Letter 5074: Returned to Rome after completing my embassy, I found your letters waiting -- letters in which you commend your...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 397 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
diplomatic
From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
To: [Unnamed correspondent]
Date: ~397 AD
Context: Symmachus has returned to Rome after an embassy and found letters waiting for him.

Returned to Rome after completing my embassy, I found your letters waiting -- letters in which you commend your homeland to my care. Rest assured that your city's interests will receive my full attention. An embassy teaches a man much about the state of the world, and what I have seen confirms both the resilience of our civilization and the fragility of the arrangements that sustain it. More on this when we meet.

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

Related Letters