Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 393 AD|symmachus
You're busy with public affairs, so a short letter will spare you the tedium of a long read. And my own diligent correspondence has already exhausted everything worth saying. So I rightly compress this letter to a simple, economical greeting.
Expressing affection is one thing; showing off one's eloquence is quite another. I've always preferred the work of devotion to the work of words. We'll seem to have said plenty if we're judged to have been sufficiently attentive. Farewell.
LVI (L) a. 368—383.
, SYMMACHVS PROBO.
• Et tibi pnblicis negotiis occnpato breves litterae demnnt fastidium lectionis, et
mei officii adsidnitas, qnidqnid scribendnm videbatnr, exhansit. merito salutatione
15 librata fmgi epistnlam necessario stringo conpendio. alia est enim protestatio amoris,
alia lingnae ostentatio. atqne ideo mihi antiqnior ftiit obseqnendi opera quam lo-
qnendi. copiosi videbimur, si abnnde sednli iudicemnr. vale.
LVn (LI) a. 368—383.
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You're busy with public affairs, so a short letter will spare you the tedium of a long read. And my own diligent correspondence has already exhausted everything worth saying. So I rightly compress this letter to a simple, economical greeting.
Expressing affection is one thing; showing off one's eloquence is quite another. I've always preferred the work of devotion to the work of words. We'll seem to have said plenty if we're judged to have been sufficiently attentive. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.