Letter 4012: You know that our silence is an equal offense on both sides, and so the blame is unfairly placed on me alone for...

You know that the offense of silence between us is the same on both sides, and therefore the blame is laid on me unjustly, since it is shared by us both. And yet a defense is available to me; for the departures of travelers are not known to me, and you do not stay in the same dwellings, since you exchange now Trier [Treviri] out of civic duty, now the Five Provinces [Quinque Provinciae] out of a desire for leisure. For me there is a continuous station at Rome, and now a greater reason for remaining, since the care of your brother, that man of high rank now present, both keeps me here and his glory delights me. By one and the same route, therefore, you could have joined together letters, which a brother and one to be matched with a brother might receive. That this has been seen to by you, even if late, I rejoice. Nor yet, when you refrained from writing, did I suppose that any diminution of your diligence toward me had taken place. For so great is the security of true friendship that it draws from its own fidelity an estimate of the love that is mutual. It wearies me to say more in this manner. Therefore I pass to that part of your speech which seems to touch upon the longing of my mind. [...] You say that our writings came into your hands through our brother Minervius, who, a betrayer, does not abstain from a curiosity for my frivolous letters that is greater than a just delight. If you have so much leisure that, to wipe away your distaste, you seek out even some insipid things, whatever we have worked over with the pen, I will display, secure of the pardon which the affection of your heart promises me. I almost passed over what I ought to have charged you with in the first place: has the simple usage of our letters so perished that in your pages you prefer the allurements of the present age? Let us return, then, to the unadorned titles of names, and when greeting is given or returned, let us think that nothing is more honored or more flattering than our own ordinary words. Let my letter at least be an example to you; for if you scorn to imitate it, I shall both be marked for arrogance and grouped with those others whose great affectation is in their words, but who have no cultivation in their thoughts. To Protadius. [a. 400.] The same consul who had summoned me had also summoned you to Milan [Mediolanum]. I had hoped that this would bring us together in one votive cause, but when you failed me through ill health, I bore the loss of a joy most anxiously awaited. Now, with everything completed, beyond all the greatness of soul, I return to Rome for the consular festivities, whither that most distinguished magistrate has promised that he will come at once, with his son-in-law adding his assurance. How I would wish, if your health is returning to full strength, that you might make up by your coming for the pardon owed before, and by one and the same route both render to the senate a voluntary service and pay to the consul the duty owed. But whence comes it to me to wish for so much, when it has been in vain to have hoped for lighter things? When will you set the toga before the hunt? To Protadius. [a. 396?] I wish the debt of love between us to grow daily, but to your letters I desire to owe nothing, since they are for the most part cast up against me as a sluggard. Therefore to your twin letters, not delivered to me together in equal number, but with a joined dispatch, I reply. We are well, as far as an age sloping into old age allows. Rarely do we visit the country, but far rarer with me is the practice of reading. To you it is permitted both to live in the country and to be most learned. From this it is that you address us frequently, because all your time, in order that it may be sought out by your talent, is claimed for leisure. But let our boldness not yield to the confidence of yours. You may draw upon the monuments of the ancients and yourself commit to your pages things to be learned by heart: I will solicit you with parched words by your own writings, which I must read both out of love and out of judgment, that I may make up for the losses of those things which I neglect. XXXIII. [...]

Silentii inter nos simile scis esse delictum, atque ideo mihi iniuste culpae datur, quod utrique commune est. et tamen defensio mihi suppetit; quia nec profectiones commeantium notae sunt, et tu non iisdem sedibus inmoraris, dum' aut Treviros civica religione aut Quinque Provincias otii voluntate commutas. mihi Romae iugis est statio 30 et maior nunc causa residendi, ex quo me viri excelsi germani tui praesentis et cura retinet et iuvat gloria. una igitur via sociare scripta potuisti, quae frater et fratri 2 aequandus acciperent. quod a te gaudeo vel sero curatum. nec tamen, cum a litteris temperares, ullam decessionem diligentiae in me tuae factam putavi. tanta est enim securitas verae amicitiae, ut de sua fide aestimationem mutui amoris adsumat. plura 35 in hunc modum dicere piget. quare transeo ad eam sermonis tui partem, quae ora^ menti] lurttus, largementi ^, largae menti FF, large mentis P, largae mentis F appetlt P 10 by- bUotecis P amiticiae V 11 est om. V reseeta F, om. M 22 iupatientiae P 1 m,y impotentiae P 2 m. LIBEB mi. 109 tionam meamm desideriam videtar attingere. ais in manas taas scripta nostra venisse PVF fratre nostro Minenrio proditore, qai frivolis meis litterata potias cariositate qaam iasta delectatione non abstinet. si tibi tantam otii est, at ad fastidiam detergendam nonnalla etiam msulsa conqairas, qoidqaid stilo elaboravimas, exhibebo secaras veniae, & qaam mihi spondet animi tai caritas. paene praeterii , qaod loco principe accasare 3 debaeram : itane epistalaram nostraram simplex asas interiit, at paginis tais lenocinia aevi praesentis anteferas ? redeamas qain ergo ad infacatos nominam titalos , et cam dicitar aat redditar salas, nihil ipsis vocabalis nostris honoratias aat blandias esse dacamas. exemplo certe tibi sit epistula mea, qaam si spreveris aemalari, et ad- 10 rogantiae notatas videbor et ceteris adgregatas, qaoram magnas saspectas in verbis est, nallas caltas in sensibns. XXXI a. 400. AD PROTADIVM. PVM Mediolaniam te idem, qai me, consnl acdverat. speravi, qaod nos in anam votiva 15 caasa condnceret, sed abi per valetadinem defaisti, aegerrime expectati gaadii dispen- dimn tali. nanc peraetis saper omniam magnanimitatem consalaribas festis Romam revertor, qao se amplissimas magistratas ventaram protinas genero adstipalante pro- misit. qaam vellem, 8i*in solidam redit sanitas, conpensares adventa veniam saperio- rem, atqae ana via et senatai deferres officiam volantariam et consali debitam sol- 20 reres. sed ande mihi optare tantnm, cam frastra faerit sperasse leviora? qaando ta venatoi togam praeferes? XXXn a. 396? AD PROTADIVM. PVF Crescere inter nos cotidie amoris debitam volo , sed epistalis tais nihil opto de- 25bere, qaae mihi pleramqae exprobrantar at desidi. ergo geminis litteris tuis non simnl mihi redditis pari nnmero, sed coniancta emissione respondeo. valemas, qaan- tam aetas admittit declivis in seniam. raro nobis ager visitar, sed multo rarior est apad me asas legendi. tibi et rasticari et eradiri plurimam licet. inde est, qaod 2 nos freqaenter adloqaeris, qaia omne tempas, at qaaeratar ingenio, otio vindicatar. 30 sed fidaciae taae aadacia nostra non cesserit. haarias licet monamenta priscoram et ipse paginis ediscenda committas: sollicitabo te arentibas verbis scriptis tois, qnae et amore et iadicio legere me necesse est, at conpensem illoram damna, qoae neglego. <» raa. M LeeUu$, suppU: ut subuenias ingenio meo scriptis tuis vel similc quid 32 roe legere F 33 nec lego V 110 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE xxxm.