Letter 5065: The management of our estates demands constant attention -- a truth that every landowner learns through hard experience.

Symmachus to Helpidius. Since I often make use of unfamiliar occasions for writing, I think I commit an offense against our friendship if I appear to hold back from the opportunities offered by my own household. Gladly, therefore, I have given to Arius, a most honorable man and a member of your household, a page announcing my good health, to which I add the courtesy of a greeting; and this greeting alone, both when it is spoken and when it is returned in turn, fulfills the duties of a friend's service. [The manuscript here continues with the heading of the following letter, LXXXII (LXXX), dated 399, but no text of that letter is preserved in this passage.]

sUbitF(r) 11 cnltoris P 1 m. 12 nostrae nostrae Vi 13 niro P i m. 14 occnpatio V obrepere V^ tnis om. F 15 ociomm V^ aut fnturus V^ 21 solnit P 1 m. gratia mea PVF 19* 148 SYMMACHI EPI8TVLAE LXXXI (LXXVmi). PF^W SYMMACHVS HELPIDIO. Cum saepe occasionibus ad scribeDdum utar iucognitis, committi in amicitiam puto, si doraesticis videar abstinere. libens igitur A^rio bonestissimo viro cnltori tuo nuntiam . sospitatis meae paginam dedi, cui honorificentiam salutationis adiungo; quae sola, et ^ cum dicitur, et cum vicissim refertur, munia familiaris explet officii. LXXXII (LXXX) a. 399.