Letter 5019: Your letter was trimmed to Spartan brevity but overflows with substance.

Your letter was trimmed to Spartan brevity but overflows with substance. Though it provokes a complaint about rarity, its fullness of courtesy erases any annoyance. If such letters came regularly, they would satisfy my longing without tedium. But I see what stands in the way: our friend Eusebius is detaining you with his stories and wine-cups. Once you return him to his beloved gardens, I expect your mind, freed from frivolous nonsense, will turn to serious business. Farewell.

Litterae tuae Spartana bretntate succinctae sunt, sed rebus exuberant, et cum moveant de raritate querimoniam, tamen officii plenitudine memoriam suscensionis oblitterant. quodsi eas creber usus exerceat, desiderium meum sine fastidio satieta- 25 tis explebunt. sed video, quid obsistat animo, quid impediat voluntatem. Eusebius te noster fabulis et poculis demoratur. quem cum reddideris curae hortorum suorum, fore arbitror, ut animus tuus iocularibus ineptiis absolutus ad negotia seria conferatur. cartule P l m. ratonim luretua aiticas P 1 m. 8 aflueuti P 1 m. 9 parce V plures actutum] P 2 m. M, plures actuum P l m. V emersisse^ P, subitae mersisset V discordiam et PVF, lacunam indicavi 15 ac] et F 16 mea V 134 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE