Letter 5062: You ask how I am and what I am doing.

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~393 AD Context: Symmachus responds to a friend's inquiry about his health and activities. You ask how I am and what I am doing. I answer your inquiry out of love: I am well enough, occupied with the usual business of a senator's life -- attending sessions, managing estates, keeping up correspondence, and trying not to let the worries of the age consume all my peace. If this sounds modest, it is because in troubled times, the absence of disaster is itself a kind of prosperity.

Quaeris, ut valeam, vel quid rerum geram. respondeo percontationi tuae ex amore 10 venienti. agri quiete delector. baec mihi et a^ris praestat salubritatem et pabnlum lectionis. saepe oculos pasco culturis , quas hibema exercet operatio. tibi et valetu- dinem secundare et memoriam nostrae amicitiae superesse amplissime gratulor. silentii vero mei non est iniusta causatio; nihil enim, quod scriberem, suppetebat, simulque occupato tibi auditione causarum verebar obstrepere, ne multis negotiis tuis onus ad- 15 deret loquacitas otiosi. LXXVim (LXXVII).