Letter 1094: Although my affection for you always keeps me from being stingy with letters, right now I'm writing more eagerly...

Although my affection for you always keeps me from being stingy with letters, right now I'm writing more eagerly than usual, for several reasons. First, our friend Marius's departure shouldn't go without a kind of travel offering. Second, I thought my letter would carry a bit more weight if it reached you through someone you deeply respect. It often happens that a charming messenger enhances even a modest gift. But there's another reason my enthusiasm has kindled: I thought I should congratulate you on the achievements of such a man, who returns from his suburban province carrying as much public affection as he left behind in the way of example. I won't flatter dishonestly — I don't know the art of ingratiating myself. In him runs a brotherly strain, and this is precisely why his departure is so hard to bear: in him, it seemed, we enjoyed two friends at once. I hesitate to extend my testimonial further, lest I seem to have served his glory more than his modesty — for an honest soul has an unguarded face. Read the rest from the little I've ventured to say; it was not right to put everything in writing here, but writing it through another will not trouble me.

Etsi amore convemor, ne sim circa te avaras of&cii, nnnc tamen libentius quam saepe alias seribendi munus insisto; primo quod abitio fratris nostri Marii quodam s yiatico carere non debuit, dehinc quod litteras meas putavi plusculum commendationis habituraS; si tibi per eum, quem sancte atque efBicte diligis, redderentur. fit enim plerumque, ut levia rerum portator festivus exomet. alia quoque de causa studii mei 2 ardor incanduit, quod tecum super talis viri laude gratulandum putavi, qui e provin- cia suburbana tantum reportat publici desiderii, quantum reliquit exempli. non dicam 10 dolo utpote Bubpalpandi nescius: yiget in eo vena fratema, eoque magis factum est, ut discessum eius inpatienter feramus, qui in uno frui videbamur ambobus. vereor protelare testimonium meum, ne magis laudi eius obsecutus iudicer quam pudori ; nam quomm mens honesta est, eorum inbecilla frons est. tu conice plura de paucis, quae nnnc insinuare non decuit, sed per alium scribere non pigebit. 15 LXXXXI (LXXXV).