Letter 9032: A worthy cause deserves the support of your generous spirit.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 382 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
illness

A votive cause [an undertaking promised by vow] deserves the support of your distinguished spirit. The praetorship awaits a new gift, with God's help, in which both the examples of others urge me, and my own zeal compels me, to exhibit crocodiles and many exotic things to the citizens. Therefore deign to take my friend Cyriacus kindly into your care, so that he may advance the matters that have been agreed upon. You will have, in time to come, a debtor not unmindful of so great a favor.

[Letter CLII (CXXXII. CXXIII), years 398-401.]

What you write proceeds from your voluntary kindness; that you write late, from your cares. We, however, bear witness by the assiduity of our pen to the devotion owed to your merits and to our own leisure. Give order that our friend Euscius, who is beset by domestic affairs, be drawn off into your service; and entrust to him, as to a familiar, the care of those matters which you have brought to my notice concerning the arranging of the production of the games. Farewell.

[Letter CLIII (CXXXIII. CXXIV), year 391.]

The largess of my consulship I owe both to our friendship and to your honor. This I have sent to you, in a single solid piece [of gold/silver plate], praying that you may receive with kindly spirit the customary offerings of my office. Farewell.

BOOK TEN

CONTAINING THE FAMILIAR LETTERS TO THE EMPERORS, THE SENATORIAL OPINIONS, AND THE MINOR WORKS.

Letter I, years 375-376.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Meretur de praeclaro animo tuo votiva causa suffragium. f praetoria donum no-
vum deo iuvante expectat, in qua me crocodillos et pleraque peregrina civibus ex- 10
hibere et aliorum hortantur exempla et propria conpellit animositas. quare amicum
meum Cyriacum benigne in curam tuam dignare suscipere, ut p/acita promoveat.
habebis in posterum tantae gratiae non inmemorem debitorem.

CLII (CXXXm. CXXIII) a. 398—401.

Quod scribis, voluntariae benignitatis est, quod sero, curarum; nos autem reli- 15
gionem meritis tuis debitam et otium nostrum stili adsiduitate testamur. Euscium
nostrum circumsessum domesticis negotiis deduci in obsequium tuum praecipe, et
quae in meam notitiam pertulisti de instrueuda editione ludorum, ipsi familiariter cu-
randa committe. vale.

CLIU (CXXXniT. CXXnU) a. 391. 20

Sportulam consulatus mei et amicitiae nostrae et honori tuo debeo. hanc in so-
lido uno ad te misi orans, ut benigno animo sollemnia offlcii mei libamenta susci-
pias. vale.

LIBER DECmVS

CONTINENS EPISTVLAS FAMILIARES AD IMPERATORES 25
SENTENTIAS SENATORIAS ET OPVSCVLA.

I a. 375—376.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

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