Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 368 AD|symmachus
monasticism
People who hope to receive a gift are usually the impatient ones. But you've introduced something new: being so generous with your own property that you can't bear any delay in giving it away. Just recently, a piece of land came to you by legal inheritance, and you promptly gave me the title. Your gain became my advantage, and with a more generous spirit than fortune itself — for what you received with sorrow from a relative's estate, you passed on with joy.
And you didn't stop there: you crowned this generosity with a magnificent testimonial. I value that honor more than the gift itself, because a man who is helped with money but not with praise seems to receive a necessity rather than a reward.
I therefore thank you for your judgment and am grateful beyond words that you've done me this double honor. I pray to the gods that we may all enjoy your gifts together for a long time, and that there may be those among our family to whom the Ostian estate can one day be passed on — following your example, and with our blessing. Farewell.
Solent inpatientes dilationis esse, qui sperant in se aliquid muneris conferendum;
hoc vero a vobis recens ortum videmus, ut suarum rerum munifici moi^am non ferant
largiendi. nunc nuper ad vos praedium lege venit, cuius me iure donastis. cucurrit
quaestus vester in meum commodum, et meliore voto fortunam estis imitati. nam quod
2 ex propinquae bonis cum maestitia sumpseratis. cum laetitia "tradidistis. quid quod lo
hanc liberalitatem cumulastis amplissimo testimonio? cuius ego honestamentum prae-
opto muneribus, nam qui opibus inlaudatus iuvatur, necessarium magis donum quam
iustum praemium videtur adipisci. ago igitur iudicio vestro atque habeo gratias,
quantae sunt maximae, quod mihi honorem utrumque fecistis, et deos precor^t datis
in commune omnes longum fruamur sintque ex nobis, quibus Ostiense praedium nostro i s
iudiciO; vestro tradatur exemplo. vale.
VII ante a. 376.
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People who hope to receive a gift are usually the impatient ones. But you've introduced something new: being so generous with your own property that you can't bear any delay in giving it away. Just recently, a piece of land came to you by legal inheritance, and you promptly gave me the title. Your gain became my advantage, and with a more generous spirit than fortune itself — for what you received with sorrow from a relative's estate, you passed on with joy.
And you didn't stop there: you crowned this generosity with a magnificent testimonial. I value that honor more than the gift itself, because a man who is helped with money but not with praise seems to receive a necessity rather than a reward.
I therefore thank you for your judgment and am grateful beyond words that you've done me this double honor. I pray to the gods that we may all enjoy your gifts together for a long time, and that there may be those among our family to whom the Ostian estate can one day be passed on — following your example, and with our blessing. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.