Letter 8021: If I could erase my previous letter by writing a better one, I would multiply my pages endlessly — always improving,...
XXI. ENNODIVS BEATO.
Si possem scribendo delere paginam meam, multiplici hoc
facere intentione procurarem. sed quia non est fas hominem
non errare, ego ille canus, sed pater tuus, ne umquam prioris
epistolae meae sis memor, exposco: sic te pater et patria talem,
qualem per singulos dies omnibus protestor, excipiat. alienis
scriptis credidi, ut stili mei inportuna festinatione morderem.
tu feceras quod sapiens, qui soli domno Probo arcem tenenti
inter doctos uersus meos relegeras, quod facere decuit. ego
inportunus, qui alteri credere non debuissem, quantum uideo,
frustra commotus sum. uade ergo ad domnum Probum (sic
pater tuus uiuat, sic me, quem semper amasti, uiuentem audias),
quia ista pene mortuus dictaui, et osculare illi genua pro me
et dic illi de illo extremo uersu: Terentianus me induxit in
illo exemplo,
Sic fatur lacrimans, classique immittit habenas.
omnia tamen, quae fuerunt digna correctione, praeuidit. saluto
amore quo debeo. si euasero, emendo uersus ipsos et sic dirigo.
nam litteras tuas, quas per infantem Rufinum direxisti, Iulio
mense suscepi: unde me contigit nescire quod actum fuerat,
ut taliter mouerer.
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What return of correspondence I have earned from you, you alone can measure.
I do not submit my letter to the judgment of critics — it was written for a friend, not for an audience.
Your name promises what I hope your character delivers: blessedness.
When our sovereign lords' clemency turned its thoughts to the health of their servant Danus — for it is their desire...