Letter 1099: Let unknown men be praised so that the light of testimony may illuminate merits hidden in obscurity.
Let unknown men be praised so that the light of testimony may illuminate merits hidden in obscurity. But in the present case, I'd better spare myself the effort — it would be pointless to vouch for my friend Palladius, a man already recognized by all good judges for his eloquence and learning.
Besides, I need to be careful: praise that falls short of such a man neither does justice to him nor reflects well on me. So I'll step back from that role. I want you to be convinced of just one thing: Palladius's eloquence is so great that we should mourn his absence from Rome, and his personal charm so winning that we should be glad wherever he's summoned. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
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.
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
On "heap burning coals on his head" [Romans 12:20]: repaying evil with good is not merely a clever strategy for...
1. The titles prefixed to this letter I need not defend or explain at any length to you, though they may give offense to the vain prejudices of ignorant men. For I rightly address you as lord, seeing that we are both seeking to deliver each other from error, although to some it may seem uncertain which of us is in error before the matter has bee...
I know it speaks to our friendship that I involve you in my difficulties.
Theophilus informs Jerome that he has expelled the Origenists from the monasteries of Nitria, and urges him to show his zeal for the faith by writing against the prevalent heresy. The date of the letter is 400 A.D. Theophilus, bishop, to the well-beloved and most loving brother, the presbyter Jerome.
I wrote yesterday through my own man, struck with fear after you reported the bitter news about my daughter's health.