Letter 8011: This letter contains multiple sections interspersed with critical apparatus.
[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.]
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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).
Related Letters
In my former letter it seemed to me sufficient to point out to your excellency, that all that portion of the people of the holy Church of Antioch who are sound in the faith, ought to be brought to concord and unity. My object was to make it plain that the sections, now divided into several parts, ought to be united under the God-beloved bishop M...
There is no need for me to say how much I was delighted by your letter. Your own words will enable you to conjecture what I felt on receiving it. You have exhibited to me in your letter, the first fruits of the Spirit, love.
It is, I think, more needful for me to defend myself for not having begun to write to you long ago, than to offer any excuse for beginning now. I am that same man who always used to run up whenever you put in an appearance, and who listened with the greatest delight to the stream of your eloquence; rejoicing to hear you; with difficulty tearing ...
Rumour, messenger of good news, is continually reporting how you dart across, like the stars, appearing now here, now there, in the barbarian regions; now supplying the troops with provisions, now appearing in gorgeous array before the emperor. I pray God that your doings may prosper as they deserve, and that you may achieve eminent success. I p...
In this letter, addressed to one who seems to have had some pre-eminence among the monks of the Chalcidian desert, Jerome complains of the hard treatment meted out to him because of his refusal to take any part in the great theological dispute then raging in Syria. He protests his own orthodoxy, and begs permission to remain where he is until th...