Letter 2005: Having arrived at Formiae well into the day, and thinking you'd be anxious about us, we're writing ahead of any...
Having been brought to Formiae after much of the day had passed, since we believed that you were anxious about that matter, we have forestalled your inquiry by writing. Nor were you more anxious about the voyage than we were trembling lest you should long remain uncertain. Whatever, therefore, could be answered to your letter, our earlier conversation has used up. Now consider how much better our judgment of you has been than yours of us. For we contemplated the greatness of your anxiety before you sent your letter, whereas you sent it only because you did not think that we would write unless prompted. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Delati Formias post multam partem diei , cum vos eius rei sollicitos crederemns,
percontationem vestram scriptione praevertimns. nec vos magis de navigatione fuistis
anxii, quam trepidabamns nos, ne diu essetis incerti. qnod igitur responderi posset
30 litteris vestris, prior sermo consumpsit. nnnc aestimate, quanto nostra de vobis melior
fnerit iudicatio quam vestra de nobis. contemplati enim snmns magnitudinem solli-
citndinis vestrae, prinsqnam litteras mitteretis, cnm vos eas ideo miseritis, qnia scrip-
turos noB nisi admonitos non pntastis. vale.
3 mene] luretua^ meae PV 4 sponsorem enititar P 1 m. VMy sponsorem nititnr {PP), sponsore
me enititar P 2 m,
Symmaehorum praedio Corano ef. 1 8; VI 61 10 petiaimas P 2 m. 11 fuit F, flat F pacto F
cum 8ol meridiem peregerat 24 aale add. VM
ne dioertom iremos M 32 qoa P 1 m. 33 putatis VM
6»
44 SYMMACHl EPISTVLAE
VI a. 383.
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
Related Letters
While you are busy relieving the hardships of the provincials, a heavier blow has fallen on the Apulians.
I had just recovered, by the providence of the All-Seeing One [Helios-Mithras, the sun god Julian especially...
1. Did but my health allow of my being able to undertake a journey without difficulty, and of putting up with the inclemency of the winter, I should, instead of writing, have travelled to your excellency in person, and this for two reasons. First to pay my old debt, for I know that I promised to come to Sebastia and to have the pleasure of seein...
So is this a law for governors now -- that they must not write to their friends simply because they are governing?
While others asked those arriving from there all manner of questions — "What of the Arcadians?