Resultados25 letters/passages
symmachus · c. 382 · score 0.02
… ause of justice itself — that's your chief concern — but I do dare ask that the imperial response come quickly, to give force to the rulings already made.
symmachus · c. 394 · score 0.02
You are still silent, but my loquacity is not restrained by your example, and my leisure gives me too convenient an opportunity for a flood of words. For I am in the country, though I do not rusticate. From the bank of the Tiber -- for the river flows through my estate -- I watch the laden ships pass by, no longer anxi …
symmachus · c. 378 · score 0.02
With the blessing of the divine powers, my son Symmachus will assume the fasces [the ceremonial rods symbolizing... [The Latin manuscript tradition for this letter (Symmachus, Epistulae Book 8, Letter 25) is heavily corrupt or fragmentary. The above is a partial rendering based on the best available source.]
symmachus · c. 375 · score 0.02
Sicily's provincial assembly has sent Ambrosius, one of the leading men of the provincial bar, to our lords and emperors. He carries various petitions that seem to concern the public good. If you lend him your support, I believe his effort will bear fruit. I ask you, therefore — whether for the merit of the delegation …
symmachus · c. 387 · score 0.02
… quashed by proper examination. I beg you, therefore, to appoint judges whom the imperial appointment has set over urban authorities. For it is unworthy that a trivial debt involving a person of high rank should be referred to a distant hearing. I would go on at greater length, if fairness required many prayers to assis …
symmachus · c. 388 · score 0.02
The heirs of Ampelius, a man of illustrious memory, are being harassed by a private lawsuit. You must not think this is merely a matter between private parties -- the reputation of a great man and the security of his family's legacy are at stake. I ask you to give this case your personal attention. The facts are set fo …
symmachus · c. 376 · score 0.01
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 0.01
… 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. 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. 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. 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. 392 · score 0.01
I trust that by now the prefect's earlier letter has reached you. If by some accident or the carrier's negligence it went astray, here is another dispatch from that most distinguished man. He asked me to add a note of my own, so that you might share your thoughts on the matter he'd like you involved in. You can give yo …
symmachus · c. 385 · score 0.01
When I wrote this letter to you, I was confined to my bed by illness -- freed from danger, to be sure, but still without strength, which keeps being drained by intermittent fevers. Yet even amid the troubles of my poor health, I set my friends to work on having our mutual pledge enrolled among the ranks of consulares b …
symmachus · c. 369 · score 0.01
Your letter was delivered while I was at the seventh milestone along the Via Ostiensis, and I immediately arranged through the distinguished vicarius to have the official documents produced at my request. But your servant left the city without consulting me — slaves being all too familiar with that kind of insolence. W …
symmachus · c. 369 · score 0.01
Both my respect for you and my sense of duty would make any occasion for writing worth seizing — let alone one as good as this, presented by a fellow citizen. You'll recognize him: a man from the seven hills [i.e., Rome], known at home for the distinction of his family and abroad for his years of military service. Ther …
symmachus · c. 391 · score 0.01
… se welcome Maximus -- an old friend but a brand-new courier [agens in rebus, an imperial messenger], a man going gray while still serving among the new recruits. He can fill you in on everything you need to know, which saves me from a long letter -- except, of course, for my usual request that you come visit, which I n …
symmachus · c. 401 · score 0.01
...Fortune has seized my hand; she's dragged me back against my will. Don't let her convince you — imperious as she is — that I didn't want to come. Farewell.
symmachus · c. 370 · score 0.01
After this greeting, I turn to a matter that demands your attention. My agents report delays in the business I entrusted to them, and I suspect the obstacles are not entirely beyond remedy. Your influence in the region would go a long way toward smoothing the path. I ask you, then, in the name of our friendship, to len …
symmachus · c. 381 · score 0.01
Bears will shortly be brought from overseas. Please arrange suitable escorts so that this addition may be joined to your earlier services. Farewell. I am delighted by your diligence and judicial vigor, but the poverty -- or rather destitution -- of the municipal council of Formiae cannot even bear the cure. For just as …
symmachus · c. 388 · score 0.01
Shortly afterward, I had promised to support the son of my friend Trygetius as a candidate for the praetorship [junior magistracy]. Duty demanded that I seize the opportunity of that scheduled appearance to fulfill an obligation to my father that was still owed by me — though, as I said, already discharged by the Senat …
symmachus · c. 385 · score 0.01
I was unable to attend the Senate on the day when the son of Thalassius was released from the obligations of our rank, but I had already secured the hope of future action on his behalf through considerable personal recommendations among our friends. I do not claim credit for the success of the petition, however: the ju …
symmachus · c. 369 · score 0.01
It serves the public interest that greater responsibilities have been entrusted to you. My congratulations can therefore be brief — I wouldn't want any suspicion of flattery to diminish the truth of my judgment. I pray that the course of your new office goes well, though I have no doubt that integrity like yours is uns …
symmachus · c. 378 · score 0.01
I'm overflowing with joy that the new year will see you as consul. But this note must be brief — I'll send a fuller letter of congratulation shortly. For now, I have another matter to raise. Patruinus, a distinguished senator, is making his way to you at your invitation. He thought it would help his cause to carry my e …
symmachus · c. 385 · score 0.01
My first concern is always to ask how your health stands. Everything else comes second -- though you did recently raise some questions that deserve answers. The city is rattled by grave omens, and I'll skip the minor ones. The most alarming was this: on the anniversary of Rome's founding, the replacement consul was thr …