Letter 10044: The season at the villa has given me the leisure to reflect on what the office demands and what it gives in return;...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, senator and orator To: [Unknown correspondent] Date: ~386 AD Context: Symmachus, Book X, letter 44; personal correspondence from his long career as a senior senator in the late Roman West. The season at the villa has given me the leisure to reflect on what the office demands and what it gives in return; I find the balance, on reflection, positive. 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