Letter 4010: I break into a greeting — late though it is, my lord — having myself gone many years without one.

To Felix. I break into a greeting — late though it is, my lord — having myself gone many years without one. I have not dared to maintain the regularity of our old correspondence since exile's misfortunes drove me from my native soil. So you too must forgive a man who blushes, for it is fitting that the humbled should pursue humble things and not try to maintain the same easy familiarity with those to whom it might seem presumptuous to show more love than reverence. This is why I have been silent so long — and I accepted your silence, when my son Heliodorus came here, more patiently than gladly. But you used to say — however flattering — that you were in awe of my supposed eloquence. That excuse, even if it had ever been true, has expired. For since completing that little book of mine [his published collection of poems], which was somewhat more polished, I have been writing all my subsequent letters in ordinary language, even if my best is no better than ordinary. There is no point in polishing compositions that will never see publication. But if you restore to our old conversational flow the warmth of your affection, I too will return to the ruts of my former talkativeness. Beyond this, I eagerly look forward — with Christ's guidance, if fate allows and my generous patron permits — to flying to wherever you may be, so that friendship may be revived by deeds, having grown torpid through words alone. Farewell.

EPISTULA X Sidonius Felici suo salutem. 1. Erumpo in salutationem licet seram, domine meus, annis ipse iam multis insalutatus, frequentiam veteris officii servare non audens, postquam me soli patrii finibus eliminatum peregrinationis adversa fregerunt. quapropter vos quoque ignoscere decet erubescentibus, siquidem convenit humiliatos humilia sectari neque cum illis parem familiaritatis tenere constantiam, quibus forte sit improbum plus amoris quam reverentiae impendere. propter hoc denique iam diu taceo vosque tacuisse, cum filius meus Heliodorus huc venit, magis toleranter quam libenter accepi. 2. sed dicere solebas, quamquam fatigans, quod meam quasi facundiam vererere. excusatio istaec, etiamsi fuisset vera, transierat, quia post terminatum libellum, qui parum cultior est, reliquas denuo litteras usuali, licet accuratus mihi melior non sit, sermone contexo; non enim tanti est poliri formulas editione carituras. ceterum si caritatis tuae morem pristino colloquiorum cursui reddis, et nos vetustae loquacitatis orbitas recurremus, praeter haec avide praevio Christo, sicubi ***culorum fueritis, modo redux patronus indulgeat, advolaturi, ut rebus amicitia vegetetur, quae verbis infrequentata torpuerat. vale.