Letter 7043: Fortune often upsets the best-laid plans -- and that's exactly what happened to me.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusRome and|c. 386 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
monasticism

Fortune often upsets the best-laid plans -- and that's exactly what happened to me. I'd planned to visit the Etruscan hot springs [in Tuscany] for my health but was held back by business in Rome. So I won't impose any delay on you. On the contrary, I urge and demand: hurry back to Rome and restore to us the joy of your company, which I didn't get to enjoy even in the suburbs. Farewell.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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