Letter 5057: ...so that I might discharge my obligation to you according to the ancient custom.
...so that I might discharge my obligation to you according to the ancient custom. For this practice has grown from an old institution, and I would not wish to be found wanting in the observance of traditions that our ancestors held sacred. Accept this courtesy as it is intended -- not as mere formality but as a renewal of the bonds that connect our time to theirs.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
25 ut te observantia prisci moris absolverem. nam vetere instituto hic usus increbruit,
ut ingressi iter praelibent primitias scriptionis. quare familiaris officii invitatus au-
spicio fratemam religionem, quam mihi semper mente exhibes, adsiduo sermone testare.
LXXmi (LXXII) a. 387?
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
One of Jerome's finest letters, written to console his old friend, Heliodorus, now Bp. of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian who had died of fever a short time previously. Jerome tries to soothe his friend's grief (1) by contrasting pagan despair or resignation with Christian hope, (2) by an eulogy of the departed both as man and presb...
The effort I've been putting into writing speeches, you've rewarded with the prize of praise.
What happened to your promises?
I did not receive Spectatus as someone who had wronged me — for I would write nothing about you that I would wish to...
Everything goes according to my wishes when I am granted the knowledge of your good health.