Letter 1104: When I'm vouching for a friend to someone who already trusts me, I keep things brief.
Whenever I have a testimonial to give on behalf of a friend, I restrain myself from speaking at greater length. For what does conscientiousness accomplish where a speech is wanted? I bring you, therefore, a plain but trustworthy judgment concerning my friend Ponticianus, whom I would by no means hand over [to your care] had I not found him worthy of our affection. His character is open to view, his life looks toward praise. You know for certain that I am never more readily swayed by favor than by truth. You will confirm the trustworthiness of all these statements when you discover still more in him.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
30 Si quando mihi apnd amicnm testimonii dictio est, cohibeo operam plns loqnendi.
nam qnid religio agit , nbi desideratur oratio? fero igitur ad te nudnm de familiari
meo Ponticmno sed fidele iudicium, quem nisi amore nostro dignum probassem, minime
S om. VF 9 praemia V hauxisti P 11 iDtelleg04t«*qaod P, intellego quod VF 13 est
laudatio F iadidi om, F 14 credamus VF 15 diligens om, P
17 om, PVF 18 praeeedenU ephtulae eohaeret in PVF^ divMt Juretw
29 om.VF 31 ait V 32 Ponticiano] ef, V32, pontigano PVF{r)
40 SYMMACm EPISTVLAE
PVF tao traderem. mens eiaB in aperto est, vita spectat ad landem. scis certe, nnmqnam
me faciliorem favoris esse qnam veri. homm omninm fidem confirmabis, cnm in illo
plnra reppereris.
C (LXXXXini) Meme 380/1 ?
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
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