Letter 10068: On the question you raised in your last letter about the proper interpretation of the relevant precedent: I think...
On the question you raised in your last letter about the proper interpretation of the relevant precedent: I think the case is more complex than your summary suggested.
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
I have been sent to Milan by the Senate to implore the aid of our divine emperor.
I should not be a braggart about my devotion to you -- our mutual obligations spring from a genuine sense of duty...
I greatly admire the courage of the celebrated Paul — how even when he was on trial, he gave public addresses, and...
Augustine to Eusebius, my excellent lord and brother, greetings.
Tranquillinus, one of Jerome's Roman friends, had written (1) to tell him of the stand that Oceanus was making against the Origenists at Rome, and (2) to ask whether any parts of Origen's works might be studied with safety and profit. Jerome welcomes the tidings about Oceanus and answers the question of Tranquillinus in the affirmative. He class...