To Felix.
You have been abstaining from correspondence for a long time. So each of us maintains his usual habit: I chatter, you stay silent. Indeed, my distinguished friend, I consider it a kind of virtue — however remarkable in other matters of faithful duty — that you are never wearied by such prolonged inactivity. Will you never be moved by respect for our old friendship to at last abandon your commitment to continuous silence? Or do you not realize that refusing to answer a talkative man is an insult? You sit silent, surrounded by your library shelves and your senatorial robes, and you expect the duty of poor man's prose from me — a man who has, if you look closely, more facility than faculty for writing.
At the very least, let our shared fears give your pen some material. Remember to burden travelers' hands with letters so that our anxious friends may be relieved, and tell us quickly whether — with God's guidance — the quaestor Licinianus [an imperial envoy sent to negotiate] has opened any door of safety for our mutual anxiety. He is, they say, a person greater in arrival than in expectation, more impressive in person than in report, and remarkable for every gift of fortune and nature.
He shows the highest integrity matched by equal courtesy and prudence — a trustworthiness that suits both the man sent and the man who sent him. There is nothing affected or feigned about him; the weight of his words comes from genuine severity, not the imitation of it. He is not like those who, when delivering a message entrusted to them, try to look as though they have acted cautiously by acting hesitantly; nor is he, they say, among those who sell the secrets of their sovereign princes and court the barbarians' favor for the ambassador rather than for the embassy.
This is the character that favorable report has brought us. Send word quickly if the reports match reality, so that those on perpetual guard duty — whom neither snowy days nor moonless, stormy nights persuade to sound the retreat from the walls — may catch their breath. For even when the barbarian withdraws to winter quarters, people put off their fear rather than abandon it once it has taken root in their hearts. Comfort us with good news — for our cause is not so far from you as our homeland. Farewell.
EPISTULA VII
Sidonius Felici suo salutem.
1. Longum a litteris temperatis. igitur utrique nostrum mos suus agitur: ego garrio, vos tacetis. unde etiam, vir ad reliqua fidei officia insignis, genus reor esse virtutis tanto te otio non posse lassari. ecquid numquam nec respectu movebere familiaritatis antiquae, ut tandem a continuandi silentii proposito pedem referas? aut nescis, quia garrulo non respondere convicium est? tu retices vel bybliothecarum medius vel togarum et a me officium paupertini sermonis expectas, cui scribendi, si bene perspicis, magis est facilitas quam facultas.
2. certe vel metus noster materiam stilo tuo faciat, mementoque viatorum manus gravare chartis, quatenus amicorum cura relevetur, et indicare festina, si quam praevio deo quaestor Licinianus trepidationi mutuae ianuam securitatis aperuerit. persona siquidem est, ut perhibent, magna expectatione maior adventu, relatu sublimis inspectione sublimior, et ob omnia felicitatis naturaeque dona monstrabilis.
3. summa censura, par comitas et prudentia fidesque misso mittentique conveniens; nihil affectatum simulatumque ponderique sermonum vera potius severitas quam severitatis imitatio; et nec, ut plurimi, qui cum credita diffidenter allegant, volunt videri egisse [se] cautius, sed neque ex illo, ut ferunt, numero, qui secreta dirigentum principum venditantes ambiunt a barbaris bene agi cum legato potius quam cum legatione.
4. hunc nobis morum viri tenorem secundus rumor invexit. mandate perniciter, si vero dicta conquadrant, ut tantisper a pervigili statione respirent quos a muralibus excubiis non dies ninguidus, non nox inlunis et turbida receptui canere persuadent; quia, etsi barbarus in hiberna concedat, mage differunt quam relinquunt semel radicatam corda formidinem. palpate nos prosperis, quia nostra non tam procul est a vobis causa quam patria. vale.
◆
To Felix.
You have been abstaining from correspondence for a long time. So each of us maintains his usual habit: I chatter, you stay silent. Indeed, my distinguished friend, I consider it a kind of virtue — however remarkable in other matters of faithful duty — that you are never wearied by such prolonged inactivity. Will you never be moved by respect for our old friendship to at last abandon your commitment to continuous silence? Or do you not realize that refusing to answer a talkative man is an insult? You sit silent, surrounded by your library shelves and your senatorial robes, and you expect the duty of poor man's prose from me — a man who has, if you look closely, more facility than faculty for writing.
At the very least, let our shared fears give your pen some material. Remember to burden travelers' hands with letters so that our anxious friends may be relieved, and tell us quickly whether — with God's guidance — the quaestor Licinianus [an imperial envoy sent to negotiate] has opened any door of safety for our mutual anxiety. He is, they say, a person greater in arrival than in expectation, more impressive in person than in report, and remarkable for every gift of fortune and nature.
He shows the highest integrity matched by equal courtesy and prudence — a trustworthiness that suits both the man sent and the man who sent him. There is nothing affected or feigned about him; the weight of his words comes from genuine severity, not the imitation of it. He is not like those who, when delivering a message entrusted to them, try to look as though they have acted cautiously by acting hesitantly; nor is he, they say, among those who sell the secrets of their sovereign princes and court the barbarians' favor for the ambassador rather than for the embassy.
This is the character that favorable report has brought us. Send word quickly if the reports match reality, so that those on perpetual guard duty — whom neither snowy days nor moonless, stormy nights persuade to sound the retreat from the walls — may catch their breath. For even when the barbarian withdraws to winter quarters, people put off their fear rather than abandon it once it has taken root in their hearts. Comfort us with good news — for our cause is not so far from you as our homeland. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.