Letter 3015: As far as it concerns this poor little body of mine, I am getting by with some small reserves of strength — though...
Avitus episcopus Maximo episcopo.
Quantum ad infernum spectat et finem, aliquantulis corpusculi viribus vigeo,
anxius tamen, quod de domno filio vestro vel absolutione colloquii nil agnosco, quia
nec eo loco fuerim, ut cognoscere potuissem. Nam monasteriis Grinescensibus occu-
patus aliquamdiu iam habitaculo civitatis absento. Siquidem deliciae, quas dignatione
solita direxistis, in itinere me et adhuc ab urbe remotius positum repererunt. Quas-
que, quod multipliciter miror, servus vester Leonianus multum gemens, minimum
sumens, avido quidem, sed vacuo ventre transmisit: putasses eulogias vestras tenaci
corvorum rostro ad Heliae pastum parvulis unguibus exhiberi; adeo ob insultationem
meam in vos iustius excitandam misit esuriens, quod vorare non potuit concupiscens.
Vellem nunc scire, quid prosit, gulae peculiaris famuli si studetis, cui ne datas
a deo vobisque epulas de ore vel animus raperet, optabilis absentandi causa me
rapit. Ceterum de recentibus quia praecipitis, et meas partes cedo et multiplico suas.
Vtatur paterarum capacitate pro cupis; atterat labris fialas, quas circumdet pittaciorum
densitate pro circulis. Nam curabo ego quoque, quod eum velle cognosco, quo, cum
simile aliquid de vestra benedictione eruero, ad multiplicandas recentes gulae calenti
si non excogitatur modus in calicibus, ponatur in piscibus.
Related Letters
Though the merits of any one's life were in other respects such as to offer no impediment to his ordination to priestly offices, yet the crime of canvassing in itself is condemned by the severest strictness of the canons. Now we have been informed that thou, having either obtained surreptitiously, or pretended, an order from the most pious princ...
It suits you to be a friend of Himerius [a famous Athenian sophist], and your sons, by doing well, are imitating the...
1. Speech is really an image of mind: so I have learned to know you from your letters, just as the proverb tells us we may know the lion from his claws. I am delighted to find that your strong inclinations lie in the direction of the first and greatest of good things — love both to God and to your neighbour.
Are we having a serious discussion, or do you simply want us to amuse each other?
Your Greatness extends the festivities of the wedding, and the joy that attends them spreads like ripples in water.