Letter 3059: ...may the diligence of our correspondence grow warmer through the fruit of reciprocity.

...so that by the diligence of mutual good offices it may grow warm with the fruit of reciprocity. Receive, then, this greeting, and at the same time gladly embrace the news of my well-being, ready to return, in accordance with my prayer and my heart, reciprocal joys through tidings of like kind about your own affairs. [Letter] 72. A[nno] 384-387. To Timasius. I press you with frequent writings and do not fail you in affection of heart. The intermediary of my discourse is Felix, a man approved for the honorableness of his life and for his practice of military service; that you should give him consideration, I ought not to admonish you, since your fairness can accomplish as much on his behalf as my favor could wish for. [Letter] 73. A[nno] 384-387. To Timasius. The petition of my lord and brother Stemmatius requires with you an adviser rather than a petitioner. For since his standing of old with you is so great that you anticipate our wish by your favor, we ought to count the effort of asking as gain. Briefly, therefore, attend, so that [it] may require of your [...]. The supports of life, which are usually called goods, where the estate is more abundant, he has lost through the misfortune of proscription. These, amid the great rejoicing of the commonwealth, he entrusts to be recompensed, by your deserts above all. Take up, I beg you, this affair full of goodness, and console with the restoration of his household property a friend's want, to which a case of wretched ill health has been added. To Promotus. [Letter] 74. Before the year 392. To Promotus. Nature has heaped many virtues upon you; and if anyone should weigh them with a more careful judgment, he would not know whether the goods of fortitude or of mind excel more in you. But of the one praise the foremost of the human race [the emperor] is your endorser, while of your services in friendship we ought to be the witnesses. Therefore we cannot equal your scrupulous devotion, yet in this [...] your having advanced through love of me, so that you flatter me with false praises, when you say that you desire something from the storehouse of my mouth, which amid the hoarse horns of [...] a sound may flatter you. It is indeed natural to virtue to bring soothing charms of exercise to the senses. For the greatest of poets relates that Achilles too, sick at heart, relaxed his cares with the lyre. But we both confess our poverty in musical eloquence, and we go fowling for nourishment of speech among the letters of those men whom both report says, and your writings attest, to cling to the imperial retinue. [Letter] 75. Before the year 392.

officiorum diligentia frnctu vicissitudinis incalescat. sume igitur salutationem , simul- que indicium sospitatis meae laetus amplectere, redditurus voto atque animo meo re- ciproca gaudia similium de tuis actibus nuntiorum. LXXn a. 384—387. AD TIMASrVM. 15 Vrgeo te frequentibus scriptis et animi aflfectione non desero. est autem sequester sermonis mei Felix probabilis honestate vitae et exercitatione militiae; cuius ut con- siderationem habeas, commonere non debeo, cum tua aeqnitas tantum pro eo possit efficere, quantum favor meus posset optare. LXXIII a. 384—387. 20 AD TIMASIVM. Petitio domini et fratris mei Stemmatii monitorem magis apud te quam preca- torem requirit. nam cum tanta sit tibi eius antiquitas, ut votum nostrum favore prae- curras, laborem rogandi in lucro habere debemus. breviter igitur, ut tui poscat, adverte. subsidia vitae , quae bona dici solent, ubi census uberior est, infor- 25 tunio proscriptionis amisit. haec in magno reip. gaudio tuis potissimum meritis re- pensanda committit. suscipe, oro te, plenum bonitatis negotium et amici inopiam, cui miserae valetudinis casus accessit, rei familiaris integratione solare. poscat F, laeunam indieavi 26 reip.] spei F 27 oro] LypsiuSj pro PF AD PROMOTVM. PF LXXim ante a. 392. AD PROMOTVM. Mnlta in te virtntnm natnra eongessit; qnae si qnis tmtinet pensiore indicio, 5 nesciat, ntmni in te bona fortitndinis magis an mentis excellant. sed alterins tibi landis adstipnlator est princeps generis humani, ofliciomm vero familiarium nos testes esse debemns. qno tibi religiosum stndium neqnimus aequare tamen in hoc 2 te mei amore progressnm, nt mihi falsis landibus blandiaris^ cum ais aliquid te ex nostri oris desiderare promptario, qnod tibi inter ranca cornua feorum strepitns 10 blandiatnr. est qnidem familiare virtuti delenimenta exercitii sensibns admovere. nam et Achillen vatum maximus refert, aegrnm antmi cnras fidibns resoMsse. sed nos et mnsicae facnndiae inopiam confitemnr, et nntrimentnm loquendi eomm litteris ancnpamnr, qnos haerere comitatni et fama loqnitur et tna scripta testantnr. LXXV ante a. 392.