Letter 1034: Here's Rusticus, barely freed from his business in Rome.
Here's Rusticus, barely freed from his business in Rome. I hope you'll forgive him the delay, for our friendship's sake — it wasn't laziness that kept him. It's hard to leave this city once you've arrived; if you want a sense of Rome's grandeur, Rusticus will seem to you to have come back remarkably quickly.
But I'm not worried about that, since you're so naturally forgiving among your many virtues that you take minor lapses in stride. What I do earnestly ask is this: put as much effort into writing to me as the affection you feel for me deserves. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
£n tibi Rusticum vix urbanis negotiis absolutum, cui volo pro nostra amicitia 15
morarum culpam remittas. neque enim laboris fuga indulsit quieti. difficile est hinc
abire, cum veneris; adeo si contemplari maiestatem urbis nostrae velis, dto tibi Rusti-
cus videbitur revertisse. sed de hoc non laboro, quando ita es ingenio placabili inter
reliqua virtutum, ut boni consulas errata leviora. illnd me orare inpensius convenit,
tanta ut animo tuo scribendi cura sit, quanto me amore dignaris. vale. 20
XXXI (XXV) post a. 378.
Related Letters
Look — the elder of Justinianus's two sons is now my relation by marriage.
I interrupt your busy schedule with my steady stream of letters — partly because I enjoy this kind of exchange...
1. Last year I sent by the hand of our brother, the subdeacon Asterius, a letter conveying to your Excellency a salutation due to you, and readily rendered by me; and I think that my letter was delivered to you. I now write again, by my holy brother the deacon Præsidius, begging you in the first place not to forget me, and in the second place to...
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius.
When public punishment fails to bring a man to his senses, or exclusion from the prayers of the Church to drive him to repentance, it only remains to treat him in accordance with our Lord's directions — as it is written, If your brother shall trespass against you....tell him his fault between you and him;...if he will not hear you, take with you...