Letter 2056: In hopes of good health, we have chosen a place near the sea, but the winds are still fighting against us and we...
In hope of good health we have chosen a place near the sea, but we are not yet enjoying salubrious breezes, since the winds blow against us. For this reason the lady's return to health is rather slow; but if a better day adds anything to her recovery, I shall not delay sending the welcome report about her. As you have been so good as to suggest, a restless and unscrupulous adviser makes sport of the city's business. For at another's peril he attempts a thing both ineffectual and bound to harm the supply, so that, when the fear of low prices [or: of dearth] has driven the community into straits, greedy selling may then increase the profit of those strong in resources. Would you suppose these to be men [...] who do more harm to friends by their counsel than they could have done injury to enemies through hatred? But let us, who have long ago discharged our public duty, keep silent about the affairs of others. May the gods provide better things! For it is not fitting to rejoice if any praise should come to me from another's error. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Spe bonae valetudinis mari vicina delegimus, sed necdum auras salubres ventis
30 obluctantibus experimur. hincpigrior est matronae ad sanitatem recursus; cui si quid
refectionis dies melior adiecerit, optatiim de ea indicium non morabor. urbanis ne-
gotiis, ut insinuare dignatus es, inquies monitor securus inludit. alieno enim periculo 2
in efiicax et copiae nocitura tempfatur, ut cum vilitatis metus in angustias coegerit
civitatem, tunc opum validis quaestum augeat avara venditio. hoscinc homines arbitreris,
deliberatione non 0 cessat ergo patrom deliberatio, uum uocemur Afommien, cessante ergo patruni deli-
beratione uacamus Suse
IS curauimus P 1 m., curat umus (IV>) 19 luxoriae P 1 m,
21 symmacus P 24 quia Suse, tabeliari uitio Mommsen
8»
60 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
P qu]* plus amicis consilio nocent, quam inimicis odio obesse potuissent? sed nos publico
dudum opere perfuncti, aliena sileamus. dii meliora procurent! neque enim gaudere
dignum est^ si qua mihi laus ex alterius errore proveniat. vale.
LVI ante a. 395.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
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