Letter 6005: My confidence has not been stripped bare by the outcomes I have already come to know.

Ennodius to Aurelianus. My confidence is not stripped bare of successes already foreknown. Strong in affection is the man whom, by a just estimation, I have promised to my own mind as mindful of his diligence. Thanks be to you, supernal dispensation, who upon human affairs bestow the fruit of prosperous things out of an occasion of adversity, and do not suffer sad things to remain in their own order. I know not what the enemy's malice may have plucked away from your greatness out of the abundance of your patrimony; yet under this very heading it has procured for you a grace exceedingly rich in the favor of our most unconquered lord. The loss of an estate is good, if by it the notice of a renowned prince is found; the diminution of one's means is not to be dreaded, if through it is acquired the love of the highest lord, which surpasses all riches. To this is added that not even that loss, once it had become the path of gain and of honors, could hold fast the substance of the lowliness it had forced upon you. Thus the things which the enemy snatched away have been so restored that you may yet look forward to a heaping-up of joys. There remain things to be held in hope, since it has befallen your eminence already to possess the greatest. To these benefits, conferred with heaven as their author, let us join the goods of our acquaintance and our communion. When should I have come to know so great a man, except through those things which I have spoken of above? But may the heavenly powers increase what they bestow, and may divine care lead us through to the things toward which our desires are stretched out. For what remains, farewell, my lord, and cherish one who loves you with frequent conversations; for unless the composition proper to a letter held to the limit prescribed by its law, the joys would pour me out into many words.

V. AVRELIANO ENNODIVS. Non est fiducia mea praecognitis nudata successibus. ualidus in affectione est quem animo meo diligentiae memorem iusta sum aestimatione pollicitus. gratias tibi, superna dispensatio, quae humanis rebus prosperorum fructum de aduersitatis occasione largiris nec pateris in ordine suo tristia permanere. 1 malua B 5 epistolaris (o in ras.) B 6 penitralium B 7 gtmt (nt in ras.) B respondeas LTYJ IIII. 11 incommeQdatio L 12 quateaas Bb, qaatinas LTV insistat Bb, instat LTV 15 sat est-JLF, sat fi ut T, satis B, satis sit b et B nu rec . in mg . 18 mihi BL 19 delectit B V. 26 largiree B tristitia B nescio quid magnitudini uestrae hostilis malitia de patrimonii ubertate decerpserit : tamen sub hoc titulo inuictissimi domini multum locupletem gratiam conparauit. bona est iactura substantiae, si incliti notitia principis dispendiis inuenitur : non est facultatum formidanda decessio, si per eam, qui omnes uincat diuitias, summi domini amor adquiritur. huc accedit quod nec illa inminutio, dum facta est lucri «ater et honorum uia, inpactae humilitatis potuit tenere substantiam. sic reparata sunt quae inimicus eripuit, ut adhuc gaudiorum cumulum praestoleris. supersunt quae in spe habeantur, cum culmini tuo contigerit maxima iam tenere. his beneficiis caelo auctore conlatis notitiae et communionis nostrae bona iungamus. quando mihi tantum uirum nisi per illa quae praefatus sum contigisset agnoscere? sed augeant superna quae tribuunt et ad quae desideria porriguntur diuina nos cura perducat. quod restat, uale, mi domine, et amantem tui crebris foue conloquiis, quia nisi epistularis concinnatio teneret terminum lege praescriptum, gaudia me in multa uerba diffunderent.