Letter 1013: My heart is troubled since your Greatness, so careful in observing fairness and so tenacious in friendship, has...

XIII. Ennodius to Agapitus. My mind is troubled, since Your Greatness, most observant of fairness and tenacious of friendships, has turned toward this neglect of forgetting me, so that, unmindful of your diligence, the good things of a better age, which have come from the advancement of your honors, were announced by rumor rather than by a happy letter. Where are those inner sanctuaries of your holy conscience, venerable in their manner of life? When could a mind anxious for the cheerfulness of one who loves find anything more worthy of report? But I ask whether some one of the malicious has let the south wind in among the flowers, or a butting beast among the rose-beds. For never is a prosperous outcome hidden from friends without giving offense: it comes of vexation that one is silent to those who live far away about that in which you rejoice. Let the obscenity of malice be far removed from your character. I think I have deserved that your good fortune [gap: editorial critical apparatus, not letter text] not be unknown to me, since such silence will be weighed against the frequency of conversation. No cultivation of affection can soothe a friend who is departing from his desires. However greatly you may paint these things, my lord, with the noble images of your knowledge's words, misdeeds are rarely cured by conversations, and grief that has descended from a real matter cannot be healed by speech; it will scarcely be that by writing you may wipe away what you scorned to write. But I return to my purpose, from which, if the Divinity has mercy, one must never depart. I owe it to God that, while your silence was managing it, I was the first in Liguria to learn of your prosperity. You have lost the fruit of your studied taciturnity: the felicity of good men is celebrated by the tongue of the world; what has been added to the highest things cannot be unknown. In honors, those things are more to be embraced which are repaid: ill is he raised to the fasces whose mind, among the stars of the senate-house, does not recognize in its titles the votes of its own light. There has come to you a hoary dignity [late], yet owed. The tongue, which follows it, summoned it; the innocence, which it once had joined to its age, demanded it. But now I return to the favor of friendly converse even after offense. Farewell, my lord, and what you neglected in the loss of the promised covenant, restore by the abundance of your speech.

XIII. AGAPITO ENNODIVS. Male est animo, postquam magnitudo tua aequi obseruantissima et amicitiarum tenax in hanc meae obliuionis se uertit incuriam, ut diligentiae inmemor bona melioris saeculi, quae accesserunt de profectu honorum tuorum, fama potius quam felici epistula nuntiasset. ubi sunt illa sanctae conscientiae tuae in conuersatione ueneranda penetralia? quando inuenire potuisset relatu digniora animus de amantis hilaritate sollicitus? sed quaero, ne malignorum quispiam austrum floribus aut petulcum animal rosetis inmiserit. numquam enim sine offensa amicis prosper euentus absconditur: a commotione euenit longe degentibus tacere quod gaudeas. procul a moribus uestris malitiae facessat obscenitas. puto bona uestra me meruisse Q 1 accipero BL formidandam V eorr. m. 1 3 depręhendere i. L 5 incipientum Sirm . cognosco V corr. m. 1 6 tenere B, tenerea L 8 manifestetnr Tl utuidetur 9 soluta scripsi, solita LPTVb, saluta B, saluto coni. Schot . 10 saltem Pb, saltim BLTV XIII. 12 ennodius agapito TV 14 obseruandissima B 15 amititiaram Bl in hanc T in ras . m. 2 17 adcessernnt B 18 sancte B 19 conuersatione Pb, consernatione LTV, consernatione amoris B 20 relato B 21 quaero] uereor fort . ne] ne forte B floribus scripsi, fontibus BLPTVb, &1. fetibus P* in mg . 22 petnlcum animal T in ras. m. 2 23 prosper B er in marg . add. deuenit T . nescire, quia sermonis frequentia pensabitur tale silentium. decedentem a desideriis amicum nulla delenire potest cultura caritatis. haec quantauis, mi domine, nobilibus scientiae tuae uerborum pingas imaginibus, raro curantur malefacta conloquiis, et dolor, qui a re descenderit, sanari non potest per loquelam uix erit, ut scribendo deleas, quod scribere contempsisti. sed reuertor ad propositum, a quo numquam est, si miseretur diuinitas, discedendum. deo debeo, quod prospera tua te silentium procurante in Liguria primus agnoui. perdidisti fructum studiosae taciturnitatis: bonorum felicitas mundi lingua celebratur: ignorari non potest quod summis accesserit. in honoribus illa magis amplectenda sunt quae redduntur: male ad fasces adtollitur cuius mens inter curiae sidera lucis suae suffragia non agnoscit in titulis. uenit ad uos cana dignitas [sera], sed debita. uocauit eam lingua, quam sequitur: exegit innocentia, quam habuit quondam aetate coniunctam. sed iam redeo ad gratiam familiaris alloquii etiam post offensam. salue, mi domine, et quod in damno promissi foederis neglexisti restitue ubertate sermonis.