Letter 8018: Ad eundem salutatoria

Venantius FortunatusUnknown|c. 592 AD|Venantius Fortunatus
conversionfriendshipillnessproperty economics

Another Greeting to Gregory

If my tongue were to flow like the flood of a torrent — or be swept away by the whirling of rapids — even so, for your supreme praises in particular, Gregory, while I could not fill them with a river, I would be a mere drop. Not even the Muse of generous Vergil [the great Roman poet, 70-19 BC] could equal you as a father.

Good man, what greatness you carry — who can say it in words?

With this brevity, holy one, I commend to you your servant in his submission — me, Fortunatus: may it be forgiven, I pray.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

XVIII
Ad eundem salutatoria
Gurgitis in morem si lingua fluenta rigaret,
turbine torrentis vel raperetur aquis,
ad tua praecipue praeconia summa, Gregori,
dum non explerem flumine, gutta forem.
munificumque patrem aequaret nec musa Maronis:
fers, bone, quanta mihi quis valet ore loqui?
hac brevitate, sacer, famulum commendo subactum
me Fortunatum: sit veniale, precor.

Revision history

  1. 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import

    Initial corpus import from Unspecified import source.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://data.mgh.de/openmgh/bsb00000790.zip

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