Letter 3018: You are certainly blessed with natural gifts and intellectual talent, but even you will find it hard to excuse such...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 374 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendshiphumortravel mobility
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To: A friend (name lost)
Date: ~374 AD
Context: Symmachus reproaches a friend for prolonged silence, wittily dismantling every possible excuse, and teases him about withholding his opinion on a speech.
You are certainly blessed with natural gifts and intellectual talent, but even you will find it hard to excuse such continuous silence. What excuse can you offer, whether true or invented? "Long journeys kept me occupied," you will say -- but you stopped often enough along the way, and you did eventually arrive. "I devote every waking hour to public business" -- but every occupation is broken by intervals of rest. All that remains -- and I very much hope this is not the case -- is for you to confess that you simply neglected our friendship. For if you occasionally skip your duties, that is being busy; if you always skip them, it is forgetting.
Do you think you can make me angry? If that were possible, I would keep silent. Are you making sport of my patience? Then understand: a patient spirit deserves an even greater reward. The man whose principles forbid him from taking offense is all the more wronged by being slighted. And it certainly should have mattered to you to include a few personal words when an official speech from your bureaus was being sent to me. On that speech I will keep you in suspense for now, and I will give you my public judgment only when you have begged me, when you have earned it -- and, since I value your letters so highly, when you have written. Farewell.
Abnndas quidem naturae bonis et ingenii facultatibus, sed continui silentii culpam
tibi quoque purgare difficile est. quid enim vel ex vero vel ex commenticio dici po-
test? itinera me, inquies, longa tenuerunt: sed saepe cessatum et aliquando perven-
tnm est; vigilem operam publicis rebus inpendo: sed vicibus otii negotium omne
distinguitur. restat, qnod minime volo, ut fatearis amicitiae neglegentiam. nam 20
2 officia si plerumque deseras, occnpatio est, si semper, oblivio. tra^ci me pntas? hoc
si fieri posset, tacerem. inludis ergo patientiae meae? atqui intellegas, aequnm ani-
mum maiore pretio mnnerandum. indignius laeditur, quem religio non permittit of-
fendi. et certe interfuit soUicitudinis tuae exerere aliquid verborum familiarium, cum
mihi de scriniis tuis profecta delegaretur oratio. de qna te interim suspensum tenebo 25
tum demum tibi iudicii publici factums indicium, cnm exoraveris, cum memeris, et
quia tanti litteras tuas duco, cum scripseris. vale.
XVira a. 380.
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From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To:A friend (name lost)
Date:~374 AD
Context:Symmachus reproaches a friend for prolonged silence, wittily dismantling every possible excuse, and teases him about withholding his opinion on a speech.
You are certainly blessed with natural gifts and intellectual talent, but even you will find it hard to excuse such continuous silence. What excuse can you offer, whether true or invented? "Long journeys kept me occupied," you will say -- but you stopped often enough along the way, and you did eventually arrive. "I devote every waking hour to public business" -- but every occupation is broken by intervals of rest. All that remains -- and I very much hope this is not the case -- is for you to confess that you simply neglected our friendship. For if you occasionally skip your duties, that is being busy; if you always skip them, it is forgetting.
Do you think you can make me angry? If that were possible, I would keep silent. Are you making sport of my patience? Then understand: a patient spirit deserves an even greater reward. The man whose principles forbid him from taking offense is all the more wronged by being slighted. And it certainly should have mattered to you to include a few personal words when an official speech from your bureaus was being sent to me. On that speech I will keep you in suspense for now, and I will give you my public judgment only when you have begged me, when you have earned it -- and, since I value your letters so highly, when you have written. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.