Letter 1040: I've been idle for some time in the retreats of Campania and had no opportunity to write.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusCampania|c. 384 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship

I've been idle for some time in the retreats of Campania and had no opportunity to write. That's why my usual correspondence with you went cold for a while. But now that I've set foot back in Rome, my first thought was to resume our exchange.

So I send you the customary greeting of friendship, asking two things: that you pardon the earlier silence, and that you answer this present letter in kind. Farewell.

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

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