Letter 2053: My return and arrival in the city -- which is always welcome to everyone -- did not match our expectations in terms...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 390 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
imperial politicsproperty economics
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To: [Unnamed correspondent]
Date: ~390 AD
Context: Symmachus reports on his return to Rome, discussing the grain supply crisis and military encroachment on his estate at Ostia.
My return and arrival in the city -- which is always welcome to everyone -- did not match our expectations in terms of speed. If you want the reasons, here they are. First, to put public matters before private ones: the grain supply of our city is not being increased by any imports. Even hope itself -- which usually sustains spirits in adversity -- refuses to promise relief, since this barren year has not even returned the seeds entrusted to the soil. Second, to speak of domestic concerns among friends: military requisitioning is pressing upon our estate at Ostia. We invoke the empty name of the law. Let the gods see to the outcome of the case. Meanwhile, we are tormented not by fear of loss but by the injury to fairness. The Senate's deliberation, which had summoned me, has referred the choice of envoys to Africa to the eternal emperors. So the Senate's discussion is over -- let us not be called back.
Reditns ac recni*8as in patriam) qni semper omnibus gratus est, festinationi no-
strae nequaquam pro eccpectatione respondit. causas si desideratis, accipite. \x\m pri-
5 mum , ut communia domesticis praeferamus , rem frumentariam nostrae urbis nulla
auget invectio. spes ipsa, quae in adversis alere animos solet, recusat effugium pol-
liceri, cum sterilis annus ne semina quidem terris commissa reddiderit. dehinc ut 2
apud vos familiarem curam loqnamur, urget Ostiense praedium nostrum militaris in-
pressio. nos legum inane nomen vocamns. dii viderint exitum causae. interea mor-
10 demur non metu damni sed aequitatis iniuria. collegarum tractatus, qui me exci-
verat, aetemis principibus legandorum in Africam virorum reddidit optionem. fcessat
ergo patrum deliberatio non vocemur.
LUI ante a. 395.
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From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To:[Unnamed correspondent]
Date:~390 AD
Context:Symmachus reports on his return to Rome, discussing the grain supply crisis and military encroachment on his estate at Ostia.
My return and arrival in the city -- which is always welcome to everyone -- did not match our expectations in terms of speed. If you want the reasons, here they are. First, to put public matters before private ones: the grain supply of our city is not being increased by any imports. Even hope itself -- which usually sustains spirits in adversity -- refuses to promise relief, since this barren year has not even returned the seeds entrusted to the soil. Second, to speak of domestic concerns among friends: military requisitioning is pressing upon our estate at Ostia. We invoke the empty name of the law. Let the gods see to the outcome of the case. Meanwhile, we are tormented not by fear of loss but by the injury to fairness. The Senate's deliberation, which had summoned me, has referred the choice of envoys to Africa to the eternal emperors. So the Senate's discussion is over -- let us not be called back.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.