Letter 1016: So where am I supposed to find an abundant supply of words when you've lent me nothing in the way of literary capital?

[The opening of the letter is lost; the surviving text begins:] ...you have delighted me with your reading. Why then do you demand from me a generous return of conversation, you who entrusted me with no loan of literary capital? Your Mosella flies about through the hands and bosoms of many, consecrated by you in divine verses, yet it merely glides past our own lips. Why, I ask, did you wish me to be left without a share of that little book? Either you thought me too unrefined, who could not appreciate it, or surely malicious, who would not know how to praise it. And so you have disparaged either my talent very greatly or my character. And yet, against your prohibition, I have scarcely managed to reach the inner secrets of that work. I should like to keep silent about what I feel, I should like to be vindicated by a just silence concerning you; but my admiration for your writings breaks the resolve of my grievance. I knew that river of yours, when I long ago accompanied the standards of our eternal princes, as the equal of many, the inferior of the greatest; but you have rendered it for me, unexpectedly, by the dignity of your illustrious verses greater than the Egyptian Nile, colder than the Scythian Tanais [Don], and more renowned than this Tiber of our own people. I would by no means believe you, telling great tales about the source and course of the Mosella, did I not know for certain that you do not lie even in a poem. From where did you discover those swarms of river fish, as various in their names as in their colors, as differing in size so also in flavor, which you have tinted with the pigments of this song beyond the gifts of nature? And yet, though I have often dined at your tables, when I marveled at very many other things that were then set out as food in the praetorium, I never came upon this kind of fish. When were these fish, which were not in the courses, born for you in a book? Do you think I am joking and trifling with nonsense? So may the gods render me worthy of approval, as I add this poem of yours to the books of Maro [Virgil]. But now I shall stop dwelling on your praises, forgetful of my own pain, lest you draw even this to your glory, that we, though offended, admire you. You may scatter your volumes abroad and always pass me by; we shall nevertheless enjoy your work, though by the kindness of others. Farewell.

gnstias] ♦**♦♦ {U) tibi] ***** (II) 5 res secunda] ***** (J7) 7 reside V, om. M gratiam V 9 lanus] M(II]^ ianuarias V, ianuariut (F) apibat Z7, apperibat F, om. M 10 ma- tutine] (/7), maturae V, mature (/•), om. M 11 ablatus V 14 adhuc operiebamur VFM, operia- mur (IT) accipimus VF 16 etiamnum] V(r), etiamnunc (/7) 17 patiar V crudelita- tem VM strenuua Pius] /*, strennuus pius V, strunuus pius H, antoninus pius strenuus <P 18 te- poribui H 19 hinc VM ibi — aetatis om. (77) 20 iUe V 21 fortuna] VFM, natura (Z7) effadit (77) A a eomtnsua codieum Ausonianorum ; A^ bb cod. 8t. Oalli 399 s. X; A^ am eodiees Auaoniani ee- Uri vel omne$ vel aliqui 26 Symmachus Ausonio] (77), •s* ausonio F, incipit epistola symmachi ad eu- sebium »€d eorr. in ad ausonium Ai, om. V 27 longiores litteras F in nostri amoris A qui Bim] 77A1, quis in V, qui lum A^, quasi FF 28 mei om. IT mallo A^ multiiugis] supencr. uel multis nugis A^ 29 paginae A^ in aciem V 30 illius V tui pedibus neque trium F Q. AtBKLIVS SxMMAOnTS. 2 10 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE VFA lectioDe iuvisti. unde igitur sermonis mei largam poscis nsuram, qni nihil litterati 2 fenoris credidisti? volitat tnns Mosella per manns sinnsqne mnltomm divinis a te versibns consecratns, sed tantnm nostra ora praelabitnr. cnr me istins libelli, qnaeso, exortem esse volnisti ? ant ajiouooTepoc tibi videbar, qni indicare nolDi possem, ant certe malignns, qni landare nescirem. itaqne vel ingenio meo plurimnm vel moribus dero- 5 3 gasti. et tamen contra interdictnm tunm vix ad illius operis arcana perveni. velim tacere, quid sentiam, velim insto de te silentio vindicari; sed admiratio scriptomm sensnm frangit ininriae. novi ego istum flnvinm, cnm aetemomm principnm iam pri- dem signa comitarer, parem muUis, imparem maximis : hnnc tn mihi inproviso claromm versunm dignitate Aegyptio Melone maiorem, frigidiorem Scythico Tanai clarioremque 10 hoc nostro populari reddidisti. neqnaqnam tibi crederem de Mosellae ortu ac meatn 4 magna narranti, nisi certo scirem, quod nec in poemate mentiaris. nnde illa amni- comm piscinm examina repperisti quam nominibus varia tam coloribus, nt magni- tndine distantia sic sapore, qnae tu pigmentis istius carminis snpra natnrae dona fncasti? atqni in tuis mensis saepe versatus, cnm pleraqne alia, qnae tnncin praetorio 15 erant esui obiecta, mirarer, nnmquam hoc genns piscium deprehendi. qnando tibi hi 5 pisces in libro nati snnt, qui in fercnlis non fuemnt? iocari me putas atqne agere nngas ? ita dii me probabilem praestent, nt ego hoc tnum carmen libris Maronis adiungo. sed iam desinam mei oblitus doloris inhaerere laudibus tuis, ne hoc qnoqne ad gloriam tnam trahas , quod te miramur offensi. spargas licet volumina tua et me semper ex- 20 cipias, fmemnr tamen tuo opere sed aliomm benignitate. vale. XV (Vnn) a. 370—380.