Letter 2055: A complaint that demands a duty is itself a gracious thing.
A complaint that calls for dutiful attention is a gracious thing. But since I have never shown a sluggish willingness in writing, I am accused of neglected friendship in vain. In this matter I rely on the testimony of your own people, who some time ago delayed a letter that had been handed over to them, through the courier's fault. I wish, therefore, that the account of the friendship I have preserved may stand secure in your eyes. For it is grievously unjust to draw onto oneself the blemish of a violated bond from another man's fault.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Gratiosa est expostulatio, quae requirit officium. sed eum in scribendo numquam
residem gesserim voluntatem, frustra neglectae familiaritatis accusor. utor in ea re
testimonio hominum tuorum, qui dudum sibi epistulam traditam tabellarii vitio distu-
25 lerunt. volo igitur apud te servatae amicitiae mihi constare*rationem. nam vehe-
menter iniurium est, ex alieno peccato naevum violatae religionis adtrahere.
•
LV a. 385—386.
Revision history
- 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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