Letter 2037: Has it really pleased our common father [the emperor] to keep you detained longer than I would wish?

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator To: A friend (name lost) Date: ~383 AD Context: A politically sensitive letter about the defeat of a proposal to erect a statue of Praetextatus — Symmachus's close friend and a leading pagan aristocrat — by the Vestal Virgins, which the pontifical college rejected. Has it really pleased our common father [the emperor] to keep you detained longer than I would wish? Or do you so detest city life that you frustrate my expectations with a pious excuse? Truly, nothing is done or said here that a good heart and a pure nature could embrace. But however things stand, if you were in Rome, the bitterness might be softened by our mutual support. As it is, I experience the offense of events all the more keenly because I bear them alone. Here is one example, from which you may infer the rest: they have decided to dedicate a statue of our Praetextatus [Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, d. 384 — one of the last great pagan aristocrats of Rome], proposed by the Vestal Virgins. The pontifices [the priestly college] were consulted, but before they even weighed the reverence owed to that sublime priesthood, or the custom of long tradition, or the circumstances of the present time, they voted — all but a few who followed me — to erect his likeness. I kept silent about this: I saw that such homage from the Vestals toward a man was unsuitable to their dignity, and that what was being proposed had never been done before — not by Numa who founded the priesthoods, not by Metellus who saved the rites, not by any chief pontiff before. I stayed quiet rather than announce it to those who resent the sacred rites and would use it to harm the supporters of something unprecedented. I simply replied that the precedent must be avoided, lest what begins from a worthy principle quickly spread by canvassing to the unworthy. In short, I've sent you the very words — approved by good men but perhaps outvoted — though the form of pontifical decrees differs from that of the Senate. That too will be dismissed as ignorance. If you were here, the soundness of two minds would carry great weight. So the moment our common father has emerged from his uncertain illness, come back to me — so that shared consolation may make life's course a little easier for us both.

Ergo adeo conplacitum est commnni parenti, nt te longins, qnam vellem, necesse sit detineri? an tibi nrbanarnm tanta vitatio est, nt exspectationem meam pia causatione frnstreris? et revera nihil hic agitur ant dicitnr, quod bonns animus et sincera natura possit amplecti. sed ntcnmque ista sunt, si Romae ageres, adiutn in- t5 ter nos mntuo fortasse mitescerent; nunc graviores rernm omnium offensiones ntpote 2 solns experior. exempli causa nnnm accipe, de qno reliqua coniectes. Praetextato nostro monnmentnm statnae dicare destinant virgines sacri Vestalis antistites. consulti pontifices, priusquam reverentiam snblimis sacerdotii aut longae aetatis nsnm vel con- dicionem temporis praesentis expenderent, absqne pancis, qni me secnti sunt, nt eins 20 3 effi^iem statuerent, adnnemnt. ego, qni adverterem, neqne honestati virginnm talia lu viros obseqnia convenire neqne more fieri, quod Numa auctor, Metellns conservator religionnm omnesqne pontifices maximi nnmquara ante mernemnt, haec qnidem silni, ne sacrornm aemnlis ennntiata noxam crearen^ inusitatnm censentibus ; exemplum modo vitandum esse rescripsi, ne res insto orta principio brevi ad indignos per ambitnm 25 4 perveniret. ne longum loqnar, ipsa verba ad te misi bonis probata sed nnmero for- tasse vincenda, licet in decretis pontificnm non sit eadem forma, qnae cnriae est. sed hoc qnoqne parvi faciet inscientia. qnod si tu adesses , mnltum dnoram sanitas promoveret. qnare nbi primnm ex incerto morbi parens commnnis emerserit, redde te mihi, nt nobis aeqniorem vitae cnrsum faciant participata solacia. 30 XXXVII ante a. 395.