Letter 7064: ...the family's fortunes have grown, and my lord and son Flavianus is enjoying the fruits of private leisure.

To Patruinus. The family's fortunes have grown through its advancement, and my lord and son Flavianus is enjoying the fruits of private leisure. Taking up this double assurance, I should not have waited for your letters on these matters, which I judged you would delay out of modesty. Therefore I leave to you the estimation of my joy, since you can measure its extent from the love you bear us. But to these joys I also wish the following to be added: those things concerning the praetorian games of my son, which you remember I have long since requested. For I am greatly astonished that a favorable response has not yet come to our just and customary desires. Accordingly, I have written again to the most distinguished count, asking him to order that our requests -- burdensome to no one, but dear to me, and supported by the precedents of even minor magistrates -- be graciously carried out, as is his custom. I hope that the generosity of so great a man, whose pleasure it always is to grant beyond what is hoped for, will be rendered more prompt if, as I have often asked, it is spurred by your encouragement. To Patruinus. I would accompany my brother Severus with a lengthy commendation if he were seeking your friendship for the first time, or if my talents were equal to the task of praising him. So I spare you the abundance and yield to your own judgment, that his merit may be commended to your own goodwill rather than to my words. Farewell. To Patruinus. Since you have a special care for all my people, I presume that the intimate circle of your friendship can be opened to my son Arcentius, a distinguished man bound to me by kinship. His honor of life and the antiquity of his family deserve your regard on their own merits. To these personal qualities of his, my own prayers are added to augment the commendation, so that I have no doubt that both my testimony and your judgment will benefit him all the more richly. Farewell.

norum | crevisse processibus, et domino ac filio meo Flaviano fiructum privati otii esse VMTl et] dines V 5 patrocinio tuo F 6 familiares et V 9 om. VM; epistularttm 108 et 109 altera ad Petronium, altera ad Patruinum icripta e$t 11 ce- cUianus PV 13 impetrato V hisdem P, hisdem VM 14 medlaris V quiaj qnod V 17 om. VMF; ef. adn. ad v. 9 18 aperta] VMF{r)y comperta (com m raa.) P 19 aine ininrgii V commutata V 20 cecUianl VMF 22 seruetur F atque in F, et in M , 26 om. VMy ad utrumque fratrem 27 recentis P 1 m. V bonorum V, om. M 28 inde a voee honorum non mpersunt in P niai haec: p. 208, 2 qua . . . uobis ... 3 uro in n . . . diis etiam 11 ... 4 toria edition . . . lata meminist ... 5 iustis ut soUemni ... 6 rescriptum itaq . . . sus oraui ut pe- tit . . . 7 mihi uero iucundas . . . etiam minorum magistr . ^ . 8 exempla — roos . . . lubeat — benefl . . . 9 niri — supra . . . na prestare usque ad finem 208 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE VMn delatum. sumpta igitur gemina fide vestras litteras super his expectare non debui, quas aestimavi per verecundiam difierendas. quare aestimationem laetitiae meae vo- 2 bis relinquo, quia mensuram eius de vestro in nos amore colligitis. sed his gaudiis etiam iila opto coniungi, quae de praetoria editione filii mei iam pridem postulata meministis. nam vehementer admiror iustis et sollemnibus desideriis nondum adrisisse 5 rescriptum. itaque secundis litteris virum praecellentissimum comitem rursus oravi, ut petitiones nulli graves , mihi vero iucundas , quibus jomnissa pariter etiam minorum magistratuum suffragantur exempla, benigne, ut mos eius est, tradi iubeat eifectui. PVM »ed beneficentiam tanti viri, cui semper voluptas est supra spem mag|na praestare, promptiorem spero reddendam, si ut frequenter poposci, vestris admonitionibus pro- 10 vocetur. CXI. AD PATRVINVM. VMn Fratrem meum Severum multo sermone | prosequerer, si novo aditu amicitiam tuam peteret aut praedicationi eius meum ingenium conveniret. parco igitur copiae tuoque 15 cedo iudicio, ut diligentia eius tuae potius voluntati quam meis litteris adplicetur. vale. CXn a. 397 ? AD PATRVINVM. Cum tibi omnium meorum cura praecipua sit, praesumo filio meo Arcentio spec- tabili viro, quem mihi iungit adfinitas, intimam familiaritatem tuam posse reserari, 20 quam merito illi et vitae decus et familiae conciliat antiquitas. his propriis eius bo- nis etiam meae preces in augmentum commendationis accedunt, ut plane dubitare non possim, cumulatius ei et meum testimonium et tuum iudicium profuturum. vale. CXIII a. 398.