Quintus Aurelius Symmachus → destinatário desconhecido
Tradução moderna em inglês
So I've been keeping silent for nothing, waiting confidently for you to keep your promise. Now I have to go back to the old consolations, having given up on anything better. And perhaps you're annoyed at my long silence. That's really the final straw -- to be accused of neglecting you when it's you who left me hanging.
You'd do better to keep your word about starting the journey. I'll gladly settle for that much comfort. At the very least, this exchange of courtesies will either console me for your not coming, or earn me the reward of your visit. Farewell.
Texto latino / grego
Ne ego frustra hactenus tacui, dum te promissi certus opperior. tandem redeun- 20 dum mihi est ad consueta solacia meliorum desperatione. et fortasse suscenses diu- tumo silentio meo. id vero etiam reliquum est, ut inritus eo^pectationis arcessar eres igitur iuris tui super ordiendo itinere stare promissis. me esse con- tentum tali levamine non pigebit; hoc certe officiorum conmercio aut solabor, quod non venis, aut merebor, ut venias. vale. 25 XVin a. 397 ?