Letter 3046: I count the joys of your fortune among my own debts, and I take you as my judge of this sentiment — you who have...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 387 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendshipimperial politics
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To: A friend (name lost)
Date: ~387 AD
Context: Symmachus congratulates a friend on a public appointment, urging him to live up to the high expectations that surround him.
I count the joys of your fortune among my own debts, and I take you as my judge of this sentiment — you who have seen my heart tested whenever you consult your own. It was fitting in these tender days of good times that a man praised by public counsel should be admitted to office. Since events have unfolded as everyone hoped, carry out your work in a manner worthy of so great a prince's judgment. The weight of expectation — always burdensome to good men — presses upon you. For even though it looks to the worthy, it is nevertheless close to danger, since it always promises itself more.
You have an age friendly to virtue — one in which any failure to win glory is a man's fault, not the times'. You see it clearly: just as the man who stands at the head of Roman affairs was born for the public good, so the tide is with you now, not against you. Good character and virtue travel, as it were, on a following wind. But your own spirit will explain this better than my pen. I have played the friend's role — of one who reminds rather than instructs — and I trust that you will soon show yourself greater than even the great expectations surrounding you. As for the rest, remember, in sending your greetings, both to fulfil your own duty and to encourage my diligence in return.
---
To Siburius: I yield to your rules and take up the economy of style you prescribe, not unwillingly. But bear in mind: what later usage has adopted often seems simple to some, not barbaric. You want our letters to carry bare names in the old fashion? If you love antiquity that much, let us return with equal zeal to the archaic words the Salian priests chant, the augurs use for bird-omens, and the decemvirs employed for the Twelve Tables. All that was abandoned long ago, as the custom of succeeding ages replaced what had pleased before. Or if we had to write a court speech, would we preface it in Cato's manner with Jupiter and all the gods, for fear of being charged with contempt of antiquity or ignorance? And yet it is better to follow Cicero, who adopted openings that were unknown to his predecessors. But why say more on this, since I bow to your authority and have yielded to your wishes? As for writing often — you need no urging from me. The steady stream of my letters will keep you reminded of our mutual duty.
I
Fortunae tuae gaudia in meo aere duco atque huius sententiae te nobis iudicem lo
capio, qui animum meum spectatum habes, cum tuum consulis. debebatur hoc teneris
temporum bonis, ut consilio publico vir laudatus accederes. ergo quia res sese ex
voto omnium dedit, perage operam iudicio tanti principis congruentem. urguet te ex-
pectatio bonis semper onerosa. nam etsi dignos respicit, periculo tamen proxima est,
2 dum sibi amplius poUicetur. habes saeculum virtuti amicum, quo nisi optimus quis- i5
que gloriam parat, hominis est culpa non temporis. vides certe: ut ille ipse, qui
Romanis rebus antistat, ad bonum publicum natus est, non tibi adverao nunc amne
nitendum est; secundo, ut ita dicam, cursn probae artes et virtutes feruntur. sed
3 haec tibi plenius tuus animus quam stilus noster expediet. ego amici functus officium
admonentis potius quam docentis personam recepi et spero actutum fore, ut expecta- 20
tione, quae de te magna est, maior habearis. nec ego istiusmodi scriptum recepissem,
nisi apud me liqueret, quod emendato pectori bona verba mandarem. quod restat,
memento salute referenda et tuum munus exequi et mei officii diligentiam provocare.
xxxxnn.
AD SIBVRIVM. 25
Concedo in leges tuas et apxotiofiov scribendi non invitus adfecto. tu tamen fac
memineris, illud potias simplex nonnullis videri, quod sequentis aetatis usus recepit.
vis, ut epistulis nostris more maiorum nuda nomina praeferantur? si tibi vetustatis
tantus est amor, pari studio in verba prisca redeamus, quibns salii cannnt et augures
avem consulunt et decemviri tabulas condiderunt. iamdudum his renuntiatum est, ut 30
2 successio temporum placita priora mutavit. an si nobis scribenda sit forensis oratio,
31 Serv. ad Aen. XI 301.
istius eorr, ex nexinstius P nexu mnnoris hoins F non om, F 5 iste contractus om, F
indicia] F, in iudicio PV 6 accipis P noluptate] luretuSf noluntate VF, noluntatem P com-
pensas V, capesaaa F nale add, V sequitur in VF II, 40
etsi] roanet si PF 21 concepissem ego
V III^ 5i, finis epistulae po^t III, 4Q coU. est 30 nt] et F
LIBER III. • 85
lovem deoBque ceteros Catoni» lege praefabimur , ne nobis vitio detur vel neglegentia PF
antiquitatis vel inscitia ? atqui praestat Tullium sequi , qui ignorata maioribus usnrpat
exordia. sed quid ego de hoc plura, cum sim tibi dicto audiens atque herbara dede-
rim voluntati tuae? ut saepe scribas, nequaquam mibi orandus es. efficiet adsiduitas
5 litterarum mearum, ut mutui admonearis officii.
xxxxv.
◆
From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To:A friend (name lost)
Date:~387 AD
Context:Symmachus congratulates a friend on a public appointment, urging him to live up to the high expectations that surround him.
I count the joys of your fortune among my own debts, and I take you as my judge of this sentiment — you who have seen my heart tested whenever you consult your own. It was fitting in these tender days of good times that a man praised by public counsel should be admitted to office. Since events have unfolded as everyone hoped, carry out your work in a manner worthy of so great a prince's judgment. The weight of expectation — always burdensome to good men — presses upon you. For even though it looks to the worthy, it is nevertheless close to danger, since it always promises itself more.
You have an age friendly to virtue — one in which any failure to win glory is a man's fault, not the times'. You see it clearly: just as the man who stands at the head of Roman affairs was born for the public good, so the tide is with you now, not against you. Good character and virtue travel, as it were, on a following wind. But your own spirit will explain this better than my pen. I have played the friend's role — of one who reminds rather than instructs — and I trust that you will soon show yourself greater than even the great expectations surrounding you. As for the rest, remember, in sending your greetings, both to fulfil your own duty and to encourage my diligence in return.
---
To Siburius: I yield to your rules and take up the economy of style you prescribe, not unwillingly. But bear in mind: what later usage has adopted often seems simple to some, not barbaric. You want our letters to carry bare names in the old fashion? If you love antiquity that much, let us return with equal zeal to the archaic words the Salian priests chant, the augurs use for bird-omens, and the decemvirs employed for the Twelve Tables. All that was abandoned long ago, as the custom of succeeding ages replaced what had pleased before. Or if we had to write a court speech, would we preface it in Cato's manner with Jupiter and all the gods, for fear of being charged with contempt of antiquity or ignorance? And yet it is better to follow Cicero, who adopted openings that were unknown to his predecessors. But why say more on this, since I bow to your authority and have yielded to your wishes? As for writing often — you need no urging from me. The steady stream of my letters will keep you reminded of our mutual duty.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.