Letter 3027: I do not know whether Your Greatness is pleased or displeased with me, and the uncertainty is worse than either outcome.

27. Ennodius to Avienus. I do not know whether frequent conversations are pleasing to your greatness; yet I for my part will always render what I expect from those who love. I allow that others have a different intention: I must live according to my own custom, so that the fullness of love may be unlocked by the key of speech; in my affection I do not endure a decaying silence to creep in while practice flees away. Now, if there is in your eminence an equal care, let it be shown by the constancy of conversation, let it stand open in the frequency of letters; but if, preoccupied thus far with other pursuits, you yield to my opinion only at the command of diligence, then as much as you shall have lowered of your own right, so much shall you possess of my services. Therefore farewell, my lord, and receive a small gift, valued not by its own cheapness but by the price set upon it by the one who sends it. Farewell.

XXVII. AVIENO ENNODIVS. Nescio utrum magnitudini uestrae grata sint crebra conloquia: ego tamen semper quod expecto ab amantibus exhibebo. patior aliis aliud esse propositum: mihi meo uiuendum est more, ut amoris plenitudo reseretur claue sermonis: ego in affectione cariosam subrepere taciturnitatem usu fugiente non perfero. nunc si culmini tuo par cura est, monstretur assiduitate conloquii, patescat frequentia litterarum: sin aliis hactenus praeoccupatus studiis in meam modo concesseris diligentia imperante sententiam, quantum de tuo iure submiseris, tantum de meis obsequiis possidebis. ergo uale, domine, et munusculum suscipe non uilitate sui sed taxatum pretio destinantis. uale.