Letter 3052: The obligations of friendship are not burdens but privileges.
The obligations of friendship are not burdens but privileges. When I exert myself on your behalf, I am not paying a debt but investing in a bond that enriches us both. Our correspondence is the thread that holds this bond together across the distances that separate us. I have attended to the matters you mentioned in your last letter and will send a full report when the situation is clearer. In the meantime, know that your interests are safe in my hands.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Lim ante a. 394.
Mens mos est semper adloqni praestantiam tuam. qni tnns? litteris abstinere.
facimns, qnod solemns: ego scribo, tn retices. sed scio in amandis amicis maiorem
virtntibns tnis inesse constantiam quam in neglegendis epistnlis voluntatem, atqne ideo
30 animi tni secnms cultum tibi debitum mente et sermone non desero, neqnaqnam re-
poscens, nt scriptomm mihi vicissitndo respondeat, cum in amore reddatur.
§8 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
LV a. 382—391.
P - SYMMACHVS RICOMERI.
In subnrbano praedio fovens otinm snmpsi litteras tnas. cnr enim Romae te dfs-
cedente remanerem? ager autem^ qui me interim tenet, Tiberim nostmm inncto aquis
latere prospectat. hinc libens video, quid aetemae urbi indies fmgis accedat, quid s
Romanis horreis Macedonicus adiciat commeatus. nam paene, nt recordaris, cessante
Africa fames in limine erat, quam clementissimus et ad salutem publicam genitus im-
2 perator praevenit indebitis alieni soli copiis. iam portum nostrum — conperi primusl —
classis salutat; iam securitate saturamur; iam dicimus nostmm esse, quidquid nbique
bono principi nascitur. haec eo scribo, ut et domino orbis effectum beneficii sni nun- to
ties et ipse fructum gaudii communis nsnrpes. ego panlo post abire longius paro,
ncc tamen dandis ad te litteris abstinebo. erit cura nostris in urbe remanentibns et
menm sermonem tibi per idoneos mittere, et mihi pari fide, qnae scripseris, exhibere.
LVI ante a. 394.
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