Letter 5056: The dinner was a success, or at least it achieved what I intended it to achieve: the two men who needed to meet each...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, senator and orator To: [Unknown correspondent] Date: ~391 AD Context: Symmachus, Book V, letter 56. A social letter from the 390s, a period when the old pagan aristocracy was increasingly marginalized in public life. The dinner was a success, or at least it achieved what I intended it to achieve: the two men who needed to meet each other have met, they appear to have liked each other, and I believe something useful may come of the introduction. This is the primary purpose of dinners among people of our kind, and it is a purpose that is accomplished more often than one might expect given the unpredictability of human chemistry. The food was adequate and the wine was better than adequate — I had a conversation with my steward on this point in advance that apparently bore fruit. The conversation over dinner was more interesting than one usually finds in a large company; there were three or four exchanges that I would have been glad to have been present for even if I were not responsible for creating the conditions that made them possible. I have been doing some writing in the evenings that I am not ready to share yet, but that I think is taking shape into something worth sharing eventually. Yours in the continued small pleasures of Roman social life, Symmachus