Letter 4011: I've received your letter, and with it the pleasant news that you and your family are well.
I hope, as I have heard reported, that you will be coming to the neighborhood. Whether I have learned the truth remains to be seen. In the meantime, I have pressed upon our brother Minervius two short speeches of mine, either to hand to you in person or to send on to Rome through his reliable care. I should be sparing in this letter, for the love that craves more will be satisfied by what you are about to read. I do warn you, however, not to let the title of one of the speeches change your opinion of me. For the rejected censorship weighs against me at first glance from the argument alone; but once you have read what I said, you will come back into agreement with my position. The authority of our entire order upheld this provision -- "which was cut away in the storm" -- lest under a fine-sounding name the door be opened to those accustomed to seeking unchecked power. You will find many arguments for both expediency and honor in the body of the speech itself. My care awaits your judgment on both of my works.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Spero te, ut fando didici, ad vicina venturum. fors fuat, an vera conpererim. 15
ego tamen vel tradendas coram tibi a fratre nostro Minervio duas oratiunculas meas
vel mittendas in patriam fidelitati eius ingessi. parcus esse in hac epistula debeo;
2 illis enim, quae legenda suscipies, amor avarus explebitur. commoneo tamen, ne
orationis unius titulo mutetur de me existimatio tua. nam repudiata censura gravat
nos principio sola argumenti inspectione , sed ubi dicta legeris , cum sententia mea 20
in gratiam reverteris. hanc partem: ^qnae tempestate resecata est' totius ordinis
nostri antetulit auctoritas, ne sub specioso nomine fores inpotentiae ambire solitis
panderentur. plures utilitatis et honestatis adsertiones in ipso corpore orationis invenies.
de utroque opere meo iudicium tuum cura nostra desiderat.
XXX a. 396—397. 25
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
1. The gifts of the Lord are ever great and many; in greatness beyond measure, in number incalculable. To those who are not insensible of His mercy one of the greatest of these gifts is that of which I am now availing myself, the opportunity allowed us, far apart in place though we be, of addressing one another by letter.
The public interest is well served by your appointment to greater responsibilities.
When did you ever really leave me, that I should need to write?
1. So far from being impatient at the length of your letter, I assure you I thought it even short, from the pleasure it gave me when reading it. For is there anything more pleasing than the idea of peace?
Ancient custom dictates that those who travel abroad should write home first, but affection overrides protocol and...