Letter 23: Your son -- or rather, our shared son -- has come running to me, grieving that in leaving you he has done wrong,...

Sidonius to his friend Proculus, greetings. 1. Your son, or rather our common son, has come running to me, grieving that he has done wrong in leaving you, overwhelmed by the shame of a desertion he now repents. And so, having heard the tenor of his fault, I rebuked him as he kept skulking out of sight, with bitter words and a threatening face, in my own voice indeed but on your behalf crying out that he deserved disowning, the cross, the sack, and all the other punishments fit for parricides. At this he, in confusion, blushed red, pleading for his error with no shameless excuse, but when I pressed him, convicted of everything, he joined to his shame the companion tears, flowing so freely and welling up so abundantly that they gave assurance of the correction to follow. 2. I beg you, therefore, be merciful toward one who is severe against himself, and, following God's example, do not, while he confesses himself deserving of condemnation, hold him guilty before you as judge; for if, unrelenting, you should order him to undergo unheard-of kinds of punishment, he cannot be tortured more by your grief than he already is by his own shame. Free his despair from fear, free my confidence, and, if I rightly interpret the obligation of a father's love, absolve yourself as well, you who are wasted away in secret by the same grief by which your son is wasted away in public. It is clear that I shall have done him very great wrong, if you for your part should do him even a little; which surely, as I hope, you will not do, unless you persist, harder than the cliffs, in your hardness, or, stiffer than adamant, remain unyielding and unbreakable. 3. If, then, concerning your character and your friendships I justly presume the better course, graciously pardon him now that he is excused, and I steadfastly pledge that, once reconciled, he will be faithful hereafter; and now that his fault is swiftly absolved, I am bound by the favor, earnestly demanding not only that you forgive, but that you do so at once, and that you admit him on his return not into your house alone but into your heart as well. Great God, how joyful will the day dawn for you, the news for me, the spirit for him, when, cast down at his father's feet, from that injured mouth, that terrible mouth, while he awaits a reproach, he shall instead receive a kiss! Farewell.

EPISTULA XXIII Sidonius Proculo suo salutem. 1. Filius tuus, immo communis ad me cucurrit, qui te relicto deliquisse se maeret, obrutus paenitendi pudore transfugii. igitur audito culpae tenore corripui latitabundum verbis amaris vultu minaci et mea quidem voce sed vice tua dignum abdicatione cruce culleo clamans ceterisque suppliciis parricidalibus. ad haec ille confusus inrubuit, nil impudenti excusatione deprecatus errorem, sed ad cuncta convictum cum redarguerem, verecundiae iunxit comites lacrimas ita profluas ubertimque manantes, ut secuturae correctioni fidem fecerint. 2. rogo ergo sis clemens in se severo et deum sequens non habeas te iudice reum se profitente damnabilem; quem si inaudita genera poenarum iubeas inexoratus excipere, non potest amplius per te dolore quam per se pudore torqueri. libera metu desperationem suam, libera confidentiam meam et, pietatis paternae necessitatem si bene interpretor, te quoque absolve, qui conficeris occulto, quod filius publico maerore conficitur. cui fecisse me constat plurimum iniuriae, si tu tamen vel parum feceris, quam certe, ut spero, non facies, nisi scopulis durior duras aut adamantibus rigidior perseveras insecabilibus. 3. ergo si de moribus tuis deque amicitiis iuste meliora praesumo, excusato propitius indulge, quem reconcilians fore fidelem constanter in posterum spondeo, quoque velociter culpa soluto ego beneficio ligor, magnopere deposcens, non ut ignoscas modo verum ut et protinus, et revertentem non domo solum sed et pectore admittas. deus magne, quam laetus orietur tibi dies, mihi nuntius, animus illi, cum paternis pedibus affusus ex illo ore laeso, ore terribili, dum convicium expectat, osculum exceperit! vale.