Letter 3005: I would be swollen with pride at the flattery of your letters if I were not kept in check by my own awareness of my...

Ennodius to Maximus. I would suffer vast gaps in our correspondence, even when lifted up by the address of your letter, if I did not, conscious of my own incompetence, suppress it through shame and hold the scales of judgment steady, even when I am praised undeservedly. Your esteem has made you forgetful of critical judgment; my own resolve compels me to dwell within a modest inner retreat. You exalt my writings as lovers do; but I must fear those who, despising all things with a rancid neglect, condemn even what has been carefully selected. Still, I give thanks that you write you have judged me, before our lord the Patrician, to be such as you have rendered me by your testimony. This affection, therefore, is owed to your recommendation, not to the page, which a rough pen has signed without the gift of eloquence. Yet, rendering a greeting worthy of your greatness, I give thanks to God, who has brought you back to your own home, increased with the successes you longed for, you whom my mind, on account of the bond of affection, never feels to be absent.

V. ENNODIVS MAXIMO. Grandes hiatus paterer litterarum uestrarum eleuatus alloquio, si non mei conscius inperitiam pudore conprimerem et iudicii lancem tenerem, etiam cum laudor inmeritus. uos dignatio censurae fecit immemores: me propositum intra uerecundum degere penetrale conpellit. uos scripta mea tanquam amantes adtollitis: me necesse est illos metuere, qui rancido despicientes cuncta neglectu etiam edecumata condemnant. ago. tamen gratias quod apud domnum Patricium talem me iudicari scribitis, qualem uestro testimonio reddidistis. insinuationi ergo amor debetur iste, non paginae, quam scaber stilus sine eloquentiae dote signauit. salutationem tamen magnitudini uestrae dignam referens deo gratias ago, quod uotiuis uos auctos successibus reduxit ad propria, quos mens mea pro conexione caritatis numquam sentit absentes. 1 summisi BV equalis B 2 me ergo Pb 3 eiiberi u BL\' 6 dicere cauaam T 8 adi T 9 cdmendatiis L I V. 17 censure B 19 adtollites B 20 edocumta ex edecnmata B 23 debetur amor T pagina ex pagine B 25 ag.o B uotiuos B 26 actos T, aut eos re B 27 pagin. (m? tras.) L claritatis T