Letter 5025: I am delighted that my friend Drinnacus has won your approval, for it reflects no small honor on me whenever our...
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 378 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship
I am delighted that my friend Drinnacus has won your approval, for it reflects no small honor on me whenever our judgments agree. Let him enjoy the rich fruit of his own integrity — and let me enjoy the honest satisfaction of having recommended a worthy man.
I trust that your continued patronage will bring out the best in him. Men of talent need encouragement from those who recognize their worth, and I can think of no better patron for him than you. Farewell.
Placnisse indicio tuo amicnm menm Drinnacinm satis gaudeo; nam mihi quoqne
plurimum honoris accedit , qnotiens sententia nostra concordat. fmetur igitnr uberrimo
innocentiae suae frnctu, mihi honestis cams officiis, tibi instis negotiis adprobatns.
20 XXXXin (XXXXI) a. 376?
Q. CS.
Qui amanti nngas snas et deliramenta committit, non debet formidare iudicium.
commendatur enim religione, quidqnid cnlpari posset examine. merito secnrns orati-
uncnlam, qnam proxime in senatn habui, ad te misi ; de qua dominum meum fratreni
25 nostmm Carterinm tecum plene arbitror conlocntum , nam petitioni nostrae anditor
interfuit. et qnamvis totins ordinis secunda snffragia cepisse videamnr, in te nno ta-
men snmmam testimonii conlocamns. facito igitnr me certnm sententiae tnae et simnl,
quid remm geras, pande cnpienti, nt quod ex meis actibus voluptatis accipies, tuornm
mutna insinuatione conpenses.
pare V me//to P 28 ut] et P / m.
1 36 SYMMACHI EPISTVLA
xxxxmi (xxxxii).
◆
I am delighted that my friend Drinnacus has won your approval, for it reflects no small honor on me whenever our judgments agree. Let him enjoy the rich fruit of his own integrity — and let me enjoy the honest satisfaction of having recommended a worthy man.
I trust that your continued patronage will bring out the best in him. Men of talent need encouragement from those who recognize their worth, and I can think of no better patron for him than you. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.