Letter 2087: I feel as though I am traveling with you whenever your vivid narrative describes your comings and goings.

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~400 AD Context: Symmachus says that receiving detailed accounts of his friend's journeys makes him feel as if he were traveling alongside him. I feel as though I am traveling with you whenever your vivid narrative describes your comings and goings. Your letters are so detailed and so engaging that the distance between us seems to vanish. Continue this habit, I beg you -- it is the next best thing to your actual presence. When we cannot share the road, we can at least share the telling of it.

Peregrinari mihi tecnm videorf si qnando cnrsns ac recnrsns tuos Incnlentus nar- rator insinnas. ita cogitationes nostras religione allicis et nitore sermonis inlnminas^ ut quidquid explicat adfatus tnus, id noster qnodammodo visat adfectns. pro qna re 2 firmam valetudinem tnam tenemus reditumqne felicem votis iugiter conprecamnr. nam 10 qni amorem in nos tunm aequiperare non possumus, solvimus votis, quod nequimns officiis. salve igitur, mi domine inimitabilis , nosque et generaliter cum ceteris, ut nunc faciS; et speciatim cum carissimis, nt solebas, his mnneribus oris ac pectoris tui benignns inlustra. LXXXVII (LXXXVI) a. 382—383. 15