To my dear Papianilla [Sidonius's wife].
The quaestor Licinianus, arriving from Ravenna, the moment he crossed the Alps and touched Gallic soil, sent a letter ahead announcing his coming. In it he reports that he carries imperial letters patent granting the patriciate to your brother Ecdicius as well — whose honors bring you no less joy than my own. It comes quickly if you consider his youth, but very slowly if you consider his merits. For he long ago paid the price of future distinction not on a silver platter but on the battlefield, and enriched the public treasury not with his own money but with enemy spoils.
This the holy Julius Nepos [the Western Roman emperor, 474-475] — supreme Augustus equally in arms and in character — has nobly discharged, fulfilling the debt that his predecessor Anthemius [emperor 467-472] had pledged to your brother's efforts. And the swifter the fulfillment, the more praiseworthy — for Nepos has completed what Anthemius so often merely promised. The result is that from now on, every good man can and should spend whatever strength he possesses for the republic, with confidence and eagerness, knowing that even if an emperor dies, the principate always honors the promises that a prince has made to those who serve.
Meanwhile, if I read your feelings correctly, this news brings you great consolation amid our greatest adversities, and even the terror of the nearby siege [Clermont was then besieged by the Visigoths] cannot deflect your heart from the path of shared joy. For I know you well: you were not even as happy at my own honor — which you share by law of marriage — because, though you are a good wife, you are an even better sister.
Therefore, with God's favor, I have been the first to inscribe the new titles of your family in this congratulatory letter — relieving your anxiety and your brother's modesty at the same time. For I know he would have said nothing about his own distinction, and you would have judged him not heartless but merely shy.
As for me, I rejoice not so much in the insignia of rank — which you have been awaiting with all the more impatience for all the more freedom (though I rejoice greatly in these too) — as in the family harmony. I wish the same for our children and theirs, praying that just as we have taken this family from prefectural to patrician status by divine favor, so they may take the patrician status they inherit and make it consular.
Roscia [their granddaughter] sends her love — our shared darling. In the most indulgent arms of her grandmother and aunts, she is being raised — as rarely happens with grandchildren — with a strictness that does not weaken her tender years but shapes her character. Farewell.
EPISTULA XVI
Sidonius Papianillae suae salutem.
1. Ravenna veniens quaestor Licinianus, cum primum tetigit Alpe transmissa Galliae solum, litteras adventus sui praevias misit, quibus indicat esse se gerulum codicillorum, quorum in adventu fratri etiam tuo Ecdicio, cuius aeque titulis ac meis gaudes, honor patricius accedit, celerrime, si cogites eius aetatem, si merita, tardissime. namque ille iam pridem suffragium dignitatis ineundae non solvit in lance sed in acie, aerariumque publicum ipse privatus non pecuniis sed manubiis locupletavit.
2. hoc tamen sancte Iulius Nepos, armis pariter summus Augustus ac moribus, quod decessoris Anthemii fidem fratris tui sudoribus obligatam, quo citior, hoc laudabilior absolvit; siquidem iste complevit, quod ille saepissime pollicebatur. quo fit, ut deinceps pro republica optimus quisque possit ac debeat, si quid cuipiam virium est, quia securus, hinc avidus impendere, quandoquidem mortuo quoque imperatore laborantum devotioni quicquid spoponderit princeps, semper redhibet principatus.
3. interea tu, si affectum tuum bene colligo, hisce compertis magnum solacium inter adversa maxima capis nec animum tuum a tramite communium gaudiorum vicinae quoque obsidionis terror exorbitat. novi enim probe ne meo quidem te, quem ex lege participas, sic honore laetatam, quia, licet sis uxor bona, soror optima es. qua de re propitio deo Christo ampliatos prosapiae tuae titulos ego festinus gratatoriis apicibus inscripsi, pariter absolvens sollicitudinem tuam, fratris pudorem; quem nil de propria dignitate indicaturum, si verecundum forte nescires, nec sic impium iudicares.
4. ego vero non tantum insignibus vestris, quae tu hactenus quanto liberius, tanto inpatientius praestolabare (quamquam his quoque granditer), quantum concordia fruor; quam parem nostris suisque liberis in posterum exopto, votis in commune deposcens, ut sicut nos utramque familiam nostram praefectoriam nancti etiam patriciam divino favore reddidimus, ita ipsi quam suscipiunt patriciam faciant consularem.
5. Roscia salutat, cura communis; quae in aviae amitarumque indulgentissimo sinu, quod raro nepotibus contingit alendis, et cum severitate nutritur, qua tamen tenerum non infirmatur aevum sed informatur ingenium. vale.
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To my dear Papianilla [Sidonius's wife].
The quaestor Licinianus, arriving from Ravenna, the moment he crossed the Alps and touched Gallic soil, sent a letter ahead announcing his coming. In it he reports that he carries imperial letters patent granting the patriciate to your brother Ecdicius as well — whose honors bring you no less joy than my own. It comes quickly if you consider his youth, but very slowly if you consider his merits. For he long ago paid the price of future distinction not on a silver platter but on the battlefield, and enriched the public treasury not with his own money but with enemy spoils.
This the holy Julius Nepos [the Western Roman emperor, 474-475] — supreme Augustus equally in arms and in character — has nobly discharged, fulfilling the debt that his predecessor Anthemius [emperor 467-472] had pledged to your brother's efforts. And the swifter the fulfillment, the more praiseworthy — for Nepos has completed what Anthemius so often merely promised. The result is that from now on, every good man can and should spend whatever strength he possesses for the republic, with confidence and eagerness, knowing that even if an emperor dies, the principate always honors the promises that a prince has made to those who serve.
Meanwhile, if I read your feelings correctly, this news brings you great consolation amid our greatest adversities, and even the terror of the nearby siege [Clermont was then besieged by the Visigoths] cannot deflect your heart from the path of shared joy. For I know you well: you were not even as happy at my own honor — which you share by law of marriage — because, though you are a good wife, you are an even better sister.
Therefore, with God's favor, I have been the first to inscribe the new titles of your family in this congratulatory letter — relieving your anxiety and your brother's modesty at the same time. For I know he would have said nothing about his own distinction, and you would have judged him not heartless but merely shy.
As for me, I rejoice not so much in the insignia of rank — which you have been awaiting with all the more impatience for all the more freedom (though I rejoice greatly in these too) — as in the family harmony. I wish the same for our children and theirs, praying that just as we have taken this family from prefectural to patrician status by divine favor, so they may take the patrician status they inherit and make it consular.
Roscia [their granddaughter] sends her love — our shared darling. In the most indulgent arms of her grandmother and aunts, she is being raised — as rarely happens with grandchildren — with a strictness that does not weaken her tender years but shapes her character. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.