Letter 5011: I love you dearly — and this affection is neither accidental nor random, for I chose to become your devoted friend...

To Potentinus. I love you dearly — and this affection is neither accidental nor random, for I chose to become your devoted friend after careful deliberation. It is my habit to choose first and love afterward. What qualities, you ask, did I find praiseworthy in you? I will tell you — gladly and briefly, since the one is required by gratitude and the other by the size of my page. I admire in your conduct that you do many things worthy of any good man's imitation. You farm with the greatest skill; you build with the finest judgment; you hunt with the highest effectiveness; you entertain with the utmost generosity; you joke with the sharpest wit; you judge with the strictest fairness; you advise with the purest sincerity; you are the slowest to anger and the quickest to forgive; you return affection with the deepest loyalty. All these patterns of living I hold up for my son Apollinaris to follow, starting now in his youth. If he follows them, I rejoice; at the very least, I urge him to. In teaching and shaping him — if, with Christ's help, my plans succeed — I am overjoyed to borrow my best model for living from your character. Farewell.

EPISTULA XI Sidonius Potentino suo salutem. 1. Multum te amamus; et quidem huiusce dilectionis non est erroneus aut fortuitus affectus. namque ut sodalis tibi devinctior fierem, iudicavi. est enim consuetudinis meae, ut eligam ante, post diligam. quaenam, inquis, in me tibi probanda placuere? 2. dicam libenter et breviter, quorum unum fieri gratia, alterum charta conpellit. veneror in actionibus tuis, quod multa bono cuique imitabilia geris. colis ut qui sollertissime; aedificas ut qui dispositissime; venaris ut qui efficacissime; pascis ut qui exactissime; iocaris ut qui facetissime; iudicas ut qui aequissime; suades ut qui sincerissime; commoveris ut qui tardissime; placaris ut qui celerrime; redamas ut qui fidelissime. 3. haec omnia exempla vivendi iam hinc ab annis puberibus meus Apollinaris si sequitur, gaudeo; certe ut sequatur, admoneo. in quo docendo instituendoque, modo sub ope Christi disposita succedant, plurimum laetor maximam me formulam vitae de moribus tuis mutuaturum. vale.