From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To: Protadius
Date: ~371 AD
Context: A long, multi-part letter touching on their mutual silence, literary exchanges, and the proper style of correspondence between friends. This entry contains several short letters to Protadius and Minervius.
You know that our silence is an equal offense on both sides, and so the blame is unfairly placed on me alone for what we share in common. I have a defense, though: the comings and goings of travelers are hard to track, and you never stay in one place -- you shuttle between Trier on official business and the Five Provinces [southern Gaul, roughly modern Provence and Languedoc] for leisure. I am fixed in Rome, and more so now, since the presence of your distinguished brother both holds me here with his responsibilities and delights me with his reputation. You could have combined your letters to us into one packet, so that both your brother and the man who deserves to be counted as his equal would receive them together. I am glad you have done so at last, even if late. Still, when you held off writing, I never thought your devotion to me had slipped. True friendship is so secure that it measures the other's love by its own faithfulness. I am tired of saying more in this vein, so let me turn to the part of your letter that touches on something I have been wanting.
You say my writings have reached your hands through our mutual friend Minervius, who cannot keep away from my trifles -- drawn more by literary curiosity than by any real pleasure. If you have enough leisure to seek out even dull material to relieve your boredom, I will send you everything I have composed, confident of the forgiveness your affection guarantees me. But I nearly forgot to raise the complaint that should have come first: has the simple use of our letters really died out, that you prefer to dress your pages in the fashionable affectations of our age? Let us return to plain headings, and when a greeting is given or returned, let us agree that nothing is more gracious or pleasing than our customary words. Take my letter as your model -- and if you refuse to follow it, I will be marked both as arrogant and lumped together with those whose great pretension in words masks an utter emptiness of thought.
---
To Protadius (~400 AD): The same consul who summoned me had called you to Milan. I hoped the occasion would bring us together, but when illness kept you away, I bore the loss of that longed-for joy very badly. Now that the consular festivities -- which surpassed everyone's expectations in their splendor -- are finished, I am returning to Rome, where the distinguished magistrate himself has promised to come shortly, with my son-in-law confirming it. How I wish that if your health has fully returned, you would make up for your earlier absence by visiting, and in one trip both pay the Senate a voluntary courtesy and the consul the honor he is owed. But how can I dare to hope for so much, when even lesser hopes have come to nothing? When will you ever prefer the toga to the hunt?
---
To Protadius (~396 AD): I want the bonds of affection between us to grow every day, but I would rather not be indebted for your letters -- which are often thrown in my face as proof of my laziness. So to your two letters, which did not reach me at the same time, I reply with an equal number but send them together. I am well, as far as my age allows as it slopes toward old age. I rarely visit my country estate, and the chance to read is rarer still. You have ample opportunity both to enjoy the countryside and to pursue learning. That is why you write to me so often -- because all your time, devoted to exercising your mind, is claimed by leisure. But my boldness will not yield to your confidence. Even if you pore over the works of the ancients and commit your own to the page, I will pester you with my dry prose, which you must read out of both love and good judgment, so that I may make up for neglecting those other works.
Silentii inter nos simile scis esse delictum, atque ideo mihi iniuste culpae datur,
quod utrique commune est. et tamen defensio mihi suppetit; quia nec profectiones
commeantium notae sunt, et tu non iisdem sedibus inmoraris, dum' aut Treviros civica
religione aut Quinque Provincias otii voluntate commutas. mihi Romae iugis est statio 30
et maior nunc causa residendi, ex quo me viri excelsi germani tui praesentis et cura
retinet et iuvat gloria. una igitur via sociare scripta potuisti, quae frater et fratri
2 aequandus acciperent. quod a te gaudeo vel sero curatum. nec tamen, cum a litteris
temperares, ullam decessionem diligentiae in me tuae factam putavi. tanta est enim
securitas verae amicitiae, ut de sua fide aestimationem mutui amoris adsumat. plura 35
in hunc modum dicere piget. quare transeo ad eam sermonis tui partem, quae ora^
menti] lurttus, largementi ^, largae menti FF, large mentis P, largae mentis F appetlt P 10 by-
bUotecis P amiticiae V 11 est om. V
reseeta F, om. M 22 iupatientiae P 1 m,y impotentiae P 2 m.
LIBEB mi. 109
tionam meamm desideriam videtar attingere. ais in manas taas scripta nostra venisse PVF
fratre nostro Minenrio proditore, qai frivolis meis litterata potias cariositate qaam
iasta delectatione non abstinet. si tibi tantam otii est, at ad fastidiam detergendam
nonnalla etiam msulsa conqairas, qoidqaid stilo elaboravimas, exhibebo secaras veniae,
& qaam mihi spondet animi tai caritas. paene praeterii , qaod loco principe accasare 3
debaeram : itane epistalaram nostraram simplex asas interiit, at paginis tais lenocinia
aevi praesentis anteferas ? redeamas qain ergo ad infacatos nominam titalos , et cam
dicitar aat redditar salas, nihil ipsis vocabalis nostris honoratias aat blandias esse
dacamas. exemplo certe tibi sit epistula mea, qaam si spreveris aemalari, et ad-
10 rogantiae notatas videbor et ceteris adgregatas, qaoram magnas saspectas in verbis
est, nallas caltas in sensibns.
XXXI a. 400.
AD PROTADIVM. PVM
Mediolaniam te idem, qai me, consnl acdverat. speravi, qaod nos in anam votiva
15 caasa condnceret, sed abi per valetadinem defaisti, aegerrime expectati gaadii dispen-
dimn tali. nanc peraetis saper omniam magnanimitatem consalaribas festis Romam
revertor, qao se amplissimas magistratas ventaram protinas genero adstipalante pro-
misit. qaam vellem, 8i*in solidam redit sanitas, conpensares adventa veniam saperio-
rem, atqae ana via et senatai deferres officiam volantariam et consali debitam sol-
20 reres. sed ande mihi optare tantnm, cam frastra faerit sperasse leviora? qaando ta
venatoi togam praeferes?
XXXn a. 396?
AD PROTADIVM. PVF
Crescere inter nos cotidie amoris debitam volo , sed epistalis tais nihil opto de-
25bere, qaae mihi pleramqae exprobrantar at desidi. ergo geminis litteris tuis non
simnl mihi redditis pari nnmero, sed coniancta emissione respondeo. valemas, qaan-
tam aetas admittit declivis in seniam. raro nobis ager visitar, sed multo rarior est
apad me asas legendi. tibi et rasticari et eradiri plurimam licet. inde est, qaod 2
nos freqaenter adloqaeris, qaia omne tempas, at qaaeratar ingenio, otio vindicatar.
30 sed fidaciae taae aadacia nostra non cesserit. haarias licet monamenta priscoram et
ipse paginis ediscenda committas: sollicitabo te arentibas verbis scriptis
tois, qnae et amore et iadicio legere me necesse est, at conpensem illoram damna,
qoae neglego.
<» raa. M
LeeUu$, suppU: ut subuenias ingenio meo scriptis tuis vel similc quid 32 roe legere F 33 nec
lego V
110 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
xxxm.
◆
From:Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator
To:Protadius
Date:~371 AD
Context:A long, multi-part letter touching on their mutual silence, literary exchanges, and the proper style of correspondence between friends. This entry contains several short letters to Protadius and Minervius.
You know that our silence is an equal offense on both sides, and so the blame is unfairly placed on me alone for what we share in common. I have a defense, though: the comings and goings of travelers are hard to track, and you never stay in one place -- you shuttle between Trier on official business and the Five Provinces [southern Gaul, roughly modern Provence and Languedoc] for leisure. I am fixed in Rome, and more so now, since the presence of your distinguished brother both holds me here with his responsibilities and delights me with his reputation. You could have combined your letters to us into one packet, so that both your brother and the man who deserves to be counted as his equal would receive them together. I am glad you have done so at last, even if late. Still, when you held off writing, I never thought your devotion to me had slipped. True friendship is so secure that it measures the other's love by its own faithfulness. I am tired of saying more in this vein, so let me turn to the part of your letter that touches on something I have been wanting.
You say my writings have reached your hands through our mutual friend Minervius, who cannot keep away from my trifles -- drawn more by literary curiosity than by any real pleasure. If you have enough leisure to seek out even dull material to relieve your boredom, I will send you everything I have composed, confident of the forgiveness your affection guarantees me. But I nearly forgot to raise the complaint that should have come first: has the simple use of our letters really died out, that you prefer to dress your pages in the fashionable affectations of our age? Let us return to plain headings, and when a greeting is given or returned, let us agree that nothing is more gracious or pleasing than our customary words. Take my letter as your model -- and if you refuse to follow it, I will be marked both as arrogant and lumped together with those whose great pretension in words masks an utter emptiness of thought.
---
To Protadius (~400 AD): The same consul who summoned me had called you to Milan. I hoped the occasion would bring us together, but when illness kept you away, I bore the loss of that longed-for joy very badly. Now that the consular festivities -- which surpassed everyone's expectations in their splendor -- are finished, I am returning to Rome, where the distinguished magistrate himself has promised to come shortly, with my son-in-law confirming it. How I wish that if your health has fully returned, you would make up for your earlier absence by visiting, and in one trip both pay the Senate a voluntary courtesy and the consul the honor he is owed. But how can I dare to hope for so much, when even lesser hopes have come to nothing? When will you ever prefer the toga to the hunt?
---
To Protadius (~396 AD): I want the bonds of affection between us to grow every day, but I would rather not be indebted for your letters -- which are often thrown in my face as proof of my laziness. So to your two letters, which did not reach me at the same time, I reply with an equal number but send them together. I am well, as far as my age allows as it slopes toward old age. I rarely visit my country estate, and the chance to read is rarer still. You have ample opportunity both to enjoy the countryside and to pursue learning. That is why you write to me so often -- because all your time, devoted to exercising your mind, is claimed by leisure. But my boldness will not yield to your confidence. Even if you pore over the works of the ancients and commit your own to the page, I will pester you with my dry prose, which you must read out of both love and good judgment, so that I may make up for neglecting those other works.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.