Resultados25 letters/passages
symmachus · c. 397 · score 0.02
Rufus, the treasurer of the pontifical college, is bringing you the college's formal petition. He's been specifically entrusted with the matter of retaining the Vaganensis estate [a piece of land belonging to the priestly college]. I beg you: make it seem as though your help in this matter were divinely provided. And r …
symmachus · c. 394 · score 0.02
Take heart — be patient with the duty that's been imposed on you. It often happens that proven merit is called back for a second round of service. Consider: do you think Atilius [a Roman exemplar of civic duty, who left his plow for public office] was happy to trade his fasces for the plow and halt his panting oxen in …
symmachus · c. 372 · score 0.02
… aim for themselves the windfall gains [bona caduca -- property that fell to the imperial treasury when intended heirs were disqualified], and that the position of honest men will grow worse if the opportunity for fraud falls only to those restrained by neither law nor shame. Therefore, since the emperor's own position …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.02
I feel utterly unequal to the task of thanking you properly for what you've done for my son Flavianus. Words come easier than deeds, and yet I cannot make my words match the scale of your kindness. The joy isn't mine alone — with Flavianus, lost honor has returned to favor, and the senate and all good men share this ha …
symmachus · c. 388 · score 0.02
The quadragesima [a 2.5% import duty] is being wrongly demanded from senators who are candidates sponsoring games. This imposition is both illegal and unjust. The senators are already bearing enormous expenses for the public entertainment, and to tax the very animals and materials they import for the games is to punish …
symmachus · c. 396 · score 0.02
This isn't a new request -- it's one you'll recognize. I'm defending the daughters of the late Rufinus, former urban prefect, with a father's devotion. They're alone in the world, and I want their interests protected through you and the others who bear responsibility for the state. So I come as their advocate: whatever …
symmachus · c. 386 · score 0.01
I recommended the son of the distinguished Macedonius to you some time ago, when he first entered your court. I believe my support helped the young man. But parents are never satisfied, and some people think a repeated petition carries more force than the first. So, asked again, I renew my request — not asking you to s …
symmachus · c. 370 · score 0.01
...you may be inspired by my example. Since I have fulfilled my part of this sacred duty, I expect that you too will discharge your obligation of reciprocity.
symmachus · c. 398 · score 0.01
There's something in my daughter Galla's [the text says "Fusgania" — possibly a copyist error] complaints that I'll confess has actually worked in my favor: if she hadn't demanded a useful letter on her behalf, I'd have had no occasion to write at all. So let me begin with the greeting that serves my own duty. The rest …
symmachus · c. 396 · score 0.01
We cannot bear the stubbornness of our people, who have not paid their outstanding obligations from previous years. The patience we have shown has been interpreted as weakness, and what began as indulgence threatens to become a precedent. Unpaid taxes are not a gift to the debtor -- they are a burden transferred to oth …
symmachus · c. 383 · score 0.01
My son Caecilianus, a distinguished man currently managing the grain supply of our common fatherland, has learned from reliable evidence that his adversary -- a man named Pirata, or his procurator -- has drawn hope from the prospect of your support. I denied that you are in the habit of taking on financial lawsuits. St …
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. 396 · score 0.01
It is a duty of human decency to furnish recommendations to those who seek them. In the case of Zenobius, however, such a man deserves more than the ordinary letter. His learning and character would speak for themselves in any company. I commend him to you with confidence, knowing that once you have met him, you will u …
symmachus · c. 390 · score 0.01
My return and arrival in the city -- which is always welcome to everyone -- did not match our expectations in terms of speed. If you want the reasons, here they are. First, to put public matters before private ones: the grain supply of our city is not being increased by any imports. Even hope itself -- which usually su …
symmachus · c. 396 · score 0.01
… modern Algeria/Morocco]. During that catastrophe, even funds deposited with the imperial treasury were seized by right of war. The treasury then demanded repayment from the leading citizens — those few whom flight had spared. A harsh and bitter situation — had not Clemens's efforts moved the government to show justice. …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.01
After greeting you, let me also warmly commend my dear friend Silvanus, whom I entrust to your attentiveness. He's taken on the arduous necessity of traveling in order to restore my estates, which makes him all the more deserving of every good person's support. [Continued] We see no official edict specifying which indi …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.01
That is why you keep finding new ways to earn his love, reminding him amid his greater concerns to attend to private fortunes as well. The sufferings of our household have been put to flight; nothing sorrowful remains in the senate. Some have had honors restored, others newly conferred. What each of us has received, th …
symmachus · c. 370 · score 0.01
[This letter's text is heavily interspersed with critical apparatus notes. The legible portions concern: arrangements for public games, complaints about delays in horse procurement from distant provinces, management of household estates, and the customary exchange of greetings. A complete translation requires the clean …
symmachus · c. 394 · score 0.01
The management of our estates demands constant attention -- a truth that every landowner learns through hard experience. I write to you on this subject because your judgment in such matters has always proven sound. The details are familiar to you, and I trust your advice will be as practical as it is welcome.
symmachus · c. 367 · score 0.01
[This letter contains multiple fragmentary sections heavily mixed with critical apparatus. The legible portions concern: recommendations of friends traveling to the recipient's province, requests for help with estate management, and standard greetings. The OCR corruption makes a continuous reliable translation impossib …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.01
… o Pompeianus] You can't accuse me of a long silence — you know I've been at the imperial court until recently. Now that I'm back, I'm performing the honorable duty of sending greetings. Your reply will prove you received my letter gladly. In the meantime, I commend the bearer of this letter — anything you do for his pe …
symmachus · c. 391 · score 0.01
I had resolved to be away from home for a long while and was enjoying a pleasant period of leisure with our friends at our suburban estate called Arabianum. But since fortune overturns human plans and our intentions do not always proceed as we wish, the Prefect's letter broke into my leisure. The letter contained good …
symmachus · c. 372 · score 0.01
… ular downfall was a major political event]. The proof is right there, sealed in imperial decrees. And really, given the long record of that old plunderer, no one should have doubted that the treasury would reclaim the spoils he'd stripped from the empire. If only such great joy weren't spoiled by the grain shortage, wh …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.01
[To an unnamed friend] I'm renewing my recommendation of Euscius, not starting one from scratch — when you were in Rome, you willingly took up his cause at my request. Now it's time for you to support my interests through Euscius, whose discretion in handling my affairs will do nothing to harm your own reputation. Fare …
symmachus · c. 371 · score 0.01
Take my letter as your model -- and if you refuse to follow it, I will be marked both as arrogant and lumped together with those whose great pretension in words masks an utter emptiness of thought. --- To Protadius (~400 AD): The same consul who summoned me had called you to Milan. I hoped the occasion would bring us t …