Letter 5031: I love your letters — they always bring me some good news.
I love your letters — they always bring me some good news. I, on the other hand, answer your kindnesses with nothing but words. But knowing you, you count these as equally valuable, and so I diligently keep up this work that I know you value highly.
Meanwhile, I've written a letter of thanks to our lord and emperor for his generosity toward me — modest in words perhaps, but rich in heartfelt gratitude. If your steadfast friendship and proven loyalty can present it at a favorable moment, I won't seem ungrateful. The unconquered emperor will see, as I hope, that his kindness was bestowed on a man who remembers it.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Amo litteras tuas, nam semper mihi aliquidgratulationis adportant; ego autem be-
nefactis tuis nuda oratione respondeo. sed ut est praeclara mens tua, perinde
has sibi existimat fructuosas, et ideo hanc operam perseveranter advigilo, quam scio
apud te pro magno aere censeri. interea domino et principi nostro eiusque in me 2
20 beneficientiae egi per epistulam gratias verbis fortassis exiguas sed adfeetione animi
copiosas. quas si eximia unanimitas tua et probata mihi amicitiae fides iucunda atque
oportuna insinuaverit lectione, non videbor ingratus, cum probaverit, sicuti opto, in-
viCtissimus princeps, beneficia se huiusmodi apud memorem conlocasse.
L (XXXXVni).
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Jerome encloses the preceding letter, thanks Pammachius for his efforts to suppress his treatise against Jovinian, but declares these to be useless, and exhorts him, if he still has any hesitation in his mind, to turn to the Scriptures and the commentaries made upon them by Origen and others. Written at the same time as the preceding letter. 1.
May this custom endure, and may the mutual assurance of well-being be renewed between us year after year.