Letter 3040: When I wrote this letter to you, I was confined to my bed by illness -- freed from danger, to be sure, but still...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusHilarius|c. 385 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|From Rome|To Hilarius (recipient)|AI-assisted
friendshipillnessimperial politics

When I was sending you this letter, I was confined to my couch in sickness, having indeed already been delivered from danger, but still destitute of strength, which is repeatedly worn down by intermittent fevers. Yet amid these afflictions of my health, I gave my friends the task of having our common pledge joined, by a decree of the fathers [the Senate], to the men of consular rank. Account was taken of your merits; for I declare that nothing was granted to my own favor. I handed the proceedings of that most distinguished order [the Senate] to Datianus, an honorable man, and when these come into your hands, declare that I have discharged the duties of friendship. For I desire nothing more than to be judged diligent in honorable service. 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AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Gum has ad te litteras darem, lectnlo aeger tenebar iam quidem a periculo vindi-
catns sed adhnc inops virinm, quae snbinde incertis febribns deternntur. inter haec
tamen mala valetndinis meae amicis negotium dedi, nt pignns commnne consnltn patmm '
viris consnlaribns inngeretnr. habita est ratio meritornm tuorum; nihil enim gratiae 25
meae dico delatnm. acta amplissimi ordinis Datiano honesto viro tradidi, qnae nbi
in manns tnas venerint, amicitiae me satisfecisse pronnntia/o. nihil enim malo qnam
honesti ofGcii diligens indicari. vale.

5 pecuniarias actiones] LeetiuSf pecnniariam sanctionis P 1 m. VF^^ pecuniarias sanctionia P2m.^ pecunia-
riam sanctionem F 6 illa V plerumque snperuacua F 7 de me enU sanctis eoU. F 8 pe-

tenti VF mihi om. V 9 praesidii P 2 m. V

et me F 18 remuneres F

19 expHcit ad ambrosiom Incipit ad hilarium P, om. VM 21 om. VM 22 tenebrariam qoi-

dem V 23 inobs P 1 m. 24 ualetudines P 1 m,, ualitudines V pigniis P 26 daciano F,

dona M 27 pronuntiato] ego^ pronuntiant PV, proounciabt M

XXXVira a. 397?

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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