Letter 1054: Good gods, how nothing is safe or certain for us mortals!
Good gods, how nothing is safe or certain for us mortals! You'd gone to Baiae to rest and recover. What evil eye cursed your planned retreat?
So Paulina — our shared concern — had reached a dangerous point. Or is your fear for her so great that every minor ailment looks like mortal danger?
Whatever the truth, I can easily imagine the ordeal of sleepless nights and anxious days you've endured. This is our lot as mortals: we're more often visited by trouble than by pleasure. Joys are fleeting, and the enjoyment of anything good is as brief as it is shallow.
But let's leave that kind of talk to the philosophers. For now, let me encourage brighter spirits: since the peace of the gods has restored our dear Paulina's health to solid ground. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Dii boni, qnam nihil bomini tntnm atque exploratnm est! certe levandi animi
cansa Baias concesseratis. qnis ocnlns fascinavit destinatam qnietem? Panlina ergo 20
cnra commnnis extremnm salutis accesserat; an vester pro illa tantus est metns, nt
omne eins incommodum periculi instar habeatur? qnidquid bomm est, spectare animo
licet, qnas aemmnas diemm, quas noctinm vigilias dnxeritis. sic nati snmns, nt
saepins adversa fungamnr. fuginnt voluptates et bonae cninsqne rei tam brevis nsns
qnam levis sensns est. vemm baec philosophomm dispntationibns relinqnantnr. nnnc 25
babitnm laetiorem mentibns snadeamns. qnando Panlinae nostrae valetndinem rarsns
locavit in solido pax deomm. vale.
rides etj ITr, radi sed V, risidet ^, ride F rideas] ITJypF, ridetas V affaisti JTT, om, F
Ofn. V
b om. VF 6 impulit F 7 reiidere F 8 ora totnm] Scioppiuty oratorium V, oratorem F
annibalem VF 9 illecebra F 10 retentum F adnenarum] F, aduentarnm ITV(r) lutos ITV,
lucos F arbor om. F euaserat F suadia V tricinium] Latinut LaiiniuSy triclinium VFF^
nulUus VF
uestrae (IT)
XXXXVim (XXXXm) ante a. 385.
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
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