Letter 5047: I should not be a braggart about my devotion to you -- our mutual obligations spring from a genuine sense of duty...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 387 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To: [Unnamed correspondent]
Date: ~387 AD
Context: A brief note on the nature of duty, declining to make a show of devotion.

I should not be a braggart about my devotion to you -- our mutual obligations spring from a genuine sense of duty and need no advertisement. The services we render each other are offered freely and received gratefully, and that is the proper foundation of friendship.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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