Letter 2066: Outstanding merits require no supporting witness, since virtue, conspicuous in its own light, rejects the aid of...
Distinguished merits do not require a supporting witness, since virtue, conspicuous by its own light, spurns the aid of another's commendation. Therefore, since the commonwealth, governed according to the standard of the old discipline, has made my lord and brother Licinius renowned, what dignity can private praise add to him? This part being therefore passed over, I wish to join to your most exalted spirit a man of the best loyalty and diligence toward his friends; not because your judgment is slow and reluctant in gathering up talents and in examining the dispositions of good men, but lest the brief acquaintance between you and the hastened parting deny a fair span of time for the appraisal. [The closing lines of the source are editorial apparatus, not part of the letter: manuscript variant readings, and a dating note placing this letter (numbered LXVI, alternatively LXV) before the year 395 AD.]
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Adstipulatorem praeclara merita non requirunt; siquidem virtus sua luce con-
spicua aversatur auxilium commendationis alienae. ergo cum dominum et fratrem meum
Licinium celebrem fecerit ad normam veteris disciplinae gubemata res publica, quid
potest ei dignitatis adicere privata laudatio? hac igitur prae/ermissa parte optimae in
amicos fidei ac diligentiae vimm praecelso animo tuo opto sociare ; non quod iudicium 30
tuum serunT atque difficile sit ad colligenda ingenia et explorandas voluntates bono-
mm, sed ne brevis iuter vos usus et festinata discessio neget iustum tempus examini.
3 de te] r, Uete P
que] P, ac (T)
LXVI (LXV) ante a. 395.
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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