Letter 5068: That you collect my letters is a sign of your affection, though I note that you do not seem to be very selective...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~395 AD Context: Symmachus comments wryly on his friend's habit of archiving his letters, suggesting he is not very selective. That you collect my letters is a sign of your affection, though I note that you do not seem to be very selective about which ones you preserve. But I will not complain -- the fact that you value my words enough to keep them is itself flattering. If posterity ever reads them, they will learn more about our friendship than about my literary skill. I hope that is enough.

Quod epistnlas meas condis, amoris est tui, qui describenda nescit eligere; sed me fucuR hic decipit. nam praecipitor ad scribendi fiduciam placendi securitate. et 5 tamen, si quando resipisco, nimis vereor, ne ista simplicitas incidat quandoque in lectorem alterum tibi disparem. quare velim, tibi habeas, quae incogitata proferimus; 2 licet eadem mei quoque librarii servare dicantur, sed illi per examinis ignorantiam, quod te facere non oportet Mercurialis artis peritum. nam mediocribus scriptis ami- corum benignitas scit favere, alienorum invidia nescit ignoscere. quod superest, oro 3 10 iam venias et praesentia tua augeas honorem festorum dierum. nempe Minervae tibi sollemne de scholis notum est, ut fere memores sumus etiam procedente aevo pueri- lium feriarum. ad eum diem tibi convictnm paramus agrestibus holusculis partum, quia luxuries offendit deam sobriam. LXXXVI (LXXXIIII).