Letter 4005: Your silence has been long, and I've endured it patiently in the hope that you'd eventually write.

...has smiled upon it, I hope that, by its favor, good health is soon to return to me. [...] To Stilicho. Since we wished to join our sons in the bond of marriage, our deliberation first consulted your Magnificence upon this matter, so that the auspice of the happy undertaking might be taken from a father of the commonwealth. God has granted fulfillment to our nuptial vows. Now the honor of taking up the largesse [sportula] must be discharged to your Eminence, both by custom and by affection. We ask that, kindly, you lend hand and heart to receiving our homage. For our festivities still long for this crowning point of joy, that you, who deigned to be before all others the author for us of the bond to be formed through our children, may likewise remain its approver.

adriserit, spero in gratiam mecum bonam valetudinem mox esse redituram. Xrai. , 15 AD STILICHONEM. Cum filios nostros iugali foedere sociare vellemus, primam super hoc magnificen- tiam tuam meditatio nostra consuluit, ut coepti felicis auspicium a parente publico sumeretur. effectum nuptialibus votis deus praestitit. nunc honor sportulae suscipien- dae culmini tuo et more et amore solvendus est. quaesumus recipiendo obsequio 20 manum atque animum benignus admoveas. hunc enim laetitiae adhuc apicem festa nostra desiderant, ut is, qui nobis auctor ante omnes esse dignatus es inngendae per filios necessitudinis, aeque maneas adprobator.