Letter 3014: Frequent letters would serve both kinship and love, as they should.

Ennodius to Euprepia. My dutiful heart would offer frequent conversations both to kinship and to love, were it not that the reckoning of those who are separated withdraws its own remedies from such longings, leaving the lands without cure. For whatever is joined together by affection, whatever is bound by the chain of blood, this, once torn apart, scarcely draws breath across the intervals of regions. For what supports can she have to whom frequent abundance even of written discourse is denied? By what witness is silent diligence revealed between those who are absent? For either the awaited opportunity of travelers is taken away, or such men are found as cannot be entrusted with letters that ought to be delivered to those we hold dear. I, nevertheless, have for a long time kept my anxious vows in suspense until a household letter-carrier should come, through whom, offering honor to one greeted, I may disclose to you the longed-for tokens of my prosperity, and may pledge myself a reply through the publishing of a letter; and by these, if your health is safe in harbor, may it be opened to embracing words.

XIIII. ENNODIVS EVPREPIAE. Frequentia et necessitudini et amori exhiberet conloquia pectus obnoxium, nisi desideriis remedia sua subduceret discretarum consideratio sine medela terrarum. quicquid enim 1 concurreient Sirm . 2 uenientium LTV nesciat T* u q ex qd T corr . 3 ponimum L delegendus BLTV 4 nostre T ///scripta B cõmitti B ~ atram. fusco add. cocidl sionem L\' 5 prostamus B 6 cnpitati F exegit B, exigis Ll iccirco T 7 oportunitatem BLTV 8 inmeritus Bl 9 inoportnnitate B reddeat B 11 paginale BLV; ad mnnus uel uubeidium paginale fort.; cf . Wiener Stndien II p. 251 12 mihi T 8.I. m. 8 18 pagiDa B1 LV; fort . pro pagina 14 domine//// Y 15 uenerabilem| unus B1 16 sollecito B 17 et meam T suspitatem Bx XIIII. 20 necessitudinem B eziberet BL1, exhiberi T1 21 sna om. Sirm . subducerent LTV descrstaram B 22 rtedilla B, medelam F1 YI. 6 caritate iunctum est, quicquid sanguinis catena sociatur, hoc distractum uix respirat per interualla regionum. quae enim possit habere subsidia cui frequens denegatur copia et paginalis alloquii? muta inter absentes diligentia quo teste pandatur? ant enim opportunitas commeantium expectata subtrahitur aut inueniuntur tales, quibus non possint reddenda caris scripta conmitti. mi tamen usque ad domesticum perlatorem diu anxia uota suspendi, per quem honorem salutati exhibens optata nobis patefaciam meae prosperitatis indicia et litterarum mihi spondeam promulgatione responsum, quibus, si in portu est sanitas uestra, amplectendis reseretur affatibus.