Letter 2054: You are performing the duty of a good brother, but stop reminding someone who already remembers.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 390 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
friendship

You are performing the duty of a good brother, but stop reminding someone who already remembers. The ceremonies of the gods and the commanded festivals of the divine are well known to me. Unless, perhaps, you are asking me alone to carry out your share, and as is customary when religious duties are delegated, you are assigning me your obligations. Enjoy your abundant pleasures while we take care of what has been entrusted to us. But remember, once the holidays are over, to make your partners in your feasting those whom you worked so hard to make your companions in fasting.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

15 Fungeris boni fratris officio, sed desine memorem commonere. notae nobis sunt
caerimoniae deorum et festa divinitatis imperata. nisi forte me solum exequi vicem
tuam postulas, et ut adsolet res divina mandari, mibi tuum munus iniungis. fruere
deliciis copiosis; nos mandata curabimus. sed memento exactis feriis participes facere
luxuriae tuae, quos tantopere laborasti consortes habere ieiunii.

20 Lim ante a. 395.

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