Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 370 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
education books
You want longer letters from me. I appreciate the compliment — it's a form of praise when someone demands more of a writer's output. But I'd prefer you to be dissatisfied with quantity rather than quality. What can a speech accomplish when there's nothing substantial to fill it? I despise long garments on a short frame. The proper-fitting robe is the one that doesn't sweep the dust behind it. So write me something worth a detailed response — though I catch myself making a rash promise, since I've just been lecturing on the virtues of brevity. We'll see what comes of your challenge. Just remember: I pledged you volume, not elegance. Farewell.
Si tibi haec una, ut ais, frequentandi stili causa est, ut a me vicem sermonis
excudas, magnum silentii nostri in litteris tuis pretium est. vide igitur, ne me vali-
dus a scribendo revocet fructus tacendi, quia si saepe respondeam, fortasse plura
remittes ut iam victor optati. mane ergo in proposito adsiduae scriptionis etiam post 15
2 epistulam meam, quamvis malim reditum tuum quam paginas impetrare. sunt qui-
dem illae Tulliano segmentatae auro, sed de praesentibns amicis bona plura sumuntur.
ipsa etiam verba melius ex oris fontibus fluunt quam mandantur textis papyri. quin
ergo eluctatus longi otii cariem Caelium nostrum revisas. sat /emporis Spoletio datim,
bonae urbi et optimorum civium niatri, intellegenti tamen, quod nostrae curiae viros 20
usucapere non possit.
xm.
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You want longer letters from me. I appreciate the compliment — it's a form of praise when someone demands more of a writer's output. But I'd prefer you to be dissatisfied with quantity rather than quality. What can a speech accomplish when there's nothing substantial to fill it? I despise long garments on a short frame. The proper-fitting robe is the one that doesn't sweep the dust behind it. So write me something worth a detailed response — though I catch myself making a rash promise, since I've just been lecturing on the virtues of brevity. We'll see what comes of your challenge. Just remember: I pledged you volume, not elegance. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.