Letter 8016: ...you imitate the light infantry and keep your words lean.
...you imitate the light infantry and keep your words lean. What's a garrulous old man supposed to do when a young man sets the limit on how much I can say? Old age drags us into the vice of wordiness, but your example provides a counterweight. I'll try to rein myself in -- though you should know that when feelings run deep, the pen tends to run long.
Still, I won't push back against your preference. If brevity is what you want, brevity is what you'll get -- on the condition that you make up in frequency what you subtract in length. A man who writes often has already said everything that matters. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
5 debiu] egOy de boiu (//), sed boua {1) 6 quoUnnis] ego, quodam (//)
is r, diligentius his (//) 21 posset (P)
post gratias ago i^>Uoc. F^ 27 potesUtem] //, maiesUtem F».^, saniUtem F» tuo] F, tibi Iir
prosperumque Fl, prosperorumque F^ 28 uale om. F^
31 solebas Latiniw foH, postquam autem te 32 et] F^ om, (//)
LIBER Vm. 229
miles rorarios aemularis. quid faciam senex garrulas, coi mcDSura sermonis a iu- 11
vene praescribitur? trahit nos vitium senile verbositas, sed occurrit exemplum, et
fastidia aurium tuarum de stili brevitate coniecto. non enim violanda est interim
mihi paginae tuae formula. expectabo tamen, an copiam de me exigas, si plura re-
5 scripseris.
xxxxvmi (xxxxvm) .
AD VITALEM. F
Diu sanitati pariter ac venustati litterarum tuarum mediocris eloquii conscius re-
spondere dubitavi, sed religio rupit timorem. malui enim tibi stilo quam superbia
10 displicere. quidquid igitur hoc est, quod tenet pagina, quaeso, ut boni consulas te-
que submittas ad mediocritatem scriptorum meorum, ne retundatur officium meum,
dum desperatur imitatio. vale.
L (xxxxvmi).
AD lOVIVM. n
15 lamdudum datis ad te litteris mutua scripta non merui, et tamen propositum
meum servans honorificentiam scriptionis instauro. credo enim, quod negatam primo
officio vicem vel nunc impetrare possit iteratio.
LI (L).
AD MAXIMIUANVM. F
20 Adsiduitatem scriptorum meorum tibi esse fastidio prope adserit raritas tua; es
enim praeter solitum parcus eloquii. sed tueor constantiam diligentiae nec a propo-
situ argumentatione deducor. erit potestas tua hunc animi mei habitum vel augere
silentio vel litteris amovere. vale.
LH (LI).
25 Quatenus me absentia tua contristet, intellegis; nam ideo necessitatem 17
tibi a filio meo scribis iniunctam, ut publici negotii excusatione purgeris. alterum
igitur religioni tuae ex utroque faciendum est, ut aut cervorum aut aprorum copiam
mittas aut in conspectum amici celerius revertaris. nulla enim satisfactio iusta iam
suppetit, si et illi venatum et mihi solacium denegaris.
1 miles om, F ror&rios] /*, mrarius [II) 2 uerbositas] lureUu, ubosiUs 27 3 euim] (27),
forl. ergo aui igitur 4 si plura rescribserim F^ cui rare scripseris (27)
noD Fi retundatur F2 12 desperatur] (27), sperattr F uale om. F3
posita (27) 22 argumentationem F^ animum F3 mei babitum uel om. F3 23 ad-
monere F3 uale om, F3
25 ideo necessitatem [11)^ supple: ferarum conquirendarum vel ahniU quid 27 tuae] F, meae (/7)
et aprorum Sdoppius 28 iusta iam] egOj iustitia (27) r 29 suppetit] F, supplebit (27)
230 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE
Lm (LII).
n LEPORIO.
Debitum tibi rependo sermonem; dndum enim parem mihi scriptorom tnoram
honorificentiam communis amicns exbibuit. cuius verecundia et honestate diligenter
inspecta dignum esse, quem diligas, adprobavi. &
Lira (Lin) .
F MARCIANO.
Seras tibi videri arbitror litteras meas; sed si itineris mei dies numeras, ratio
moram dilud;. intervenit praeterea ex humore solito dolor corporis officiorum fami-
liarium sequestrator. nunc quia labori et valetudini quies reddita est, salutationis lo
verba non difl^ero pretium laturus obsequii de remuneratione responsi. vale.
LV (Lmi) .
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
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