Letter 1012: If you ask why, though punished by your silence, the bold face of modesty does not keep still, and if you say my...

XII. Ennodius to Avienus. If you should ask why a brow lavish with modesty does not keep silent that it has been punished by your silence, and why through ill interpretation affection is called impudence; if you should say that my talkativeness ought to have been checked once its fruit had ceased: I, most illustrious of men, appeal to you by that sincerity which is native to your household, and I embrace your pledged promise as a hostage of your mind. I grieve indeed at the manufactured pretexts for so long a silence, while both affection and the bond of kinship are neglected: but because your love claims me wholly for itself, I still believe that what you have done can admit of excuse, and I judge that there are grounds in this matter for your acquittal which I myself cannot find. I have always heard, to the fulfillment of my wish, that you pass your days in good health: often you have wiped away your sweat about the ornaments of your lineage by the light of an epistolary address. Nothing but contempt does it betray, whenever taciturnity has no necessity. I, however, taking hope from a reply, have always written, and have dictated things to be read as if in a certain presence of your splendor: while I speak, my page seemed to me to have restored you, that you are wise and bring words to terms with your own painted images. What sweetness there would be in a letter of yours, if it were granted me to receive it, I beg you weigh diligently, since, although the words proceed from us, yet we embrace those words which come to you. Now, I pray, rouse yourself to the affection of writing, and pour upon my dryness the flowing of conversation, that I may learn what my service can obtain from God, if I shall have received your letters as rivals of fatherly perfection. I do not want you to fear that I speak of him as one to be dreaded by the most learned, and that I bring him as it were before your eyes as a model of eloquence. It is the custom of skilled physicians to detect by the veins the strength of bodies, and to interrogate their fingers about a man's progress. Nor otherwise can the talents of beginners be known, except that those who ought not to, by demanding robust declamations of an age still tender, gladden us about future abundance and reveal the harvest of skill in the root. My lord, as above, with the honor of greeting and reverence discharged, I hope that, if my merit does not show you to be mindful of me, at least my importunity, which is unwearied, may signify it.

XII. AVIENO ENNODIVS. Si quaeras, cur silentio uestro multata non reticet prodiga frons pudoris et male interpretando inpudentia uocetur affectio, si garrulitatem meam fructu dicas cessante debuisse conpesci: ego te, inlustrissime hominum, illa quae in familia tua domestica est sinceritate conuenio, ego foederatam promissionem quasi obsidem mentis amplector. doleo quidem procuratas longi causas silentii, dum et caritas et necessitudo neglegitur: sed quia me totum sibi amor tuus uindicat, adhuc credo excusationem posse recipere quod fecisti et purgationis tuae in hac parte causas aestimo esse, quas inuenire non possum. in bona te ualitudine degere uoti compos semper audiui: sudorem tuum circa ornamenta generis saepe epistularis alloquii luce tersisti. nihil praeter contemptum monstrat, quotiens taciturnitas non habet necessitatem. ego tamen spem de responso capiens semper scripsi et sub quadam claritatis tuae praesentia legenda dictaui: uisa est mihi, dum loquor, pagina mea te reddidisse, te sapere et tuis picta imaginibus uerba conferre.. quid esset in epistula tua dulcedinis, si eam daretur accipere, quaeso diligenter expende, quando licet a nobis procedentia, tamen quae ad te ueniunt uerba conplectimur. iam, rogo, ad adfectum scriptionis erigere et ariditatem meam conloquii fluentis infunde, ut quid ministerium meum a deo ualeat inpetrare cognoscam, si epistulas tuas aemulas paternae Xll. 3 a silentio Pb et Sirm.; a incbtait Schot . muliata non retioet T tata non reti T in ros. m. 2 prodigia L1 5 ces- sante L prtus s in ras. fort. ex n corr. compesci LTV 8 praeparatas Pb 9 neglegetur B, negligitur T sic fere semper 10 nendicat PT 11 tne purgationis T 12 causaepoesum T in rca. m. 2 13 degerere B 14 epistularis BVl (u in o corr. m. 1), epistolaris LT 17 scribsi B 18 loquor pagina mea T or pagina mea in ras. m. 2 20 aepistula B, epistola LTV et sic rdiquis locis plerumque dulcidinis B 22 tamen non TV cdplectimar uerba T 23 affectam te T scribtionis B eloqaii T et P m. 2 supra colloquii 24 adeo P1b impetrare TV 25 aepistulas B aemulas V 8 partim ita rat. m. 1 ex e ut Midetur corr. paterne B perfectionis accepero. nolo metuas, quod illum formidandum doctissimis loquor et quasi ante oculos tuos in exemplum elocutionis adduco. peritorum mos est medicorum in uenis deprehendere uires corporum et de successu hominis digitos interrogare. nec aliter incipientium possunt ingenia cognosci, nisi ut qui non debent tenerae adhuc aetati robustas declamationes inquirentes de futura ubertate laetificent et messem peritiae in radice manifestent. domine, ut supra, salutationis honore et reuerentia soluta spero, ut mei te esse memorem si meritum non ostendit, saltem inportunitas mea, quae est indefessa, significet.