Letter 13: A page that set out from you has reached my hands, and it bears a strong resemblance to Spanish salt quarried on the...

Sidonius to his friend Oresius, greeting. 1. There came into our hands a page that set out from you, one which bears much resemblance to the Spanish salt cut from the ridges of Tarraco [near Tarragona]. For to one reviewing it, it is clear and salty, and yet for this very reason no less honeyed, since the speech is sweet even while it grows sharp with its arguments: for in this way it delights by its eloquence what it disturbs by its command, seeing that you, taking too little measure of what manner of business I am engaged in, now ask that poems be renewed by us. First of all, from the very outset of my religious profession I principally renounced this exercise, because no doubt it could be suited to frivolity, if the lightness of verses should have seized me, whom the gravity of my duties had begun to claim. 2. Then, besides, it is agreed that all work, if it lies idle through a long interval, is resumed with difficulty. For who indeed would not know that to all craftsmen or arts the greatest distinction comes by practice, and that when accustomed studies are not kept up, the arms grow sluggish in the body, the talents in the arts? Hence comes also that saying, that when taken up late or seldom, the bow rebels the more against the hand, the ox against the yoke, the horse against the bridle. Moreover the modesty that accompanies our sloth inclines my judgment to this, that, after I have run through three Olympiads [twelve years] in silence, I should be as ashamed as I am reluctant to fashion a new poem. 3. Likewise it is a sin that even things difficult to do should be denied to you, whose affection it is the less fitting to disappoint, the more steadfastly it fears no refusal. We shall therefore hold to something of a middle course, and just as I shall now dictate no fresh epigrams, so, if any letters stuffed with verse shall lie at hand, written of course before the necessity of my present office, I will send them to you, asking that you be not so far a betrayer of justice as to suppose that I shall never refrain from composition of this kind. For I shall be increased no less by your approval, if perchance you should deign now to esteem me modest rather than witty. Farewell.

EPISTULA XII Sidonius Oresio suo salutem. 1. Venit in nostras a te profecta pagina manus, quae trahit multam similitudinem de sale Hispano in iugis caeso Tarraconensibus. nam recensenti lucida et salsa est, nec tamen propter hoc ipsum mellea minus, si sermo dulcis et propositionibus acet: sic enim oblectat eloquio quod turbat imperio, quippe qui parum metiens, quid ordinis agam, carmina a nobis nunc novat petat. primum ab exordio religiosae professionis huic principaliter exercitio renuntiavi, quia nimirum facilitati posset accommodari, si me occupasset levitas versuum, quem respicere coeperat gravitas actionum. 2. tum praeterea constat omnem operam, si longa intercapedine quiescat, aegre resumi. quisnam enim ignoret cunctis aut artificibus aut artibus maximum decus usu venire, cumque studia consueta non frequentantur, brachia in corporibus, ingenia pigrescere in artibus? unde est et illud, quod sero correptus aut raro plus arcus manui, iugo bos, equus freno rebellat. insuper desidiae nostrae verecundia comes ad hoc sententiam inclinat, ut me, postquam in silentio decurri tres olympiadas, tam pudeat novum poema conficere quam pigeat. 3. hoc item nefas etiam difficilia factu tibi negari, cuius affectum tanto minus decipi decet, quanto constantius nil repulsam veretur. tenebimus igitur quippiam medium et sicut epigrammata recentia modo nulla dictabo, ita litteras, si quae iacebunt versu refertae, scilicet ante praesentis officii necessitatem, mittam tibi, petens, ne tu sis eatenus iustitiae praevaricator, ut me opineris numquam ab huiusmodi conscriptione temperaturum. neque enim suffragio tuo minus augear, si forte digneris iam modestum potius quam facetum existimare. vale.