Letter 7072: Don't judge my care for you by the length of this letter.

Don't judge my care for you by the length of this letter. A greeting is brief in words but expansive in its prayers. Let me imitate, in my regard for you, the economy of religious rites — short in their outward form, boundless in their devotion. --- To Sibitius: My heart is sick until I have certain word that you have reached the harbor of health. I ask you to satisfy this expectation. What I seek is not the honor of a literary courtesy, but relief from a very great anxiety.

cxxvnn. Curam de te meam nolo ex epistula metiaris: pauca fsalutantis verba sunt . . . .... sed vota prolixa. liceat igitur mihi imitari erga te parsimoniam religionum. ostenta . . . o cura ura 6 . . . obis ille que . . . i exitus offlcia 7 . . . a enim quae direi) . . . igata pa- tuerunt 8 . . . ii reuertetur legib; . . . sed patris sensui acer . . . nc uestrae deme exi^ 9 . . . go atque — et . . . ia nri apud optimates ui 10 ... nansura — coe . . . s 3 defensione V fecerunt] (77), fecerit V 6 haec] (i7), hoc V uiuinns V 8 quidem] (/7), quod V acerua K, aoer// P, asseruata (//] secessio U nunc uestrae] non cura est V tibi accedit F 14 tantum — 15 decerpi om. F tantum] VF, tanti P insimulationum] P 2 m, VF, insimulationem P I m. improbitate P 2 m.j probitate P l m. VF 15 decerpsi V uir con- sularis F laudatur P 1 m. 16 ingemescit P 1 m. uirisimile P 1 m. 17 posse F tare metum F, metum licitare V 22 mihi om. F 24 c. u.] ego, cum P, om, VF adferas P 28 imitare V 214 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE PVF quibus iure amicitia confertur, et officium pium brevi pagina tamquam parvo ac ore persolvere. neque enim requirit dictio excursum. tibi autem prae- scribo stili terminos: eioint mihi, quae de te scripseris, nimis magna, si laeta sint. cxxx. AD SIBIDIVM. 5 Aeger est animus meus, quamdiu fides certa sit, quod portum sanitatis intraveris. huic expectationi satisfacias volo. non enim mihi honorem fieri obsequio litterario, sed magnae soUicitudinis tribui levamen exopto. CXXXI.