Quintus Aurelius Symmachus → destinatário desconhecido

You do well to console my leisure with your steady stream of letters. You've guessed, rightly, from the depth of your affection, that what comes from your most holy and brilliant pen is a gift I treasure.

I return the favor more as testimony of my gratitude than in any hope of matching your effort — an effort I know I can never equal. But this very inequality, I think, makes me all the more deserving of more frequent conversation: by conceding the palm to you, I acknowledge myself the debtor in our literary exchange.