Letter 10020: The formal obligations of the season are behind me now, and I find myself with an unusual surplus of unobligated...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, senator and orator To: [Unknown correspondent] Date: ~375 AD Context: Symmachus, Book X, letter 20; early personal correspondence from his career as a senator and man of letters before his prefecture. The formal obligations of the season are behind me now, and I find myself with an unusual surplus of unobligated time; I am using it to write to people I have been neglecting. The practical question I raise will be clear enough from the text of the letter; I will not repeat it here in the covering note. What I want to say, which would not fit naturally into the official form, is that the matter in question is one on which my judgment is confident even if the official presentation requires more hedging than I would choose. Please respond at your earliest convenience. The situation will not wait indefinitely for resolution, and a delay that is optional now will become costly if allowed to continue. More cheerfully: the dinner I owe you has been planned for next month if circumstances cooperate. Your devoted friend, Symmachus