Resultados25 letters/passages
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
… because he was elevated through the highest titles of office all the way to the imperial throne. But I can never agree with the proposition that men who stand on the perilous and slippery heights of political power are fortunate. For the hourly miseries endured in this life by those so-called happy men are beyond descr …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
On good rolls he says nothing; on bad ones he laughs. In neither case does he lose his temper; in both he plays the philosopher. He disdains second chances — refuses both to fear them and to inflict them, ignoring opportunities offered and brushing past obstacles. You would think that even in dice he is handling weapon …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
Forbidden by the weight of his cares from maintaining the measured routine of his former peace, he instantly abandoned the rules of his old way of life and realized that the business of an emperor and the leisure of a senator simply cannot coexist. Nor did the future disappoint his present gloom. For though he had sail …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
Drunk on new wealth — and here you see their character even in small things — their very extravagance in spending betrays their inexperience in possessing. They cheerfully appear armed at dinner parties, in white at funerals, in furs at church, in black at weddings, and in beaver-skin cloaks at religious processions. N …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
All this I passed over, hoping it would be more fitting to place your greeting among bishops than among senators — and judging it more just to number you among the servants of Christ than among the prefects of Valentinian. Nor should any hostile critic hold it against you that you are now counted among priests rather t …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.02
This color comes not from anger but from modesty. His shoulders are rounded, his upper arms powerful, his forearms hard, his hands broad. His chest juts out beyond a receding belly. A spine that sits lower than the ridge of his ribs divides the plain of his back. On either side, the flanks are knotted with prominent mu …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
… il, sent a letter ahead announcing his coming. In it he reports that he carries imperial letters patent granting the patriciate to your brother Ecdicius as well — whose honors bring you no less joy than my own. It comes quickly if you consider his youth, but very slowly if you consider his merits. For he long ago paid …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
For I know he would have said nothing about his own distinction, and you would have judged him not heartless but merely shy. As for me, I rejoice not so much in the insignia of rank — which you have been awaiting with all the more impatience for all the more freedom (though I rejoice greatly in these too) — as in the f …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Sidonius To His Dear Ecdicius, greetings. Duo nunc pariter mala sustinent Arverni tui. 'quaenam?' inquis. praesentiam Seronati et absentiam tuam. Seronati, inquam: de cuius ut primum etiam nomine loquar, sic mihi videtur quasi praescia futurorum lusisse fortuna, sicuti ex adverso maiores nostri proelia, quibus nihil es …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Accordingly, in Avienus the rapid accumulation of honors was noted as pleasant, in Basilius their slow but steady growth as impressive. Both, to be sure, whenever they left their houses, were hemmed in by a crowd of clients going before, following behind, and pressing all around. But the hopes and ambitions of their re …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
When he rises, the palace guard begins its nighttime watches. Armed men take their posts at the entrances to the royal residence, where they will keep vigil through the first hours of sleep. But why should I go on? I promised you a brief portrait of the man, not an account of his kingdom. Besides, it is time to end thi …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Sidonius to his dear Eutropius, greetings. 1. I have long wanted to write to you, but now I am especially impelled to do so, since I am traveling to the city with Christ's blessing. My chief or sole reason for writing is to summon you from the depths of your domestic tranquility to take up the duties of the Palatine se …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
To Industrius. I recently visited the distinguished Vectius and closely observed his daily life, very much at my leisure. Since I found it worthy of being known, I judged it not unworthy of being told. First and foremost — for this rightly takes precedence over all other praise — his household maintains an unblemished …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
God willing, such prayers will be blessed with favorable outcomes, and there will yet be time to remember these terrors amid the pleasures of peace — but the present dangers make us cautious, even if the future will make us secure. In the meantime, the bearer of this letter sighs over certain losses he claims were infl …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
I shall provide access by securing your admission, comfort by attending your recitation, and support by championing your cause. If you trust the voice of experience, much serious business will be advanced for you by this performance." I obeyed his instructions. He did not withdraw his support from the task he had impos …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
He governs the condition and status of his dependents not by domination but by judgment: you would think he does not own his house but rather administers it. Having observed this man's character and moderation, I decided it would serve others' instruction to publish at least the outlines of his way of life — a life to …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Sidonius to his dear Heronius, greetings. 1. After the wedding of the patrician Ricimer -- that is, after the resources of both empires had been squandered on the celebration -- serious public business was at last resumed, opening the door and field for the conduct of affairs. Meanwhile I was graciously received in the …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
… icus, Massa, Marcellus, Carus, Parthenius, Licinus, and Pallas [notorious Roman imperial freedmen and corrupt officials] would raise their hands in surrender at the comparison. These are the men who begrudge civilians their rest, soldiers their pay, couriers their expenses, merchants their markets, ambassadors their gi …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
And since you alone, in the memory of our forefathers, have been granted — after the Confessor Ambrose [of Milan], discoverer of two martyrs — the privilege of a complete translation of the martyr Ferreolus's relics in the western world, with the addition of the head of our own Julian [of Brioude], which the bloody han …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
But if verses devoid of ease and happiness cannot win approval, you too will find nothing pleasing on the page I append below. [The poem that follows describes the barbarian peoples gathered at the court of Euric in Bordeaux:] Why do you try to rouse the Muses now, Lampridius, glory of our poetry, and force me to compo …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
… court ignores us, and between the hammer of barbarian ambition and the anvil of imperial indifference, our people are being crushed. What we need most is not armies -- for those we have long since ceased to expect -- but advocates: men of such standing and eloquence that even a distracted emperor cannot pretend not to …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
Like Tantalus, the terrified man dared not open his mouth, lest the food that entered it exit through a wound. After many tears and desperate prayers, he was barely released — and he fled that royal luxury and those regal delicacies with the same speed that men usually pursue them. He returned to the desires of ordinar …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
To Pannychius. You know that Seronatus [a corrupt Roman official who collaborated with the Visigoths] is returning to Toulouse — or if you do not know yet (and I believe you do not), learn it from these signs. Already Euanthius is hurrying ahead to Clausetia, assembling work-crews to clear whatever autumn leaves may ha …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
To the Lord Bishop Patiens [Bishop of Lyon, celebrated for his extraordinary generosity during the famines that followed Gothic devastation]. I believe that the man who truly lives for his own good is the one who lives for the good of others — who, moved by compassion for the calamities and poverty of the faithful, per …
sidonius_apollinaris · c. 467 · score 0.01
To Apollinaris [a kinsman, likely the same as above]. As soon as summer gave way to autumn and the fears of the Auvergne could be somewhat relieved by the change of season, I came to Vienne [an important city on the Rhone in southeastern Gaul], where I found your brother Thaumastus — whom I embrace with the reverence d …