Resultados25 letters/passages
ennodius_pavia · c. 514 · score 0.02
… the fiscal advocacy [advocationem fisci — the lucrative and powerful office of imperial treasury agent for the region], they reveal, even before they have achieved their aim, precisely what they intend to do with it. For my part, I have not concealed from anyone what Your Greatness has resolved concerning the public g …
ennodius_pavia · c. 517 · score 0.02
Worthy is the ruler, worthy are those in whose lifetime the sum of our desires has been attained — for even if the happiness that is destined to pass to posterity endures, those from whom it took its beginning must be honored with special praise. You have prayed to God so effectually that the valor of the one whose cle …
ennodius_pavia · c. 517 · score 0.02
In bishops he cultivates both innate virtues and inspires those not found. But why should I anticipate Your Blessedness with the prejudice of an extended speech? Your experience and that spiritual perfection will immediately accuse me of having been barren in the praises of your son, and whereas deeds are usually ampli …
ennodius_pavia · c. 512 · score 0.02
By the infusion of heavenly mystery it has been granted to me to hold free judgments, even though I am bound by favors. For it is a gift from above that one who is obligated may render an honest opinion and not take pleasure in the enormity of gratitude at the expense of rigorous judgment. It is divine when one to whom …
ennodius_pavia · c. 514 · score 0.02
Your greatness is present to its own duties and asserts the splendor of blood by the testimony of purity. Pious hearts do not know how to desert love; a generous mind preserves religious diligence. Therefore I have received writings shining with a double light, since what the holy heart found, the serene hand has inscr …
ennodius_pavia · c. 511 · score 0.02
Without loss of guardianship those are orphaned whom it befalls to belong to you: paternal resources do not fail those whom you cherish. I speak of Lupicinus, the son of our Euprepia: to him the aforesaid generality pertains, concerning whose property the distinguished man, your admirer Count Tancila, told me that the …
ennodius_pavia · c. 509 · score 0.01
For a long time my soul has hung in uncertainty, whether I should knock at the door of your acquaintance with the lovable presumption of writing and enter by this path the breast of a most excellent person, or whether, content with a vague greeting through your people, I should break through the secrets that besieged m …
ennodius_pavia · c. 512 · score 0.01
A man more sublime than all heights, you first made royal resources overflow without the evil of private extortion. To you, after God, it is owed that in the presence of a most powerful lord and conqueror everywhere, we confess our riches in safety — for the wealth of subjects is secure when the emperor is not in need. …
ennodius_pavia · c. 518 · score 0.01
He provides what is necessary who brings orphans and foreigners to the attention of the parent of all: the only path is the consolation of your apostolate, which heals strangers. Far be it from me to call afflicted those whom it befalls to reach you: parents, homeland, and wealth are not sought elsewhere by those whom …
ennodius_pavia · c. 513 · score 0.01
Your Greatness knows with what prejudice the followers of the liberal arts honor me, demanding the writings of my recommendation as something owed to them. It is the custom that you confer benefits while I confer words, and that the greatness of the things desired surpasses the wish of the petitioner. If I were to refr …
ennodius_pavia · c. 503 · score 0.01
You make the affair appear to have earned the outcome you desire: whatever you narrate as truth is truth. Hence careful judges are not permitted to resist. The most meticulous examiners consider it a profit of reputation if they follow where your imperious speech drags its captives. To this tongue, these resources, I c …
ennodius_pavia · c. 509 · score 0.01
Where in the world were we? From what ruin has heavenly mercy restored us to human life? Let us therefore render to the bestower of this blessing, in urgent words and prolonged sighs, what we owe; let us invite to the custody of his gifts the one whom we have proved to bear aid in times of uncertainty. Let us beseech h …
ennodius_pavia · c. 501 · score 0.01
He who reveals a friendly conscience by manifest signs takes away the leisure of those to whom he has granted the dignity of his grace. For scarcely are the lips idle of one who is accustomed to being heard, because it is a great loss of modesty to hold back the benefit of words, so that while we spare the tongue the g …
ennodius_pavia · c. 507 · score 0.01
In asserting those to whom full honor does not deny its support, I do not employ many addresses, lest a lengthy speech seem to have obtained a benefit from one about to refuse: for you are accustomed to anticipate with generosity what ought to be asked by prayers. The parents of the distinguished and magnificent Opilio …
ennodius_pavia · c. 519 · score 0.01
Although Your Greatness has attested to forgetfulness of me through long silence, and while withholding from epistolary duties has cast aside the memory of one who serves you, nevertheless heavenly providence does not allow your prosperity to be hidden from my desires, and by various signs reveals the success I hoped f …
ennodius_pavia · c. 520 · score 0.01
If the condescension promised toward me still endured, it would be attested by a frequency of letters: those whom favorable fortune has raised to the summit scarcely look upon the humble. It is grievous if the hope of favorable things cuts the bonds of love: what flatters according to our desires ought not to prejudice …
ennodius_pavia · c. 512 · score 0.01
If it were permitted to contend with Your Greatness on equal terms, if honors, age, and merit — which held the torch before you — did not drive us into shadow, I would rather justly blame your eminence for its abstinence from letters, since after you departed for the city of Rome you have relieved me with no fruit of r …
ennodius_pavia · c. 500 · score 0.01
For to certain powerful persons — whose names it would not be safe to commit to writing — God knows he disbursed more than four hundred gold solidi; and he disbursed these on the strength of my word of guarantee. My reputation with him cannot stand free until, as I fully trust it will, the promise is honored through yo …
ennodius_pavia · c. 506 · score 0.01
After your merits were restored their dignity and the honor which your life demands was conferred, I have received no letter from your blessedness — for my sins. The forgetfulness that is maintained toward me is foreign to your calling and your character. Let not pontifical authority accuse my temerity: it is scarcely …
ennodius_pavia · c. 518 · score 0.01
--- If love would yield to shame, if the restless urgency of affection could be held in check by the law of decorum, I would restrain myself from the duty of filling pages and would take up your own model of silence as my guide. I would not be so rash a judge as to conclude that what receives no return from you is ther …
ennodius_pavia · c. 506 · score 0.01
--- The joyful exuberance of speech has a habit of scattering the signs of good fortune everywhere it goes. Whatever blessing falls upon the eloquent is carried swiftly through the crowds on the familiar voice of joy — word for word, mouth to mouth. It is easier to smother with one's tongue the flames already kindled o …
pope_symmachus · c. 513 · score 0.01
Ennodius to Pope Symmachus. He commends to the pope, father of all, a distinguished young man named Beatus. To Symmachus, Pope. He does not petition in vain who introduces strangers to the father of all. A general advocacy is owed to those of noble birth, especially before those who bestow benefits without being asked. …
ennodius_pavia · c. 506 · score 0.01
I had long since responded to the writings of your blessedness, had it been easy to intercept the routes of those traveling to Rome. Ecclesiastical humility is passed by as though a foreign thing by the powerful of this world. Yet as soon as Lord Dioscorus returned to Rome, having discharged the office of his pious lab …
ennodius_pavia · c. 495 · score 0.01
Ennodius to Opilio, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious]. I certainly owe replies to your earlier letters, and in the service of my principles -- or at least my shame -- I should double the correspondence I have received, lest I displease you with my rustic writing and a man of higher station regret having condescended by …
ennodius_pavia · c. 515 · score 0.01
Behold — the judgment of the one we love has been improved. And so I have looked out for myself through restraint, and for our consul [Avienus, who held the ordinary consulship in 501 AD] through the occasion for amendment. But lest this page run on at excessive length, transgressing the limits set in advance — and les …