Ennodius of Pavia → Avitus of Vienne

---

How often the sins of others press down upon us, and what has its origin nowhere in ourselves is charged, with every appearance of justice, against our own transgressions! From my own experience I have learned that the testimony of the ancients does not perish — for through new events, the ancient proclamation of the poets is renewed. I believe that line was spoken with me in mind: *the unhappy man falls by another's wound* [Virgil, *Aeneid* X.781 — a warrior struck down not by his own enemy, but by a blow meant for someone else].

This is precisely the predicament now set before me in the case of the son of Sabinus — that man of venerable memory — who, held fast until now by the hindrances of illness, has broken obligations that were established through no fault of his own. I confess that the weighty declaration of Your Greatness had very nearly rendered my own mind guilty before itself: I had begun to believe the failing truly mine, though my conscience sheltered no awareness of it whatsoever. But behold — the very moment he was restored to good health, he set out for Milan with the utmost speed.

The remaining particulars I did not think it necessary to press before you, for one who commends justice to great men seems, by that very act, to set forgetfulness in opposition to equity [that is, to remind a great man of fairness is to imply he might otherwise forget it — an insult to his character].

My lord, I offer you the gift of my most complete greeting; and for what remains, I entreat that the state of your grace toward me — abundant as it already is — may yet be moved to receive still further increase.