Letter 10056: The events at Adrianople have changed the texture of Roman public life in ways that are not yet fully visible; I set...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 391 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, senator and orator
To: [Unknown correspondent]
Date: ~391 AD
Context: Symmachus, Book X, letter 56; personal correspondence from his long career as a senior senator in the late Roman West.

The events at Adrianople have changed the texture of Roman public life in ways that are not yet fully visible; I set down some initial observations.

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

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

Related Letters