Letter 4006: [The text of this letter is heavily intermixed with critical apparatus notes, making large portions unreliable for...

No such suspicion falls upon you, that you would be thought to have deliberately neglected our friendship. You have a mind that holds fast to fidelity, and just as you exercise cautious deliberation in taking on friendships, so you display firm constancy in maintaining them. I therefore never imagined that I had been struck from the number of those to whom you sent consular gifts at the start of the year, and now I believe that more was bestowed upon me than upon the rest. For what a general distribution gave them, a special act of care has restored to me. In this matter I should not even resent those who wished me excluded from the first honor, for it could not otherwise have happened that what another's fraud had taken away, I should deserve twice over. Your enduring gratitude will therefore remain fixed in my heart, and the memory of your steadfast attention will never be worn thin by forgetfulness. Whether error or malice caused it, you have taught everyone that no scheme can succeed in destroying friendships which men see growing stronger through the very plots laid against them. To Bauto. I count your letters among my chief joys -- witnesses, as they are, of a brotherly heart and true interpreters of loyal affection. The more often I receive them, the more eagerly and abundantly I desire them. For it is hard to have one's fill of good things, and pleasant things most excite the mind precisely when they seem to satisfy it. Write, then, as you do, more often, and do not fear that you will find me ungrateful, since you see how eager I am for both your love and your conversation. To Protadius. I am deeply troubled in spirit and unequal to the duties before me in the face of so great a grief. But fortune will never gain such power over me that I, overcome by sorrow, should fail to honor your advancement. Rather, I seek in such consolations a remedy for my wound. Though these are insufficient for the magnitude of my grief, the most effective medicine your own words can bring will do me much good. You see what I am waiting for: devote yourself, if you please, to the duty owed to friendship, which will profit a troubled mind. To Protadius. You boast to me falsely of your passion for hunting, when your letters breathe the thyme of eloquence. Do not try to deceive me! The signs of leisure and of literary work are quite different. The farmer smells of sharp herbs, the drunkard reeks of wine, the sailor carries the stench of the sea -- but you, friends of the Muses, gather the flowers of Helicon. What hunting parties, what birthdays of hounds, what festivals of the chase are you inventing? Do you think I can be drawn from the study of books into the pursuits you claim for yourself? Not even in my youth, when age would have permitted it, did I care to keep Spartan or Molossian hounds -- much less would I want such things now that my years incline toward old age, when my beard grows whiter as the barber trims it. But suppose I wished to undertake rustic pleasures from time to time: what leading senator enjoys such happy leisure that he can breathe freely from his duties to the state by working in the woods? You have just learned of the grain complaints of the great city. Oil shortage followed upon that, and the trouble over the harvest still persists. Worn out by these affairs, we have sent men of the senate to petition for remedies, and there is hope that the most merciful and divine emperor will respond to our appeals with saving aid. Meanwhile the city buzzes with the murmuring of the distressed. You, my friend, go hunting, and torment those of us who are overburdened with the boast of your pleasures! But how can I believe that so great a man as yourself has time to search out the lairs of hares? How is it, then, that in the same letter in which you ask me for a history, you also advertise the feast days and working days of your dogs? True pursuits cannot be disguised: for you confess unwittingly, amid your playful fictions, the disease of reading. I will go no further. You ask for ancient accounts of the Gauls to be placed in your hands. Turn to the last books of the Paduan historian, in which the deeds of Gaius Caesar are set forth. Or if Livy does not match your desire, take the journal of Gaius Caesar, extracted from my little library to be sent to you as a gift. This will teach you the origins, the regions, the battles, and whatever pertained to the customs and laws of Gaul. I will try, if fortune favors, to track down the German Wars of Pliny the Elder as well. In the meantime, be content with my promise, and make our brother Minervius -- the most learned and generous judge of my writings (why do I say judge, when I prefer him as my applauder?) -- your companion in reading. Though I know this need hardly be asked of you, for the equal and mutual love between you permits nothing good to be divided. To Protadius. One must begin with good news. Therefore in the prologue, so to speak, of this letter, I wish you health and well-being. Next, I append a request on behalf of my people. The distinguished Flavianus, our common bond of affection, has long struggled against the blows of fortune but has been restored to calm by the benefit of the divine emperor. He has been ordered to pay his father's salary assessment, with the valuation of prices grievously inflated, and his slender income is unequal to so great a burden. If there is any power of assistance in you, see to it that the merciful humanity of the times spares this afflicted household. Otherwise the property restored through imperial indulgence will be consumed by the increase of the debt. The young Augustus will follow, as we hope, in the beneficent footsteps of his father, since the succession of empire has come to him together with his brother, and with it the imitation of his father's goodness.

XV a. 385. 26 Non cadit in te ista suspicio, ut consulto amicitiae neglegens fuisse credaris. est tibi animus tenax fidei, et ut in recipiendis familiaritatibus circumspecta cautela, ita in retinendis firma constantia. quapropter nec ante opinalus sum, exemptum me nu- mero ceterorum, quibus principio anni munus consulare tribuisti, et nunc amplius qnam reliquis mihi credo delatum. nam quod illis generalis oblatio dedit, nobis specialis so 2 cura restituit. qua in re his quoque suscensere non debeo, qui me exortem prioris honorificentiae esse voluerunt. neque enim mihi aliter evenire potuisset, ut quod frans aliena subtraxerat, 6is mererer. stabit igitur apud animum meum ingis tua gratia, et memoria constantis officii nulla oblivione tenuabitur. sive error istud seu dolus fecerat, docuisti omnes nihil ulterius ad destruendas amicitias callidum cogitare, quas vident 9& insidiis suis crescere. 19 suspiciendo calmini tiio Suse 22 his P 24 .q. anr. symmachi. u c. cons. explic ad stilichonem xiiii inc ad bantonem (cort. in banthonem) P, om. F 31 exortem] ex P 1 m. 33 bis] LypaiuSj his PF 34 isUt P fecerit luretut 35 alterins P LIBEB im. 103 XVI ante a. 395. AD BAVTONEM. PF Inter praecipua gaadiorum numero litteras tnas scilicet fratemi animi testes et yere religionis interpretes. eas quanto saepius sumo, tanto inpensius uberiusque 5 desidero. difficilis est enim satietas rerum bonarum, et tunc maxime animos iucunda quaeque sollicitant, cum videntur explere. scribe igitur, ut facis, saepius, nec me- tuas, ne experiaris ingratum, quem vides et amoris et sermonis tui esse tam cupidum. AD PROTADIVM. XVn a. 380? 10 Sum quidem nimis aeger animi et prae tanto luctu obeundis inpar officiis, sed numquam fortunae in me tantum licebit, ut honorem tuum victus maerore dissimulem. quin immo his delenimentis remedia vulneri meo facio. quae etsi pro magnitudine doloris invalida sunt, medicinam tamen mihi efficacissimam tui sermonis ad/erunt. quid expectem, vides : redde operam, si videtur, amicitiae debitam, aegro animo pro- 15 futuram. XVm a. 396. AD PROTADIVM. J Falso apud me venandi studio gloriaris, cum thymum facundiae spirent litterae tuae. ne mihi os subleveris! alia otii, alia negotii signa sunt. acres Aerbas olet 20 rusticus, vino anhelus est ganeo, nautam sequitur gravedo: t;os amici Camenarnm flores metatis Heliconis. qnas tu nobis indagines leporum, quos natales canum dies, 2 quae venatica festa mentiris? censen posse me retrahi a voluminum stndio in eas artes, quas tibi adrogas? ne primaevns quidem, cum ferret aetas, Amyclaeos aut Molossos alere curavi: tantum abest, nt haec annis in senectam vergentibus velim, candidior 25 postqnam tondenti barba cadebat. sed fao velle me obire nonnumqnam rusticas 3 volnptates: coi tandem primomm senatus tanta vacationis felicitas suppetit, ut inter patriae cnras respiret opere silvestri? conperisti haud dudum fmmentarias magnae nrbis querellas; snccessit huic olei penuria, et adhuc manet de fruge cansatio. hinc remm fessi viros curiae oratum remedia legavimus, et spes est, olementissimum di- 30 vmumqne principem salutari ope consnltumm petitis. interea laborantinm murmore 24 Verg. Ecl. I 29. qaaerunt Meretr^ auxerunt PF 14 redde om. F uidebitur (r*), fort. redde operam, quam tibi detuli rea uerba solet <P 20 anhellus P est] P0, ructat T ganeon autam r*, ganeon nautam <P, ganeon autem P uos] Mercer^ suos Pr*P amicitiam F 21 florg f^uctatis P, florem f^actatis F, florem ructatis 0 dices P 22 censen] LecthUj cessent P 23 amycleos P 25 ueUe me] ueUem P 1 m. 30 murmure] ^, murmur est P 104 SYMMACHl EPISTVLAE P 4 strepit civitas. tu nunc, amice , venaris et nimis anxios deliciamm taarum iactatione soUicitas. sed qni fieri potest, ut talem tantumque te perscrutandis cubilibus leporum credam vacare? unde ergo est , quod iisdem litteris a me poscis historiam , quibus canum tuorum festos ac profestos dies praedicas ? dissimulari studia vera non possunt : 5 nam fateris invitus inter figmenta ludicra morbum legendi. non ibo longius. priscas & Gallorum memorias deferri in manus tuas postulas. revolve Patavini scriptoris extrema, quibus res Gai Caesaris explicantur, aut si inpar est desiderio tuo Livius, sume ephe- meridem C. Caesaris decerptam bibliotheculae meae, ut tibi muneri mitteretur. haec te origines situs pugnas. et quidquid fuit in moribus aut legibus Galliarum, docebit. 6 enitar, si fors votum iuvet, etiam Plinii Secundi Germanica bella conquirere. tantisper lo esto contentus fide operis oblati, et fratrem nostrum Minervium scriptorum meorum doctissimum et benignissimum iudicem — cur dicam iudicem, quem malo plausorem? — fac socium lectionis. quamquam hoc a te scio nequaquam petendum; nihil enim bonae rei inter vos dividi amor aequus ac mutuus sinit. XVmi a. 395. »5 AD PROTADIVM. A prosperis ordiendum est; quapropter in prologo, ut ita dixerim, litterarum salu- tera valetudinemque dico. dehinc meorum subicio postulatum: Flavianus vir inl. commune pignus diu eluctatus fortunae aspera, sed divi principis beneficio in tranquillum reductus, solvere salarium patris iussus est, taxatione pretiorum graviter aggerata, 20 2 neque census exilis tanto onert convenit. fac igitur, si quid in te opis est, ut adflictae domui pia temporum parcat humanitas; alioquin integrata per indulgentiam bona vel auctione fenoris detrahentur. sequetur, ut spes est, patema benefacta iuvenis Augustus, ad quem sicuti successio imperii una cum fratre pervenit, ita boni- tatis imitatio. 25 XX a. 395.