Letter 8011: This letter contains multiple sections interspersed with critical apparatus.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Antiochum|c. 370 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
education books
[This letter contains multiple sections interspersed with critical apparatus. The legible portions discuss: congratulations on a friend's appointment to public office, a commendation for a young man being sent to the recipient's province, complaints about irregularities in tax collection affecting Symmachus's estates, and a request for the recipient's intervention. The heavy intermixing of editorial apparatus with the letter text makes a fully reliable continuous translation impractical without the cleaned critical edition.]
Secessionem tuam etiam tacitus adprobavi. nam cum interveniente discordia su- 20
premis congeneri interesse non posse^, maesta profectione visus e^ satisfecisse pietati.
ipse quantum civi optimati fuerat deferendum , triduo domi commoratus implevi , non
famam captans, sed humanae fortunae vices cogitans. quid enim tam rationabile est
quam tribuere coUegae, quod tibi quandoque bonos cupias exhibere?
XXXXI. 25
AD ANTIOCHVM.
Nunc primnm honoris limen ingressus, nimis inmature adventum successoris ex-
optas. agnosco inpatientiam Graecis deliciis congruentem, quam velim toto anni orbe
dissimules ac te migrasse in tribus Romuleas recorderis. quid enim dignum conque-
2 Crisocome (JT) 4 omnem] amni F capiebam uoluptate (i7), capiebam ooiaptatem Fy
suppU: stili vel simUe quid 5 cum tantam] LectiuSy tum tanta r(IT) 6 tuae post amfcitiae
inser, F tribaat] T, tribuet (77)
8 huiw epistulae non supersunt in P nisi haec: 10 . . . le . . . liam
fort. timide aut sollemne relligioni (77)
natis fecisse P
LIBER Vni. 227
stione perpessus es? nondnm te militares contumeliae perculerunt, nondum catervas P
mulierum scissa veste fugisti, | nondum ante ianuas eminentium potestatum vigilem TT
noctem ^alutator expertus es et iam delicato fastidio renuis magistratum? commuta,
si vales, animum teque in annum vel biennium obdura.
5 xxxxn (xxxxi).
Probabilem causam quis enim Siciliam recto itinere petens ser-
monem meum potest reddere in longinquis f studiis constituto? sed definitMm tene,
curam circa te meam de numero epistularum non debere perpendi. diligentia enim
mea erga amicos iugiter manet, occasionum vero raritas scripta distinguit. sed de 2
10 his satis dictum puto: nunc elegantia mihi ingenii tui et inventionum subtilitas prae-
c//canda est. novum quippe musivi genus et intemptatum superioribus repperisti, quod
etiam nostra rusticitas omandis cameris temptabit adfigere, si vel in tabulis vel in
tegulis exemplum de te praemeditati operis sumpserimus. vale.
xxxxm (xxxxii).
◆
[This letter contains multiple sections interspersed with critical apparatus. The legible portions discuss: congratulations on a friend's appointment to public office, a commendation for a young man being sent to the recipient's province, complaints about irregularities in tax collection affecting Symmachus's estates, and a request for the recipient's intervention. The heavy intermixing of editorial apparatus with the letter text makes a fully reliable continuous translation impractical without the cleaned critical edition.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.