Letter 3063: Your letters have pushed me to do what I was already longing to do -- to openly seek the friendship I had long been...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Promotum|c. 393 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
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From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To: [Unnamed correspondent]
Date: ~393 AD
Context: Symmachus has been prompted to make an overture of friendship that he had long desired in silence.
Your letters have pushed me to do what I was already longing to do -- to openly seek the friendship I had long been quietly wishing for. There is something both awkward and beautiful about the first declaration of regard between men of standing. One fears presumption; the other fears rejection. But you have made the path easy by writing first, and I now respond with the full warmth of a heart that has been waiting for this moment. Let us proceed from here as friends who need never again pretend to be strangers. Our shared interests, our mutual acquaintances, and above all our compatible temperaments assure me that this friendship will prove both deep and lasting.
Haerentem me litteris inpulisti, ut amicitiam, quam dudum tacitus optabam, nunc
provocatus excolerem. amplector futurae inter nos familiaritatis auspicem voluntatem,
et quamvis praeventus voto tuo enitar, ut potero, ne vincar officiis. has enim raihi
partes video reservatas, ut religio, quae te hortante sumpsit exordium, me adnitente
sumat augmentum. ^^
LXXVnil ante a. 386.
AD PROMOTVM.
Primis quidem litteris tuis vicissitudinem mox rependi. sed quia novae familiari-
tatis auspicibus plus debetur officii, excolere amicitiam litterario munere persevero,
ut perspicias bene cum ds misceri foedus animorum, qui cumulatiorem gratiam reli- 15
gionis referre noverunt.
LXXX ante a. 392.
AD PROMOTVM.
Beari me multis bonis iudico, qnotiens sermonis tui honorificentia et splendore
delector; idque ut merear, etiam ipse non desero diligentiam frequentis oflicii. stet 20
igitur inter nos, ut animorum fida sinceritas, ita huius muneris amica certatio.
AD RVFINVM.
LXXXI a. 382.
Hnscensebam silentio tuo; sed postquam roihi indicium de fratris honore fecisti,
vicit offensionem voluptas, et in eam condicionem res rediit, ut ei agam gratias, quem 25
pie obinrgare meditabar. tu vero sub hac pactione, dum voles, retice. modo nt postea
bonis epistulis redimas stili tni ferias. 0 nuntinm voto tuo similem! nullnm decnit
2 haec scribere nisi enm, qnem constat optasse. ne tamen praeter gaudium, quod de
processu fratris adquiro, etiam iudicium tunm admodum decolorem! solus enim tibi
visus sum reparatis virtutum praemiis posse gandere. sed quod ais exclusis inprobis 30
spem bonis redditam, non ut insolitum vel inchoatum recens gratulor. nam sollemne
est d. n. Theodosio in suos exercere censuram morumque agere dilectum et singulos
3 ut novos semper expendere nec consuetudini condonare iudicium. inde est, quod
2 apud — quam uncU inclu9i
12 om. F 15 his PF religioni Iwrtlus
18 om, F
LIBER m. 95
einceriBsimos mores tuos beDignias respicit, quos severe et diligenter inspexit. quid PF
quod etiam longe intendit oculos et per inmensum requirit venas bonorum nullosque
^yidius trabit quam nihil desiderantes? ut Flayianum meum atque ideo tuum nuper
^xciyit, quem adhuc verecundia tegeret, nisi clara merita prodidissent. faaec sunt, 4
quae mihi pro tempore laetitia dictavit. nunc ut amantissimum fratrem, yel quod est
\eriu8, partem mei diligas, rogo sponte facturum. ama in eo studia tua et quidquid
agnoveris yirtutibus tuis proximum. mihi ut est curae, quod a fratre discemor, ita
solacio erit, si eum sciam vere in te Symmachum repperisse.
LXXXII a. 382—391.
◆
From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To:[Unnamed correspondent]
Date:~393 AD
Context:Symmachus has been prompted to make an overture of friendship that he had long desired in silence.
Your letters have pushed me to do what I was already longing to do -- to openly seek the friendship I had long been quietly wishing for. There is something both awkward and beautiful about the first declaration of regard between men of standing. One fears presumption; the other fears rejection. But you have made the path easy by writing first, and I now respond with the full warmth of a heart that has been waiting for this moment. Let us proceed from here as friends who need never again pretend to be strangers. Our shared interests, our mutual acquaintances, and above all our compatible temperaments assure me that this friendship will prove both deep and lasting.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.