Letter 5002: The sincerity of my friendship has, I trust, been proven to you.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 365 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
imperial politics
The sincerity of my friendship has, I trust, been proven to you. That's why you invited me — a consul no less — to share in your celebrations. Please extend the same trust to this letter that made you think me worthy of the invitation. I was torn for a long time between my desire to be with you and my duty to my only son. Your honor urged me to come; his education held me back. In the end I chose what you yourself would have done. Those duties belong to joy; these belong to a parent's love. Your curule chair will be thronged by the attentions of many; my son has only his father. Your generous heart will plead my case better than I can, and I entrust my apology to that same heart — because some things are better understood through affection than explained in words.
[To Theodorus] Your consulship has brought my son Flavianus back into the light. I hardly know whether I need to recommend him to you, since you were the author of our greatest joy. I ask only that you maintain the same generous spirit you've already shown — though with your constancy, this is more to be expected than requested. The loyalty of willing love is never in doubt.
Spectata est, ut arbitror, tibi amicitiae meae veritas. hinc factum est, ut me in
consortium festorum tuorum consul accires. praestetur, oro, his litteris eadem fides,
quae nos evocatione dignos probavit. diu inter desiderium tui et unici mei curam
dubius electionis pependi. tuus honor suadebat profectionem, illius institutio praeten-
20 debat obvias manus. tandem secutus sum, quod ipse fecisses. officia enim illa laeti-
tiae sunt, ista pietatis. tuae amplitudinis curulem stipabunt obsequia multorum; huic
in solo patre totum est. plura pro nobis indulgentissimus in suos animus tuus tecum
loquetur ; cui ego excusationis meae iniungo partes, quia verbis agenda non sunt, quae
meUus interpretatur adfectio.
25 VI a. 398.
AD THEODORVM. PVM
Filium meum Flavianum consulatus tuus revocat in lucem. nescio, an eum com-
mendare tibi debeam, cui summi gandii auctor fuisti. serva igitur, oro, depromptae
in eum benignitatis tenorem; etsi hoc a constantia tua sperandum magis quam postu-
30 landum est. in dubium enim voluntarii amoris fides non venit.
bus P 9 sermone] ore P 11 quero V 12 et om, VF
15 om. VF 17 adscires VF 18 probauit] iudicanit F diu inter] diuinitus VF 19 lec-
tionis VF perpendi F 21 stipabant P 22 animos P l m. V 23 lequetur P 1 m,
non om, F
26 om, VM 28 reserua VM oro om, V
1 26 STMMACHI EPISTVLAE
vn.
◆
The sincerity of my friendship has, I trust, been proven to you. That's why you invited me — a consul no less — to share in your celebrations. Please extend the same trust to this letter that made you think me worthy of the invitation. I was torn for a long time between my desire to be with you and my duty to my only son. Your honor urged me to come; his education held me back. In the end I chose what you yourself would have done. Those duties belong to joy; these belong to a parent's love. Your curule chair will be thronged by the attentions of many; my son has only his father. Your generous heart will plead my case better than I can, and I entrust my apology to that same heart — because some things are better understood through affection than explained in words.
[To Theodorus] Your consulship has brought my son Flavianus back into the light. I hardly know whether I need to recommend him to you, since you were the author of our greatest joy. I ask only that you maintain the same generous spirit you've already shown — though with your constancy, this is more to be expected than requested. The loyalty of willing love is never in doubt.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.