Letter 2036: I too embrace the old-fashioned form in my letter headings, and I am quite surprised that a copyist's error crept in.

I too, in my writing, embrace the manner of antiquity, and I greatly wonder that a copyist's error has crept upon me, one who was accustomed to set down names alone at the head of my letters, and who has now altered that simple usage with a novel addition. But it will be plain that this was done by chance rather than by design, if you recall that my earlier letters were never sullied by a heading of this kind. And yet, however this matter has come about, I am glad that something new has been offered, which might free me from my customary manner of replying. For how long shall we prattle on with words of giving and returning a greeting, when no other subject is at hand for the pen? Yet in former times our forefathers used to set down even the affairs of the fatherland—which now are scanty or nonexistent—on the pages of intimate correspondence. Since we have given that up, now that matters have turned to leisure, for the most part we must seize upon untried seeds of writing, which may wipe away the tedium of ordinary letters. The fault, then, which I have washed away, has served me well, and, if I am not mistaken, has given you too an unaccustomed path for replying.

30 Ego quoque in scribendo formam vetustatis amplector nimisque miror, quod mihi librarii error obrepserit, qui solitus epistuiis meis nomina sola praeponere, usum sim- I uelati F II om. PVM 12 hane epistiUam cumpraeeedmti eonhmgunt PVM, diviai qaodam pelium PF, quendam peliiim M 15 uale add. VM tu in Daunios] ego^ tu inda unius VP^, tuenda unius P, om. M 19 postergum in raa. P 20 uice P ueris (ue in rat.) P, remouearis V uale add. VM 54 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE PVF plicem novella adiectione mutavit. sed id casn potins qnam consnlto factnm liqnebit, si recorderis, nnmqnam snperiores litteras meas istinsmodi titnlo sordnisse. et tamen ntcnmqne ista res accidit , gratnlor novi aliqnid oblatnm , qnod me ab solito respon- 2 dendi gcnere vindicaret. qnonsqne enim dandae ac reddendae salutationis verba blaterabimns , cum aiia stilo materia non snppetat? at olim parentes etiam patriae 5 negotia, qnae nnnc angnsta vel nulla sunt, in familiares paginas conferebant. id qnia versis ad otinm rebus omisimus, captanda snnt nobis plemmqne intemptata scri- bendi semina, qnae fastidium tergeant generalinm litterarnm. iuvit igitur me culpa, qnam dilui, et si non fallor, tibi qnoque viam dedit inusitata referendi. XXXVI a. 385. lo