Letter 3064: You are still silent, but my loquacity is not restrained by your example.

Still you keep silent; but my talkativeness is not held back by your example, and I have leisure all too convenient for an abundance of words. For I am in the country, yet I do not play the rustic. Only, from the bank of the Tiber -- for the river glides past along my boundaries -- do I watch the laden ships, no longer anxious, as before, about the people's hunger. For the public dread arising from scarcity has been turned into rejoicing, after the venerable father of his country [the emperor] made good Africa's losses with supplies from Macedonia. Him now all men love as a god, the nourisher of the human race. For he has suffered the defiant south winds to be permitted nothing against Rome. Therefore from the watchtower of my estate I run my eye over the multitude of foreign ships, and I rejoice that the sustenance of the Roman people is governed not by the fortune of the provinces but by the prince's wish. I know that these things will come to his ears through that devotion with which you are accustomed not to conceal the public good. With good reason I shall speak more sparingly, leaving it to your eloquence to introduce these matters more elegantly, if it shall so please, which we have related with unadorned truth. [LXXXIII, before A.D. 396] TO RUFINUS. You have completed your journey, so far as I measure by supposition, which alone was pleading on your behalf for pardon of your silence. Now let your stationary repose restore to your pen and to your mind the practice of writing to us, although the faculty of your speech, even when you were pursuing the road, was able to water our thirst with brilliant address. But let your labor have been your excuse against the fault of silence: now no plea is left, since both your eloquence, which was not impeded even before, remains to you, and the leisure that was lacking has been added. [LXXXIV, before A.D. 392] TO RUFINUS. I follow you with letters, because in mind and affection I do not abandon you; nor do I seem to myself to seize quickly upon these consolations, since the pleasantness of your company still flourishes fresh among us. For I feel that the separation of good men seems at once long-lasting. But if, as I presume, your mind too has experienced this, let me know by a hastened exchange of writings that you also think this interval of days a long one. [LXXXV, before A.D. 392] TO RUFINUS. Custom and reason demanded that I, intending to remain at home, should ask of the most august prince leave from the journey commanded me. The grounds of my excuse I have set forth in a letter, which let your favor commend by gentle approach and winning recitation. For nothing of mine would find favor without the help of every good man. I speak of a matter known to all, never to be kept silent by me. This my friends, this my rivals know. Of these some rejoice that there is a place with you for merit, others grieve that there is none for riches. [LXXXVI, A.D. 382-383]

Adhuc siles; sed loquacitas mea non cohibetur exemplo, et est otium mihi ad verborum copiam nimis commodum. nam ruri sum, nec tamen rusticor. tantum de ripa Tiberis — nam per fines meos fluvius elabitur — onusta specto navigia non iam sollicitus, ut ante, de fame civium. versus est namque in gaudia publicus ex inopia t5 metus, postquam venerabilis pater patriae Macedonicis commeatibus Africae damna pensavit. quem nunc omnes ut altorem generis humani deum diligunt. nihil enim 2 passus est austris contumacibus adversum Romam licere. ergo de agri mei specula peregrinarum navium numero iranscursus , et gaudeo victum populi Romani non fato provinciarum sed voto principis regi. scio haec in aures eius esse ventura devotione, 20 qaa soles non occulere bonum publicum. merito parcius loquar tuae facundiae relin- quens, ut haec omatius, si ita placebit, insinues, quae nos inculta veritate narravimus. LXXXUI ante a. 396. AD RVFINVM. Iter, ut opinione metior, expedisti, quod solum tibi ad silentii veniam suffraga- 25 batur. nunc stativa requies stilo et animo tuo scribendi ad nos usum reformet, licet oris tui facultas, et cum viam carpseris, luculento potuerit adfatu sitim nostram rigare. sed fuerit tibi adversum culpam tacitumitatis de labore purgatio: nihil iam suffragii restat, cum tibi et facundia, quae nec ante inpediebatur, supersit, et otium, quod desiderabatur, accesserit. u LXXXIIII ante a. 392. AD RVFINVM. Sequor te litteris, quia mente et adfectione non desero; nec videor mihi cito haec arripere solacia, cum adhuc apud nos recens iucunditas tua vigeat. sentio enim gaudia publicua metus P, ex inopia namque publicus metus uersus est in gaudium F, troMposui 17 ad- uersus F 18 peregrinarum om, F P r -P» rei publicae F 19 regi om. F 20 partius P loquor P2m, 21 omatui P poterit F 27 de om. F laboriosa F 32 qua P 1 m. 96 SYMMAOni EPISTVLAE P bonorum separationem statim dintumam videri. quod si, ut praesumo, etiam tuus animus expertus est, fac noverim festinata scriptorum vice, te quoque hoc intervallum dierum longum putare. LXXXV ante a. 392, AD RVFINVM. 5 Mos et ratio flagitavit, ut mansurus domi veniam de augustissimo principe im- pera/i mihi itineris postularem. excusationis causam litteris indicavi, quas favor tuus moUi aditu et blanda recitatione commendet. nihil enim meorum sine boni cuiusque auxilio placeret. rem loquor omnibus notam, mibi numquam tacendam. hoc amici, hoc aemuli sciunt. quornm alii gaudent, esse apud te locum meritis, alii dolent, non 10 esse divitiis. LXXXVI a. 382—383.