Letter 3030: I marvel at the splendor of Your Greatness's fame — a fame that grows not through self-promotion but through the...

30. Ennodius to Avienus. I am astonished that disagreeable things should be coupled with the magnitude of your eminence, and that the serenity of your conscience should be stained by the harshness of words, when you write that I am commanding pages from you rather than earning them by an exacting diligence. Do you think there is any kind of lordship more sublime than that which subjects us through love? There are no heights, lord Avienus, exempt from the yoke of affection: whatever liberty there is in the world is not withdrawn from servitude of this kind. Behold, I, lowly in station and unknown to your honors, shall thus give commands by your authority, content to lie subject in an equal rank. Now farewell, and however much you perceive has been granted to you, repay that much to me, as a faithful restorer of affection.

XXX. ENNODIVS AVIENO. Miror fanis magnitudinis tuae iniucunda copulari et serenitatem conscientiae uerborum austeritate maculatam, dum scribis imperare me potius paginas quam diligentia exactrice promereri. putas ullum genus dominandi esse sublimius quam illud quod amore nos subicit? nulla sunt, domne Auiene, culmina a iugo caritatis inmunia: quicquid in orbe libertatis est tali non subtrahitur seruituti. ecce ego loco humilis, ignotus honoribus uestris fascibus sic iubebo, parili contentus ordine subiacere. nunc uale, et quantum tribui tibi senseris, tantum mihi sicut fidelis restitutor affectionis inpende.