Letter 2016: I wrote this letter for the modest and devoted Marcellus and Romanus more as a gesture of friendship than with any...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 373 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship

I wrote this letter for the modest and devoted Marcellus and Romanus more as a gesture of friendship than with any expectation of actually influencing you — for what could I add to men you've already approved? You know their character, you value their efforts, and you have no doubt about their reliability.

What room is there for my testimony when your own opinion of them needs no improvement? And yet, if things that are already full can still receive a little more, I'd like them to know that my appeal has increased your warmth toward them. That way, they'll credit me with the benefit too.

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

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