Letter 2065: The preparation for my consulship keeps me busy with joyful and fortunate obligations.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusVirius Nicomachus Flavianus|c. 394 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
imperial politics

The preparations for the consulship occupy me indeed with auspicious and happy business; but, as your letters frequently give sign, your concern on my behalf outweighs my own. You exhort, you admonish, you compel me to hasten whatever the discharge of so eminent a magistracy requires; and although you are the exactor of my diligence, you nonetheless claim everything for your own solicitude. Will there be the longed-for time in which, bound by equal services on your behalf, I may match that disposition of yours? I hope that presently, with the commonwealth flourishing and the principate of our lord Theodosius extended into the ages, your virtues will be rewarded with the fasces [the consular insignia]. Then I shall not require the goads of letters, nor shall I await an admonisher; for from you I have learned to undertake of my own accord whatever must be cared for on a brother's behalf.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Exercet me quidem votivis ac felicibus negotiis praeparatio consulatus; sed ut
litterae tuae frequenter indicio sunt, tua pro me cura praeponderat. hortaris, mones,
cogis, ut quidquid potissimi magistratus fnnctio quaerit, adcelerem, et cum sis meae
2 exactor industriae, nihilominus omnia sollicitudini tuae vindicas. eritne tempus op-
tatum, quo istam mentem paribus pro te officiis districtus ^quiperem? spero actutum 20
florente re publica et propagato in aevum domini nostri Theodosii principatu virtutes
tuas fascibus munerandas. tunc epistulamm stimulos non requiram nec expectabo mo-
nitorem. a te enim didici sponte suscipere, quidquid pro fratre curandum est.

LXV (LXmi) ante a. 395.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

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