Letter 2001: This is the famous Paralius — whose own father, by accusing him, did him as much good as harm.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusVirius Nicomachus Flavianus|c. 365 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
imperial politics

This is that Paralius whose accuser was his own father, who, by how much peril he stirred up, by just so much praise he procured for him. For, cleared by many examinations and, what counts for most, by the very mouth of the emperor, the senator cannot be charged with his parent's unnatural ill will, which gained for him a more illustrious innocence. If you wish to love him, read the testimony of our emperor, so that you may observe how fortunately a man was made a defendant whom you thus see acquitted. Farewell.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Hic ille est Paralius^ cui accusator pater, quantum discriminis movit, tantnm
laudis paravit. multis enim quaestionibus et, quod est potissimum, principis ore 20
purgatuB senator arguere non potest parentis impiam voluntatem, quae illi praestitit
innocentiam clariorem. hunc si amare postulas, imperatoris nostri testimonium lege,
ut advertas feliciter factum reum, quem sic videas absolutum. vale.

n ante a. 395.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

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