Letter 5074: Returned to Rome after completing my embassy, I found your letters waiting -- letters in which you commend your...
Having returned to Rome after the duty of my legation, I received your letter in which you promise abundant supplies of grain for our common fatherland. And so, moved by a double joy, I rejoice both as a citizen in the public security and as a brother in the glory of your deed, and I urge you on to this endeavor with devout encouragement, although a good will that springs from one's own nature needs no goading with spurs. By reading your letter aloud I relieved the anxiety of our fellow citizens, for so praiseworthy and certain a promise ought not to be kept silent. It remains for a favorable outcome to crown the purpose of your devotion, and for fitting honor to reward you hereafter for so great a service to your fatherland. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Romam regressus post legationis officium sumpsi litteras tuas^ quibus patriae com-
muni largas rei annonariae copias polliceris. itaque gemino adfectus gaudio et quasi
civis publica securitate et facti tui gloria quasi frater exulto, teque ad hoc studium
i& religiosa exhortatione destimulo, licet bona voluntas, quae ex ingenio venit, non sit
agitanda calcaribus. ego lectione sermonis tui civium nostrorum curam levavi; neque
enim sileri debuit tam laudabilis et certa promissio. superest, ut proposito religionis
tuae melior adspiret eventus et tibi in posterum conpetens decus pro tanto in patriam
labore respondeat. vale.
20 LXXXXV (LXXXXIII) a. 402.
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
With this first letter, I'm inviting your confidence.
We all greatly marvel at the mystery of the Incarnation — and rightly so.
Public executioners commit no crime, for they are the servants of the laws: nor is the sword unlawful with which we punish criminals. But nevertheless, the public executioner is not a laudable character, nor is the death-bearing sword received joyfully. Just so neither can I endure to become hated by confirming the divorce by my hand and tongue.
No, my dear Pylaemenes — I call the god who presides over our friendship to witness — I never dreamed of ridiculing...
1. In reading the letter of your Excellency, in which you have overthrown the worship of idols and the ritual of their temples, I seemed to myself to hear the voice of a philosopher, not of such a philosopher as the academician of whom they say, that having neither new doctrine to propound nor earlier statements of his own to defend, he was won...