Letter 6016: I foresaw the fear that news of my illness would cause you.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 373 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
illness
I foresaw the fear that news of my illness would cause you. Rumor, when it speaks of the absent, usually exaggerates beyond the truth -- and yet it seems not even to have matched the true magnitude of my danger. So as soon as my health allowed me to form letters, I didn't delay softening with my pen what I assumed had already spread.
Although my first message should have been enough to ease your worry, let this second attestation confirm that I'm safe. Meanwhile, please let me know what plans you've made about arranging the journey home. I confess that after this brush with death I've grown more tender in my feelings and can bear separation no longer.
Praevidi, quem metum vobis fama aegritudinis meae posset incutere, quae cum
soleat supra vemm de absentibus loqui, magnitudinem periculi mei ne fando quidera
30 videtur aequasse. itaque ubi primum mihi formare litteras per valetudinem licuit,
non distuli lenire apud vos stilo, quae vulgata credideram, et quamvis modificandae
sollicitudini vestrae prior sermo sufficeret, ad fidem tamen securitatis adtestatio se-
cunda proficiat. interea de ordinando reditu facite noverim. quid consilii ceperitis.
fateor enim molliore me esse adfectione post discrimen salutis nec ulterius posse sua-
35 dere, ut desiderio meo vestrnm otium praeferatis.
11 C. Th. VIIII 42, 14 dat. id. Febr. Constantinopoli, Arcadio IIII et Honorio III AA. coss.
30 aeq/Z/se P 33 proflciet P2m,
158 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
xvn (X vni) .
◆
I foresaw the fear that news of my illness would cause you. Rumor, when it speaks of the absent, usually exaggerates beyond the truth -- and yet it seems not even to have matched the true magnitude of my danger. So as soon as my health allowed me to form letters, I didn't delay softening with my pen what I assumed had already spread.
Although my first message should have been enough to ease your worry, let this second attestation confirm that I'm safe. Meanwhile, please let me know what plans you've made about arranging the journey home. I confess that after this brush with death I've grown more tender in my feelings and can bear separation no longer.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.