Letter 10045: Your silence has been long enough that I write to break it from my end; the alternative is that we lose the habit...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, senator and orator To: [Unknown correspondent] Date: ~387 AD Context: Symmachus, Book X, letter 45; personal correspondence from his long career as a senior senator in the late Roman West. Your silence has been long enough that I write to break it from my end; the alternative is that we lose the habit entirely. I write briefly because the day has been long and my powers of composition have been exercised to their limits by obligations that do not carry my name. What remains is still genuine, even if it is not fresh. The season passes; the city makes its demands; the literary projects that I meant to complete this year remain the projects I mean to complete next year. This is the condition of every serious person who also has serious responsibilities, and I accept it with the grace that long experience has made available. Write to me when you can. As always, Symmachus