Resultados25 letters/passages
symmachus · c. 372 · score 0.02
The fortunes of our shared homeland have been reduced to such dire straits that the worst must be avoided. I want to send your brother back to you immediately. Please provide him with pack animals so that his haste can be properly supported. As for my daughter, she must not be subjected to the hardship of travel, as I …
symmachus · c. 398 · score 0.02
We've returned to our home and household gods, only to find a few unpleasant surprises. Our estate at Ostia is being hit by repeated encroachments. But if things are going well for you, send me a letter -- its good cheer will clear away the cloud of my present troubles.
symmachus · c. 368 · score 0.02
To Gregorius. I sent a letter to your father with which you too could have been content, for since the two of you share one mind, the same act of devotion ought to satisfy you both. But I feared that if one of you replied on behalf of both, like a priest performing double rites, I would be shortchanged. So just as offe …
symmachus · c. 395 · score 0.02
There is plenty to write about, but my spirit recoils from speaking things that are painful to recall. I can see, though, that news about the city can't be suppressed -- and rumor, as it loves to do, will exaggerate the present situation. So to prevent that, I've attached a brief summary of what you need to know: this …
symmachus · c. 382 · score 0.02
I'm staying at my country house outside the city. The hassles of urban life have worn me out, and I'm enjoying the pleasant renewal that a villa offers in autumn. Better still, friends keep arriving, which gives me the kind of company that in Rome counts as the only real mark of distinction. But our little granddaughte …
symmachus · c. 378 · score 0.02
With the blessing of the divine powers, my son Symmachus will assume the fasces [the ceremonial rods symbolizing... [The Latin manuscript tradition for this letter (Symmachus, Epistulae Book 8, Letter 25) is heavily corrupt or fragmentary. The above is a partial rendering based on the best available source.]
symmachus · c. 394 · score 0.01
You are still silent, but my loquacity is not restrained by your example, and my leisure gives me too convenient an opportunity for a flood of words. For I am in the country, though I do not rusticate. From the bank of the Tiber -- for the river flows through my estate -- I watch the laden ships pass by, no longer anxi …
symmachus · c. 368 · score 0.01
Your letter was delivered to me while I was staying at the seventh milestone on the Via Ostiensis [the road from Rome to its port city of Ostia]. I immediately arranged through the distinguished vicarius [deputy prefect] to have the official records released at my request. But your servant left the city without my know …
symmachus · c. 381 · score 0.01
Bears will shortly be brought from overseas. Please arrange suitable escorts so that this addition may be joined to your earlier services. Farewell. I am delighted by your diligence and judicial vigor, but the poverty -- or rather destitution -- of the municipal council of Formiae cannot even bear the cure. For just as …
symmachus · c. 369 · score 0.01
Your letter was delivered while I was at the seventh milestone along the Via Ostiensis, and I immediately arranged through the distinguished vicarius to have the official documents produced at my request. But your servant left the city without consulting me — slaves being all too familiar with that kind of insolence. W …
symmachus · c. 386 · score 0.01
I have been sick with worry ever since I learned that my daughter is suffering from her familiar complaint. And the journey... [Text breaks off here in the source.]
symmachus · c. 390 · score 0.01
I've been writing frequently these past days, but no amount of letters can satisfy the heart of someone who truly cares. [The Latin manuscript tradition for this letter (Symmachus, Epistulae Book 7, Letter 55) is heavily corrupt or fragmentary. The above is a partial rendering based on the best available source.]
symmachus · c. 379 · score 0.01
If you have a taste for natural history — the kind Pliny labored over — here are some volumes I happened to have on hand. The copyist, I suspect, will displease a scholar as exacting as you: he's rather careless with accuracy. But don't blame me for the sloppy editing. I'd rather earn your approval for the speed of my …
symmachus · c. 385 · score 0.01
My first concern is always to ask how your health stands. Everything else comes second -- though you did recently raise some questions that deserve answers. The city is rattled by grave omens, and I'll skip the minor ones. The most alarming was this: on the anniversary of Rome's founding, the replacement consul was thr …
symmachus · c. 372 · score 0.01
I take great pleasure whenever I receive one of your letters. They bring proof both of your good health and of your affection. I am especially glad that you promise to visit soon. To encourage you to hurry, I announce that my son, if divine favor smiles on us, will assume the praetorian fasces [take up the office of pr …
symmachus · c. 389 · score 0.01
As I reported in my previous letter, my health was struck down on arrival -- whether by bad water or the change of air, fortune alone knows. Things are starting to improve now. The greatest remedy was learning that you're well. If you're wondering when I'll head home: I'm hoping to set out around the Ides of October [O …
symmachus · c. 367 · score 0.01
I pray the gods that the health I'm enjoying extends to you and your family as well. That opening, I think, covers what needs saying — a prayer for your well-being and a note of my own happiness. But you won't let my letters be short! So what shall fill a longer page? Where I've been and what I've been up to — since fr …
symmachus · c. 401 · score 0.01
...Fortune has seized my hand; she's dragged me back against my will. Don't let her convince you — imperious as she is — that I didn't want to come. Farewell.
symmachus · c. 390 · score 0.01
I'm perfectly willing to write, but I'd rather save the news for my dear son Sibidius to relay in person at his leisure. So this page serves only as a greeting -- its brevity will satisfy the respect due to you without stealing his thunder. Farewell.
symmachus · c. 368 · score 0.01
Your letter was delivered while I was at the seventh milestone on the Ostian road, and I immediately arranged through the distinguished vicarius to have the official records produced at my request. But your slave left town without consulting me — a typical piece of slave insolence. Whether you let that go unpunished is …
symmachus · c. 375 · score 0.01
I come to the aid of my conscience, which will not allow me to remain indebted to the services of friends. My brothers Romanus and Magnillus, distinguished men, bound me to them long ago by the merits of their devotion. Though they do not demand the rewards that lesser fortune usually expects, they press their claims o …
symmachus · c. 380 · score 0.01
Opportunities to send you greetings must be sought out when they're scarce and seized when they appear -- especially at a time when I'm worried about my daughter's health, which I believe has been further weakened by fasting. Put my fears to rest with news that she's improving. My own step is still unsteady, but if a r …
symmachus · c. 381 · score 0.01
After we sent the boy off, a persistent rumor spread that you are to be summoned by an imperial letter. The name of a certain Gratianus, who is said to be carrying such a document, is already on everyone's lips. Although this still seems uncertain to me, I didn't think I should keep it quiet. It will be for the supreme …
symmachus · c. 381 · score 0.01
Farewell. Suessa is a city of honorable citizens, so much so that I would rightly say even men of the humblest fortune there should be considered above the faults of the common crowd. I would have you believe, then, that none from that city would have come to the clamor of the courts had not a bitter oppression compell …
symmachus · c. 375 · score 0.01
You excuse yourself for your long silence. The fault is shared -- for I too was kept from this exchange for a long time by poor health. You must have shuddered when you read the bitter news about me. Return to a happier frame of mind: by the gods' blessing, I have recovered my health. Let us both grant each other easy …