Letter 3001: I'm writing from the country, paying you my usual tribute of correspondence.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 365 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship

I'm writing from the country, paying you my usual tribute of correspondence. I never let a season pass without fulfilling this duty, and no amount of distance can make me forget our friendship. If you'd only spur me on by writing back, I'd never rest my pen. But I carry on diligently with my part regardless, and I refuse to follow your example of silence. I chalk your quiet up to the pressures of public business — it's enough for my confidence in our friendship that I believe you care for me in return. Farewell.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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