Letter 1052: I could have kept this letter short, since your cousin seemed likely to satisfy you with his own account better than...

I could have written briefly, since my sisters seemed likely to satisfy you with their own words more fully than my letter would; but honorable duties are to be set above idle leisure, and in a greater gain. Therefore there is no need for silence, but rather let the honor of friendship be reckoned to my account; nor must everything be entrusted to letters, so that something may be left to him to relate. Receive, nonetheless, the headings of these matters and the sums of the affairs, by which my brother, once informed, may carry out at greater length the things that are sought. It was agreed among the public priests that we should hand over the care of the gods into the keeping of the citizens by public observance. For the kindness of one set above us, unless it be maintained by cultivation, is lost. Therefore the heavenly honor has been made much more adorned than it used to be. You seem to me to be awaiting all that remains. My friend Titianus has had a report furnished to him, to whom the task has been assigned of the indulgence of relating whatever you wish. As for the edict of the emperor, unless it is already known [...], that same advocate will dispatch it for you. You have also recovered the statues, with almost the same acclamations of the people by which you had lost them. Do you laugh? It pleases me too. You would smile, you have set out. I cease from further things, lest, having briefly revealed the better matters, I should seem to bitter readers to linger. Farewell. 47 (41), before the year 385.

25 Potai facere scripta conpendii, cnm tibi germanas meas yerbis sais satisfactaras aberias yideretar quam meis literis, sed in maiore Incro officia honesta quam otia mata ponenda sont. ergo neque tacito opus est, at honor amicitiae mihi feratar ac- cepto, neqne omnia mandanda sant litteris, ut illi ad narrandnm aliquid relinquatar. accipe tamen rerum capita et sammas negotioram, qaibus frater admonitus latias quae- 30 sita exeqaatar. conyenit inter pablicos sacerdotes , ut in custodiam ciyium pablico 2 obseqaio traderemus caram deoram. benignitas enim saperioris, nisi culta teneatur, amittitar. ergo malto tanto omatior, qnam solebat, caelestis factas est honor. ex- pectare mihi yideris omnia, quae sapersant. Titianus meus fdngQtur indicinm, cui indalgentias narrandi, qnod yelis, opera legata est. edictum principt^m, nisi iam 1 gratia mea /7 2 oporitar YU 3 trigetl YU[n) operam] (/7), actionig VAf, actionis operam [F) spondissem [11) 5 ianuarii U[n) 6 manns meas F 7 ego] (ZT), ergo VU ore ■tillantes F 17 tantum de cansa F 19 causatio V 20 calcem pono] F^ adesse uolo V pareo] VF, parco n qua in re F mus /T, traberem V 32 ergo multo — 33 uideris cm, F 34 principium VF 24 SYMMACm EPISTVLAE VF notnm est , idem tibi adsertor expediet. statnas eti^m recepistis iisdem paene popnli adclamationibus, quibus amiseratis. ridfes? et libet. ntrideas, afnisti. plnradesino, ne qni strictim meliora detexni, amaris videar inmorari. yale. XXXXVn (XXXXI) ante a. 385.