Letter 3034: My brothers Dorotheus and Septimius, praiseworthy men, carried a single letter from you.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Ambrose and others (multiple short letters)|c. 382 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendshipimperial politics
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To: Ambrose and others (multiple short letters)
Date: ~382 AD
Context: Short letters of recommendation and a note to Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
My brothers Dorotheus and Septimius, praiseworthy men, carried a single letter from you. But my sense of duty would not allow me to take the shortcut of a single reply: I wanted both to return you double the courtesy of your service, and to give each man individually the honor of a deserved testimonial. Even though our brother Dorotheus has already proven himself to you, I still wish my recommendation to commend him to you even more. I have no doubt this will happen, since an affection rooted in a good heart is capable of growing whenever it is prompted by merit.
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To Ambrose (~395 AD): Although I believe my earlier letter — in which I asked you to defend my friend Marcianus from injustice — has reached your hands, I could not hold back from a second appeal, so that a repeated plea might attest to the real need of an excellent man caught up in the jealousies of a tyrannical era. So I urge you again to take up his defense. His poverty, born of his integrity, prevents him from paying grain prices that imperial clemency has already remitted for many others from that same period. Your path to securing this will be all the easier because your own well-earned intercession is backed by the precedent others have set. Farewell.
Fratres mei Dorotheus et Septimius laudabiles viri unam tuam epistnlam pertn-
lerunt. sed mihi religio fuit istiusmodi captare compendium, ut et tibi geminata officii 30
responderet usura, et singulis honor debiti testimonii proveniret. nam etsi tibi Doro-
2 om, VF 3 praecepi (7^) 4 moris PVF promiBerunt F 6 illad latiua praedicares
maUem aequaret ratio V latius om. F 7 de nobis om, VF 8 adfectionem P 9 hac pnri-
tate F rependam dlgnum V actenus P J m. 11 uale om. V
12 Tii explicit ad marinianum inc ad ambrosium Py om, VF 14 om, VF 15 salustio VF
17 Buggerentur Schoitus superuacuaneum P 18 nale add. VF
2S om. VM 31 proueniret coff. ex praeueniret P
LIBEB m. 8t
iheas frater noster probatns est, cnpio tamen, nt enm in maiorem modum indieii mei PVM
praerogativa eonciliet, qnod fnturnm esse non ambigo, cnm adfectio boni animi capax
sit angmenti, qnotiens meritis provocatur.
XXXm a. 395?
^ SYMMACHVS AMBROSIO.
Licet arbitrer, superiores litteras meas, qnibns, nt fratrem menm Marciannm ab
ininriis vindices, postulavi, in manns tuas esse delatas, abstinere tamen etiam secnnda
petitione non debui, ut necessitatem yiri optimi sed invidia tyrannici temporis involnti
precatio geminata testetur. quare mrsus te ad amici defensionem exhortor, cuius
10 tenuitas orta ex integritate non patitur, nt annonarum pretia possit exsolvere, quae
iam mnltis einsdem temporis indicibus imperialis clementia relaxavit. erit igitur tibi
facilior ad impetrandum via, cum meritomm tuomm opitulatio aliorum iuvetur exem-
plis. vale.
XXXira a. 392—393.
◆
From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To:Ambrose and others (multiple short letters)
Date:~382 AD
Context:Short letters of recommendation and a note to Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
My brothers Dorotheus and Septimius, praiseworthy men, carried a single letter from you. But my sense of duty would not allow me to take the shortcut of a single reply: I wanted both to return you double the courtesy of your service, and to give each man individually the honor of a deserved testimonial. Even though our brother Dorotheus has already proven himself to you, I still wish my recommendation to commend him to you even more. I have no doubt this will happen, since an affection rooted in a good heart is capable of growing whenever it is prompted by merit.
---
To Ambrose (~395 AD): Although I believe my earlier letter — in which I asked you to defend my friend Marcianus from injustice — has reached your hands, I could not hold back from a second appeal, so that a repeated plea might attest to the real need of an excellent man caught up in the jealousies of a tyrannical era. So I urge you again to take up his defense. His poverty, born of his integrity, prevents him from paying grain prices that imperial clemency has already remitted for many others from that same period. Your path to securing this will be all the easier because your own well-earned intercession is backed by the precedent others have set. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.