Letter 6039: A greeting comes first -- it suits my wishes above all else and is the proper way to begin a letter.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 384 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
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A greeting comes first -- it suits my wishes above all else and is the proper way to begin a letter. After that, my dear daughter, I'm entrusting your brother's birthday dinner to your capable management. Our man reports that the sailors have fled and left the coast deserted, which forced me to scale back the arrangements I'm handing off to you.

As for public news, there isn't much to report -- except that a tenement building collapsed in Trajan's Forum and crushed the residents. Popular resentment has blamed it on the city's public transport administration, and the office is now in private hands. Farewell.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Dictionem salutis antefero, quae et voto meo supra omnia convenit et litterario
debetur exordio. dehinc diligentiae tuae, doroina filia, natalicium fratris tui com-
mendo conviviuro; homo 'enim noster allegat fuga nautamm litora destituta; quae
30 res conpulit, ut sanctitati tuae factu minora committam. de publicis scribenda non
suppetunt absqne eo, quod in Traiani platea raina unius insulae pressit habitantes;
qnod adeo ad fortunam vehiculi publici plebeia vertit invidia. ut iam privato rectore
utatar. vale.

dlfferri P

21

164 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE

XXXVIII (XXXVUIl) a. 401.

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