Letter 1099: Let unknown men be praised so that the light of testimony may illuminate merits hidden in obscurity.
Laudentur incogniti, ut eorum merita in occulto sita testimonii splendor inradiet;
mihi inpraesentiarum supersedendum est huiusmodi scriptione, ne incepti frustra sim,
si fratrem meum Palladium spectatum bonis omnibus facundiae atque eruditionis ad-
stipuler.^ dehinc cauto opus est, ne inpar tanto viro praedicatio neque eum, cui de-
fertur, aequiperet et meam operam devenustet. quiesco igitur has partes et hoc unum 15
persuasum tibi volo, mereri facundiam Palladii, ut doleamus, quod urbi negatus est,
mereri amabilitatem eius, ut quod accitus est^gaudeamus.
LXXXXV (LXXXVmi) a. 379.
Related Letters
I've been deeply impatient with your silence — the kind of complaint that comes naturally to those who care.
If you hold the virtue of philosophy in esteem, you will honor it not only in the living but also in the dead.
Ambrose, Bishop, to the Emperor Theodosius.
Could this have been hoped or expected by us, that now by our brother Severus we should have to claim the answer which your love has not yet written to us, so long and so impatiently desiring your reply? Why have we been doomed through two summers (and these in the parched land of Africa) to bear this thirst? What more can I say?
I don't mind writing to Your Excellency often, even though I've received nothing in return.