Letter 8038: Petition is never ineffective when it reaches a man of justice and compassion.

Ennodius of PaviaQuintus Aurelius Symmachus|c. 520 AD|Ennodius of Pavia|AI-assisted
friendship

He does not ask ineffectively who commends strangers to the parent of all: a general support is owed to the wellborn, especially before those who bestow benefits unasked. If your crown [the pope, addressed by his rank] should graciously receive the blessed and exalted young man, the bearer of this present letter, he will adorn a distinguished office after the manner of a bishop: for he is one who deserves your favor both by his birth and by his character. For the worthy, a brief commendation suffices. Now, the services of greeting having been rendered, I ask that you relieve me, who love you, by the frequent dispatch of your conversation.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

XXXVIII. ENNODIVS SVMMACHO.

Non inefficaciter poseit qui parenti omnium peregrinos
insinuat: nobilibus generalis debetur adsertio, maxime apud
eos qui beneficia tribuunt non rogati. Beatum sublimem
adulescentem praesentium baiulum si corona uestra dignanter
excipiat, praeclarum iuxta morem pontificis ornat officium:
est enim qui gratiam uestram et natalibus mereatur et moribus.
sufficit dignis stricta laudatio. nunc seruitiis . salutationis
exhibitis rogo, ut me amantem uestri crebri releuetis promulgatione
conloquii.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern ennodius pavia retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/csel-dev/master/data/stoa0114a/stoa008/stoa0114a.stoa008.opp-lat1.xml

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