Letter 7005: I expect another letter of mine will reach you first, since the carriers of this one are following a slow pack-mule...
I believe that another letter of mine will reach the hands of your affection before this one; for the bearers of this present letter, leading mules back, will follow at a slow pace. Yet I could not refrain from the tribute of a greeting; for I preferred that a courtesy, delivered late, should be more than enough, rather than that it should be missed by being omitted. I have not yet received any letter from your affection. I beg that the highest care for this duty may be yours; for from your own heart you can measure how much relief constant correspondence affords to those who are absent.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Credo alias litteras meas in manus amabilitatis taae ante venturas; huius nam-
que epistulae portitores lento itinere mulos reduces prosequentur. ego tamen saluta-
tionis munere abstinere non potui ; malui enim, ut redundaret officiuin sero pervectum, &
quam ut desideraretur omissum. tuae amabilitatis necdum ullam epistulam sumpsi.
quaeso, ut huius tibi muneris summa curatio sit; ex tuo enim metiri animo potes,
quid levaminis absentibus tribuat adsiduitas scriptiouis.
VI a. 399—402.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
Related Letters
Our trip abroad has been extended by a few extra days, since the rains have postponed the games.
...your delight prompted a letter written in high spirits.
The most august senate has appointed my lord and son Attalus as envoy to our lords and emperors, chosen from among...
Our friend Annius was passing through so quickly that all I could manage was a bare word of greeting.
You've redeemed two offenses against friendship in a single letter, with wit as your payment: you'd been away too...