Letter 2026: Friendship either nourishes or sustains — and sometimes both at once.

Ennodius to Liberius. Diligence is either nourished or sustained by writing: epistolary conversation is the handmaid of affection; a mute love presents the image of an ingrate; a friendship that does not burst forth into speech cheapens its own native spirit. The secret of the heart is well unlocked by the key of speech; I am now the stronger for the regard you bestow. These first offerings of our exchange on the page I have dedicated according to the strength of my talent, and through them I lay claim to the merit of being the one who loves the more. For no one extends his lips behind the bar of silence whom the speech of his mind, a betrayer, does not abandon as one mindful of the bond once agreed upon. Therefore I hold the foremost place in our literary fellowship, and I am worthy of the greater cultivation, since I was the first to disclose, by the testimony of my tongue, what I longed for. Behold, I have set forth without a cloud my scrupulous care in directing this page. It is yours to cherish in me what you have received, lest the judgments of your eminence suffer scrutiny while I lie prostrate. For whoever does not protect what he has chosen exposes his own verdict to censure. My lord, paying the reverence of my greeting with full deference, I ask God that He multiply the increases of His benefits around you, since He alone is the most complete sum of my advantages, who has raised your highness to the heights that are owed to it.

XXVI. ENNODIVS LIBERIO. Aut alitur aut sustentatur scriptione diligentia: ministra affectionis est epistularis confabulatio: muta caritas simulacrum praesentat ingrati: depretiat genium suum quae in uocem non prorumpit amicitia. bene secretum pectoris reseratur claue sermonis: dignatione uestra iam potior. haec pro ingenii uiribus paginalis conmercii libamenta dedicaui, per quae usurpo uindicare mihi meritum plus amantis. nemo enim taciturnitatis repagulo ora porrigit, quem decisi foederis memorem proditor mentis loquela non deserit. principem ergo locum in litteraria communione possideo et maiori cultura dignus sum, qui prior quid gestirem patefeci linguae testimonio. ecoe religionem dirigendae paginae sine nube disserui. uestrum est in me fouere quod recepistis, ne iudicia culminis uestri me iacente patiantur examen. exponit enim censurae sententiam suam quisquis quod elegit non tuetur. domine mi, salutationis reuerentiam pleno dependens obsequio deum rogo, ut beneficiorum circa uos suorum incrementa multiplicet, quia solus census est meorum plenissime conmodorum, qui celsitudinem uestram ad fastigia quae debentur extulerit.