Letter 4003: You'll learn from the official senate records exactly what the most distinguished order [the Roman Senate] decreed...
You'll learn from the official senate records exactly what the most distinguished order [the Roman Senate] decreed when consulted under imperial instructions about the grievances of the Africans and the complaints of the military. But since you've also asked me personally to report on what happened, I won't keep silent about the substance of the decrees.
When the letter of our lord Honorius Augustus was read out, along with the formal opinions and all the documents detailing Gildo's crimes [Gildo was a rebellious military commander in North Africa who cut off Rome's grain supply], an equal wave of outrage swept through the good men present. We were consulted in the senate in the manner of our ancestors — for without proper legal procedure, the authority of the verdict could not have stood — and we rendered our judgments with complete devotion to so great a cause. After the condemnation, a formal petition was added regarding the people's food supply, since we fear that the delay of this intervening period may disrupt the grain shipments and provoke unrest among the populace.
You'll receive the text of what I said. You'll find that I both upheld the justice of the action and argued before our lord Arcadius [the Eastern emperor, Honorius's brother] on behalf of public harmony.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Qoid de Afrorum dolore et militarium virorum qaerellis consaltus praecepto sacro
amplissimas ordo censuerit, plene atque aperte gestorum carialium inspectione cog-
nosces. sed quia me quoque faroiliariter indicem gestae rei esse iussisti, snmmatiro,
qnae decreta sunt, non tacebo. lectis d. n. Honorii Aug. litteris atque sententiis de- 2
30 cnrsisque omnibus paginis, quae Gildonis crimina continebant, par bonorum motus
erupit. consulti igitur in senatu more maiorum — neque enim sine legitimo ordine
indicii auctoritas stare potuisset — , ingenti causae devotis sententiis satisfecimus.
adiecta est post rei damnationem pro aliroentis populi R. sapplicatio. in metu enim 3
sumus, ne obsit commeatibus annonariis medii temporis mora et perturbatio plebis
35 oriatur. veniet in manus tuas, quid pronuntiaverim. reperies et facti huius me ad-
seruisse iustitiam et apud d. n. Arcadium causam publicae egisse concordiae.
Leetius 8 interrupU (p in raa.) P 9 fatu P 2 m. 10 coeptis (s inras.) P te auctui P
som r0, om. F 13 ant P 1 m.y haud P 2 m, 14 cum] tom F miliciae P 1 m. neces-
situdinee P 1 m. 17 attributuB F 18 namque uereor ne F 19 praetulcrim: cum aequare non
posfint uicem gratiae. nolo ex uerbis cuiusqnam speres tanti beneflcii solutionem: illa te potius gaudia mu-
nerentur , quae meritomm securitas parit. prae ceteris nosti et q. 8.
13
OXFORD
100 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
VI (V) a. 398.
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