Resultados25 letters/passages
symmachus · c. 368 · score 0.02
Your first letter reached me — so short, so hurried, it seemed to be imitating your journey. But believe me, the brevity wasn't unwelcome. You managed to cover in a few concise lines everything I wanted to know about your well-being: how strong your health is, how quickly you arrived, what reception you found with our …
symmachus · c. 367 · score 0.02
I hesitate to submit my writings to your eloquence, but I am equally careful not to refuse anything of mine to your affection. I have therefore sent you two short speeches recently published by me. One of them restrained a candidate who was resisting his appointment to the urban magistracy; the other took as its subjec …
symmachus · c. 376 · score 0.02
Duty suggested I should write, since the person delivering this letter hopes for more from your judgment than from mine. So I'll leave everything that letters usually contain to him to tell you directly. From him your Excellency will hear both what's worth knowing about me, and what his own situation requires.
symmachus · c. 381 · score 0.02
… e 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 divini …
symmachus · c. 373 · score 0.02
Whole cohorts of letters follow in the wake of your departure, and just as some people seek Athens for its schools or the gymnasiums of the Muses, so your travels attract an admiring crowd. And I don't imagine that a man blessed with the resources of high office finds it burdensome to host friends. So feed these schola …
symmachus · c. 399 · score 0.02
You know — whether by reputation or firsthand — how long I've championed your achievements. So I won't stand by while anything threatens the goodwill you've earned. My friend Priscianus, who ranks among the foremost philosophers for both learning and character, receives a salary by authority of the Senate. I'm told a d …
symmachus · c. 385 · score 0.01
The philosopher Horus, a man of exceptional life and learning, has long been dear to me. He counts it among Fortune's chief blessings to be connected with the best people. So, eager to fulfill his wish, I ask you to receive him — both for his own merit and in honor of my recommendation — among the most esteemed and hon …
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. 378 · score 0.01
I repay everyone who gives me an occasion to write with the currency of a recommendation. The present favor I wish to do for the excellent Petrucius, who I know will regard this letter not so much as a recommendation of himself as of me — for his own merits speak loudly enough. He is a man of solid character, tested in …
symmachus · c. 373 · score 0.01
You used to be a prolix writer, matching the strength of your talent. But ever since the honor of court life called you to active service, you too have taken to clipping your words -- like a light-armed skirmisher who sheds his baggage for the march [Text breaks off in source.]
symmachus · c. 393 · score 0.01
You haven't replied to my earlier letters either, but it was my duty to write again rather than waste such a reliable opportunity — especially since our mutual friend Auxentius believed my letter would improve his standing with you. I shouldn't need to recommend him, though, since you've been his character witness to o …
symmachus · c. 386 · score 0.01
Duty demanded that I write, especially since a convenient opportunity presented itself. Your man offered himself to me as a letter carrier, and I realized it would be a grave offense to send him back with nothing. I wish you well, I report my own good health, and in return I ask you to reward me with news of your wellb …
symmachus · c. 377 · score 0.01
Our ancestors did well and wisely — as was their way in so many things — when they built the temples of Honor and Virtue side by side with matching facades. Their insight anticipated what we've seen in you: that the rewards of honor are found where the merits of virtue reside. And nearby stands the shrine of the Muses …
symmachus · c. 393 · score 0.01
Both the dress and the hair of Serapammon proclaim him a man of literary learning -- he would never have adopted the philosopher's attire if he did not remember his own education. But let your own judgment of him be the test, since you profess knowledge of such matters. For my part, I commend his religious devotion and …
symmachus · c. 401 · score 0.01
Lest you think I've been entirely idle, I'm entrusting to your learned judgment a little book — a record of my recent efforts — which won favorable votes from my fellow citizens in the Senate. You see: I'm preemptively submitting myself to the rigors of your most exacting scrutiny. I don't plead the merit of my style — …
symmachus · c. 375 · score 0.01
[Note: The source text survives only as a single sentence fragment, likely due to a lacuna in the manuscript tradition.] It is proper to inhabit it, impious and cruel to abandon it. Farewell.
symmachus · c. 400 · score 0.01
The splendor of your eloquence is nothing new to me. But your recent speech — suited to great affairs, its glory adapted to the majesty of what you put in writing — has raised still higher the reputation you'd already won through your teaching. Beyond the rhetorical ornaments that nature has lavished on you, there was …
symmachus · c. 399 · score 0.01
I believe the distinguished Vitalianus asked me for this letter more as a courtesy to me than as any real help to himself. Since nothing could improve on the affection he already enjoys from you, his only purpose seems to have been to give me another occasion to strengthen my own connection with you. So accept this qui …
symmachus · c. 365 · score 0.01
I admit I've been silent for a long time, waiting for a letter from you to give me the confidence to write. But since no such invitation has come, I've broken the ice myself and sent this greeting first — with the strong hope that you'll follow my example. [Second letter] My son Flavianus has more than enough merit and …
symmachus · c. 370 · score 0.01
[This letter contains multiple sections interspersed with critical apparatus. The legible portions discuss: congratulations on a friend's appointment to public office, a commendation for a young man being sent to the recipient's province, complaints about irregularities in tax collection affecting Symmachus's estates, …
symmachus · c. 388 · score 0.01
You deserve to hear about things that have recently done me credit, given your devoted interest in my affairs. I expect you've already heard the rumor: my father, who'd been in the country nursing his resentment over the loss of his house, was recalled to Rome by a flood of senatorial petitions and a formal delegation …
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. 371 · score 0.01
It wouldn't be right to let the kinswoman of the holy philosopher Asclepiades leave without a letter from me. His distinction demands that someone under his eminent care be entrusted to your patronage. I don't think a long speech is necessary — the mere thought of her distinguished guardian should commend her to your k …
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. 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 …