Sidonius Apollinaris: EPISTULARUM LIBRI IX

1. Multis quidem vinculis caritatis ab ineunte pueritia quicquid venimus in iuventutem gratiae sese mutuae cura nexuerat, primum, quia matribus nostris summa sanguinis iuncti necessitudo; dein, quod ipsi isdem temporibus nati magistris usi, artibus instituti lusibus otiati, principibus evecti stipendiis perfuncti sumus; et, quod est ad amicitias ampliandas his validius efficaciusque, in singulis quibusque personis vel expetendis aequaliter vel cavendis iudicii parilitate certavimus.

1. Indeed, by many bonds of caritas, whatever we became from the outset of boyhood into the youth of grace had been bound together by mutual care: first, because to our mothers we were joined by the highest tie of blood; then, because we, born in the same seasons, used the same magistri, instructed in the arts, amused in games of otium, raised up by princes and discharged with stipends; and, which is more strong and more efficacious for extending amicitiae, in each and every person, whether to be sought or to be shunned, we strove with an equality of iudicium.

2. propter quae omnia praeter conscientiam, quae interius tibi longe praestantior eminentiorque, multum voluntates nostras copulaverat decursarum forinsecus actionum similitudo. sed, quod fatendum est, diu erectis utrimque amoris machinis ipse culmina pretiosa posuisti ecclesiam Arverni municipioli, cui praepositus, etsi inmerito, videor, peropportuna oblatione locupletando; cuius possessioni plurimum contulisti Cuticiacensis praedii suburbanitate, non minus nostrae professionis fraternitatem loci proximitate dignatus ditare quam reditu.

2. because of all these things, apart from conscience, which inwardly is far more excellent and eminent to you, the likeness of past outward actions had greatly bound our wills together. But, which must be confessed, long since with the engines of love raised on both sides you yourself placed the precious crowns upon the little church of Arvernum, of which I, though undeserving it seems, am provost, enriching it by a most opportune oblation; to whose possession you contributed very much by the suburban situation of the estate of Cuticiacus, deigning to enrich the brotherhood of our profession no less by proximity of place than by revenue.

3. et licet sororiae hereditatis duo consortes esse videamini, exemplo tamen fidei tuae superstes germana commota est ad boni operis imitationem. itaque tibi caelitus iure redhibetur tui facti meritum, alieni incitamentum. quo fit, ut reperiare dignissimus, quem divinitas inusitato successuum genere sublimet, quae tamen nec diu distulit religiosam devotionem centuplicatis opulentare muneribus quaeque, ut confidimus, nihilo segnius caelestia largietur, cum terrena iam solverit.

3. and although you may appear to be two spouses of a sisterly inheritance, nonetheless by the example of your faith the surviving sister was stirred to the imitation of good work. therefore to you from on high is by right restored the merit of your deed, and an incitement to another’s. hence it comes to pass that the most worthy is found whom divinity may exalt by an unaccustomed kind of succession; which, however, did not long delay to enrich the religious devotion with hundredfold gifts, and which, as we trust, will no less readily bestow the heavenly when it shall already have discharged the earthly.

Nicetiana namque, si nescis, hereditas Cuticiaci supernum pretium fuit.

For Nicetiana, if you do not know, the inheritance of Cuticiacum was a supernal recompense.

4. quod restat exposcimus, ut sicut ecclesiae nostrae ita etiam civitatis aeque tibi sit cura communis, quae cum olim, tum debebit ex hoc praecipue tempore ad tuum patrocinium vel ob tuum patrimonium pertinere. quod cuius meriti esse possit, quippe si vestra crebro illud praesentia invisat, vel Gothis credite, qui saepenumero etiam Septimaniam suam fastidiunt vel refundunt, modo invidiosi huius anguli etiam desolata proprietate potiantur.

4. we request what remains, that just as of our church so likewise of the city the common care may be equally yours, which both formerly and especially from this time ought to pertain to your patronage or on account of your patrimony. As to whose merit this may be ascribed — for whether because your men often visit it in person, or, believe the Goths, who frequently even disdain or abandon their own Septimania — lest the envious of this corner take possession even of a desolate property.

5. sed fas est praesule deo vobis inter eos et rempublicam mediis animo quietiora concipere, quia, etsi illi veterum finium limitibus effractis omni vel virtute vel mole possessionis turbidae metas in Rhodanum Ligerimque proterminant, vestra tamen auctoritas pro dignitate sententiae sic partem utramque moderabitur, ut et nostra discat quid debeat negare, cum petitur, et poscere adversa desinat, cum negatur. vale.

5. but it is right, O bishop, before God, that you conceive in your mind a calmer attitude between them and the republic, because, although they, having broken the limits of the old borders, by every force or mass of turbid possession push their bounds forward to the Rhodanus and the Liger, yet your authority, for the dignity of judgment, will so moderate each side that our party may learn what it ought to deny when it is asked, and cease to demand what is adverse when it is refused. farewell.

EPISTULA II

LETTER 2

Sidonius Constantio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Constantius, greeting.

1. Salutat populus Arvernus, cuius parva tuguria magnus hospes implesti, non ambitiosus comitatu sed ambiendus affectu. deus bone, quod gaudium fuit laboriosis, cum tu sanctum pedem semirutis moenibus intulisti! quam tu ab omni ordine sexu aetate stipatissimus ambiebare!

1. The Arvernian people salute you, whose small huts a great guest has filled — not with an ambitious retinue but to be sought by affection. Good God, what joy it was for the laboring folk when you set your holy foot within the half-ruined walls! How you, packed most densely from every order, sex, and age, were eagerly sought!

quae salsi erga singulos libra sermonis! quam te blandum pueri, comem iuvenes, gravem senes metiebantur! quas tu lacrimas ut parens omnium super aedes incendio prorutas et domicilia semiusta fudisti!

What a salt of speech, a measured balance toward each individual! How the boys took you for flattering, the youths for courteous, the old men for grave! What tears you, as the parent of all, poured out over houses torn down by fire and dwellings half-burnt!

quantum doluisti campos sepultos ossibus insepultis! quae tua deinceps exhortatio, quae reparationem suadentis animositas!

How greatly you grieved the fields buried with unburied bones! What, thereafter, your exhortation, what spiritedness of one urging restoration!

2. his adicitur, quod, cum inveneris civitatem non minus civica simultate quam barbarica incursione vacuatam, pacem omnibus suadens caritatem illis, illos patriae reddidisti. quibus tuo monitu non minus in unum consilium quam in unum oppidum revertentibus muri tibi debent plebem reductam, plebs reducta concordiam. quocirca satis te toti suum, satis se toti tuos aestimant; et, quae gloria tua maxima est, minime falluntur.

2. To these is added that, when you found the city emptied no less by civic feud than by barbarian incursion, exhorting peace to all and charity to them, you restored them to the fatherland. To those who, by your admonition, returned into one council no less than into one town, the walls owe to you the population restored, the restored populace (owes) concord. Wherefore they esteem you sufficiently theirs for the whole, and themselves sufficiently yours for the whole; and, which is your greatest glory, they are least deceived.

3. obversatur etenim per dies mentibus singulorum, quod persona aetate gravis infirmitate fragilis, nobilitate sublimis religione venerabilis solius dilectionis obtentu abrupisti tot repagula, tot obiectas veniendi difficultates, itinerum videlicet longitudinem brevitatem dierum, nivium copiam penuriam pabulorum, latitudines solitudinum angustias mansionum, viarum voragines aut umore imbrium putres aut frigorum siccitate tribulosas, ad hoc aut aggeres saxis asperos aut fluvios gelu lubricos aut colles ascensu salebrosos aut valles lapsuum assiduitate + derasas; per quae omnia incommoda, quia non privatum commodum requirebas, amorem publicum rettulisti.

3. for it turns about through the days in the minds of each, that you, a persona heavy with age, fragile in infirmity, lofty in nobility, venerable in religione, by the plea of sole dilection removed so many repagula, so many obstructed difficulties of coming — namely the longitudinem itinerum, the brevitatem dierum, the copiam nivium, the penuriam pabulorum, the latitudines solitudinum, the angustias mansionum, the voragines viarum, troublesome either by the umor imbrium putres or by the siccitate frigorum, moreover either aggeres asperos saxis or fluvios lubricos gelu or colles salebrosos in ascensu or valles derasas by the assiduitate of lapses; through all these inconveniences, because you did not seek private commodum, you restored public amorem.

4. quod restat, deum precamur, ut aevi metis secundum vota promotis bonorum amicitias indefessim expetas capias referas sequaturque te affectio, quam relinquis, et initiatae per te ubicumque gratiae longum tibi redhibeantur quam fundamenta tam culmina. vale.

4. as for what remains, we pray to God that, with the measures of life extended according to vows fulfilled, you may tirelessly desire, obtain, and bring back the friendships of the good; and may affection follow you, which you leave behind, and may the graces initiated by you everywhere be long restored to you, both at the foundations and at the summits. vale.

EPISTULA III

LETTER 3

Sidonius Ecdicio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Ecdicius, greetings.

1. Si quando, nunc maxume Arvernis meis desideraris, quibus dilectio tui immane dominatur, et quidem multiplicibus ex causis: primum quod summas in affectu partes iure sibi usurpat terra quae genuit; dein quod saeculo tuo solus ferme mortalium es, qui patriae non minus desiderii nasciturus quam gaudii natus feceris; astipulantur assertis materni quondam puerperii tempora, quae proficiente conceptu concordantibus civium votis numerabantur.

1. If ever — and now especially — you are longed for by my Arverni, over whom a vast dilectio for you rules, and indeed for multiple causes: first, because the land that begot you rightly usurps for itself the highest parts in affectus; then because in your saeculum you are almost the sole of mortals whom you have made to be born for the patria no less from desiderium than born for gaudium; and these things are attested by the alleged former tempora of maternal puerperium, which, the conceptu having advanced, were counted by the concordant vota of the civitas.

2. omitto illa communia quidem sed quae non mediocria caritatis incitamenta sunt, istius tibi reptatas caespitis glaebas. praetereo quod haec primum gramina incessu, flumina natatu, venatu nemora fregisti. omitto quod hic primum tibi pila pyrgus, accipiter canis, equus arcus ludo fuere.

2. I omit those common things, indeed—but which are no mean incentives of affection—the clods of turf pressed back to you. I pass over that you first broke these grasses by walking, rivers by swimming, groves by hunting. I pass over that here for you first a ball, a pyrgus, a hawk, a dog, a horse, a bow were playthings.

mitto istic ob gratiam pueritiae tuae undique gentium confluxisse studia litterarum tuaeque personae quondam debitum, quod sermonis Celtici squamam depositura nobilitas nunc oratorio stilo, nunc etiam Camenalibus modis imbuebatur.

i pass this by here: because of affection for your boyhood, the pursuits of letters from all nations have gathered together, and the debt once owing to your person, which, the nobility about to cast off the scab of Celtic speech, was being imbued now with an oratorical style, now even with Camenaic modes.

3. illud in te affectum principaliter universitatis accendit, quod quos olim Latinos fieri exegeras barbaros deinceps esse vetuisti. non enim potest umquam civicis pectoribus elabi, quem te quantumque nuper omnis aetas ordo sexus e semirutis murorum aggeribus conspicabantur, cum interiectis aequoribus in adversum perambulatis et vix duodeviginti equitum sodalitate comitatus aliquot milia Gothorum non minus die quam campo medio, quod difficile sit posteritas creditura, transisti.

3. That chiefly kindled in you an affection for the universitas, namely that you forbade thereafter those whom you had once compelled to become Latinos to be barbari. For it can never be effaced from civic pectora what, however recently, every age, order, and sex beheld of you from the half-ruined bulwarks of the walls, when, with the seas laid between, you walked out against the enemy and, accompanied by the sodality of scarcely eighteen equites, crossed into the midst of several thousand Goths no less by day than in the open field—something which posterity will hardly be credent.

4. ad nominis tui rumorem personaeque conspectum exercitum exercitatissimum stupor obruit ita, ut prae admiratione nescirent duces partis inimicae, quam se multi quamque te pauci comitarentur. subducta est tota protinus acies in supercilium collis abrupti, quae cum prius applicata esset oppugnationi, te viso non est explicata congressui. interea tu caesis quibusque optimis, quos novissimos agmini non ignavia sed audacia fecerat, nullis tuorum certamine ex tanto desideratis solus planitie quam patentissima potiebare, cum tibi non daret tot pugna socios, quot solet mensa convivas.

4. at the rumor of your name and the sight of your person overwhelmed the most practiced army with stupor so that, through admiration, they could not discern whether the leaders of the hostile party were many, or how few accompanied you. The whole line was at once withdrawn to the brow of a steep hill, which, although it had before been pressed close for assault, when you were seen was not extended for engagement. Meanwhile you—with the best having been slain, those whom boldness rather than sloth had made the rearguard—without any contest from your men alone possessed the plain, as open as could be after such great losses, since the fight did not grant you as many comrades as a table is wont to grant guests.

5. hinc iam per otium in urbem reduci quid tibi obviam processerit officiorum plausuum, fletuum gaudiorum magis temptant vota conicere quam verba reserare. siquidem cernere erat refertis capacissimae domus atriis illam ipsam felicissimam stipati reditus tui ovationem, dum alii osculis pulverem tuum rapiunt, alii sanguine ac spumis pinguia frena suscipiunt, alii sellarum equestrium madefacta sudoribus fulcra resupinant, alii de concavo tibi cassidis exituro flexilium lamminarum vincla diffibulant, alii explicandis ocrearum nexibus implicantur, alii hebetatorum caede gladiorum latera dentata pernumerant, alii caesim atque punctim foraminatos circulos loricarum digitis livescentibus metiuntur.

5. From there now, in leisure, what met you on the way back into the city — the officious applause, the vows of weeping and of joys — more seek to hurl vows than to unloose words. For indeed one could see, in the aisles of a very capacious house crammed full, that very happiest ovation of your return, while some with kisses snatch up your dust, others uplift the fat bridles damp with blood and foam, others turn up the supports of the equestrian saddles, soaked with sweat, others unfasten the bonds of pliant plates about to issue from the hollow of your cassis (helmet), others are entangled in undoing the knots of greaves, others run their fingers along the toothed flanks of swords dulled by slaughter, others measure, with their fingers made blunt, the hacked and pierced circles of cuirasses.

6. hic licet multi complexibus tuorum tripudiantes adhaerescerent, in te maximus tamen laetitiae popularis impetus congerebatur; tandemque in turbam inermem quidem veneras sed de qua te nec armatus evolveres; ferebasque nimirum eleganter ineptias gratulantum et, dum inruentum tumultuoso diriperis amplexu, eo condicionis accesseras piissimus publici amoris interpres, ut necesse esset illi uberiorem referre te gratiam, qui tibi liberiorem fecisset iniuriam.

6. here although many, leaping, clung to you in embraces of your own, yet upon you the greatest surge of popular joy was heaped; and at last you had come into a crowd indeed unarmed, yet one from which not even an armed man would have rolled away; and you bore, plainly, the fatuities of those congratulating you with elegant ease, and, while you were being torn apart by a tumultuous, rushing embrace, you had reached so great a condition, most pious interpreter of public love, that it was necessary for it to repay you with a more abundant grace, which had made the injury the more tolerable.

7. taceo deinceps collegisse te privatis viribus publici exercitus speciem parvis extrinsecus maiorum opibus adiutum et infrenes hostium ante discursus castigatis cohercuisse populatibus. taceo te aliquot superventibus cuneos mactasse turmales e numero tuorum vix binis ternisve post proelium desideratis et tantum calamitatis adversae parti inopinatis certaminibus inflictum, ut occulere caesorum numerositatem consilio deformiore meditarentur. siquidem quos humari nox succincta prohibuerat decervicatis liquere cadaveribus, tamquam minoris indicii foret quem nolles agnosci crinitum dimisisse truncatum.

7. I pass over, moreover, that you assembled with private forces the semblance of a public army, outwardly aided by the small resources of your ancestors, and that you checked the unbridled enemies, chastened before their onset, and hemmed them in with devastations. I pass over that, when some reinforcements arrived, you slaughtered several wedges and squadrons of the foe, while of your own number scarcely two or three were missed after the battle, and that so great a calamity was inflicted on the adverse party by unforeseen combats, that they considered hiding the multitude of the slain by a baser design. For those whom the night, hastily preventing burial, left as decapitated corpses, as if it would be less of an indication, were the ones you would not wish to be recognized as having sent away shorn and truncated.

8. qui postquam luce revoluta intellexerunt furtum ruinae suae crudeli vilitate patuisse, tum demum palam officiis exequialibus occupabantur, non magis cladem fraude quam fraudem festinatione celantes; sic tamen, quod nec ossa tumultuarii caespitis mole tumulabant, quibus nec elutis vestimenta nec vestitis sepulchra tribuebant, iuste sic mortuis talia iusta solventes. iacebant corpora undique locorum plaustris convecta rorantibus, quae, quoniam perculsis indesinenter incumberes, raptim succensis conclusa domiciliis culminum superlabentum rogalibus fragmentis funerabantur.

8. who, after light had returned, understood that the theft had been laid bare by the ruin’s cruel vileness, then at last were openly occupied with funeral offices, no more concealing the slaughter by fraud than the fraud by haste; yet so that they neither buried the bones with a tumultuous turf-mound, to whom they assigned neither washed garments nor shrouded tombs, justly thus to the dead paying such just things. Bodies lay everywhere, gathered from the places by wagons, dripping, which, since when struck you fall upon them without ceasing, were quickly burned, enclosed in hastily kindled homes and buried with fragments of roofs slipping over the pyres.

9. sed quid ego istaec iusto plusculum garrio, qui laborum tuorum non ex asse historiam texere sed pro parte memoriam facere praesumpsi, quo magis crederes votis tuorum, quorum expectationi aegrescenti nulla salubrius ociusque quam tui adventus remedia medicabuntur? igitur, si quid nostratium precatibus adquiescis, actutum in patriam receptui canere festina et assiduitatem tuam periculosae regum familiaritati celer exime, quorum consuetudinem expertissimus quisque flammarum naturae bene comparat, quae sicut paululum a se remota inluminant, ita satis sibi admota comburunt. vale.

9. but why do I chatter a little more about those things to one just, who have presumed not to weave a full account of your labors but to make a memorial in part, that you might the more believe the vows of your men, for whose ailing expectation no remedy will be more healthful or swifter than your arrival? therefore, if you yield at all to the prayers of our people, straightaway hasten to proclaim your reception into the fatherland and quickly withdraw your assiduity from the perilous intimacy of kings, whose familiar habit even the most experienced compare well to the nature of flames, which, as a little removed, give light, yet when brought near enough burn themselves. farewell.

EPISTULA IV

EPISTLE 4

Sidonius Felici suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Felicius, greeting.

1. Gozolas natione Iudaeus, cliens culminis tui, cuius mihi quoque esset persona cordi, si non esset secta despectui, defert litteras meas, quas granditer anxius exaravi. oppidum siquidem nostrum quasi quandam sui limitis obicem circumfusarum nobis gentium arma terrificant. sic aemulorum sibi in medio positi lacrimabilis praeda populorum, suspecti Burgundionibus, proximi Gothis, nec impugnantum ira nec propugnantum caremus invidia.

1. Gozolas, by nation a Jew, a client of your Culmen, whose person also would be dear to me if his sect were not contemptible, brings my letters, which I wrote with great anxiety. For the arms of nations, as it were a certain barrier of their frontier, terrify our town surrounded on all sides. Thus, placed in the midst of rivals, a pitiable prey of peoples, suspected by the Burgundians, close to the Goths, we are not without the wrath of attackers nor the envy of defenders.

2. sed istinc alias. interea, si vel penes vos recta sunt, bene est. neque enim huiusmodi pectore sumus, ut, licet apertis ipsi poenis propter criminum occulta plectamur, non agi prospere vel ubicumque velimus.

2. but leave that aside for now. Meanwhile, if the right affairs are even in your hands, that is well. For we are not of such a mind that, although we ourselves are punished with open penalties on account of hidden crimes, things should not prosper or proceed as we wish wherever we choose.

nam certum est non minus vitiorum quam hostium esse captivum, qui non etiam inter mala tempora bona vota servaverit. vale.

for it is certain that one is no less a captive of vices than of enemies, who has not even kept good vows amid evil times. farewell.

EPISTULA V

EPISTLE 5

Sidonius Hypatio suo salutem.

Sidonius. To his Hypatius, greeting.

1. Si vir spectabilis morumque vestrorum suspector admiratorque Donidius solam rationem domesticae utilitatis habuisset, satis abundeque sufficeret fides vestra commodis suis, etsi nullus intercessor accederet. sed amore meo ductus est, ut quod ipse per se impetraverat me faceret postulare. itaque nunc honori vestro hic quoque cumulus accrescit, quod duo efficimur debitores, cum tamen unus e nobis beneficium consequatur.

1. If the man Donidius, respectable and both watcher and admirer of your mores, had had only regard for domestic utility, your faithfulness would have been quite and abundantly sufficient for his conveniences, even if no intercessor had come forward. But he was led by my love, so that he made me ask for what he himself had obtained for himself by his own exertion. Therefore now to your honor this accumulation also grows, because we are made two debtors, although nevertheless one of us receives the benefit.

2. Eborolacensis praedii etiam ante barbaros desolatam medietatem, quae domus patriciae iura modo respicit, suffragio vestro iuri suo optat adiungi. neque ad hanc nundinationem stimulo cupiditatis sed respectu avitae recordationis adducitur. siquidem fundi istius integritas familiae suae dominium usque in obitum vitrici nuper vita decedentis aspexit; nunc autem vir alieni non appetens, sui parcus possessionis antiquae a se alienatae non tam damno angitur quam pudore; quam ut redimere conetur, non avaritiae vitio sed verecundiae necessitate compellitur.

2. He petitions that half of the Eborolacensian estate, even before devastated by the barbarians, which now looks to the rights of the patrician house, be joined to his own right by your suffrage. Nor is he led to this appeal by the spur of cupiditas but by regard for ancestral remembrance. For the integrity of that farm saw his family’s dominion up to the death of the stepmother, recently departing this life; but now a man who does not covet another’s, sparing of his own, is grieved over the possession of an ancient holding alienated from him not so much by loss as by shame; and in order that he may attempt to redeem it he is driven not by the vice of avarice but by the necessity of modesty.

3. tribuere dignare votis suis, precibus meis, moribus tuis, ut ad soliditatem ruris istius te patrocinante perveniat, cui rem parentum sibique non solum notam verum etiam inter lactantis infantiae rudimenta reptatam sicut recepisse parum fructuosum, sic non emeruisse nimis videtur ignavum. ego vero tantum obstringar indultis, ac si meae proficiat peculiariter proprietati quicquid meus aetate frater professione filius, loco civis fide amicus acceperit. vale.

3. deign to grant to his vows, to my prayers, by your mores, that, with you patroning, it may attain the solidity of this farm; for the patrimony of his parents and to himself, not only familiar but even driven back into the rudiments of suckling infancy, seems as little fruitful to have been received, and thus not to have been too shamefully purchased. I, however, will be bound only by what has been granted, and only insofar as whatever my brother by age, by profession my son, in place of citizen, by faith a friend, has received shall peculiarly profit my private property. Farewell.

EPISTULA VI

LETTER 6

Sidonius Eutropio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greetings to his Eutropius.

1. Si veteris commilitii, si deinceps innovatae per dies gratiae bene in praesentiarum fides vestra reminiscitur, profecto intellegitis ut vos ad dignitatum sic nos ad desideriorum culmina ascendere. ita namque fascibus vestris gratamur omnes, ut erectam per illos non magis vestram domum quam nostram amicitiam censeamus. testis est ille tractatus, in quo exhortationis meae non minimum incitamenta valuerunt.

1. If the fidelity of an old comrade-in-arms, if moreover the faith of renewed favour through the days is well remembered in your present regard, you surely understand that just as you ascend to the pinnacles of dignities, so we ascend to the summits of desires. For we all rejoice in your fasces, so that a house raised by them we deem no more your house than our friendship. That tract bears witness, in which the incentives of my exhortation carried no small weight.

2. quibus vix potuistis adduci, ut praefecturam philosophiae iungeretis, cum vos consectanei vestri Plotini dogmatibus inhaerentes ad profundum intempestivae quietis otium Platonicorum palaestra rapuisset, cuius disciplinae tunc fore adstruxi liberam professionem, cum nil familiae debuisses. porro autem desidiae vicinior putabatur contemptus ille militiae, ad quam iactitant lividi bonarum partium viros non posse potius quam nolle conscendere.

2. whom you could scarcely be led to add to the prefecture of philosophy, since your fellow-travelers, clinging to the dogmas of Plotinus, had been carried off into the depth of the untimely quiet leisure of the Platonic palaestra, whose disciplina I then declared would be a free profession, since you owed nothing to family. Moreover, that contempt of the militia was thought nearer to sloth, to which the vaunting, jaundiced men of good parts were more not able than not willing to mount.

3. igitur, quod loco primore fieri par est, agimus gratias uberes Christo, qui statum celsitudinis tuae ut hactenus parentum nobilitate decorabat, ita iam nunc titulorum parilitate fastigat; simul et animorum spebus erectis fas est de cetero sperare meliora. certe creber provincialium sermo est: annum bonum de magnis non tam fructibus quam potestatibus aestimandum. qua de re vestrum est, domine maior, exspectationem nostram competentibus dispositionibus munerari.

3. therefore, what is fitting to be done first, we give abundant thanks to Christ, who, while until now he adorned the state of your highness by the nobility of your parents, now already crowns it by the equality of titles; and with souls’ hopes uplifted it is lawful henceforth to expect better things. Certainly the talk of the provincials is frequent: a good year in great affairs is to be judged not so much by fruits as by powers. Wherefore it is yours, my lord, superior, to reward our expectation with suitable dispositions.

nam memor originis tuae nobilium sibi persuasit universitas, quamdiu nos Sabini familia rexerit, Sabiniani familiam non timendam. vale.

for the whole community, persuaded of the memory of your origin, holds that so long as the Sabine family shall rule us, the Sabinian family need not be feared. Farewell.

EPISTULA VII

EPISTLE 7

Sidonius Felici suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Felicius, greetings.

1. Longum a litteris temperatis. igitur utrique nostrum mos suus agitur: ego garrio, vos tacetis. unde etiam, vir ad reliqua fidei officia insignis, genus reor esse virtutis tanto te otio non posse lassari.

1. It has been a long time since letters were exchanged. Therefore each of us follows his own custom: I chatter, you are silent. Whence also, you being a man distinguished in the remaining duties of the faith, I reckon it to be the nature of virtue that you cannot be wearied by so much leisure.

ecquid numquam nec respectu movebere familiaritatis antiquae, ut tandem a continuandi silentii proposito pedem referas? aut nescis, quia garrulo non respondere convicium est? tu retices vel bybliothecarum medius vel togarum et a me officium paupertini sermonis expectas, cui scribendi, si bene perspicis, magis est facilitas quam facultas.

Will you never by any respect be moved by our ancient familiarity, so that at last you withdraw your foot from the resolution of continued silence? Or do you not know that to a talkative man failing to answer is an affront? You fall silent whether in the midst of libraries or of togas, and you expect from me the officium of a pauper’s conversation, for whom writing, if you perceive rightly, is more a facilitas than a facultas.

2. certe vel metus noster materiam stilo tuo faciat, mementoque viatorum manus gravare chartis, quatenus amicorum cura relevetur, et indicare festina, si quam praevio deo quaestor Licinianus trepidationi mutuae ianuam securitatis aperuerit. persona siquidem est, ut perhibent, magna expectatione maior adventu, relatu sublimis inspectione sublimior, et ob omnia felicitatis naturaeque dona monstrabilis.

2. certainly at least let our fear supply the material for your stylus, and remember to burden the hands of travelers with sheets, so that by the care of friends it may be relieved, and make haste to indicate, if by a forewarning deity quaestor Licinianus has opened any door of security to our mutual trepidation. For the person, as they report, is greater in expectation than in his coming, sublime in report, even more sublime in appearance, and on account of all the gifts of felicity and of nature is remarkable.

3. summa censura, par comitas et prudentia fidesque misso mittentique conveniens; nihil affectatum simulatumque ponderique sermonum vera potius severitas quam severitatis imitatio; et nec, ut plurimi, qui cum credita diffidenter allegant, volunt videri egisse [se] cautius, sed neque ex illo, ut ferunt, numero, qui secreta dirigentum principum venditantes ambiunt a barbaris bene agi cum legato potius quam cum legatione.

3. the supreme censure, an equal comity and prudence and a fidelity fitting both the envoy and the one who sends; nothing affected or feigned, and of the weight of words a true rather than an imitated severity; and neither, as very many do, those who relate entrusted matters with distrust wishing to seem to have acted the more cautiously, nor, on the other hand, from that number, as they say, who, selling the secrets of ruling princes, court the barbarians to be well treated with a legate rather than with the legation.

4. hunc nobis morum viri tenorem secundus rumor invexit. mandate perniciter, si vero dicta conquadrant, ut tantisper a pervigili statione respirent quos a muralibus excubiis non dies ninguidus, non nox inlunis et turbida receptui canere persuadent; quia, etsi barbarus in hiberna concedat, mage differunt quam relinquunt semel radicatam corda formidinem. palpate nos prosperis, quia nostra non tam procul est a vobis causa quam patria.

4. a second rumor has brought to us the tenor of this man’s habitudes. Issue orders swiftly, and if indeed the reports agree, that for just so long they draw breath from the vigilant post—those whom from the mural sentinels neither day nor moonless and troubled night persuade to sound the alarm for retreat; for, although the barbarian yields to winter-quarters, they postpone fear rather than relinquish a dread once rooted in the heart. Test us in prosperous times, for our cause is not so far from you as from the fatherland.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA VIII

EPISTLE 8

Sidonius Eucherio suo salutem.

Sidonius. To his Eucherius, greeting.

1. Veneror antiquos, non tamen ita, ut qui aequaevorum meorum virtutes aut merita postponam. neque si Romana respublica in haec miseriarum extrema defluxit, ut studiosos sui numquam remuneretur, non idcirco Brutos Torquatosque non pariunt saecula mea. quorsum istaec, inquis?

1. I venerate the ancients, yet not so as to set aside the virtues or merits of my contemporaries. Nor, because the Roman res publica has fallen to these extremities of misfortune so that it repays not its devotees, do my times therefore fail to produce Bruti and Torquati of equal stature. Whither these things, you ask?

de te mihi ad te sermo est, vir efficacissime, cui debet respublica quod supra dictis solutum laudat historia.

2. quapropter ignari rerum temeraria iudicia suspendant nec perseverent satis aut suspicere praeteritos aut despicere praesentes; quandoquidem facile clarescit rempublicam morari beneficia, vos mereri. quamquam mirandum granditer non sit, natione foederatorum non solum inciviliter Romanas vires administrante verum etiam fundamentaliter eruente si nobilium virorum militariumque et supra vel spem nostrae vel opinionem partis adversae bellicosorum non tam defuerunt facta quam praemia. vale.

2. Wherefore let those ignorant of affairs withhold rash judgments and not insist so much on either esteeming the past or despising the present; since it readily becomes clear that the res publica is preserved by dispensing benefits, which you deserve. And although it is by no means greatly astonishing that the nation of the foederati, not only uncivilly administering Roman forces but even fundamentally overturning them,—for noble men, both civilian and military, and warriors exceeding either our hope or the expectation of the adverse party, lacked not so much deeds as rewards—still. Farewell.

EPISTULA IX

EPISTLE 9

Sidonius Riothamo suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greeting to his Riothamus.

1. Servatur nostri consuetudo sermonis: namque miscemus cum salutatione querimoniam, non omnino huic rei studentes, ut stilus noster sit officiosus in titulis, asper in paginis, sed quod ea semper eveniunt, de quibus loci mei aut ordinis hominem constat inconciliari, si loquatur, peccare, si taceat. sed et ipsi sarcinam vestri pudoris inspicimus, cuius haec semper verecundia fuit, ut pro culpis erubesceretis alienis.

1. The custom of our speech is observed: for we mingle complaint with greeting, not wholly intent on that matter so that our style be officious in headings, harsh in the pages, but because those things always happen about which it is known that a man of my place or rank will be unconciliable — if he speaks, he sins; if he is silent. Yet we also inspect the burden of your modesty itself, whose modesty has always been such that you would blush for another’s faults.

2. gerulus epistularum humilis obscurus despicabilisque etiam usque ad damnum innocentis ignaviae mancipia sua Britannis clam sollicitantibus abducta deplorat. incertum mihi est an sit certa causatio; sed si inter coram positos aequanimiter obiecta discingitis, arbitror hunc laboriosum posse probare quod obicit, si tamen inter argutos armatos tumultuosos, virtute numero contubernio contumaces, poterit ex aequo et bono solus inermis, abiectus rusticus, peregrinus pauper audiri. vale.

2. a petty complainant of letters, lowly, obscure, and even despicable, laments that his dependents, to the detriment of the innocent, were stolen away, secretly enticed by the Britons. It is uncertain to me whether this is a settled accusation; but if, placed among those present, you fairly disentangle the objections, I judge that this troublesome man may be able to prove what he charges, provided, however, that amid keen, armed, tumultuous men—rebellious in courage and in numbers, comrades in insubordination—the lone unarmed, abject rustic, a foreign poor man, can be heard on equal and just terms. Farewell.

EPISTULA X

EPISTLE 10

Sidonius Tetradio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Tetradius, greeting.

1. Plurimum laudis iuvenes nostri moribus suis applicant, quotiens de negotiorum meritis ambigentes ad peritorum consilia decurrunt, sicuti nunc vir clarissimus Theodorus, domi quidem nobilis, sed modestissimae conversationis opinione generosior, qui per litteras meas ad tuas litteras id est ad meracissimum scientiae fontem laudabili aviditate proficiscitur, non modo reperturus illic ipse quod discat sed et forsitan relaturus inde quod doceat.

1. Our young men gain the greatest praise by their morals, whenever, disputing about the merits of business, they resort to the counsels of the experienced; just as now the most illustrious man Theodorus, noble at home indeed, yet nobler in the reputation of most modest conversation, who, by my letters to your letters — that is, to the most unalloyed fountain of knowledge — sets out with laudable avidity, not only expecting there himself to find what he may learn but also, perhaps, to bring back from there what he may teach.

2. cui contra potentes factiososque, si vestra peritia non abundanter opitularetur, prudentia consulta sufficeret. respondete, obsecramus, nisi vobis tamen utriusque nostrum sociae preces oneri fastidiove reputabuntur, iudicio suo, testimonio meo et substantiam causamque supplicis fluctuantem medicabilis responsi salubritate fulcite. vale.

2. to that, on the other hand, against the powerful and the factious, if your peritia did not abundantly assist, prudent counsel would suffice. Answer, we beseech you, unless, however, the allied prayers of both of us shall be counted by you a burden or an annoyance; with your judgment, with my testimony, and with the healing salubrity of a response sustain the substance and cause of the suppliant, wavering. Vale.

EPISTULA XI

EPISTLE 11

Sidonius Simplicio suo salutem.

Sidonius. To Simplicius, his greeting.

1. Etsi desiderium nostrum sinisteritas tanta comitatur, ut etiam nunc nostris invidearis obtutibus, non idcirco is es, virorum optime, de cuius nos moribus lateant celsa memoratu. ita cuncti nostrates idemque summates viri optimarum te exactissimarumque partium praestantissimum patremfamilias consono praeconio prosequuntur.

1. Although our longing is attended by so great an ill-will that even now you are regarded with envy in our eyes, you are not therefore, best of men, one whose high deeds are hidden from mention by us. Thus all our countrymen and the same leading men, the most distinguished paterfamilias of the best and most exacting parts, accompany you with consonant praise.

2. astipulatur huic de te sententiae bonorum vel sic electus gener vel educta sic filia; in quorum copula tam felicem tibi controversiam vota pepererunt, ut ambigas utrum iudicio an institutione superaveris. sed tamen hinc vel maxume, parentes ambo venerabiles, este securi: idcirco ceteros vincitis, quod vos filii transierunt. igitur dona venia litteras primas, quas ut necdum mittere desidia fuerat, ita vereor ne sit misisse garrulitas.

2. It is vouched for about you by the opinions of good men that you were either thus chosen as a son‑in‑law or thus reared as a daughter; in whose pairing so felicitous a rivalry of vows has given you birth that you waver whether you have prevailed by judgment or by upbringing. Yet therefore and especially, both venerable parents, be secure: you surpass the others because your children have excelled. Grant then pardon to these first letters, which, just as idleness had so far delayed sending, so I fear that loquacity has sent.

carebit sane nostrum naevo loquacitatis officium, si exemplo recursantis alloquii impudentiam paginae praesentis absolveris. vale.

Surely our duty of loquacity will be free from blemish, if by the example of a recurring address you absolve the impudence of the present page. Farewell.

EPISTULA XII

EPISTLE 12

Sidonius Secundo suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Secundus, greetings.

1. Avi mei, proavi tui tumulum hesterno (pro dolor!) die paene manus profana temeraverat; sed deus affuit, ne nefas tantum perpetraretur. campus autem ipse dudum refertus tam bustualibus favillis quam cadaveribus nullam iam diu scrobem recipiebat; sed iam tellus humatis quae superducitur redierat in pristinam distenta planitiem pondere nivali seu diuturno imbrium fluxu sidentibus acervis. quae fuit causa, ut locum auderent tamquam vacantem corporum baiuli rastris funebribus impiare.

1. Yesterday (woe!) the profane hand had almost dared to violate the tomb of my grandfather, your great‑grandfather; but God was present, so that so great a nefas should not be perpetrated. The field itself, long filled both with pyre‑ashes and with corpses, had for a long time received no new trench; but now the earth of the buried, which is heaped above, had returned, swollen into its former plain by the weight of snow or by the long flow of rains, the heaps settling. What was the cause that they dared, as if the place were vacant of bodies, to profane it with funeral rakes?

2. quid plura? iam niger caespes ex viridi, iam supra antiquum sepulchrum glaebae recentes, cum forte pergens urbem ad Arvernam publicum scelus e supercilio vicini collis aspexi meque equo effuso tam per aequata quam per abrupta proripiens et morae exiguae sic quoque inpatiens, antequam pervenirem, facinus audax praevio clamore compescui. dum dubitant in crimine reperti dilaberentur an starent, superveni.

2. what more? now black turf upon the green, now fresh clods above the ancient sepulchre, when by chance, journeying toward the Arvernian city, I caught sight from the brow of a neighboring hill of a public crime, and with my horse let loose, rushing forward alike over level and over precipitous ground and likewise impatient of brief delays, before I reached them I checked the daring deed with a preliminary shout. While they, found in the crime, vacillated whether to slip away or to stand their ground, I came up.

confiteor errorem, supplicia captorum differre non potui, sed supra senis nostri ipsum opertorium torsi latrones, quantum sufficere posset superstitum curae, mortuorum securitati.

I confess my error: I could not defer the punishments of the captured, but I hanged the thieves upon the very shroud of our old man, as much as could suffice for the care of the survivors and for the security of the dead.

3. ceterum nostro quod sacerdoti nil reservavi meae causae suaeque personae praescius, in commune consului, ne vel haec iusto clementius vindicaretur vel illa iusto severius vindicaret. cui cum tamen totum ordinem rei ut satisfaciens ex itinere mandassem, vir sanctus et iustus iracundiae meae dedit gloriam, cum nil amplius ego venia postularem, pronuntians more maiorum reos tantae temeritatis iure caesos videri.

3. moreover, since I had reserved nothing of my cause and of his person for our priest, foreknowing, I consulted it with the community, lest either this be avenged too leniently by a just man or that be avenged too severely by a just man. to whom, however, when I had entrusted the whole ordering of the matter to make satisfaction on return, the holy and just man gave glory to my wrath, I asking no further pardon, pronouncing — according to the custom of the elders — that the accused seemed to have been struck down by law for so great temerity.

4. sed ne quid in posterum casibus liceat, quos ab exemplo vitare debemus, posco, ut actutum me quoque absente tua cura sed meo sumptu resurgat in molem sparsa congeries, quam levigata pagina tegat. ego venerabili Gaudentio reliqui pretium lapidis operisque mercedem. carmen hoc sane, quod consequetur, nocte proxima feci, non expolitum, credo, quod viae non parum intentus.

4. but that nothing in future misfortunes, which by example we ought to avoid, be permitted, I ask that straightaway I also, absent your care but at my own expense, be raised up into a mass — a scattered congeries — which a smoothed page may cover. I left to the venerable Gaudentius the price of the stone and the hire of the work. This poem indeed, which will follow, I composed on the next night, not polished, I think, because considerably attentive to the road.

5. quod peto ut tabulae, quantulumcumque est, celeriter indatur; sed vide, ut vitium non faciat in marmore lapidicida; quod factum sive ab industria seu per incuriam mihi magis quam quadratario lividus lector adscribet. ego vero, si pio studio rogata curaveris, sic agam gratias, quasi nil tibi quoque laudis aut gloriae accedat, quem patruo tuo remoto solida praesentis officii sollicitudo mansisset pro gradu seminis.

5. which I ask that the tablet, however small it be, be quickly set up; but see that it commit no blemish upon the marble fit for the stonecutter; for if done, whether by industry or by neglect, the jaundiced reader will ascribe it to me rather than to the quarrier. I, however, if you, having been entreated, shall have seen to it with pious zeal, will give thanks as though no praise or glory were added to you also — for whom, your paternal uncle removed, the solid solicitude of the present office would have remained in place of the rank of kin.

Serum post patruos patremque carmen
haud indignus avo nepos dicavi,
ne fors tempore postumo, viator,
ignorans reverentiam sepulti
tellurem tereres inaggeratam.
praefectus iacet hic Apollinaris
post praetoria recta Galliarum,
maerentis patriae sinu receptus,
consultissimus utilissimusque
ruris militiae forique cultor,
exemploque aliis periculoso
liber sub dominantibus tyrannis.
haec sed maxima dignitas probatur,
quod frontem cruce, membra fonte purgans
primus de numero patrum suorum
sacris sacrilegis renuntiavit.

A late song, after my uncles and my father, I dedicate
not unworthy to my grandfather, O grandson;
lest by chance, in a late age, wayfarer,
unknowing the reverence of the buried
you grind the earth heaped over his tomb.
praefectus lies here Apollinaris
after the praetorian rule of the Gauls,
received in the grieving bosom of his country,
most prudent and most useful,
a cultivator of field, of military service, and of the forum,
and by his example dangerous to others,
a free man under dominating tyrants.
but this greatest dignity is proved,
that, cleansing his brow with the cross, his limbs with the font,
first of the number of his fathers
he renounced the sacrilegious rites.

hoc primum est decus, haec superba virtus,
spe praecedere quos honore iungas
quique hic sunt titulis pares parentes,
hos illic meritis supervenire.

this is the first honor, this proud virtue,
to precede in hope those whom you join by honor,
and those here who as parents are equal in titles,
to overtake them there by merits.

Novi quidem auctoris nostri non respondere doctrinae epitaphii qualitatem, sed anima perita musicas non refutat inferias. tibi quoque non decet tardum videri quod heres tertius quartusque dependimus, cum tot annorum gyro voluto magnum Alexandrum parentasse manibus Achillis et Iulium Caesarem Hectori ut suo iusta solvisse didicerimus. vale.

I know indeed that the quality of the epitaph does not correspond to the doctrine of our author, but a soul skilled in the musical arts does not refuse funeral rites. Nor is it fitting that you appear slow, since we hang as third and fourth heirs, when by the circuit of so many years we have learned that great Alexander was fostered by the hands of Achilles and that Julius Caesar paid to Hector his just dues as to his own. Farewell.

EPISTULA XIII

EPISTLE 13

Sidonius Apollinari suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greeting to his Apollinarius.

1. Unice probo gaudeo admiror, quod castitatis affectu contubernia fugis impudicorum, praesertim quibus nihil pensi, nihil sancti est in appetendis garriendisque turpitudinibus quique quod verbis inverecundis aurium publicarum reverentiam incestant, granditer sibi videntur facetiari. cuius vilitatis esse signiferum Gnathonem patriae nostrae vel maxumum intellege.

1. I alone approve, I rejoice, I admire that, with a zeal for chastity, you flee the contubernia of the impudent; especially those for whom there is nothing of weight, nothing sacred in craving and garrulously prating of indecencies, and who with shameless words violate the reverence of public ears; they seem to themselves greatly to facetiari. Know that Gnathon is the signifer of such vilitas in our patria, or even its greatest.

2. est enim hic gurges de sutoribus fabularum, de concinnatoribus criminum, de sinistrarum opinionum duplicatoribus, loquax ipse nec dicax ridiculusque nec laetus arrogansque nec constans curiosusque nec perspicax atque indecenter affectato lepore plus rusticus; tempora praesentia colens, praeterita carpens, futura fastidiens; beneficii, si rogaturus est, inportunus petendi derogator negati, aemulator accepti callidus reformandi, querulus flagitati garrulus restituti; at si rogandus, simulator parati dissimulator petiti, venditor praestiti publicator occulti, calumniator morati infitiator soluti;

2. for he is a whirlpool of cobblers of tales, of arrangers of crimes, of doublers of sinister opinions, talkative himself yet not witty, ridiculous and not joyful, arrogant and not steadfast, curious and not perspicacious, and indecently more rustic through affected charm; cherishing present times, carping at the past, scorning the future; about a benefit, if he is to ask, importunate in petitioning, a detractor of the denied, a rival of the received, crafty in reclaiming what was granted, querulous when demanded, garrulous about what is restored; but if to be asked, a pretender of the ready, a dissembler of the sought, a vendor of what was supplied, a publicizer of the hidden, a calumniator of the delayed, a denier of the released;

3. osor ieiuniorum, sectator epularum; laudabilem proferens non de bene vivente sed de bene pascente sententiam; inter haec tamen ipse avarissimus quemque non pascit tam panis bonus quam panis alienus, hoc solum comedens domi, si quid e raptis inter alaparum procellas praemisit obsoniis. sed nec est sane praedicabilis viri in totum silendi frugalitas: ieiunat, quotiens non vocatur; sed sic quoque levitate parasitica, si invitetur excusans; si vitetur, explorans; si excludatur exprobrans; si admittatur, exultans; si verberetur, exspectans.

3. a hater of fasts, a follower of feasts; proclaiming as laudable not the man who lives well but the man who feeds well; yet among these he himself is most avaricious, who spares no one — neither his own good bread nor another’s bread — eating at home only that which, from the plunder sent forth amid the storms of gluttons, he has set aside as side-dishes. But the frugality of silence is by no means wholly praiseworthy in a man: he fasts whenever he is not invited; and yet with parasitic fickleness — if invited, he makes excuses; if avoided, he spies out; if excluded, he reproaches; if admitted, he exults; if beaten, he waits.

4. cum discubuerit, fertur actutum, si tarde comedat, in rapinas; si cito saturetur, in lacrimas; si sitiat, in querelas; si inebrietur, in vomicas; si fatiget, in contumelias; si fatigetur, in furias; faeculentiae omnino par cloacali, quae quo plus commota, plus fetida est. ita vivens paucis voluptati, nullis amori, omnibus risui, vesicarum ruptor fractorque ferularum, bibendi avidus, avidior detrahendi, rabido pariter ore spirans caenum, spumans vinum, loquens venenum, facit ambigi putidior, temulentior an facinorosior existimetur.

4. when he has reclined, it is said at once: if he eats late, into rapine; if he is sated quickly, into tears; if he thirsts, into complaints; if he becomes drunk, into ulcers; if he wearies, into insults; if he is exhausted, into furies; altogether a seweral filth (cloacal faeculence), which the more it is stirred the more foul it becomes. Thus living for few for pleasure, for none for love, for all for laughter, a breaker of bladders and breaker of rods, eager to drink, more eager to denounce, breathing mire with a rabid mouth, foaming wine, speaking poison, he makes one doubt whether he should be judged fouler, more drunken, or more criminal.

5. sed dicis: 'animi probra vultus colorat et deprecatur ineptias mentis qualitas corporis; elegans videlicet homo pervenustusque cuiusque sit spectabilis persona visentibus.' enimvero ille sordidior est atque deformior cadavere rogali, quod facibus admotis semicombustum moxque sidente strue torrium devolutum reddere pyrae iam fastidiosus pollinctor exhorret. praeter hoc lumina gerit idem lumine carentia, quae Stygiae vice paludis volvunt lacrimas per tenebras.

5. but you say: 'the complexion beautifies the reproaches of the soul and the quality of the body pleads for the follies of the mind; an elegant, to be sure, and well-groomed man whose person is to be admired by beholders.' Yet truly he is fouler and more deformed than a rotting corpse, which, with torches applied, half-burned and soon the pyre subsiding, tumbled down from its funeral mound — the now fastidious undertaker recoils from delivering it to the flames. Besides this, he bears lights himself, like those deprived of light, who in the place of a Stygian marsh roll tears through the darkness.

6. gerit et aures immanitate barrinas, quarum fistulam biforem pellis ulcerosa circumvenit saxeis nodis et tofosis umore verrucis per marginem curvum protuberantibus. portat et nasum, qui cum sit amplus in foraminibus et strictus in spina, sic patescit horrori, quod angustatur olfactui. praetendit os etiam labris plumbeum rictu ferinum, gingivis purulentum dentibus buxeum, quod spurcat frequenter exhalatus e concavo molarium computrescentum mephiticus odor, quem supercumulat esculenta ructatio de dapibus hesternis et redundantum sentina cenarum.

6. he wears also ears with the immanitate barrinas, whose two-holed tube the ulcerous skin encircles with stony nodules and warty growths, and with crusted moisture the verrucae bulging along the curved rim. he carries also a nose which, being broad at the nostrils and constricted at the bridge, thus presents a horror, since it is narrowed for the sense of smell. he thrusts forth a mouth likewise with leaden lips and a ferine grin, gums purulent and teeth boxwood-colored, which is often fouled by the mephitic exhalation from the hollow of a decaying molar — a stench that he piles up by belching up esculentia from yesterday’s dapibus and the overflowing sentina of dinners.

7. promit et frontem, quae foedissimo gestu cutem plicat supercilia distendit. nutrit et barbam, quae iam senectute canescens fit tamen morbo nigra Syllano. tota denique est misero facies ita pallida, veluti per horas umbris maestificata larvalibus.

7. it presents also the forehead, which with a most foul gesture puckers the skin and stretches the eyebrows. it nourishes also a beard, which—now greying with old age—is nevertheless blackened by the Syllanian disease. finally the whole face is so miserably pale, as if for hours saddened by larval shadows.

taceo reliquam sui molem vinctam podagra pinguedine solutam. taceo cerebrum crebra vibice peraratum, quod parum amplius tegi constat capillis quam cicatricibus. taceo pro brevitate cervicis occipiti supinato scapularum adhaerere confinia.

I am silent about the remainder of his mass, bound by podagra and loosened by obesity. I am silent about the brain, often ploughed by frequent blows, which is known to be covered little more by hair than by scars. For brevity I am silent that the occiput, thrown back, adheres to the confines of the shoulders because of the shortness of the neck.

8. taceo, quia decidit honor umeris, decor brachiis, robur lacertis. taceo chiragricas manus unctis cataplasmatum pannis tamquam caestibus involutas. taceo, quod alarum specubus hircosis atque acescentibus latera captiva vallatus nares circumsedentum ventilata duplicis Ampsancti peste funestat.

8. I am silent, because honour falls from the shoulders, grace from the arms, strength from the biceps. I am silent about the gout-stricken hands wrapped in oiled poultice-cloths as if in mitts. I am silent, because the watch-posts of the wings, their flanks shaggy and bristling, the captive flanks enclosed by ramparts and the nostrils of those besieging, when breathed upon, are blighted by the pest of the double Ampsanctus.

taceo fractas pondere arvinae iacere mammas quasque foedum esset in pectore virili vel prominere, has ut ubera materna cecidisse. taceo ventris inflexi pendulos casses parti genitalium, quia debili, bis pudendae turpibus rugis turpius praebere velamen.

i am silent that breasts, broken by the weight of the fields, lie, and that it would be foul in a man’s chest for them to protrude, these as if maternal udders had fallen. i am silent about the hanging hollow sacks of the bent belly, the genital part, because to the weak it is more shameful to offer the twice‑shameful pudenda with ugly folds as a covering.

9. iam quid hic tergum spinamque commemorem? de cuius licet internodiorum fomitibus erumpens aream pectoris texat curvatura costarum, tota nihilominus haec ossium ramosa compago sub uno velut exundantis abdominis pelago latet. taceo lumborum corpulentiam cluniumque, cui crassitudini comparata censetur alvus exilis.

9. now why should I recount here the back and the spine?—of which, though bursting forth from the fomentations of the internodes it may cover the area of the chest with the curvature of the ribs, yet all the same this branching framework of bones lies hidden beneath the one, as it were overflowing, sea of the abdomen. I am silent about the corpulence of the loins and of the buttocks, to which, when compared with that thickness, the belly is judged slender.

taceo femur aridum ac pandum, genua vasta poplites delicatos, crura cornea vitreos talos, parvos digitos pedes grandes. cumque distortis horreat ita liniamentis perque multiplicem pestilentiam exsanguis semivivusque nec portatus sedeat, nec sustentatus incedat, verbis tamen est ille quam membris execrabilior.

I pass over the thigh, dry and bowed, the knees wide, the hollows of the knees delicate, the shanks horny, the ankles glassy, the toes small, the feet large. And when, with features thus distorted and through manifold pestilence, bloodless and half-alive, he neither sits borne nor, supported, walks, yet in words he is more execrable than in his limbs.

10. nam quamquam pruritu laborat sermonis inhonesti, tamen patronorum est praecipue cavendus arcanis, quorum est laudator in prosperis, delator in dubiis; et si ad occulta familiarium publicanda temporis ratio sollicitet, mox per hunc Spartacum quaecumque sunt clausa franguntur quaeque obserata reserantur; ita, quod quas domorum nequiverit machinis apertae simultatis impetere, cuniculis clandestinae proditionis impugnat. hoc fabricatu Daedalus noster amicitiarum culmen aedificat, qui sicut sodalibus velut Theseus inter secunda sociatur, sic ab his postmodum velut Proteus inter adversa dilabitur.

10. for although he labors under the itch of dishonorable talk, yet he must above all be guarded against the secrets of patrons, of whom he is a praiser in prosperity, a denouncer in doubt; and if the season urges him to make public the privacies of household-folk, straightaway by this Spartacus whatever was shut is broken open and whatever was bolted is unbarred; thus, what he could not assail openly by the engines of household quarrel he attacks through the tunnels of clandestine treachery. By this contrivance our Daedalus builds the summit of friendships, who just as with comrades he associates like Theseus in good fortune, so afterwards like Proteus he slips away among adversities.

11. igitur ex voto meo feceris, si talium sodalitati ne congressu quidem primore sociere, maxume illorum, quorum sermonibus prostitutis ac theatralibus nullas habenas, nulla praemittit repagula pudor. nam quibus citra honestatis nitorem iactitabundis loquacis faece petulantiae lingua polluitur infrenis, his conscientia quoque sordidatissima est. denique facilius obtingit, ut quispiam seria loquens vivat obscene, quam valeat ostendi qui pariter existat improbus dictis et probus moribus.

11. therefore you will do according to my vow, if you join not even at first meeting in the sodality of such men, above all those whose speeches, prostituted and theatrical, leave no reins, no bars of modesty. for those whose tongue is fouled with the unbridled dregs of petulant loquacity, boastful without the sheen of honesty, to them conscience too is most sordid. finally it more readily happens that one who speaks serious things may live obscenely, than that one who is equally shameless in words and upright in morals can be shown to exist.

vale.

Farewell.

EPISTULA XIV

EPISTLE 14

Sidonius Placido suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Placido, greetings.

1. Quamquam te tua tenet Gratianopolis, comperi tamen hospitum veterum fido relatu, quod meas nugas sive confectas opere prosario seu poetarum stilo cantilenosas plus voluminum lectione dignere repositorum. gaudeo hoc ipso, quod recognovi chartulis occupari nostris otium tuum; sed probe intellego, quod moribus tuis hanc voluptatem non operis effectus excudit sed auctoris affectus, ideoque plus debeo, quia gloriae punctum, quod dictioni negares, das amicitiae.

1. Although Gratianopolis holds you, I have learned by the faithful report of old guests that my trifles, whether completed in the work of a prose-writer or in the poets’ style, sung like cantilenas, have been judged worthy to be set among many volumes for reading. I rejoice in this alone, that I recognized your leisure to be occupied with our little papers; but I clearly understand that, by your manners, this pleasure springs not from the effect of the work but from affection for the author, and therefore I owe more, because you give to friendship the little point of glory which you would deny to diction.

2. de ceteris vero studii nostri derogatoribus quid ex asse pronuntiem necdum deliberavi. nam qui maxume doctus sibi videtur, dictionem sanam et insanam ferme appetitu pari revolvit, non amplius concupiscens erecta quae laudet quam despecta quae rideat. atque in hunc modum scientia pompa proprietas linguae Latinae iudiciis otiosorum maximo spretui est, quorum scurrilitati neglegentia comes hoc volens tantum legere, quod carpat, sic non utitur litteris, quod abutitur.

2. As for the other detractors of our studium, what I should pronounce even for an as I have not yet deliberated. For he who seems to himself most learned turns over with equal appetite sane and insane diction, no more eager to desire to praise the lofty than to scorn what he may deride. And in this way learning, pomp, and the propriety of the Latin tongue are subject to the greatest scorn by the judgments of the idle, whose negligence is the companion of their buffoonery; willing only to read what they snatch at, thus they do not use letters rightly but abuse them.

vale.

farewell.