Letter 4001: I admit I've been silent for a long time, waiting for a letter from you to give me the confidence to write.

I admit that I have long kept silent, so that your own speaking might furnish me the confidence to write. But when I perceived that I was not yet being prompted by any inducement of courtesy, I burst out first into words of greeting, asking most earnestly that you deign to be an imitator of this example. [ca. 382-383?] My son Flavianus has more than enough, in his own and his paternal recommendations, to earn the goodwill of good men; but it is in the interest of the affection that I truly owe to my own pledge [i.e. my son] that, while I observe nothing to be lacking to his merits, I should not omit the duty of a parent. Therefore I do what is superfluous, and I add a heap upon things already complete; yet I believe that this will avail much toward joining Flavianus to your excellence, because you understand that what you would have conferred on him by your judgment alone is to be reckoned to me as a kindness. The distinguished Rufinus [vir spectabilis: a senatorial rank], who is to be counted among the choicest portion of our order, when he was setting out to render you the homage due to you, believed that he was wronging me unless he undertook my errands too. Therefore he carries from me the greeting that is to be delivered, which I would deliver to you often, if it were easy to find men like him. The exchange of words is therefore rare, because such an occasion is rare. About the man himself we say nothing. For, conscious of his own merit, he shuns suspicions of favoritism, and, coming under your scrutiny, he does not wish to owe the recommendation of himself to a witness rather than to a judge. [Book VII, A.D. 399.]

Diu siluisse me fateor, ut mihi fiduciam scribendi tuus sermo praestaret. sed cum perspicerem, necdum me ullo invitamento officii provocari, prior in verba saluta- tionis erupi plurimum rogans, ut exempli istius imitator esse digneris. n a. 382—383? »o P CS. CS. Abundat Flavianus filius meus ad promerendam conciliationem bonorum suis pater- nisque suflfragiis, sed interest amoris, quem vere pignori meo debeo, ne, dum meritis iilius nihil deesse contemplor, officium parentis omittam. facio igitur, quod redundet, et cumulum inpono perfectis; sed hoc ad coniungendum Flaviano meo praestantiae is tuae animum multum credo valiturum, quia mihi pro beneficio intellegis inpntandum, quod illi solo iudicio detulisses. m. cs. cs. Vir spectabilis Rufinus et in ordinis nostri lectissima parte censendus, cum in 20 obsequia debita tibi pergeret, invidere se mihi credidit, nisi nostra susciperet. igitur a me reddendam defert salutationem, quam tibi saepe deferrem, si esset facile similes invenire. rarus igitur est sermo, quia rara est talis occasio. de ipso nihil dicimus. meriti enim proprii conscius suspiciones gratiae fugit, et in examen tuum veniens non vult sui commendationem testi magis debere quam iudici. 25 im (VII) a. 399.