Letter 8017: If you know my heart at all, you can't doubt that poor health was the only thing keeping me from writing.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Campania|c. 374 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
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If you know my heart at all, you can't doubt that poor health was the only thing keeping me from writing. Now that I've cleared that excuse, here is a letter to testify that I'm well again -- since recovery has removed the justification for silence. Farewell.
TO THE SAME:
I'd learned from my son's report that you were coming to Campania. That's why I held off writing. But while either city business or your own pleasures keep delaying you, my period of waiting has nearly become a fault of its own. Seeing how close to blame the expectation of your visit has brought me, I'll no longer trust promises. From now on, I'll write regardless. Farewell.
Si bene in te animum meum nosti, dubitare non potes, adversam valetudinem
corporis mei missitandis hucusque litteris obstitisse. hac parte purgatus salutatricem is
tibi paginam reddo, quae testabitur, esse me sospitem, postquam sanitas silentii ex-
cusationem removit.
lva (Lmi).
Venturum te ad Campaniam filii mei adsertione cognoveram. hinc factum est,
ut scribendis litteris abstinerem. sed dum te aut curae urbanae aut voluptates mo- 20
rantur, paene culpam silentii expectatio nostra contraxit. fungor igitur erga te sa-
lute dicenda et tibi eligendum relinquo, utrum mihi adventum praestare malis an
responsum persolvere.
LVI (LV).
AD ROMANVM. 25
Servo observantiam , quam mos priscus instituit, ut domo profecti litteras auspi-
centur, et salvere me nuntio. ex debito venit, ul misso a me muneri solvas amica
responsa.
' deluit F*, diluit F2.3 ex humore solito post corporis colhc. F2, fort. dolor corporis ex humore, solitus
offlciorum familiarium sequestrator familiarium] (/7)F3, om. Fi*2 \q D),nc quia] namque F^
ualitudine F» 11 respondi F^ 1 m., respondondi F^ 2 m. uale om» F^
15 missitandis] (r), scriptiUndis (77)
19 hane epistulam cum praccedenti coniur^git {IT)y post 16 esse me sospitem novam incipere, suspieatus
est luretus, post 17 remouit divisi ego 22 an] F^ aut (i7)
27 ut emissoj luretus, ut te emisso (/7), ut tu emisso (r) ex corUeetura Lectii?
LVU (LVI) .
AD VALERIVM. F
Filiam meum Romulum ego accerso, tu retines; ego in eum mihi personam pa-
rentis adrogo, tu ius adfinis exerceB; mihi ex voluntaria sponsione praesentiam suam
5 debet, a Yobis spe sociandi itineris retentatur. sed cum mihi etiam /uus promittatur
adventus, quaestuosa taxatio est morae, quae mihi pro uno utrumque promittit. cedo
igitur voluntati tuae et paucorum dierum patientiam non nego. fratri quoque tuo Ko-
mulo nimis gratulor, cuius nobis ambo solacium pio et amico certamine vindicamus. vale.
LVIII (LVH).
◆
If you know my heart at all, you can't doubt that poor health was the only thing keeping me from writing. Now that I've cleared that excuse, here is a letter to testify that I'm well again -- since recovery has removed the justification for silence. Farewell.
TO THE SAME:
I'd learned from my son's report that you were coming to Campania. That's why I held off writing. But while either city business or your own pleasures keep delaying you, my period of waiting has nearly become a fault of its own. Seeing how close to blame the expectation of your visit has brought me, I'll no longer trust promises. From now on, I'll write regardless. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.