Letter 3053: I could have borne your silence patiently, knowing your habits, had not the fear of illness made me anxious.
Possem silentinm tuum ferre patienter morem tuum cogitans, nisi me aegritndinis,
qua laboras, dudum nuntius perculisset. metuo igitur, ne soUicita magis quam con-
sueta cessatio sermonis tui munus impediat, atque ideo qnaeso, ut curas meas fratemo
amore susceptas scriptis aut mandatis digneris absolvere. nam cum sim cnpidus lit-
terarum , in secundis tamen pono solaciis , nt animus meus pro te anxius , si nondum 20
epistulis, saltem nnntiis erigatur.
LVn ante a. 394.
AD RICOMEREM.
Vltro in me arguo culpam silentii, si qnando usum officii mei qnaelibet dieram
intervalla remorantur. nulla enim purgatio subpetit io, cum mnltum famiUaritatis 25
publico actui frcquenter interseras. sed idem, qui peccatum vito desidiae, aeque in scri-
bendo longns esse desino. nam licet sciam, animum tuum nequaquam obnoxium esse
fastidio, adverto tamen pro condicione curamm tuarum ponendum verbis modum : quia
ut desidenti prolixitas grata est, ita displicere non poterit brevitas occupato.
LVm a. 382. 30
AD RICOMEREM.
Amo et snspicio virtutes tnas; sed accidit, quod tibi etiam amicns invideam.
Flaviano meo aliquamdiu solus frueris. accipe planius, quid velim dicere: ad te
quid F^m,y quid P 1 m. 12 curae WingendofT^
tu ciiltum et q. 8. 28 aduero P 1 m. conditione P 1 m. 29 desidenti] ego^ desideranti PP
liomae optimum fuit. accipe planius, quid uelim dicere: Flauiano meo aliquamdiu solus fruerls
LIBEB III. 89
migravit, quidquid Romae optimum fuit. et vobis quidem societas vestra dabit mn- PF
tuum gaudium: mihi quid Bolacii erit? quem et ille deseruit, et tu minus desiderabis,
quia nnus tibi pro utroque sufGciet.
LVmi a. 385.
Related Letters
I have exchanged the leisure of home for a pleasant journey abroad, traveling at the command of our lord Valentinian.
I testify that my servant Firmus has completed his military service with honor.
To the same. (362)
Since a long exchange between us had fallen quiet, I could no longer put off the customary greeting.
Evangelus had sent Jerome an anonymous treatise in which Melchisedek was identified with the Holy Ghost, and had asked him what he thought of the theory. Jerome in his reply repudiates the idea as absurd and insists that Melchisedek was a real man, possibly, as the Jews said, Shem the eldest son of Noah. The date of the letter is 398 A.D.