Marcus Cornelius Fronto→Marcus Aurelius|c. 143 AD|Marcus Cornelius Fronto|From Rome (career hub)|To Rome (career hub)|AI-assisted
Fronto to his own Caesar.
1. You, Caesar, love this Fronto of yours without end, so much so that, eloquent man though you are, words scarcely suffice for you to pour out your love and to declare your goodwill. What, I beg you, can be more fortunate, what can be more blessed than I alone, to whom you send such ardent letters? Indeed, what is more, you wish (and this is a lover's own habit) to run to me, even to fly.
2. My Lady, your mother, is sometimes accustomed to say to me, by way of jest, that she envies me for being so greatly cherished by you. What if she were to read these letters of yours, in which you even summon the gods with vows and pray to them for my health? I am quite carried away now -- bravo! -- and I no longer grieve at anything, nor do I bear anything with distress: I am vigorous, I am well, I exult; I will come wherever you wish, I will run wherever you wish. Believe me, I was so flooded with joy that I could not write back to you on the spot; but the very letter which I had already written in reply to your earlier message, that I did send off to you. The next courier, however, I held back, so that I might recover my senses from my joy.
3. And look -- the night has passed, this is now the second day, which is already nearly spent, and still I cannot discover what to write back to you, or how. For what could I propose to myself that is more delightful, more winning, more loving than what you have written? From which I take joy in the fact that you render me ungrateful and unequal to returning the favor; since, as the matter stands, you cherish me so much that I could scarcely love you more.
4. Therefore, that I may find some subject for a longer letter: for what merit, I ask you, do you love me so? What great good has this Fronto done, that you should cherish him so greatly? Did he devote his own life on behalf of you or your parents? Did he offer himself as a substitute victim for your dangers? Did he govern some province faithfully? Did he command an army? None of these things. He does not even perform those daily courtesies around you beyond what others do -- indeed, as an attendant he is rather an infrequent one. For he neither comes regularly to your house at daybreak, nor pays his respects daily, nor escorts you everywhere, nor always waits upon you. See to it, then, that if anyone should ask why you love Fronto, you have ready at hand an answer you can easily give.
5. But I, for my part, want nothing more than that there should exist no reason at all for your love toward me. Nor does that seem to me to be love at all which arises from reason and is bound together by just and fixed causes. The love I understand is the kind that is by chance, and free, and enslaved to no causes -- conceived by impulse rather than by reason -- which grows warm not from services, like logs laid ready, but from vapors that rise of their own accord. I prefer the warm grottoes of Baiae [the famous hot springs near Naples] to those little furnaces of the baths, in which the fire is kindled with expense and smoke and is quickly extinguished. But those native vapors are pure and perpetual, as welcome as they are free of charge. In exactly the same way, those friendships that grow warm by services sometimes have their smoke and their tears, and the moment you let up, they go out; but a love that comes by chance is both lasting and delightful.
6. What of the fact that a friendship procured by merits neither grows nor strengthens in the way that sudden, spontaneous love does? Just as the little trees in orchards and gardens, cultivated and watered by hand, do not grow as well as the oak on the mountains, and the fir and the alder and the cedar and the spruce, which, springing up of their own accord, set without plan and without order, are reared by no labors or services of cultivators, but by the winds and the rains.
7. So that love of yours, then, untended and sprung up without reason, will, I hope, go on to grow tall along with the cedars and the oaks; whereas, if it were cultivated by a calculation of services, it would grow no higher than the myrtles and laurels, which have scent enough but too little strength. And in sum, by however much fortune surpasses reason, by so much does love that comes by chance stand before dutiful love.
8. And who does not know that reason is a word for human deliberation, while Fortune is a goddess, and the chief of goddesses -- that temples, fanes, and shrines have everywhere been dedicated to Fortune, but that to Reason no image and no altar has ever been consecrated anywhere? I am not mistaken, then, in preferring that your love toward me should be begotten by fortune rather than by reason.
9. Nor indeed does reason ever match fortune, whether in majesty, or in usefulness, or in dignity. For you will neither compare ramparts constructed by hand and reason to mountains, nor aqueducts to rivers, nor cisterns to springs. Then too, the reason behind our deliberations is called prudence, while the impulse of seers is named divination. And no one would sooner trust the counsels of the most prudent woman than the prophecies of the Sibyl. To what end does all this tend? That I am right to prefer to be cherished by impulse and by chance rather than by reason and my own merit.
10. For which cause, even if there is some just reason for your love toward me, I beg you, Caesar, let us diligently take pains that it be unknown and lie hidden. Let people wonder, debate, dispute, conjecture, inquire after the origin of our love, as they do after the source of the Nile.
11. But now the hour is touching the tenth [about four in the afternoon], and your courier is grumbling. Let this, then, be the end of the letter. I am truly much better off than I had supposed. About the waters [a medicinal cure] I now think nothing at all. You, my Lord, the glory of good character, the consolation of my troubles -- how very much I love you! You will say: "Surely not more than I love you?" I am not so ungrateful as to dare to say that.
12. Farewell, Caesar, together with your parents, and cultivate your genius.
to his own Caesar. 1. So without end, Caesar, is your love for this Fronto of yours, that for all your eloquence words are scarcely forthcoming fully to express your love and set forth your goodwill. What, I ask you, can be more fortunate, what more happy than I alone am, to whom you send such glowing letters? Nay, more, and this is peculiar to lovers, you wish to run, aye, to fly, to me. 2. My Lady, your mother, is wont at times to say in fun that she envies me for being loved so much by you. What if she read this letter of yours, in which you even beseech the gods and invoke them with vows for my health? O, happy that I am! commended by your lips to the gods! Can any pain, think you, find its way into body or mind of mine to count against delight so great? . . . . hurrah! No longer do I feel any pain, nor any distress: I am whole, I am well, I leap for joy; whither you wish, I will come; whither you wish, I will run. Believe me when I say that I was so steeped in delight as not to be able to answer your letter at once; but the letter, indeed, which I had already written in answer to your previous one, I have sent off to you. However, I have kept back the second messenger that I might recover from my joy. And lo, the night has passed, a second day is already here which is already almost spent, and still what and how to write back to you I find not. For what professions of mine could be more sweetly, what more winningly, what more lovingly expressed than yours for me? And so I rejoice that you make me ungrateful and put a due requital beyond my powers, since, as the matter stands, your affection for me is so great that I can scarcely exceed your love. 3. Therefore, to provide some matter for a longer letter, let me ask you for what desert of mine you love me so. What benefit has your Fronto bestowed upon you so great that you should shew him such affection? Has he given up his life for you and your parents? Has he braved perils vicariously in your stead? Has he been the faithful governor of some province? Has he commanded an army? Nothing of the kind. Not even those everyday duties about your person does he discharge more than others; nay, he is, if you wish the truth, remiss enough. For neither does he haunt your house at daybreak, nor pay his respects to you daily, nor attend you everywhere, nor keep you always in sight. See to it then that, if anyone ask you why you love Fronto, you have an easy answer ready. 4. And yet there is nothing I like better than that there should be no reason for your love of me. For that seems to me no love at all which springs from reason and depends on actual and definite causes: by love I understand such as is fortuitous and free and subject to no cause, conceived by impulse rather than by reason, that needs no services, as a fire logs, for its kindling, but glows with self-engendered heat. To me the steaming grottoes of Baiae are better than your bath-furnaces, in which the fire is kindled with cost and smoke, and anon goes out. But the natural heat of the former is at once pure and perpetual, as grateful as it is gratuitous. Just in the same way your rational friendship, kept alight with services, not unfrequently means smoke and watery eyes: relax your efforts for an instant and out they go: but love fortuitous is eternal and enchanting. 5. Again, friendship that is won by desert has no such growth or firm texture as the love that is sudden and at first sight. So in orchards and gardens the growth of shrubs, reared and watered by hand, is not like that of the oak and the fir and the alder and the cedar and the pine on their native hills which, springing up self-sown and set without plan and without order, owe nothing to the toil or services of a planter, but are fostered by the wind and the rain. 6. That love of yours, therefore, unplanted and sprung up without reason, will, I trust, grow steadily on with the cedars and the oaks; whereas if it were cherished by reason of services done, it would not outgrow the myrtles and the bays, which have scent enough but too little strength. In a word, love spontaneous is as superior to love earned by service as fortune is to reason. 7. But who is there knows not that reason is a term for human judgment, while Fortuna is a goddess and the chief of goddesses? that temples, fanes, and shrines have been dedicated to Fortuna all the world over, while to Reason has been consecrated neither image nor altar anywhere? I cannot be wrong then in preferring that your love for me should be born rather of fortune than of reason. 8. Indeed reason can never compare with fortune either in grandeur or utility or worth. For neither can you match your pyramids, raised by hand and reason, against the hills, nor your aqueducts against the rivers, nor your cisterns against the fountains. Again, reason that guides our actions is called wisdom, the intuition of the seer is named divination. Nor is there anyone who would rather put faith in the wisest of women than in the oracles of the Sibyl. What is the drift of all this? To shew that I do right in preferring to be loved by intuition and chance rather than by reason and my desert. Wherefore, even if there is any adequate reason for your love for me, I beseech you, Caesar, let us take diligent pains to conceal and ignore it. Let men doubt, discuss, dispute, guess, puzzle over the origin of our love as over the fountains of the Nile. 9. It is now close on four o'clock and your messenger is muttering. So my letter must end. I am really much better than I expected; I have given up all idea of waters. Dearly do I love you, my Lord, the glory of our age, my chiefest solace. You will say, Not surely more than I love you? I am not so ungrateful as to dare say that. Farewell, Caesar, and your parents too, and cultivate your abilities to the full.
ad M. Caesarem 1.3 [2 Hout; 1.82 Haines]
Caesari suo Fronto
1 Tu, Caesar, Frontonem istum tuum sine fine amas, vix ut tibi homini facundissimo verba sufficiant ad expromendum amorem tuum et benevolentiam declarandam. Quid, oro te, fortunatius, quid me uno beatius esse potest, ad quem tu tam fraglantes litteras mittis? Quin etiam, quod est amatorum proprium, currere a me vis et volare.
2 Solet mea domina parens tua interdum loci dicere se mihi, quod a te tanto opere diligar, invidere. Quid si istas litteras tuas legerit, quibus tu deos etiam pro salute mea votis advocas et precaris? Procedo jam, babae, neque doleo jam quicquam neque aegre fero: Vigeo, valeo, exulto; quovis veniam, quovis curram. Crede istud mihi tanta me laetita perfusum, ut rescribere tibi ilico non potuerim; sed eas quidem litteras, quas ad priorem epistulam tuam jam rescripseram, dimisi ad te; sequentem autem tabellarium retinui, quo ex gaudio resipiscerem.
3 Ecce nox praeteriit, dies hic est alter, qui jam prope exactus est, necdum quid aut quemadmodum rescribam tibi, reperio. Quid enim ego possim jucundius, quid blandius, quid amantius, quam tu scripsisti, mihi proponere? Unde gaudeam, quod ingratum me et referundae gratiae imparem facias; quoniam, ut res est, ita me diligis, ut ego te magis amare vix possim. 4 Igitur ut argumentum aliquod prolixiori epistulae reperiam, quod, oro te, ob meritum sic me amas? Quid iste Fronto tantum boni fecit, ut eum tanto opere tu diligas? Caput suum pro te aut parentibus tuis devovit? Succidaneum se pro vestris periculis subdidit? Provinciam aliquam fideliter administravit? Exercitum duxit? Nihil eorum. Ne cotidianis quidem istis officiis circa te praeter ceteros fungitur, et immo sectator vel is satis infrequens. Nam neque domum vestram diluculo ventitat neque cotidie salutat neque ubique comitatur nec semper exspectat. Vide igitur, ut, si quis interroget, cur Frontonem ames, habeas in promptu, quod facile respondeas. 5 At ego nihil quidem malo quam amoris erga me tui nullam extare rationem. Nec omnino mihi amor videtur, qui ratione oritur et justis certisque de causis copulatur. Amorem ego illum intellego fortuitum et liberum et nullis causis servientem, inpetu potius quam ratione conceptum, qui non officiis, ut lignis apparatis, sed sponte ortis vaporibus caleat. Bajarum ego calidos specus malo quam istas fornaculas balnearum, in quibus ignis cum sumptu atque fumo accenditur brevique restinguitur. At illi ingenui vapores puri perpetuique sunt, grati pariter et gratuiti. Ad eundem prorsus modum amicitiae istae officiis calentes fumum interdum et lacrimas habent et, ubi primum cessaveris, extinguntur; amor autem fortuitus et jugis est et jucundus. 6 Quid quod neque adolescit proinde neque conrobatur amicitia meritis parta ut ille amor subitus ac repentinus? Ut non aeque adolescunt in pomariis hortulisque arbusculae manu cultae rigitaeque ut illa in montibus aesculus et abies et alnus et cedrus et piceae, quae sponte natae, sine ratione et sine ordine sitae nullis cultorum laboribus neque officiis, sed ventis atque imbribus educantur. 7 Tuus igitur iste amor incultus et sine ratione exortus, spero, cum cedris porro adolescit et aesculis; qui si officiorum ratione coleretur, non ultra myrtos laurusque procresceret quibus satis odoris, parum roboris. Et omnino quantum fortuna rationi, tantum amor fortuitus officioso amori antistat. 8 Quis autem ignorat rationem humani consilii vocabulum esse, Fortunam autem deam dearumque praecipuam, templa, fana, delubra passim Fortunae dicata, at Rationi nec simulacrum nec aram usquam consecratam? Non fallor igitur, quin malim amorem erga me tuum fortuna potius quam ratione genitum. 9 Neque vero umquam ratio fortunam aequiperat neque majestate neque usu neque dignitate. Nam neque aggeres manu ac ratione constructos montibus conparabis neque aquae ductuus amnibus neque receptacula fontibus. Tum ratio consiliorum prudentia appellatur, vatum impetus divinatio nuncupatur. Nec quisquam prudentissimae feminae consiliis potius accederet quam vaticinationibus Sibyllae. Quae omnia quorsum tendunt? Ut ego recte malim impetu et forte potius quam ratione ac merito meo diligi. 10 Quamobrem, etiam si qua justa ratio est amoris erga me tui, quaeso, Caesar, sedulo demus operam, ut ignoretur et lateat. Sine homines ambigant, disserant, disputent, conjectent, requirant, ut Nili caput, ita nostri amoris originem.
11 Sed jam hora decimam tangit et tabellarius tuus mussat. Finis igitur sit epistulae. Valeo revera multo quam opinabar commodius. De aquis nihildum cogito. Te dominum meum, decus morum, solacium mali, quam multum amo! Dices: “Num amplius quam ego te?” Non sum tam ingratus ut hoc audeam dicere.
12 Vale, Caesar, cum tuis parentibus et ingenium tuum excole.
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Fronto to his own Caesar.
1. You, Caesar, love this Fronto of yours without end, so much so that, eloquent man though you are, words scarcely suffice for you to pour out your love and to declare your goodwill. What, I beg you, can be more fortunate, what can be more blessed than I alone, to whom you send such ardent letters? Indeed, what is more, you wish (and this is a lover's own habit) to run to me, even to fly.
2. My Lady, your mother, is sometimes accustomed to say to me, by way of jest, that she envies me for being so greatly cherished by you. What if she were to read these letters of yours, in which you even summon the gods with vows and pray to them for my health? I am quite carried away now -- bravo! -- and I no longer grieve at anything, nor do I bear anything with distress: I am vigorous, I am well, I exult; I will come wherever you wish, I will run wherever you wish. Believe me, I was so flooded with joy that I could not write back to you on the spot; but the very letter which I had already written in reply to your earlier message, that I did send off to you. The next courier, however, I held back, so that I might recover my senses from my joy.
3. And look -- the night has passed, this is now the second day, which is already nearly spent, and still I cannot discover what to write back to you, or how. For what could I propose to myself that is more delightful, more winning, more loving than what you have written? From which I take joy in the fact that you render me ungrateful and unequal to returning the favor; since, as the matter stands, you cherish me so much that I could scarcely love you more.
4. Therefore, that I may find some subject for a longer letter: for what merit, I ask you, do you love me so? What great good has this Fronto done, that you should cherish him so greatly? Did he devote his own life on behalf of you or your parents? Did he offer himself as a substitute victim for your dangers? Did he govern some province faithfully? Did he command an army? None of these things. He does not even perform those daily courtesies around you beyond what others do -- indeed, as an attendant he is rather an infrequent one. For he neither comes regularly to your house at daybreak, nor pays his respects daily, nor escorts you everywhere, nor always waits upon you. See to it, then, that if anyone should ask why you love Fronto, you have ready at hand an answer you can easily give.
5. But I, for my part, want nothing more than that there should exist no reason at all for your love toward me. Nor does that seem to me to be love at all which arises from reason and is bound together by just and fixed causes. The love I understand is the kind that is by chance, and free, and enslaved to no causes -- conceived by impulse rather than by reason -- which grows warm not from services, like logs laid ready, but from vapors that rise of their own accord. I prefer the warm grottoes of Baiae [the famous hot springs near Naples] to those little furnaces of the baths, in which the fire is kindled with expense and smoke and is quickly extinguished. But those native vapors are pure and perpetual, as welcome as they are free of charge. In exactly the same way, those friendships that grow warm by services sometimes have their smoke and their tears, and the moment you let up, they go out; but a love that comes by chance is both lasting and delightful.
6. What of the fact that a friendship procured by merits neither grows nor strengthens in the way that sudden, spontaneous love does? Just as the little trees in orchards and gardens, cultivated and watered by hand, do not grow as well as the oak on the mountains, and the fir and the alder and the cedar and the spruce, which, springing up of their own accord, set without plan and without order, are reared by no labors or services of cultivators, but by the winds and the rains.
7. So that love of yours, then, untended and sprung up without reason, will, I hope, go on to grow tall along with the cedars and the oaks; whereas, if it were cultivated by a calculation of services, it would grow no higher than the myrtles and laurels, which have scent enough but too little strength. And in sum, by however much fortune surpasses reason, by so much does love that comes by chance stand before dutiful love.
8. And who does not know that reason is a word for human deliberation, while Fortune is a goddess, and the chief of goddesses -- that temples, fanes, and shrines have everywhere been dedicated to Fortune, but that to Reason no image and no altar has ever been consecrated anywhere? I am not mistaken, then, in preferring that your love toward me should be begotten by fortune rather than by reason.
9. Nor indeed does reason ever match fortune, whether in majesty, or in usefulness, or in dignity. For you will neither compare ramparts constructed by hand and reason to mountains, nor aqueducts to rivers, nor cisterns to springs. Then too, the reason behind our deliberations is called prudence, while the impulse of seers is named divination. And no one would sooner trust the counsels of the most prudent woman than the prophecies of the Sibyl. To what end does all this tend? That I am right to prefer to be cherished by impulse and by chance rather than by reason and my own merit.
10. For which cause, even if there is some just reason for your love toward me, I beg you, Caesar, let us diligently take pains that it be unknown and lie hidden. Let people wonder, debate, dispute, conjecture, inquire after the origin of our love, as they do after the source of the Nile.
11. But now the hour is touching the tenth [about four in the afternoon], and your courier is grumbling. Let this, then, be the end of the letter. I am truly much better off than I had supposed. About the waters [a medicinal cure] I now think nothing at all. You, my Lord, the glory of good character, the consolation of my troubles -- how very much I love you! You will say: "Surely not more than I love you?" I am not so ungrateful as to dare to say that.
12. Farewell, Caesar, together with your parents, and cultivate your genius.
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
ad M. Caesarem 1.3 [2 Hout; 1.82 Haines] Caesari suo Fronto 1 Tu, Caesar, Frontonem istum tuum sine fine amas, vix ut tibi homini facundissimo verba sufficiant ad expromendum amorem tuum et benevolentiam declarandam. Quid, oro te, fortunatius, quid me uno beatius esse potest, ad quem tu tam fraglantes litteras mittis? Quin etiam, quod est amatorum proprium, currere a me vis et volare. 2 Solet mea domina parens tua interdum loci dicere se mihi, quod a te tanto opere diligar, invidere. Quid si istas litteras tuas legerit, quibus tu deos etiam pro salute mea votis advocas et precaris? Procedo jam, babae, neque doleo jam quicquam neque aegre fero: Vigeo, valeo, exulto; quovis veniam, quovis curram. Crede istud mihi tanta me laetita perfusum, ut rescribere tibi ilico non potuerim; sed eas quidem litteras, quas ad priorem epistulam tuam jam rescripseram, dimisi ad te; sequentem autem tabellarium retinui, quo ex gaudio resipiscerem. 3 Ecce nox praeteriit, dies hic est alter, qui jam prope exactus est, necdum quid aut quemadmodum rescribam tibi, reperio. Quid enim ego possim jucundius, quid blandius, quid amantius, quam tu scripsisti, mihi proponere? Unde gaudeam, quod ingratum me et referundae gratiae imparem facias; quoniam, ut res est, ita me diligis, ut ego te magis amare vix possim. 4 Igitur ut argumentum aliquod prolixiori epistulae reperiam, quod, oro te, ob meritum sic me amas? Quid iste Fronto tantum boni fecit, ut eum tanto opere tu diligas? Caput suum pro te aut parentibus tuis devovit? Succidaneum se pro vestris periculis subdidit? Provinciam aliquam fideliter administravit? Exercitum duxit? Nihil eorum. Ne cotidianis quidem istis officiis circa te praeter ceteros fungitur, et immo sectator vel is satis infrequens. Nam neque domum vestram diluculo ventitat neque cotidie salutat neque ubique comitatur nec semper exspectat. Vide igitur, ut, si quis interroget, cur Frontonem ames, habeas in promptu, quod facile respondeas. 5 At ego nihil quidem malo quam amoris erga me tui nullam extare rationem. Nec omnino mihi amor videtur, qui ratione oritur et justis certisque de causis copulatur. Amorem ego illum intellego fortuitum et liberum et nullis causis servientem, inpetu potius quam ratione conceptum, qui non officiis, ut lignis apparatis, sed sponte ortis vaporibus caleat. Bajarum ego calidos specus malo quam istas fornaculas balnearum, in quibus ignis cum sumptu atque fumo accenditur brevique restinguitur. At illi ingenui vapores puri perpetuique sunt, grati pariter et gratuiti. Ad eundem prorsus modum amicitiae istae officiis calentes fumum interdum et lacrimas habent et, ubi primum cessaveris, extinguntur; amor autem fortuitus et jugis est et jucundus. 6 Quid quod neque adolescit proinde neque conrobatur amicitia meritis parta ut ille amor subitus ac repentinus? Ut non aeque adolescunt in pomariis hortulisque arbusculae manu cultae rigitaeque ut illa in montibus aesculus et abies et alnus et cedrus et piceae, quae sponte natae, sine ratione et sine ordine sitae nullis cultorum laboribus neque officiis, sed ventis atque imbribus educantur. 7 Tuus igitur iste amor incultus et sine ratione exortus, spero, cum cedris porro adolescit et aesculis; qui si officiorum ratione coleretur, non ultra myrtos laurusque procresceret quibus satis odoris, parum roboris. Et omnino quantum fortuna rationi, tantum amor fortuitus officioso amori antistat. 8 Quis autem ignorat rationem humani consilii vocabulum esse, Fortunam autem deam dearumque praecipuam, templa, fana, delubra passim Fortunae dicata, at Rationi nec simulacrum nec aram usquam consecratam? Non fallor igitur, quin malim amorem erga me tuum fortuna potius quam ratione genitum. 9 Neque vero umquam ratio fortunam aequiperat neque majestate neque usu neque dignitate. Nam neque aggeres manu ac ratione constructos montibus conparabis neque aquae ductuus amnibus neque receptacula fontibus. Tum ratio consiliorum prudentia appellatur, vatum impetus divinatio nuncupatur. Nec quisquam prudentissimae feminae consiliis potius accederet quam vaticinationibus Sibyllae. Quae omnia quorsum tendunt? Ut ego recte malim impetu et forte potius quam ratione ac merito meo diligi. 10 Quamobrem, etiam si qua justa ratio est amoris erga me tui, quaeso, Caesar, sedulo demus operam, ut ignoretur et lateat. Sine homines ambigant, disserant, disputent, conjectent, requirant, ut Nili caput, ita nostri amoris originem. 11 Sed jam hora decimam tangit et tabellarius tuus mussat. Finis igitur sit epistulae. Valeo revera multo quam opinabar commodius. De aquis nihildum cogito. Te dominum meum, decus morum, solacium mali, quam multum amo! Dices: “Num amplius quam ego te?” Non sum tam ingratus ut hoc audeam dicere. 12 Vale, Caesar, cum tuis parentibus et ingenium tuum excole.