Letter 9025: I repay everyone who gives me an occasion to write with the currency of a recommendation.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 378 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
education booksillnessimperial politicsmonasticism

I repay everyone who gives me an occasion to write with the currency of a recommendation. The present favor I wish to do for the excellent Petrucius, who I know will regard this letter not so much as a recommendation of himself as of me — for his own merits speak loudly enough.

He is a man of solid character, tested in public service, and worthy of your notice. I ask only that you receive him with the courtesy that your station and his deserve, and that you count my word as a reliable guide to his worth. Farewell.

AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Omnibus, qui occasionem scriptionis inpertiunt, et commendationis quandam re-

pendo mercedem. nunc optimo viro Petrucio factum volo, quem scio hanc epistulam

non tam m sui commendationem quam mei officii gratia postulasse. cuius operam versa

vice munerandam putavi: poposcit litteras, ut tibi probaremur inpensius; ego contra

25 ideo scripsisse me fateor, ut tibi ille acceptior redderetur.

LXI (LVIU).
AD PACATVM. p

Vix adducor, ut credam, litteras meas saepe repetitas nihil Leontio remedii con-

tulisse; quia si nihil virium frequens interventus noster habuisset, desisteret suflFra-

30 gium meum totiens elusus optare. cum igitur apud me querellae istius fides dubia

sit, experiri volo, cui potissimum parti dubitatio mea debeat adplicari. est igitur in

2 sibi patrooinium] (J7), patrociniam gibi F tcoessisse] (//}Fi, accepisse F2.8 uale add, FLS

5 est] (Fjy om, {II) 6 laeunam jmneUs indieat (/Z), quae ipsa postulatl aequitas commendat nip-

pUt Scioppiua 8 praestautis] (/*), praesentis (//)

14 fortunae] KiessUng, fortuna (/7) 17 amici] 8u$e, amicis (//)

21 et om, {F) 23 in sui commendationem] ego, sui commendatione (/7) 24 muneraudam

putaui poposcerit {F), namerandam »»♦»«« poposcit (//) probaremur] ego, probaretur (//), probarer {f)

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