Letter 2058: I had resolved to be away from home for a long while and was enjoying a pleasant period of leisure with our friends...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 391 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
property economics
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To: [Unnamed correspondent]
Date: ~391 AD
Context: Symmachus reports that his rural retreat was interrupted by a summons from the Urban Prefect.
I had resolved to be away from home for a long while and was enjoying a pleasant period of leisure with our friends at our suburban estate called Arabianum. But since fortune overturns human plans and our intentions do not always proceed as we wish, the Prefect's letter broke into my leisure. The letter contained good news for me personally but at the cost of my relaxation. For what good is an advantage that tears a man away from a retreat already begun? Nevertheless, duty must be obeyed, and I set out with the reluctance that any man would feel who has been pulled from the countryside back to the obligations of the city. I will write to you more fully once I have learned what exactly the Prefect requires of me.
Diu domo abesse decreveram, iucundwiwque otium cum familiaribus nostris in sub-
urbano, cui Arabianae nomen est, exigebam. sed quia fors versat humana nec sem- 20
per ex voto destinata succedunt, praefecti litterae ruperunt otium meum, quae bonae
spei soUicita miscebant. SQe£idtim praesentiam meam per ambiguum poposcerunt.
2 non difiFero expectationem tuam. fcoactu in tractatu senatum commoneri sed et ob-
lationem faciendam scriptis secretioribus indicavit. nihil publicatum, nihil lectum est.
quantitas postulatae rei excessit opulentiam. re cognita vastum silentium cunctis stu- 25
3 por subitus imperavit. quo longius prodeunte placuit in^ tempus aliud deliberanda
produci, ne omitterentur absentcs. quamvis ipse dixerim, Romae aut in proximis
positos vel evocari debere vel consuli, quorum non debet ob eam cautionem futuram
ut statutis ordinis polliceantur adsensum. habes omnem rem, de qua quid sentiam,
satis nosti. tibi etiamsi causa communis est, procul tamen abesse ad solacium proficit. 30
LVm (LVH) ante a. 395.
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From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To:[Unnamed correspondent]
Date:~391 AD
Context:Symmachus reports that his rural retreat was interrupted by a summons from the Urban Prefect.
I had resolved to be away from home for a long while and was enjoying a pleasant period of leisure with our friends at our suburban estate called Arabianum. But since fortune overturns human plans and our intentions do not always proceed as we wish, the Prefect's letter broke into my leisure. The letter contained good news for me personally but at the cost of my relaxation. For what good is an advantage that tears a man away from a retreat already begun? Nevertheless, duty must be obeyed, and I set out with the reluctance that any man would feel who has been pulled from the countryside back to the obligations of the city. I will write to you more fully once I have learned what exactly the Prefect requires of me.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.