Letter 7073: You'll never lead me, by your silence, to follow your example.

You will never bring it about by keeping silent that imitation should lead me to a like good will. For I consider not what is owed to a temporary occasion but what is owed to an everlasting friendship, and although I am a strict judge of my own duty, I believe that your attentiveness more often falls off by chance than out of disdain. But lest a long interruption of our conversation should compel me, however much I love you, to fear that I have been neglected, I beg that you steadfastly perform the offices of our intimacy. For by what arrangement can I understand that the things I bestow are welcome, if you deny the things I ask for in return? BOOK EIGHT. I. I hold it as established that your mind is not accustomed to be changed by any height of honors whatever - for whatever honorable distinction accrues to those who deserve well seems rather to be paid off than bestowed - and therefore I confess that I marvel and am astonished why, endowed with such great virtue and humanity, you have for some time now refrained from the gift of letters toward me [on grounds of occupation]. And although I judge that this has happened from being occupied rather than from your wish, nevertheless I do not cease to pray that frequent conversation may declare your judgment mindful of me. [A block of editorial apparatus follows here, recording manuscript variants from codices P, V, and F. Among the variant readings it preserves a fuller version of the closing: I do not wish you to measure my care for you by a letter: few are the words of the sacrificing priest as he offers his gifts, but his prayers are abundant. Let it therefore be permitted to me to imitate, toward you, the frugality of the religious rites by which true friendship is conferred, and to discharge my pious duty in a brief page, as though with a small offering. For the expression of a greeting does not require a longer excursus. ...] BOOK SEVEN. VIII. II. TO ALMACHIUS. To me indeed a manifold and varied gift from you has been [presented], but I noticed that it was done out of modesty, in that you were unwilling to take wholly upon yourself the entire outcome of the woodland catch. For while you boast that the hare was taken by your own hunting, you assert that the boar fell to servile hands. Or did the smallness of the beast seem unworthy to you, that you should claim it for your own glory? But you will laugh at these things said in jest. Now attend to the other matters that you ask of me. For a very few days I have resolved to linger even now at Capsa; thereafter, by moving among the neighboring places, I desire to draw out this whole month, and so, if the gods favor my wish, to traverse the Appian Way again with the discomfort of winter coming on. [III. - heading only; no text follows]

Numquam efficies silendo, ut me ad parem voluntatem ducat imitatio. cogito VI [ enim, non quid temporali causae sed quid perjenni amicitiae debeatur, cumque sim mei officii severus arbiter, curam tuam casu saepius quam fastidio credo cessare. sed ne longa conloquii intercapedo quamvis tui amantem cogat timere neclectum, quaeso constanter munia familiaritatis exerceas. quo enim pacto intellegere possum, grata is esse, quae defero, si negaveris, quae reposco? LIBER OCTAVYS. I. Conpertum habeo, quolibet honorum culmine animum tuum non solere mutari — quidqnid enim bene meritis honestatis accedit, id solutum magis videtur esse quam 20 praestitum — , et ideo mirari me ac stupere confiteor, cur tanta virtute atque huma- nitate praeditus iampridem circa me munere litteramm [causis occupationis] abstineas. quod ego etsi occupatione magis quam voluntate arbitrer accidisse, tamen orare non desino, ut censuram tuam nostri memorem frequens sermo declaret. pagina tam«**»««««« art ore P, pagina tamquam paruo ore VFF 2 dictio excursum VFj datio excur- sum P 3 termino erit V mihi] tibi F restitue hoe fert modo: curam de te meam nolo ex epistula metiaris: pauca s^cerdotis litantis verba sunt et toUemmaf sed vota prolixa. lioeat igitur mihi imi- tari erga te parsimoniam religionum , quibus inre amicitia confertur , et offloium pium brevi pagina tamquam parva pree^tione persolvere. neque enim requirit dictio salutii longiorem excursum. tibi autem et q. «. 5 om. VF 8 exopto (opto in raa.) P praeter ha8 litteras : 14 ca . . . tem ... 15 muni . . . enim p . . . ta ee qua ... 16 posco 12 sim] V, sin (77) 14 quamuis] (77), quam V timere] K, temere (77), tem/// P 15 inteUere V quae epistulae mpersunt haec: comptum (m priui in raa.) habeo . . . culmine animu ti . . . 20 qui^qnid enim be e . . . tatlfl — solut . . . esse — et id . . . 21 aestupere — cur . . . atque — pdltus iai . . . 22 circ* — litterarii . . . occupationis — 24 desino 21 me aestupere P I m. humilitate V 22 oausis occupationis delet Juretw 23 etsi] et// P occupationi P I m.j occupationem V arbiter PV 24 tuam] Umeii (r) LIBERVn. Vm. 215 n. AD ALMACHIVM. m Mihi quidem mnltiplex a te et variam manns exhibitum esse sed ad- verti verecundia factnm, quod tibi in solidnm adsumere noluisti omnem capturae sil- & vestris eventum. nam tua indage captum leporem gloriatus , aprum serviles manus adseris incidisse. an brevitas ferae indigna tibi visa est, quam laudi propriae vindi- cares^ sed haec ioco dicta ridebis. nunc alia, quae de me requiriS) adverte. diebus pauculis etiam nunc morari Gapaae destinavi; dehinc mutationibus vicinorum locorum totum hunc mensem cupio producere, atque ita, si dii iuverint voluntatem, relegere 10 Appiam molestiae accessu hiemis. m.