Letter 8012: You can judge from the quality of your own heart how tightly I hold you and with what devotion I embrace you.

Ennodius to Florus. By what bond I hold you, with what devotion I embrace you, you can gather from the quality of your own spirit. For one scarcely happens to be loved unless by those whom it is established that one loves sincerely. The vigor of our souls and their pursuits come together with one another. It opens itself by silent utterances; and therefore, if you are disposed to render me a return in kind, press upon our lord, so that he may order that suburban estate to be purchased, the price being given by me if he deigns to accept it, so that, while I shall be in Liguria, I may happily possess it, and that after my death he himself and his own people may possess it. To me, however, next after God, he himself seems to confer freedom and substance, if I shall have obtained this favor through him. But as you wish that your daughter may live, as you wish to keep from her such sons as you desire, as you wish that God may make your soul to be made equal to His holy ones and that your brother may live, so do you press humbly and importunately, until you bring my petition to its accomplishment. Let him think of God, let him think of my needs, since there is nothing greater that his power, that his affection toward me, could bestow.

XII. ENNODIVS FLORO. Qua te deuinctione teneam, qua diligentia conplectar, ex animi tui potes qualitate colligere. uix enim amari continget nisi quos sinceriter amare constiterit. congreditur inter se constiterit uigor animarum et studia sua. mutis sibi pandit affatibus, et ideo si uicissitudinem mihi reddere disponis, insiste domno, ut suburbanum illud, dato si dignatur a me pretio, comparari iubeat, quod. dum in Liguria fuero, feliciter 1 consolatum L ornata B actorem T* ingeneortl L\' 2 eligantiam BL eror B 3 delitifccere BV 4 habaistis T iussus L tibi uisus su V in ras . 5 alloquio fort . 9 blandimenta L legis dedero B 10 uiorui L, uxoris Pb deputate T* 12 debis B 16* credere te b 14 audiam T 15 non∗∗∗ L, hunc T me L s. I . 16 de] dede B XII. 20 diuinctione B 21 enima V in ras . contiget B 22 constitrit B 24 eflfctibus B ideo si B; ideo LPTV, iam b uicessitudinem B 25 domino Pb si dignatur dato P\'b //// a B habeam et post obitum meum ipse suique possideant. mihi tamen post deum libertatem substantiam uidetur ipse conferre, si hoc beneficii per ipsum fuero consecutus. sed sic filia tua uiuat, sic de illa quales optas filios teneas, sic deus animam tuam sanctos suos faciat coaequari et frater tuus uiuat, ut insistas suppliciter inportune, quatenus ad effectum petitionem meam perducas. cogitet deum, cogitet necessitates meas, quia nihil est quod potentia ipsius, quod affectus circa me maius possit praestare.