Letter 2020: I come to the aid of my conscience, which will not allow me to remain indebted to the services of friends.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 375 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
friendshipillnessproperty economics

I come to the aid of my conscience, which will not allow me to remain indebted to the services of friends. My brothers Romanus and Magnillus, distinguished men, bound me to them long ago by the merits of their devotion. Though they do not demand the rewards that lesser fortune usually expects, they press their claims on my conscience through the sheer decency of their character. I would be lying if I said their goodness had not made me eager to serve them. Receive them with the warmth they deserve. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Succurro fidci, qnae officiis amicomm debitorem me diutins esse non patitnr.
fVatres mei Romanus atque Magnillus clarissimi yiri iamdudum me religionis meritis
nexuemnt, et quamvis praemia non reposcant, quae solet minor expectare fortnna,
aorius tamen animum meum fsaepius honestate conveninnt. mentiar, si mihi ad

ationt P^ •(toitioni V, effeotione M

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di» P l m. V 24 ubl] tibi V uao V 25 iuuenem V 1 m,, que add. S m. demittere P 1 m, V

quo] P^ qnod VMPP 26 coram] P{r)y cnram V{nP}y cura est de Af, koe q%ioq%te toeo Ummam UUere

$H$pitot^ pum espUvttim koe modo: quo tibi in caatris cor anxium de doobosT haee el q, $. deligeiii V

30 om. VM 34 aaepiusj PVM, fbrU obaequUT

LIBER n. 49

praestandnm deesse tempns allegem, qnia potentia mea de tai honoris viribus aesti- PVM
matnr. fac oro, nt effectn honoris sui sentiant, pro concordia, quae mihi tecum est,
quidquid defertur uni, ab utroque deberi.

XXI ante a. 395.

Revision history

  1. 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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