Letter 1041: I interrupt your busy schedule with my steady stream of letters — partly because I enjoy this kind of exchange...
I interrupt your busy schedule with my steady stream of letters — partly because I enjoy this kind of exchange myself, and partly because I believe it brings some comfort during your time away from home.
Your letters in return I look forward to but don't demand. It would be wrong to press hard for something you merely hope for, lest what should be freely given appear forced.
On another matter: I'm delighted that my friend Innocentius won your friendship even before I could write on his behalf — it makes recommending him much easier, since you already know and approve of him. So I ask just one thing: let a man who already stands on his own merit be loved all the more generously for the sake of my endorsement. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Interpello occupationes tuas adsiduitate colloqnii. nam et ipse huiusmodi pascor
ift officio , et peregrinationem tuam solaciis talibus credo recreari. tuas autem vicissim
litteras expecto non exigo. iniurium quippe est magnopere flagitare, qnod speres, ne
qnod est voluntarium, videatur extortum. sane fratri meo Innocentio gratulor amici-
tias tnas, prinsquam scriberem, contigisse, qnia facilior mihi esse coepit eius commen-
datio, qnem probasti, quam fuisset incogniti. itaque hoc unum beneficii loco postnlo,
30 ut qni sni commendatione iam nititnr, testimonii nostri gratia cumulatius diligatur. vale.
10 Cic. pro Bo8C. Am. 13, 37.
2 Symmachiu Ausonio] (77), om. FF 3 tocitnm totienB F 4 instigare] 77, instare VF{r)
teria F decessio LaiinuM Laiiniui 7 aeqoe bene om, F 9 negglegentius V marcet] 77F,
mulcet Vr0 10 teraa] V, teneas F liuet] 77, liquet F, nitet V me legisse F saepe] F,
etiam F, etiam saepe (77) 11 seuerus F 12 aestimabis] (77), estlmaui VF sed om. (77)
tegere] haec tegere F 13 uti in F animositatis F expeto] Sute^ expecto VF
16 om. VM 17 occasionem parui 77 18 retuli] Af(77), reppuU V 19 te po9i salutationis
eoUoe. VM
3*
n
20 SYMBLA.CHI EPISTVLAE
XXXVII (XXXI) a. 370—379.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from Seeck edition OCR from Internet Archive.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
Related Letters
To a Friend.
On those who unworthy aspirations touch on ordination as a bishop.
...since he earnestly requested it, I gladly lent my effort to his desire, knowing that among those who love me,...
All who are attached to the rose, as might be expected in the case of lovers of the beautiful, are not displeased even at the thorns from out of which the flower blows. I have even heard it said about roses by some one, perhaps in jest, or, it may be, even in earnest, that nature has furnished the bloom with those delicate thorns, like stings of...
You have lived uprightly, acquired your wealth justly, and are slandered openly.