Letter 6004: My illness — a pain in my right hand — has been compounded by the bitter news you've sent.

You have doubled the sickness which I endure through the pain of my right hand by the bitterness of your news. But a sharper anxiety wears me down, because I know that my daughter cannot be persuaded to abstain from food and drink. Troubled therefore by the wound of my mind and the illness of my body, I could not put off writing right up to the point where I would be able to sign my own name, but by hurried dictation I have satisfied my anxiety rather than my custom. And first, I entreat you to relieve my fear with your replies; next I beg you, my lady daughter, that you turn aside from what is harmful to your health and that you repair, by the aid of moderation, a state of health so often interrupted. For abstinence from harmful things not only benefits one's health, but also bears witness to one's prudence. Farewell. [The remainder of the source consists of editorial apparatus and running page-headers, not letter text: textual variants noting "iuuat V"; "moue// P, subdit, numeration P (first hand)"; "inucem P (first hand)"; "...superior F"; "dicitur P (first hand), VF"; "dono corrected to damno P, 8i//8i P"; "...tio P, quantam P (second hand)"; the author-name running head "Q. Aurelius Symmachus"; the page header "154, Symmachi Epistulae"; and "V."]

Aegritudinem meam, quam dexterae manus dolore sustineo, nuntiorum acerbitate duplicastis. acrior antem me cnra distringit, quod scio filiae meae cibomm et po- tuum continentiam non posse snaderi. anxius igitnr vulnere animi et corporis morbo 30 nsque ad subscribendi possibilitatem litteras differre non potui, sed dictatione prope- rata magis soUicitudini meae quam consuetudini satisfeci. et primo, ut timorem meum responsis levetis, exoro; dehinc te, domina filia, precor, ut saluti adversa declines et interpellatam totiens valetudinem repares auxilio temperantia^. quia non solum sani- tati commodat, vemm etiam ad testimonium pmdentiae pertinet noxiis abstinere. vale. 2 iuuat V moue// P subdit^ numeratione P l m. 12 inucem P 1 m, taasisuperlor F 21 dicitur P l m. VF 22 dono eorr. tx damno P 8im//8i P 24 /ego- tlo P quantam P2 m. Q. ▲TEILrTS Stmmachvs. 20 1 54 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE V.