Letter 2027: You live in the neighborhood, and yet you write as though continents divided us — which is to say, you do not write...

Ennodius to Honoratus. In your recent letter you indicated that you are living in our neighborhood, joining to the gains of our joys the news that the state of your health has been impaired. I do not deny it: such is my lot, that bitter things should always be coupled for me with the sweet. Up to now adverse circumstances kept you occupied with the watches at Ravenna, and because, since the affliction of Lazarus befell you [an illness like that which struck the beggar Lazarus], the bodily substance in you has been undermined, so that it has not been wholly permitted to attain what was desired. How harsh is the condition of human affairs, which, as often as it answers our desires with any pleasant taste, soon exchanges even the things granted at the very threshold. Yet I have laid bare the false charge which you, with oratorical and all too Daedalian foresight, inserted into your letter, so that you put it there for your own advantage, in order to make me believe that you are unwilling, if I shall have signaled that I was unable to accomplish it. O hidden depth of a craftsman's wit, which looks more to its own convenience than it trusts in love! God is my witness that I will not deny you what I am able to do. Do you pray to God that He may not allow my advocacy to be hindered by the calamities of those unhappy letters which you love. For there is nothing that I dread more as an obstacle to the suit laid upon me than this, which I have learned: that to receive a scholastic [an advocate, a man of letters] earns nothing. Apply your talent rather to the unkempt and rugged statutes, through which whatever a rough tongue has demanded it has soon obtained, or, if it has not obtained it, has soon snatched it away. My lord, paying the courtesy of a greeting, I hope, but with poured-out prayers do you aid my labor, because, since I do not possess the merit of a learned or erudite man, I often in lawsuits endure the destiny of one already finished.

XXVII. HONORATO ENNODIVS. In uicinitate uos degere moderna scriptione signastis, iungentes ad dispendia gaudiorum statum uestrae ualitudinis inminutum. non nego, sic mereor, ut semper mihi cum dulcibus XXVL 2 ennodius om. T 3 aUtor B scriptionem T1, sabscriptione L 5 repraesentat Sirm . depciat LPT quem T 7 dignationem Sirm . nestra BTb, nestram LPV et Sirm . potior BPb, patior TV et Sirm., patior L 8 uendicare T 11 loquilla B 13 qui Tl 14 disserui T corr . M. 2 15 coepiBtis b, cepistis b 16 paciantnr B 17 elegerit T mihi BL V 20 plenissimns fort . cdmodorum (c5 ex con) L h XXVII. 23 ennodias om. T 24 nicinate L deg.ere L 26 ego Т1b at Y a. I. m. 1, ut T s. I. m. 2, et L, om. P amara socientur. hactenus uos Rauennatibus occupatos excubiis aduersa tenuerunt, unde quia lazari contigit, corporalia in uobis est labefactata substantia, ne in totum liceret optata promereri. quam dura est humanarum rerum condicio, quae quotiens desideriis aliquo sapore responderit, mox et in foribus concessa permutat. expani tamen calumniam, quam oratoria et nimis Daedala preuisione litteris indidisti, ut indidisti pro utilitate tua nolle me credas, si efficere non potuisse signauero. o artificis ingenii secretum, quod plus commoditati prospicit quam de amore confidat! deus testis est me tibi non negaturum esse quod ualeo. tu deum roga, ut actionem. meam infelicium quas diligis litterarum non patiatur calamitatibus inpediri. nihil est enim quod magis pro obice metuam actionis inpositae, quam illud, quod noui, accipere scolasticum nil mereri. confer magis ingenium tuum ad squalentia iura, per quae quicquid scabrida poposcit lingua mox meruit aut, si non meruit, mox auulsit. domine, salutationis gratiam soluens spero, at effusis laborem meum precibus iuues, quia, cum non habeam. docti aut eruditi meritum, saepe in causis sustineo fata perfecti.