faithfully the bonds of our old comradeship and the friendship that has deepened with each passing day, then you surely understand that as you have risen to the heights of high office, so we have risen to the heights of longing. For we all rejoice in your appointment so warmly that we consider it to have elevated not merely your household but our friendship. Witness that deliberation in which my encouragement played no small part.
You could barely be persuaded to add the prefecture to your philosophy, since your devotion to the doctrines of Plotinus — in the tradition of your fellow disciples — had drawn you away into the depths of untimely retirement on the Platonic model. I argued at the time that you would be free to profess philosophy only once you had discharged your duty to your family. Besides, a contempt for public service looked more like laziness when spiteful critics claimed that men of good character were unable rather than unwilling to rise to office.
Therefore, as is right to do first, we give abundant thanks to Christ, who has now crowned the standing of Your Excellency with the same distinction of title that your parents' nobility had long adorned — and with our spirits thus lifted, it is right to hope for still better things ahead. Certainly the common talk of the province is this: a good year should be judged not so much by great harvests as by great magistrates. Therefore it is your duty, my honored elder, to reward our expectations with appropriate governance. For mindful of your lineage, the entire body of nobles has persuaded itself that so long as we are ruled by a member of the Sabinus family, we need not fear the family of Sabinianus [evidently a rival or oppressive figure]. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.