Letter 1013: Your daughter's birthday was approaching, and the gifts you'd sent arrived at just the right moment.

When at last your daughter's birthday was drawing near, the gifts you had sent arrived right on time. They were enormously dear and precious to us. For if you take good thought for those who are absent, the joy is felt the more keenly for the greater outlay. We at once embraced the letter that accompanied the presents offered to us. We began to be in expectation of how soon you would write to us that the journey along the Appian Way was to be undertaken by you. The page announced nothing of all this. I question the letter-carrier, whether some sudden circumstance had thrown the firmness of your resolve into confusion. He says that your decision does not falter at all, but that the plans are being deferred until the post-station at Formiae is furnished with abundant grain and with the other necessaries of this kind for use. Then my spirit returned to me from its distress. I give my pledge: nothing shall be lacking to your master's table, nothing to the servants or the livestock. So that there may hereafter be for me no going back on this word, here for you, in the manner of a written bond, is my own letter. My affection stands surety for my promise. For I will not allow those whom I long to embrace to be cheated. Farewell. [Letter XII (VI), before the year 376. Symmachus to his father.] It was the function of the censors to inspect the works which they had let out by contract; this business you wished me to take charge of. Your orders have been obeyed, both because I was bound to be obedient to your word, and because I recognized that the task entrusted to me agreed well with my own zeal. Hear, then, how great a progress my care has carried forward in our house. Beneath the stairs the dignity of marble has been set in place; the upper chambers are covered with veneers, and that with such lightness of workmanship that the joining feigns to be solid stone. The columns you purchased for no more than if they had fallen to you as a gift. I judge them, if I use my eyes well, to have been cut from Bithynian stone. Thus far is what you ought to know. Hereafter we will add only so much to your knowledge as we see being added to the building.

Gum iam filiae vestrae dies natalis adpeteret, commodum aderant, quae muneri miseratis. ea nobis inmane quantum cara et gravia fuere. nam si quid in absentes bene consulas, inpensu maiore gaudetur. ilico amplexi litteras, quae prosequebantur oblata. in expectatione esse coepimus, quam mox vobis capessendum iter Appiae scri- 2 beretis. nihil horum pagina nuntiabat. percontor tabellarium, num constantiam de- 10 creti rernm subita turbassent. ait sententiam nihil claudicare, sed placita differri, donicum statio Formiana multa fruge et aliis hoc genus in usnm necessariis instruatur. tunc mihi animus ab aegritudine remigravit. do fidem, nihil herili mensae, nihil ser- vitiis aut pecori defuturum. ne mihi sit dicti huius posthac negatio, en vobis chiro- graphi instar litteras meas. sponsionem meam stipulat adfectio. neque enim patiar 15 decipi, quos opto conplecti. vale. XII (VI) ante a. 376. PATRI SYMMAGHVS. Censorum notio fuit spectare opera, quae locassent; hoc me negotium curare voluisti. mos gestus est imperatis, vel quod tibi dicto audiens esse debui, vel quod 20 studio meo congrue mandatum munus agnovi. audi igitur quantam in aedibus nostris cura promoverit. scalis subpectus est honor marmoris; superiora conclavia crustis teguntur, ea operis levitate, ut conpago solidum mentiatur. columnas nihilo amplius mercatus es, quam si tibi muneri contigissent. eas Bithyno lapide caesas, si bene oculis utor, existimo. hactenus est, quod scire debueris. deinceps tantum adiciemus 2s cognitioni tuae, quantum aedificationi viderimus accedere. 1 concessimus] VAf(r'), cessimus {U) renun om, V 2 hoc] VFM, om, (11) 3 paramnft absamere] VFM^ coramus assumere (U) offensa uestri silentii] VFM^ offensae intenientu (IT) 5 Patri Symmacbus] (Z7), om. VM 7 inmane quantum] ScioppiuBy in commune inmane quantum AfomnMen, in commune quantum VF, in omne quam 11 * 8 bene] VFM^ boni (Z7) litteras quae] FAf, cetera (11) 9 quam] VF, quia (U) apiae VM 10 decretl] (11) , decreU VM 15 stipulat] VAf, stipulatur (11) enim] me (U) 16 quos] nam eos (11) 18 Patrl SymmacliuB] (i7), om, VM 19 spectare] ««*»care n 20 dicto om, (U) 21 no- stra cura ht/reiut 22 anbpActna (Iir) 23 solarum (U) columnis nihil (/7) 24 mer- catus 08 om. (U) munere concessissent (U) bythin}o V, bithino Af(Z7) 25 oculis utor] ««*« (11) debueris] VAf(r), debueraa (U) 26 aediflcationi] cod. Pithoeiy eliciUtioni Af(i7), eUci- tationi tuae V AD AVSONIVM. VMH Xni (VH) a. 376.