Letter 7045: What happened to your promises?

[This database record concatenates a run of Symmachus letters from Book 7 (numbered XXXXII through LV in the edition) together with the editor's critical apparatus. The legible letter texts are translated below in order; the apparatus lines, which record manuscript variants rather than letter content, are summarized in brackets at the points where they occur.] Where has the good faith of your promises gone? When I was hoping for your return, you granted me the consolations of a letter. The receipt of this gift could have been pleasant to us, had you not pledged something grander. Or were you afraid of a consular man as witness to your charms? This caution accomplished nothing: the marvels withdrawn from my eyes I apprehend with my ears. For just as each person is offended by our frugality, he sighs that you are absent, and to the reproach of my banquet you are openly missed. The senate shall know this, the people shall hear it! For I cannot otherwise avenge the just grief of your absence. Farewell. XLII. Our idleness must be broken off, and our care must be directed toward mutual addresses, lest neglect of writing wear away the memory of the old friendship between us; and so that you may henceforth foster that memory more willingly, take from me the beginning. Here is a letter bearing you a greeting, which the rivalry of dutiful service will attest to be a delight to your feelings. Indeed, if this discourse should also seek for its bearer the benefit of your patronage, I shall blame the losses of my preceding silence. For it will be established that I could have consulted the interests of more people, had I begun to address you earlier. XLIII. [The apparatus notes that from this letter onward the manuscripts omit the headings, leaving blank spaces; the editor restores the name and judges that letters 32-49 are likewise addressed to Decius. The line "Symmachus to Decius" is the editor's supplied superscription.] While I was passing time in the country, restoring my step by the freedom of the open air -- the use of which is delaying me after my illness -- a very close friend of mine, ready to begin a journey, gave me the means of writing. At once, embracing with eagerness a fellowship dear to me, I did not put off a writing that might both carry on between us the commerce of devotion and open for the traveler the first threshold of acquaintance with you. If you think the occasions of this letter creditable, may the favor of your conversation fall to me, and the fruit of your affection to him. Farewell. XLIIII. I repay the greeting addressed to me by you, although in the recent days I have of my own accord frequented our friendship with the work of my pen. This reminder does not reproach your dutiful services; for my mind is fed by the pleasure of this diligence. The choice, therefore, is yours: whether you wish to be often generous to me with letters -- which indeed I most greatly desire -- but if at any time that fruit should fail us, our conversation will furnish me the same joys of speaking with you. Farewell. XLV. [dated 398-399] This is the one way by which I may most benefit my fellow citizens and friends: if I introduce them into your patronage as it were a guide to the mysteries. This I now do on behalf of Gaudentius, a man of senatorial family, whose modesty, if you inspect it more closely, you will find equal to his illustrious birth. Therefore, received without hesitation into your service before he has gained full confidence in you -- which the inspection of his character will soon grant him -- let him understand that credit has been given to him on my testimony. Farewell. XLVI. [dated 398-399] The singular goodness of your spirit often calls my confidence to just petitions. I need not, then, dread reproach for friendly recommendations, since you yourself, by the kindness of your goodwill, prompt me to this zeal of mine. There is therefore sure hope that the letter will be welcome to you in which I attend Desiderius, a most distinguished man and an old friend of mine. A domestic cause has applied to him the necessity of breaking off his leisure. [The apparatus is uncertain here; the editor conjectures a reference to a financial matter.] I could easily have concealed the loss, if a narrow fortune permitted a great spirit to do so. From the man himself you will hear at greater length whatever the brevity of a letter refuses to set forth; for me it is enough to make a general request on his behalf. Take up, I pray, the province of doing good, which commends the merits of men to God, and reap the more illustrious fruits from his advantage. For to me benefits seem to confer more upon the one who bestows them. Farewell. XLVII. [dated 398] I can neither refrain from writing, now that my lord and son Flavianus is setting out to you -- whom I ought to attend with this provision for the road -- nor add anything, since your diligence toward him admits of no increase. I wish you to know, therefore, that it is not from indifference that I write as little as possible about him, but from the security I presume upon in your disposition. Be such toward him, then, as the old friendship promises you to be -- to which the degree of your office has added this, that you cannot refuse the power to do what you ought to wish on his behalf. Farewell. XLVIII. [dated 399] By your favor it has come about that we obtained the support of post-warrants, by which my friends, about to buy chariot-horses, might travel to Spain. I ask, therefore, that you not order those sent out to cross over at once; for a long time is needed for the selection to pick out the best from each province and for a more painstaking care to bring them through. Besides, I shall be more strongly bound to you if you assist the journey of the same men with two further post-horses; for they will be divided up singly, so that they may cull choice ones from different provinces. It will belong to your kindness, after the illustrious and most excellent man as companion, whatever splendor my son's praetorian games shall add to our house. Farewell. XLVIIII. A most sure harbor against all storms is the haven of your spirit. Therefore my sister's son runs to you, sure of his hope. The nature of his business awaits the aid that comes from the humanity of the age, the quality of which will be laid open to your virtues by the reading of his entreaties. I ought not to be a lengthy narrator of the injury, since the good faith of the supplication sets forth the train of his desire. But my affection lays upon me only this part: that on behalf of the wife of my dear one [my child], for whom a grievous ruin is being prepared by poverty, I should canvass the support of your favor. Farewell. L. [dated 401] Of my joy over you I can neither be the boaster, out of modesty, nor readily another's witness; for it will suffice me that you measure my love by your own mind. Yet I ought to confess my gladness, which has transferred the reins of the prefecture to good [the apparatus suggests a phrase such as "and to the admiration of your sacred circumspection"] will. Meanwhile I abound with no less gladness, because the long labor of my lord and son Flavianus in giving judgment was rightly to be deferred for a while from this reward by a wished-for rest, nor was it right that he be held back from leisure. I write this so that you may know that we, for the sake of your honor, give thanks to the eternal emperor, and that you ought to do the same for his security. Meanwhile I ask that in frequenting your correspondence you keep your custom, and not plead that public business hinders private dutiful services. For you have always been equal to manifold obligations, and there is no kind of experience whose magnitude or novelty could call you away from the duties owed to friendship. Farewell. LI. Perhaps my other recommendations may admit the interpretation of mere kindness: this one is of judgment. For I hand over to your holy heart my brother Severus the bishop, praiseworthy by the attestation of all sects. About him both the despair of matching his merit and his own modesty forbid me to say more. Besides, I have taken up the part of a witness, not of a praiser, reserving for you the inspection of his character. When you have weighed it thoroughly, you will find that I have yielded rather to his praises than failed him through negligence. Farewell. LII. What worthy return shall I repay you for so great a care toward me and mine? Your services I truly cannot equal, yet I pledge that I shall never yield to you in devotion of mind and affection, nor do I doubt that you too, for your good deeds, desire as your sole reward the recompense of a good conscience. But in this attestation of gratitude your own modesty does not allow me to linger longer; for you judge to be owed to our friendship whatever I believe to be bestowed as a favor. Farewell. LIII. [before 395] The recommendation of my writings is a small thing, since an innocent life and long military service commend my friend Eusebius to all good men. Therefore, endowed with his own merit, he has asked for my testimony on his behalf as something not solicited; and yet I ought not to refrain from such a kind of letter, more to satisfy good faith than to prop up by a favor one who is tottering. This, then, is the sum of my petition: that he may find in your illustrious heart the form of my goodwill concerning himself. Farewell. LIIII. [dated 398] Since you are skilled in all matters, you know how much anxiety an embassy carries, how much difficulty a journey abroad. Your love will render these light and safe to my lord and son Attalus, who is attending to the desires of the senate. Take up, therefore, the part of kindness, both owed to my petition and suited to your character. It will seem enough to my Attalus, whatever the outcome of his service shall be, to have earned the care of a more powerful man on his behalf. Farewell. LV. Often, as is fitting, you present me with letters as gifts; for you judge that the bond of our minds grows tarnished by a certain rust of silence. You perform a duty befitting kindred pursuits and minds, and for this reason I have not put off rendering you the return of discourse; the discharge of which is such that I feel myself even now a debtor to your affection. For all things are repaid by an easy interchange and compensation, but the contract of friendship and devotion is eternal. Farewell, and...

Qno abiit promissorum fides? speranti mihi recursum tuum litteraria levamenta tribuisti. potuit incunda nobis huius muneris esse perceptio, si nihii grandius spo- pondisses. an veritus es deliciarum tuarum consularem virum testem? nihil egit haec cautio: oculis subtracta miracula auribus deprehendo. nam ut quisque nostra offen- ditur parsimonia, te abesse suspirat, atque in contumeliam convivii roei palam de- 15 sideraris. sciet haec senatus, audiet populus! neque enim possum aliter ulcisci ab- sentiae tuae iustum doiorem. vale. xxxxn. Abmmpenda cessatio est et in affatus mutuos cura tendenda, ne veteris inter nos 20 amicitiae memoriam scribendi neglectus adtenuet; quam ut libentius dehinc foreas, a me sume priucipium. en tibi litteras salutationem ferentes, quas sensibus tuis volup- tati esse testabitur officii aemulatio. quin si etiam portitori fructum patrocinii tui sermo iste quaesiverit, praecedentis silentii mei accusabo dispendia. constabit enim, pluribus me potuisse consulere, si te adloqui ante coepissem. 25 XXXXUI. Cum ruri agerem libertate caeli gressum reformans, cuius me usus post dolorem moratur, familiarissimus mens ordiendo itineri paratus fecit mihi ad scri- deris M 7 iter] esse V nsurpa ut] usurpauit V 8 raditus arciantur V mentis uiribus M 15 atque in] itaque in K^T), inque M conuitii V 19 inde ab hac epistula inacripUones omittuni non aolum VAf, aed etiam T et 8patii$ eingulorum vertuum vacuia relictia P; aed eum ep, 60 propier argumenium ad Deeium data efse videaturj etiam epp. 32 — 49 idem nomen praeponendum duco 20 obrumpenda / affatos P 1 m. ueteres P 1 m, 21 me- morum V foueas] ego, facias PVM 23 testibus V quin si] ego^ qoia si P, quasi K, quodsi M 27 aerihe : Symmaohus Decio 28 cururi V 29 moratur familiarissimus PFAf, desideratur nomen bendum sui copiara. ilico amicam studio meo amplexus communionem scripta non PVM distuli, quae et inter nos agerent commercium religionis et commeanti primum apud te notitiae limen aperirent. si probabiles huius epistulae putas causas, mihi sermonis tui gratia, illi amoris fructus eveniat. vale. xxxxmi. Remuneror dictam mihi a te salutem, quamvis diebus proximis ultro amicitiam nostram stili opere frequentaverim. quae commemoratio non exprobrat officia; huius enim diligentiae voluptate animus meus pascitur. est igitur tua optio. an in me 10 velis saepe litterarum esse munificus, quam quidem maxime cupio, sed si quando nobis fructus iste defuerit, eadem mihi gaudia tecum loquendi noster sermo prae- stabit. vale. XXXXV a. 398—399. ^*m*^**^^*^***i)k PVAJ 15 Vna haec via cst, qua maxime civibus ac familiaribus meis prosim, si eos in clientelam tuam quasi mystagogus inducam. quod nunc pro Gaudentio facio viro generis senatoiii, cuius modestiam si propius inspexeris, reperies claris natalibus parem. igitur in obsequia tua incunctanter receptus ante plenam tui fiduciam, quam mox illi morum praestabit inspectio, intellegat de se testimonio meo creditum. vale. 20 XXXXVI a. 398—399. Singularis animi tui bonitas voeat saepe ad iustas petitiones fiduciam meam. non est igitur mihi commendationum familiarium verenda reprehensio, cum ipse ad hoc meum studium voti benignitate sollicites. spes ergo certa est, gratas fore tibi 25 litteras, quibus omatissimum virum Desiderium veterem amicum meum prosequor. domestica huic causa rumpendi otii admovit necessitatem. fiam facile iacturam dissi- 2 mulare potuissem, si admitteret magnum animum angusta fortuna. ex ipso latius audies, quicquid epistulae brevitas recusat absolvere; mihi satis est pro eo in uni- versnm rogare. suscipe, oro, benefaciendi provinciam, quae hominnm merita deo 30 adplicat, clarioresque fructus ex huius commodo cape. mihi enim videntur beneficia plus conferre praestanti. vale. 2 comertium PVM 3 probabilis PV 4 fructus eueniat. utle] KAf(//), fructu///////////// P ai//////// P 8 quae] VMF, periit tn P exprobat PV, ud corr. P 1 m, 9 meus om, F intellegat] VAf(i7), //////////////////t P creditum. uale] VAf(i7), periit m P igit// P, est ergo V uerendaj P 2 m. Af, ueneranda P 1 m, V 24 me studium Mercer 26 iam] PVM^ eam Mercer; lacttnnm hic latere itupicor; fort. peGuniariam facrle iacturam 27 po- tuisset Mercer 28 in om. VM 29 oro] horum K, huius Af bominem merito Kiealing 1 90 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE XXXXVn a. 398. PMVF ************** Nec abstinere litteris possum proficiscente ad vos domino et filio meo Flaviano, quem prosequi hoc viatico debeo, nec aliqnid adiungere, quia tua erga eum diligentia non recipit augmentum. volo igitur noveris, non esse fastidii, quod qnam mimmtm 5 de eo scribimus, sed securitatis de tua mente praesumptae. talis igitur in eum esse dignare, qualem te vetus amicitia pollicetur; cui adiecit honoris tui gradus, ut quae pro eo velle debes, posse te non neges. vale. XXXXVm a. 399. P VM *»**♦******♦** 10 Favore tuo factum est, ut evectionum adminicula sumeremus, quibns familiares mei empturi equos curules ad Hispaniam commearent. quaeso igitur, ne missos mox transire praecipias; longo enim tempore opus est, ut de singulis provinciis optimos quosque excerpat electio et morosior cautela perducat. praeterea tibi validius ob- ligabor, si duobus aliis veredis eorundem iuveris iter; dividentur enim singuli, ut ex 15 diversis provindis edecument lect/ores. erit tui beneficii post inlustrem et praecellen- tissimum virum comitem, quidquid domui nostrae praetoria filii mei editio splendoris adiecerit. vale. xxxxvnn. PVMF ************** 20 Certissimus contra omnes procellas animi tui portus est. ideo ad te sororis meae filius spei certus adcurrit. negotii autem genus de humanitate saeculi exspectat au- xilium, cuius qualitas virtutibus tuis precum lectione pandetur. ego prolixus esse non debeo enarrator iniuriae, cum seriem desiderii fides supplicationis exponat. has autem solas partes mihi iniungit adfectio, ut pro coniuge pignoris mei, cuius pauper- 25 tat/ gravis paratur ruina, suffragium tui favoris exambiam. vale. L a. 401. PVM ************** Gaudii de te mei nec ipse ostentator esse per verecundiam possum nec testem altemm cito; sufficiet enim mihi, quod amorem meum de tua mente metiris. debeo 30 flciente V 4 inngere V, aasns sum iniangere M 5 recepit P 1 m, aacmentum V nolo F, om. M quod quam minimum] luretus, quamquam enim PVFy quod nichil M 6 igi- tur om. F 7 amicitia] conuicia F, couiuatia M 10 seribe: Symmachus Decio 11 sumerem VM familiaris P 1 m. 12 ne missos] ego^ remissos PVM 13 praecepias P 1 m, ut om. P 14 obligator P 1 m. VM 15 iu- beris P 1 m. V 16 et decument P l m, V, deciment M lectiores] 3f, lectoris PV cui P 1 m, rator VM 25 coniugi V pauperUte PVF 26 parati V roeritis V tamen laetitiam confiteri quae praefecturae habenas ad bonam transtulit PVM Yoluntatem. interea non minore abundo laetitia, quod domini et filii mei Flaviani prolixus in iudicando labor optata quiete differri diu ab hoc praemio par fuit, neque illum ab otio retardari. haec eo scribo, ut noveris, nos pro tuo honore 2 5 agere aetemo principi gratias, te idem facere pro illius securitate debere. interea quaeso. ut in epistulis frequentandis morem tuum teneas nec privatis officiis actus publicos obstare causeris. nam ^^mper multiiugis necessitatibus par fuisti, nullumque experientiae genus est, cuius te possit magnitudo vel novitas a negotiis amicitiae de- bitis avocare. vale. 10 LI. Habeant fortassis aliae commendationes meae interpretationem benignitatis : ista iudicii est. trado enim sancto pectori tuo fratrem meum Severum episcopum omnium sectarum adtestatione laudabilem. de quo plura me dicere et desperatio aequandi 15 meriti et ipsius pudor non sinit. praeterea testis non laudatoris partes recepi tibi reservans morum eius inspectionem. quam cum penitus expenderis, reperies, cessisse me potius eius laudibus quam per neglegentiam defuisse. vale. LII. 20 Quid tibi pro tanta in me meosque cura dignum rependam? officia tua revera aequare non possum, spondeo tamen, numqnam me tibi cultu mentis et adfectione cessurum, nec ambigo, etiam te pro benefactis solam boni animi exoptare mercedem. sed in hac contestatione gratiae morari me longius pudor tuus non sinit; deberi enim iudicas amicitiae nostrae, quidquid ego credo praestari. vale. 25 Lin ante a. 395. ^^* ^^^ ^^*^ ^^» ^^* ^^» ^^^ ^^^ ^^* ^^* ^^* ^^* ^^» ^^^ Parva est commendatio scriptorum meorum, cum Eusebium familiarem meum vita innocens et annosa militia bonis quibusque conciliet. suo igitur praedi/us merito testimonium pro se meum uon ambitum postulavit; et tamen abstinere non debeo PVMF 1 couflteri quae PVAf, mppU: adaiirationemque Mcrae drcamspectionis tel simile quid 2 uolun- tatem (ntat in rai,) P flaaia// P 3 prolixus in iudicaiido] {II) My prolixlus in uindicando V, llllllllllllll^^^^ ^ qulete perfruitur. neque enlm differrl diu (II) , quae in P prima manu $eripta non fuisse, loei nunc deperditi apatio doeemurf quiete differri diu V, ^IIIIIIIIIIIIIHI Pt fnii quiete meruit differre diu M, scripserim: optata quiete mutatus est; neque enim te differri din pars V 4 illum ab otio] Vin], periit in P nouerla] FA/(Z7), n////// P 5 aetern/////cipl P 6 actos P tores P Im, partes recepi tibi] KAfF, ptriit in P 16 eius inspectionem] KAfF, ////////////onem P expenderis] KJtfP, IIIIIIH^b P 17 eius laudibus] VAfF, /////audibus P defuisse] P 2 m. VAf, de*«« P 1 m. ualej //le P 27 paueis immutntis repetitur epist. 7/, 67 28 praeditus] AfF, praedictus PVF 192 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE PFJfF tali genere litterarum, magis ut fidei satisfaciam, quam ut labantem gratificatione sustentem. haec igitur petitionis meae summa est, ut in praeclaro pectore tuo for- mam circa se meae voluntatis inveniat. vale. Lmi a. 398. Vt es rerum omnium so]lers, scis quantum legatio habeat sollicitudinis , quantum peregrinatio difficultatis. haec domino et filio meo Attalo senatus desideria pro- sequenti amor tuus levia et tuta praestabit. suscipe igitur partes benignitatis et meae petitioni debitas et tuo ingenio congruentes. satis Attalo meo videbitur, quis- quis erit eventus officii, curam pro se meruisse potioris. vale. iu LV. PVM ****»**•»**** * * Saepe nos, ut condecet, litteris muneraris; obsolescere euim quadam silentii ru- bigine animorum foedus existimas. facis officium germanis studiis animisquc con- veniens, pro qua re vicem tibi seiinonis referre non distuli; cuius ea solutio est, ut i5 me adfectui tuo etiara nunc sentiam debitorem. omnia enim facili vicissitudine et conpensatione redduntur, contractus vero amicitiae et religionis aetemus est. vale et