Letter 4016: Let your concern for me extend beyond surface courtesy.

[...] it is concealed; from there let your care look upon me. But it is not my way to lay down a form for the writing of letters; I want you to consider only this, that, since you are most generous in praising, what little you praise in me can seem too little, unless I am bound to you more fully. Besides, I demand to know why, when our names were set down in the address above, the old usage has been wanting in the framing of the letter. Let it please others to be exalted with the title of Eminence; I refuse the appellation of Magnificence. Unless perhaps you think me ill-mannered because I do not pay the same flatteries to your rank. Feigned love sinks itself down into such words; the cultivation of friendship is freeborn. Let white garments, not embroidered robes, clothe good faith. What use to me is a lofty step of reverence? I would rather be loved by a brother than looked up to. [XXXXIII, A.D. 397-398. TO MINERVIUS.] Eusebius is a member of my household; he too, an old soldier of the private treasury, was for a long time absent from your service while illness stood in his way. I must entreat you that he not be entered among the idle. But the obtaining of pardon will not endure, unless, won over, you add to him some benefit. I beg, therefore, that he be ordered to apply diligence to the exacting of the public debts owed throughout Etruria, so that he may remove the fault of his long absence by some commendation of his labor. [XXXXIIII, A.D. 397. TO MINERVIUS.] A greeting sent forth from you always indeed creates joy for me, but especially that which is entrusted to members of the household to bring. For it adds to your writings things worth inquiring after, and hands over to my hearing reports about you, if anything was lacking to the reading. So now, after your letter was delivered to me, your Sebastius supplied to me, as I was inquiring whether you were faring as you wished, an image of your presence. He will now likewise relate concerning my leisure whatever you wish to know; for he kept me company in the Laurentine woods, clinging to rural quiet. For what ought to be more pursued by me, as I sometimes mend my health, often shun crowds, and always cherish the innocence of letters? [XXXXV, A.D. 396-397. TO MINERVIUS.] I have no confidence in my pen and talent, but your kindness provokes my daring. I have therefore sent to your erudition two little speeches of ours, of which one, pertaining to the son of Polybius, was born from a recent affair, while the other, prepared by me some time ago when the matter was being debated in the senate, has now come forth enlarged with fuller working. The theme of this one is the rejected censorship, which at that time the authority of the whole senate drove off. I do not want you to be surprised that the most weighty order spurned the office of magistracy. In our speech you will find no slight reasons for the avoidance of this power. [XXXXVI, winter 394/5? ...]

operto est; inde me taa cura respiciat. sed non est meum formam scribendis litteris dare; illud tantum cogites volo, cum sis ad praedicandum liberalissimus, parum mibi videri posse, quod a te laudor, nisi amplius obligor. praeterea scire postulo, cur 2 5 servata in praemissis nominibus nostris vetustas deftierit litterarum contextioni. iuvet alios titulo sublimitatis adtolli, ego magnificentiae appellationem recuso. nisi forte me inprobum putas, quod honori tuo eadem delenimenta non defero. amor fictus in illa verba summittitur; amicitiae cultus ipgenuus est. alba velamina non segraentati amictus fidem vestiant. quo mihi altus reverentiae gradus? amari a fratre malo 10 quam suspid. XXXXm a. 397—398. AD MINERVIVM. Eusebius familiaris est meus ; idem vetus privati miles aerarii diu mprbo obstante obsequio tuo defuit. orandus mihi es, ne inter resides adnotetur. sed impetratio 15 veniae non manebit, nisi illi aliquid beneficii propitiatus adieceris. quaeso igitur, flagi- tandis per Etruriam debitis publicis sollicitudinem navare iubeatur, ut longae absentiae culpam commendatione aliqua laboris amoveat. XXXXim a. 397 i AD MINERVIVM. 20 Semper quidem mihi salutatio a te profecta gaudium creat, sed ea praecipue, quae familiaribus adportanda committitur. adicit enim scriptis digna quaesitu et de te tradit auditui, si quid defuit lectioni. velut nunc Sebastius vester post epistulam tuam redditam quantam mihi, satin ex voto ageres, sciscitanti imaginem praesentiae tuae praestititl idem nunc de otio meo, quae velis nosse, narrabit, nam me in silvis 25 Laurentibus continatus est rurali inhaerentem quieti. quid enim magis adsectandum est mihi, sarcienti nonnumquam valetudinem, declinanti saepe /urbas, litterarum semper innocentiam diligenti? XXXXV a. 396—397. AD MINERVIVM. 30 Fiducia mihi stili atque ingenii mei nulla est, sed tua benignitas ausus meos pro- vocat. misi igitur ad eruditiopem tuam duas oratiunculas nostras, quarum una ad Polybii filium pertinens ex recenti negotio nata est, altera dudum, cum res in senatu agitaretur, a me parata nunc opere largiore aucta processit. huic argumentum est repudiata censura, quam tunc totius senatus fugavit auctoritas. nolo mireris gravis- 35 simum ordinem magisterium respuisse. in oratione nostra non leves causas vitatae huius potestatis invenies. . 12 om. VM 13 familiaris est] familiarissimus (r) lis^noflse P narrauit V 26 curbas PV^ curas Kiesaling uitote V, /auiUte P, in toU re M Q. AVKBLITa STMMAOHVt. i5 1 1 4 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE XXXXVI hiemeH94/5?