SIDONIUS TO THE LORD POPE GRAECUS, GREETINGS
1. You overwhelm my modesty, most accomplished of bishops, by heaping manifold praises upon whatever I have plowed through with my rustic pen. Would that there were no fault in what, though boxed in, I linked together in the very first words — things that run contrary to the truth and differ from it; for a clever traveler imposed upon my ignorance. For while he presented himself purely as a merchant, he drew out my letters in the manner of a letter of introduction — that is, as a reader of them — though those letters ought to have contained some expression of thanks. For as I learned afterward, he profited more from the generosity of the people of Marseille than the form of his condition — whether measured by his income or by his household — would have permitted.
2. Yet if some worthy narrator were to unroll those events as they occurred, they would make a pleasant story. But since you yourselves command that a page from me bring you something cheerful and copious, give me your pardon if, with your ears' severity preserved, I touch briefly upon this very hospitality of our letter-carrier — comparable to a scene from comedy — so that I may not seem, by bringing it up a second time, to be learning it for the first time. At the same time, if it is customary in the rules of rhetoric that principles of speaking be drawn from all manner of subject matter, why here either should any subject be sought and demanded from further afield for me who am about to speak, when the man himself will serve my discourse as its own cause, since my discourse will serve him as its burden?
3. His native city is among the Arverni; his parents of undistinguished but sufficient birth — people who boast nothing illustrious but dread nothing servile, content with a modest income, the same being either sufficient or free. Their service was run in a clerical rather than a palatial retinue. The father of this young man — extremely frugal and somewhat sparing toward his children, preferring to be of more use than pleasure to his son through excessive thrift — was left behind when as a boy this young man set out for your city rather too lightly equipped, which was the greatest obstacle to such a first attempt; for nothing weighs more heavily than a light traveling-purse.
4. Yet his entry into your walls was a second and quite auspicious one. Immediately there fell the twin blessing in word and deed of the holy Eustachius, who was your predecessor; lodgings quickly sought, now thanks to Eustachius's care easily found, swiftly entered, courteously situated. Already from the first he was attending frequently to cultivate his neighbors, and in turn was himself being greeted not ungraciously by them in return. Dealing with each according to what the principle of their age permitted: binding the elderly by acts of deference, those of his own age by services.
5. Above all else he pursued chastity and sobriety — as praiseworthy in youth as it is rare. Then he became known, recognized, and intimate with the leading men, and with the count of the city at the time, by attentions no less opportune than frequent; and in this way his assiduity was advanced day by day into the fellowship of great men. All the good people vied in supporting him — all the most important by their wishes, by advice, private individuals by gifts, the well-placed by benefits. And through all this his prospects and resources were heaped up in rapid leaps.
6. It happened by chance that a woman of no less suitable character than fortune lived next door to the lodgings to which he had been transferred, whose daughter was past the years of infancy but not yet approaching marriageable age. To her this young man, in a winning fashion (for the girl's age still made such attentions fitting), would give now certain trifles, now playthings fit for a virgin's game; and by these causes, slight as they were, the young girl's heart was bound to him very greatly. The years passed meanwhile, suitable for marriage. Why should I linger with a long account?
7. A young man — alone, without means, a stranger, a son of a family, departing from his homeland not merely without his father's knowledge but against his will — wooed a girl not inferior in birth and superior in fortune, with a bishop as intermediary (since he was a lector), the support of a count (since he was his client), a mother-in-law who did not scrutinize his property, and a bride who did not look down upon his person...
EPISTULA II
Sidonius domino papae Graeco salutem.
1. Oneras, consummatissime pontificum, verecundiam meam, multifaria laude cumulando si quid stilo rusticante peraravero. atque utinam reatu careat, quod apicum primore congressu quamquam circumscriptus, veritati resultantia tamen et diversa conexui; ignorantiae siquidem meae callidus viator imposuit. nam dum solum mercatoris praetendit officium, litteras meas ad formatae vicem, scilicet ut lector, elicuit, sed quas aliquam gratiarum actionem continere decuisset. namque, ut post comperi, plus Massiliensium benignitate profectus est, quam status sui seu per censum seu per familiam forma pateretur.
2. quae tamen ut gesta sunt si quispiam dignus relator evolveret, fierent iucunda memoratu. sed quoniam iubetis ipsi, ut aliquid vobis a me laetum copiosumque pagina ferat, date veniam, si hanc ipsam tabellarii nostri hospitalitatem comicis salibus comparandam salva vestrarum aurium severitate perstringamus, ne secundo insinuatum nos nunc primum nosse videamur. simul et, si moris est regularum, ut ex materia omni usurpentur principia dicendi, cur hic quoque quodcumque mihi sermocinaturo materia longius quaeratur expetaturque, nisi ut sermoni nostro sit ipse pro causa, cui erit noster sermo pro sarcina?
3. Arverni huic patria; parentes natalibus non superbis sed absolutis, et sicut nihil illustre iactantes, ita nihil servile metuentes, contenti censu modico sed eodem vel sufficiente vel libero; militia illis in clericali potius quam in Palatino decursa comitatu. pater istius granditer frugi et liberis parum liberalis quique per nimiam parsimoniam iuveni filio plus prodesse quam placere maluerit. quo relicto tunc puer iste vos petiit nimis expeditus, quod erat maximum conatibus primis impedimentum; nihil est enim viatico levi gravius.
4. attamen primus illi in vestra moenia satis secundus introitus. sancti Eustachii, qui vobis decessit, actutum dicto factoque gemina benedictio; hospitium brevi quaesitum, iam Eustachii cura facile inventum, celeriter aditum, civiliter locatum. iam primum crebro accursu excolere vicinos, identidem ab his ipse haud aspernanter resalutari. agere cum singulis, prout aetatis ratio permitteret: grandaevos obsequiis, aequaevos officiis obligare.
5. pudicitiam prae ceteris sobrietatemque sectari, quod tam laudandum in iuventute quam rarum. summatibus deinceps et tunc comiti civitatis non minus opportunis quam frequentibus excubiis agnosci innotescere familiarescere, sicque eius in dies sedulitas maiorum sodalitatibus promoveri; fovere boni quique certatim, votis omnes plurimi consiliis, privati donis cincti beneficiis adiuvare; perque haec spes opesque istius raptim saltuatimque cumulari.
6. forte accidit, ut diversorio, cui ipse successerat, quaedam femina non minus censu quam moribus idonea vicinaretur, cuius filia infantiae iam temporibus emensis necdum tamen nubilibus annis appropinquabat. huic hic blandus (siquidem ea aetas infantulae, ut adhuc decenter) nunc quaedam frivola, nunc ludo apta virgineo scruta donabat; quibus isti parum grandibus causis plurimum virgunculae animus copulabatur. anni obiter thalamo pares: quid morer multis?
7. adulescens, solus tenuis peregrinus, filius familias et e patria patre non solum non volente verum et ignorante discedens, puellam non inferiorem natalibus, facultatibus superiorem, medio episcopo, quia lector, solacio comitis, quia cliens, socru non inspiciente substantiam, sponsa non despiciente personam, uxorem petit, impetrat, ducit. conscribuntur tabulae nuptiales; et si qua est istic municipioli nostri suburbanitas, matrimonialibus illic inserta documentis mimica largitate recitatur.
8. peracta circumscriptione legitima et fraude sollemni levat divitem coniugem pauper adamatus et diligenter quae ad socerum pertinuerant rimatis convasatisque, non parvo etiam corollario facilitatem credulitatemque munificentiae socralis emungens receptui in patriam cecinit praestigiator invictus. quo profecto mater puellae pro hyperbolicis instrumentis coepit actionem repetundarum velle proponere et tunc demum de mancipiorum sponsaliciae donationis paucitate maerere, quando iam de nepotum numerositate gaudebat. ad hanc placandam noster Hippolytus perrexerat, cum litteras meas prius obtulit.
9. habetis historiam iuvenis eximii, fabulam Milesiae vel Atticae parem. simul et ignoscite praeter aequum epistularem formulam porrigenti, quam ob hoc stilo morante produxi, ut non tamquam ignotum reciperetis quem civem beneficiis reddidistis. pariter et natura comparatum est, ut quibus impendimus studium praestemus affectum. vos vero Eustachium pontificem tunc ex asse digno herede decessisse monstrabitis, si ut propinquis testamenti, sic clientibus patrocinii legata solvatis.
10. ecce parui et oboedientis officium garrulitate complevi, licet qui indocto negotium prolixitatis iniungit, aegre ferre non debeat, si non tam eloquentes epistulas recipit quam loquaces. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.
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SIDONIUS TO THE LORD POPE GRAECUS, GREETINGS
1. You overwhelm my modesty, most accomplished of bishops, by heaping manifold praises upon whatever I have plowed through with my rustic pen. Would that there were no fault in what, though boxed in, I linked together in the very first words — things that run contrary to the truth and differ from it; for a clever traveler imposed upon my ignorance. For while he presented himself purely as a merchant, he drew out my letters in the manner of a letter of introduction — that is, as a reader of them — though those letters ought to have contained some expression of thanks. For as I learned afterward, he profited more from the generosity of the people of Marseille than the form of his condition — whether measured by his income or by his household — would have permitted.
2. Yet if some worthy narrator were to unroll those events as they occurred, they would make a pleasant story. But since you yourselves command that a page from me bring you something cheerful and copious, give me your pardon if, with your ears' severity preserved, I touch briefly upon this very hospitality of our letter-carrier — comparable to a scene from comedy — so that I may not seem, by bringing it up a second time, to be learning it for the first time. At the same time, if it is customary in the rules of rhetoric that principles of speaking be drawn from all manner of subject matter, why here either should any subject be sought and demanded from further afield for me who am about to speak, when the man himself will serve my discourse as its own cause, since my discourse will serve him as its burden?
3. His native city is among the Arverni; his parents of undistinguished but sufficient birth — people who boast nothing illustrious but dread nothing servile, content with a modest income, the same being either sufficient or free. Their service was run in a clerical rather than a palatial retinue. The father of this young man — extremely frugal and somewhat sparing toward his children, preferring to be of more use than pleasure to his son through excessive thrift — was left behind when as a boy this young man set out for your city rather too lightly equipped, which was the greatest obstacle to such a first attempt; for nothing weighs more heavily than a light traveling-purse.
4. Yet his entry into your walls was a second and quite auspicious one. Immediately there fell the twin blessing in word and deed of the holy Eustachius, who was your predecessor; lodgings quickly sought, now thanks to Eustachius's care easily found, swiftly entered, courteously situated. Already from the first he was attending frequently to cultivate his neighbors, and in turn was himself being greeted not ungraciously by them in return. Dealing with each according to what the principle of their age permitted: binding the elderly by acts of deference, those of his own age by services.
5. Above all else he pursued chastity and sobriety — as praiseworthy in youth as it is rare. Then he became known, recognized, and intimate with the leading men, and with the count of the city at the time, by attentions no less opportune than frequent; and in this way his assiduity was advanced day by day into the fellowship of great men. All the good people vied in supporting him — all the most important by their wishes, by advice, private individuals by gifts, the well-placed by benefits. And through all this his prospects and resources were heaped up in rapid leaps.
6. It happened by chance that a woman of no less suitable character than fortune lived next door to the lodgings to which he had been transferred, whose daughter was past the years of infancy but not yet approaching marriageable age. To her this young man, in a winning fashion (for the girl's age still made such attentions fitting), would give now certain trifles, now playthings fit for a virgin's game; and by these causes, slight as they were, the young girl's heart was bound to him very greatly. The years passed meanwhile, suitable for marriage. Why should I linger with a long account?
7. A young man — alone, without means, a stranger, a son of a family, departing from his homeland not merely without his father's knowledge but against his will — wooed a girl not inferior in birth and superior in fortune, with a bishop as intermediary (since he was a lector), the support of a count (since he was his client), a mother-in-law who did not scrutinize his property, and a bride who did not look down upon his person...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.