Letter 2031: ...and you care for me, but I worry that you might take up some fight on my behalf while I'm away and draw hostility...
...and you care for me, but I worry that you might take up some fight on my behalf while I'm away and draw hostility onto yourself. Please, I ask you, stand down. Perhaps one day I'll have the chance to make my case before the eternal emperor, our lord Theodosius [Emperor Theodosius I, r. 379–395], whose favor toward me is exactly what provoked certain people's jealousy in the first place.
I don't think my situation under a legitimate ruler will be the same as it was under the usurper [Magnus Maximus, who held power 383–388], on whose written orders — issued at Marcellinus's instigation — my household staff were punished, as you know. And this I did not pass over in silence when defending the panegyric.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
et amantem mei, et vereor, ne snscipias nllnm pro absentis existimatione certamen i5
atque in te aliqua odia detorqneas. peto igitur, nt qniescas. erit fortasse copia mihi
adserendae qnandoqne apnd aetemnm principem dominum nostram Theodosinm veri-
tatis, cuius erga me favor fecit, ut aliqnid interim moliretur invidia. non pnto eam
causae meae bonis temporibns condicionem futuram, qnae sub tyranno fuit, cuius lit-
teris ad Marcellini suggestionem datis homines meos scis esse multatos. quod in 20
panegyrici defensione non tacui.
XXXn a. 389?
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