Letter 4006: [The text of this letter is heavily intermixed with critical apparatus notes, making large portions unreliable for...

[Book XV, around 385 AD.] This suspicion does not fall upon you, that you should be believed to have been deliberately negligent of our friendship. You have a mind tenacious of loyalty, and just as you show circumspect caution in admitting men to your intimacy, so you show firm constancy in keeping them. For this reason I neither supposed beforehand that I had been removed from the number of the others on whom, at the beginning of the year, you bestowed the consular office, and now I believe that more has been conferred upon me than upon the rest. For what a general offer gave to those others, your particular care has restored to us. In this matter I ought not to be angry even with those men who wished me to be without a share of the earlier honor. For it could not have turned out otherwise for me, that I should earn through you what another's deceit had taken away. Therefore your great kindness will stand fast within my mind, and the memory of your steadfast service will be diminished by no forgetfulness. Whether error or trickery had caused this, you have taught all men to contrive nothing further in their cunning toward the destruction of friendships, which they see grow by their very plots. [Critical apparatus omitted as editorial, not letter text: "19 suspiciendo... his P; 24 ... explicit Ad Stilichonem XIIII, beginning Ad Bautonem (correction: in Banthonem) P, omitted F; 31 exortem] ex P first hand; 33 bis] Lipsius, his PF; 34 ... fecerit Loretus; 35 alterius P."] [Book III, p. 103.] [Letter XVI, before 395 AD. To Bauto. (manuscripts P, F)] Among my chief joys I count your letter, the witness of course of a brotherly spirit and the interpreter of true devotion. The more often I take them up, the more eagerly and abundantly I long for them. For satiety of good things is hard to reach, and then most of all do pleasant things stir our minds, when they seem to satisfy. Write therefore, as you do, more often, and do not fear that you will find me ungrateful, since you see that I am so desirous both of your affection and of your conversation. [To Protadius. Letter XVII, 380 AD?] I am indeed too sick at heart and, in the face of so great a grief, unequal to the discharge of my duties, but never will fortune have so much license over me that, overcome by mourning, I should slight the honor due to you. On the contrary, by these comforts I make remedies for my wound. And although they are weak in proportion to the magnitude of my grief, yet they bring me the most effective medicine of your conversation. You see what I look for: render, if it seems good, the service owed to friendship, which will profit my ailing heart. [Letter XVIII, 396 AD. To Protadius.] Falsely do you boast to me of a passion for hunting, when your letter breathes the thyme of eloquence. Do not pull a false face upon me! The signs of leisure are one thing, the signs of business another. The countryman smells of acrid herbs, the glutton is breathless with wine, the sailor is followed by a heavy cold; you, the friends of the Camenae [the Muses], gather the flowers of Helicon. What coverts of hares, what natal days of hounds, what hunting festivals do you falsely invent for us? Do you think I can be drawn back from my devotion to books into those arts which you arrogate to yourself? Not even in my prime, when my age would have borne it, did I take care to keep Amyclaean or Molossian hounds: so far am I from wishing for these things now that my years are inclining toward old age, now that my beard has grown whiter as it falls to the barber. But suppose that I wished to engage now and then in rustic pleasures: to which, after all, of the leading men of the senate does so great a felicity of free time fall, that amid the cares of his country he may take his ease in woodland labor? You learned not long ago of the grain complaints of the great city; to this succeeded a scarcity of oil, and even now the grievance over the harvest remains. Hence we, men wearied of these affairs, have sent off men of the senate-house to petition for remedies, and there is hope that our most merciful and divine emperor will, by his saving aid, attend to the things asked. Meanwhile, with the murmur of the suffering people [Critical apparatus omitted as editorial: "24 Vergil, Eclogues I 29; quaerunt Mercer, auxerunt PF; 14 redde omitted F, uidebitur, perhaps redde operam quam tibi detuli; rea uerba solet Phi; 20 anhellus P, est] Phi-Omicron, ructat T, ganeon autam r, ganeon nautam Phi, ganeon autem P; uos] Mercer, suos PrPhi; amicitiam F; 21 flores fructatis P, florem fructatis F, florem ructatis O; dices P; 22 censen] Lecthus, cessent P; 23 amycleos P; 25 uelle me] uellem P first hand; 30 murmure] Phi, murmur est P."] [p. 104, SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE.] [Book P, 4] the city is in an uproar. You, my friend, now go hunting and stir up men who are too anxious by your boasting of your delights. But how can it be that I should believe you, such a man and so great, to have leisure for searching out the lairs of hares? Whence, then, comes it that in the very same letter in which you proclaim the holidays and workdays of your hounds, you ask me for a history? True pursuits cannot be disguised: for you confess against your will, amid your playful fictions, your sickness for reading. I shall not go further afield. You demand that the ancient records of the Gauls be delivered into your hands. Unroll the last books of the Paduan writer [Livy], in which the affairs of Gaius Caesar are set forth, or, if Livy is unequal to your desire, take the ephemeris of Gaius Caesar selected from my little library, that it might be sent to you as a gift. This will teach you the origins, the situations, the battles, and whatever there was in the customs or laws of the Gauls. I shall strive, if fortune favors my wish, to track down also the German Wars of Pliny the Younger. For so long be content with the faithfulness of the work offered, and make our brother Minervius, the most learned and most kindly judge of my writings -- but why should I call judge one whom I would rather call applauder? -- the companion of your reading. Although I know that this need by no means be asked of you; for an equal and mutual love allows nothing of a good thing to be divided between you. [Letter XVIIII, 395 AD. To Protadius.] We must begin with prosperous matters; therefore in the prologue, so to speak, of my letter I declare my greeting and good health. Next I add the petition of my people: Flavianus, an illustrious gentleman, our common pledge, having long struggled with the harshness of fortune, but by the favor of the divine emperor brought back into calm, has been ordered to pay his father's salary [debt], the assessment of the prices having been gravely increased, and his slender estate does not suit so great a burden. See to it, therefore, if there is any power in you, that the dutiful humanity of the times may spare an afflicted house; otherwise his goods, restored through indulgence, will be carried off even by the auction of the debt. There will follow, as is hoped, upon his father's good deeds [...] the youthful Augustus, to whom, just as the succession of empire has come together with his brother, so too the imitation of goodness has come. [Letter XX, 395 AD.]

XV a. 385. 26 Non cadit in te ista suspicio, ut consulto amicitiae neglegens fuisse credaris. est tibi animus tenax fidei, et ut in recipiendis familiaritatibus circumspecta cautela, ita in retinendis firma constantia. quapropter nec ante opinalus sum, exemptum me nu- mero ceterorum, quibus principio anni munus consulare tribuisti, et nunc amplius qnam reliquis mihi credo delatum. nam quod illis generalis oblatio dedit, nobis specialis so 2 cura restituit. qua in re his quoque suscensere non debeo, qui me exortem prioris honorificentiae esse voluerunt. neque enim mihi aliter evenire potuisset, ut quod frans aliena subtraxerat, 6is mererer. stabit igitur apud animum meum ingis tua gratia, et memoria constantis officii nulla oblivione tenuabitur. sive error istud seu dolus fecerat, docuisti omnes nihil ulterius ad destruendas amicitias callidum cogitare, quas vident 9& insidiis suis crescere. 19 suspiciendo calmini tiio Suse 22 his P 24 .q. anr. symmachi. u c. cons. explic ad stilichonem xiiii inc ad bantonem (cort. in banthonem) P, om. F 31 exortem] ex P 1 m. 33 bis] LypaiuSj his PF 34 isUt P fecerit luretut 35 alterins P LIBEB im. 103 XVI ante a. 395. AD BAVTONEM. PF Inter praecipua gaadiorum numero litteras tnas scilicet fratemi animi testes et yere religionis interpretes. eas quanto saepius sumo, tanto inpensius uberiusque 5 desidero. difficilis est enim satietas rerum bonarum, et tunc maxime animos iucunda quaeque sollicitant, cum videntur explere. scribe igitur, ut facis, saepius, nec me- tuas, ne experiaris ingratum, quem vides et amoris et sermonis tui esse tam cupidum. AD PROTADIVM. XVn a. 380? 10 Sum quidem nimis aeger animi et prae tanto luctu obeundis inpar officiis, sed numquam fortunae in me tantum licebit, ut honorem tuum victus maerore dissimulem. quin immo his delenimentis remedia vulneri meo facio. quae etsi pro magnitudine doloris invalida sunt, medicinam tamen mihi efficacissimam tui sermonis ad/erunt. quid expectem, vides : redde operam, si videtur, amicitiae debitam, aegro animo pro- 15 futuram. XVm a. 396. AD PROTADIVM. J Falso apud me venandi studio gloriaris, cum thymum facundiae spirent litterae tuae. ne mihi os subleveris! alia otii, alia negotii signa sunt. acres Aerbas olet 20 rusticus, vino anhelus est ganeo, nautam sequitur gravedo: t;os amici Camenarnm flores metatis Heliconis. qnas tu nobis indagines leporum, quos natales canum dies, 2 quae venatica festa mentiris? censen posse me retrahi a voluminum stndio in eas artes, quas tibi adrogas? ne primaevns quidem, cum ferret aetas, Amyclaeos aut Molossos alere curavi: tantum abest, nt haec annis in senectam vergentibus velim, candidior 25 postqnam tondenti barba cadebat. sed fao velle me obire nonnumqnam rusticas 3 volnptates: coi tandem primomm senatus tanta vacationis felicitas suppetit, ut inter patriae cnras respiret opere silvestri? conperisti haud dudum fmmentarias magnae nrbis querellas; snccessit huic olei penuria, et adhuc manet de fruge cansatio. hinc remm fessi viros curiae oratum remedia legavimus, et spes est, olementissimum di- 30 vmumqne principem salutari ope consnltumm petitis. interea laborantinm murmore 24 Verg. Ecl. I 29. qaaerunt Meretr^ auxerunt PF 14 redde om. F uidebitur (r*), fort. redde operam, quam tibi detuli rea uerba solet <P 20 anhellus P est] P0, ructat T ganeon autam r*, ganeon nautam <P, ganeon autem P uos] Mercer^ suos Pr*P amicitiam F 21 florg f^uctatis P, florem f^actatis F, florem ructatis 0 dices P 22 censen] LecthUj cessent P 23 amycleos P 25 ueUe me] ueUem P 1 m. 30 murmure] ^, murmur est P 104 SYMMACHl EPISTVLAE P 4 strepit civitas. tu nunc, amice , venaris et nimis anxios deliciamm taarum iactatione soUicitas. sed qni fieri potest, ut talem tantumque te perscrutandis cubilibus leporum credam vacare? unde ergo est , quod iisdem litteris a me poscis historiam , quibus canum tuorum festos ac profestos dies praedicas ? dissimulari studia vera non possunt : 5 nam fateris invitus inter figmenta ludicra morbum legendi. non ibo longius. priscas & Gallorum memorias deferri in manus tuas postulas. revolve Patavini scriptoris extrema, quibus res Gai Caesaris explicantur, aut si inpar est desiderio tuo Livius, sume ephe- meridem C. Caesaris decerptam bibliotheculae meae, ut tibi muneri mitteretur. haec te origines situs pugnas. et quidquid fuit in moribus aut legibus Galliarum, docebit. 6 enitar, si fors votum iuvet, etiam Plinii Secundi Germanica bella conquirere. tantisper lo esto contentus fide operis oblati, et fratrem nostrum Minervium scriptorum meorum doctissimum et benignissimum iudicem — cur dicam iudicem, quem malo plausorem? — fac socium lectionis. quamquam hoc a te scio nequaquam petendum; nihil enim bonae rei inter vos dividi amor aequus ac mutuus sinit. XVmi a. 395. »5 AD PROTADIVM. A prosperis ordiendum est; quapropter in prologo, ut ita dixerim, litterarum salu- tera valetudinemque dico. dehinc meorum subicio postulatum: Flavianus vir inl. commune pignus diu eluctatus fortunae aspera, sed divi principis beneficio in tranquillum reductus, solvere salarium patris iussus est, taxatione pretiorum graviter aggerata, 20 2 neque census exilis tanto onert convenit. fac igitur, si quid in te opis est, ut adflictae domui pia temporum parcat humanitas; alioquin integrata per indulgentiam bona vel auctione fenoris detrahentur. sequetur, ut spes est, patema benefacta iuvenis Augustus, ad quem sicuti successio imperii una cum fratre pervenit, ita boni- tatis imitatio. 25 XX a. 395.