Letter 6064: Recommending leisure is easy enough -- but that kind of advice requires a man who's master of his own time.
Recommending leisure is easy enough -- but that kind of advice requires a man who's master of his own time. The hostility of my rivals won't let me sit still, and my young son's education won't let me travel far. So I shuttle back and forth as best I can, varying the scenery with comings and goings.
This letter, for proof, was just now dashed off from a country estate outside the city. If nothing disrupts my plans, another will follow from our place at Cora [modern Cori, south of Rome]. It's up to you to improve the conditions of my absence with frequent letters -- to sweeten it, if you approve, or at least to soften it, if you don't.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
St. Ambrose in this letter to his sister continues the account of the matters contained in his letter to Theodosius, and of a sermon which he subsequently delivered before the Emperor, with the result that the Emperor, when St. Ambrose refused to offer the Sacrifice before receiving a promise that the objectionable order should be revoked, yielded.
I know you both want and expect my letters, since custom dictates that the person setting out should open the exchange.
Ambrose, Bishop, to the faithful of Milan.
You haven't replied to my earlier letters either, but it was my duty to write again rather than waste such a...
Someone might think it is merely a formality that the consul of the previous year still owes these obligations.