Sidonius Apollinaris: EPISTULARUM LIBRI IX

1. Tu quidem pulchre (mos hic tuus, et persevera), vir omnium bonorum, qui uspiam degunt, laude dignissime, quod amicorum gloriae, sicubi locus, lenocinaris. hinc est quod etiam scrinia Arverna petis eventilari, cui sufficere suspicabamur, si quid superiore vulgatu protulissemus. itaque morem geremus iniunctis, actionem tamen stili eatenus prorogaturi, ut epistularum seriem nimirum a primordio voluminis inchoatarum in extimo fine parvi adhuc numeri summa protendat, opus videlicet explicitum quodam quasi marginis sui limbo coronatura.

1. You indeed elegantly (this is your custom, and persist), man most worthy of praise among all good men who live anywhere, because you lenocinate for the glory of friends, wherever a place exists. Hence it is that you even seek Arvernian chests to be fanned, which we suspected would suffice if we had produced anything in an earlier vulgate. Therefore we will keep the prescribed custom, yet defer the action of the stylus only so far, that the series of letters, namely begun from the very beginning of the volume, may stretch at the extreme end the total of a still small number, the work, it is clear, brought to an end and as it were crowned by the fringe of its own margin.

2. sed plus cavendum est, ne sera propter iam propalati augmenta voluminis in aliquos forsitan incidamus vituperones, quorum fugere linguas cote livoris naturalitus acuminatas ne Demosthenis quidem Ciceronisque sententiae artifices et eloquia fabra potuere, quorum anterior orator Demaden, citerior Antonium toleravere derogatores; qui lividi cum fuerint malitiae clarae, dictionis obscurae, tamen ad notitiam posterorum per odia virtutum decucurrerunt.

2. but one must be more wary, lest late because of the now revealed enlargements of the volume we perhaps fall into some revilers, whose tongues, sharpened by the natural whetstone of envy, not even the artificers of sententiae and the crafts of eloquence, Demosthenes and Cicero, were able to flee; whose earlier orator Demades, the later Antony tolerated as detractors; who, though their malignity was manifestly livid, their diction obscure, nevertheless ran through the notice of posterity by reasons of hatred toward virtues.

3. sed quia hortaris, repetitis laxemus vela turbinibus et qui veluti maria transmisimus, hoc quasi stagnum pernavigemus. nam satis habeo deliberatum, sicut adhibendam in conscriptione diligentiam, ita tenendam in editione constantiam. demum vero medium nihil est: namque aut minimum ex hisce metuendum est aut per omnia omnino conticescendum.

3. but since you urge, with things recalled let us loosen our sails to the gusts, and we who, as if we have crossed the seas, shall sail this as though a mere pond. for I have sufficiently deliberated: just as the diligence to be applied in composition, so the constancy to be kept in edition. finally truly there is no middle: for either the least of these must be feared or in all things altogether we must be silent.

vale.

Farewell.

EPISTULA II

LETTER 2

Sidonius Iohanni suo salutem.

Sidonius to his John, greetings.

1. Credidi me, vir peritissime, nefas in studia committere, si distulissem prosequi laudibus quod aboleri tu litteras distulisti, quarum quodammodo iam sepultarum suscitator fautor assertor concelebraris, teque per Gallias uno magistro sub hac tempestate bellorum Latina tenuerunt ora portum, cum pertulerint arma naufragium.

1. I believed that I, a man most skilled, would commit a nefas against my studies if I had delayed to pursue with praise what you delayed to abolish — your letters, of which you are in a manner now acclaimed as reviver, patron, and advocate of the somewhat buried; and that Latin mouths, under one master through the Gauls, have held you as a harbour in this season of wars, since arms have brought shipwreck.

2. debent igitur vel aequaevi vel posteri nostri universatim ferventibus votis alterum te ut Demosthenem, alterum ut Tullium nunc statuis, si liceat, consecrare, nunc imaginibus, qui te docente formati institutique iam sinu in medio sic gentis invictae, quod tamen alienae, natalium vetustorum signa retinebunt: nam iam remotis gradibus dignitatum, per quas solebat ultimo a quoque summus quisque discerni, solum erit posthac nobilitatis indicium litteras nosse.

2. therefore our contemporaries or our posterity ought universally, with fervent vows, to consecrate you, if it be allowed, one as a Demosthenes, the other as a Tullius; now to consecrate you in images, who, formed and instructed by your teaching, are already in the very bosom and midst of that unconquered people — which, however, will remain alien — and will retain the marks of ancient birth; for now that the steps of dignities, by which formerly each foremost man was distinguished in the end, have been removed, thenceforth the sole indication of nobility will be to know letters.

3. nos vero ceteros supra doctrinae tuae beneficia constringunt, quibus aliquid scribere assuetis quodque venturi legere possint elaborantibus saltim de tua schola seu magisterio competens lectorum turba proveniet. vale.

3. we, however, bind the others above by the benefits of your doctrine, to whom, accustomed to write somewhat and able to read what is to come, at least from those labouring a suitable throng of readers will arise from your school or teaching. vale.

EPISTULA III

EPISTLE 3

Sidonius Leoni suo salutem.

Sidonius to his own Leonus, greetings.

1. Apollonii Pythaghorici vitam, non ut Nicomachus senior e Philostrati sed ut Tascius Victorianus e Nicomachi schedio exscripsit, quia iusseras, misi; quam, dum parare festino, celeriter eiecit in tumultuarium exemplar turbida et praeceps et Opica translatio. neque mihi rem credito diuturnius elaboratam vitio vertas: nam dum me tenuit inclusum mora moenium Livianorum, cuius incommodi finem post opem Christi tibi debeo, non valebat curis animus aeger saltim saltuatim tradenda percurrere, nunc per nocturna suspiria, nunc per diurna officia districtus.

1. I sent the life of Apollonius the Pythagorean to you, not as the elder Nicomachus copied from Philostratus but as Tascius Victorianus transcribed from Nicomachus’ epitome, because you had ordered it; which, while I hasten to prepare it, a turbid and headlong and Opic translation quickly cast out into a tumultuous draft. And do not turn against me, by fault, the thing entrusted as if more longly wrought out: for while the delay of the Livian walls kept me shut in, the end of whose inconvenience I owe to you after the help of Christ, my sick mind was not able to run through the things to be handed over, at least little by little—now by nocturnal sighs, now constrained by daytime duties.

2. ad hoc, et cum me defetigatum ab excubiis ad deversorium crepusculascens hora revocaverat, vix dabatur luminibus inflexis parvula quies; nam fragor ilico, quem movebant vicinantes impluvio cubiculi mei duae quaepiam Getides anus, quibus nil umquam litigiosius bibacius vomacius erit. sane, cum primum reduci aliquid otii fuit, inpolitum hunc semicrudumque et, ut aiunt, tamquam musteum librum plus desiderii tui quam officii mei memor obtuli.

2. to this, and when the hour growing twilight had recalled me, wearied from the watches to an inn, with the lamps bent down little rest was scarcely granted; for immediately a din, which two certain old Getan women dwelling nearby raised at the impluvium of my bedroom, — of whom nothing will ever be more quarrelsome, more bibulous, more gluttonous —. Certainly, when a little leisure could first be restored, I offered this unpolished, half-raw and, as they say, like a musty-wine book, remembering your desire more than my duty.

3. quocirca sepone tantisper Pythicas lauros Hippocrenenque et illos carminum modos tibi uni tantum penitissime familiares, qui tamen doctis, ut es ipse, personis non tam fonte quam fronte sudantur. suspende perorandi illud quoque celeberrimum flumen, quod non solum gentilicium sed domesticum tibi quodque in tuum pectus per succiduas aetates ab atavo Frontone transfunditur. sepone pauxillulum conclamatissimas declamationes, quas oris regii vice conficis, quibus ipse rex inclitus modo corda terrificat gentium transmarinarum, modo de superiore cum barbaris ad Vachalin trementibus foedus victor innodat, modo per promotae limitem sortis ut populos sub armis, sic frenat arma sub legibus.

3. wherefore lay aside for a little the Pythian laurels and Hippocrene and those modes of song most penitently familiar to you alone, which nevertheless in learned persons, as you yourself are, are sweat produced not so much from the spring as from the brow. suspend also that most celebrated stream of peroration, which is poured not only as a gentilic inheritance but as a domestic one into your breast through successive ages from your ancestor Fronto. put aside a little the most clamorous declamations, which you perform in the place of a royal mouth, by which the celebrated king now terrifies the hearts of overseas peoples, now, victorious, fastens a treaty with trembling barbarians at Vachalin, now, by the frontier of a promoted lot, restrains peoples under arms and so reins in arms under laws.

4. exuere utcumque continuatissimis curis et otium tuum molibus aulicis motibusque furare. historiam flagitatam tunc recognosces opportune competenterque, si cum Tyaneo nostro nunc ad Caucasum Indumque, nunc ad Aethiopum gymnosophistas Indorumque bracmanas totus lectioni vacans et ipse quodammodo peregrinere.

4. cast off, however you can, your most incessant cares, and let leisure be stolen from you by courtly burdens and intrigues. You will then recognize the oft-demanded history opportunely and fitly, if, like our Tyaneus, wholly given to reading, you were yourself also, in a manner, to peregrinate — now to the Caucasus and to India, now to the Ethiopian gymnosophists and to the bracmanas of the Indians.

5. lege virum fidei catholicae pace praefata in plurimis similem tui id est a divitibus ambitum nec divitias ambientem; cupidum scientiae continentem pecuniae; inter epulas abstemium, inter purpuratos linteatum, inter alabastra censorium; concretum hispidum hirsutum in medio nationum delibutarum atque inter satrapas regum tiaratorum murrhatos pumicatos malobathratos venerabili squalore pretiosum; cumque proprio nihil esui aut indutui de pecude conferret, regnis ob hoc, quae pererravit, non tam suspicioni, quam [fuisse] suspectui; et a fortuna regum sibi in omnibus obsecundante illa tantum beneficia poscentem, quae mage sit suetus oblata praestare quam sumere.

5. by law a man of the Catholic faith, peace aforementioned, in many ways like you — that is, courted by the rich yet not coveting riches; desirous of knowledge yet continent with money; abstemious among feasts, linen-clad among the purpurates, of the censorial sort among the alabasters; rough, bristly, shaggy, smeared with the fashions of nations in the midst of them and among the satraps of kings tiarate, myrrh‑scented, pumiced, malobathrated, precious in venerable squalor; and since he contributed nothing of his own for food or for dress from cattle, on that account in the realms through which he wandered he was not so much to suspicion as [to have been] suspected; and with the fortune of kings favoring him in all things, he asked only those benefits which he was more accustomed to bestow when offered than to receive.

6. quid multis? si vera metimur aestimamusque, fors fuat an philosophi vitae scriptor aequalis maiorum temporibus accesserit, certe par saeculo meo per te lector obvenit. vale.

6. what need of many words? if we measure and judge things truly, whether by chance a philosopher equal in life to the authors of earlier times has appeared, certainly a peer of my age has come to hand for you, reader. vale.

EPISTULA IV

EPISTULA 4

Sidonius Consentio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends his greeting to his Consentio.

1. Umquamne nos dei nutu, domine maior, una videbit ille ager tuus Octavianus, nec tuus tantum quantum amicorum? qui civitati fluvio mari proximus hospites epulis, te pascit hospitibus, praeter haec oculis intuentum situ decorus, primore loco, quod domicilium parietibus attollitur ad concinentiam scilicet architectonicam fabre locatis; tum sacrario porticibus ac thermis conspicabilibus late coruscans; ad hoc agris aquisque, vinetis atque olivetis, vestibulo campo colle amoenissimus; iam super penum vel supellectilem copiosam thesauris bibliothecalibus large refertus, ubi ipse dum non minus stilo quam vomeri incumbis, difficile discernitur domini plusne sit cultum rus an ingenium.

1. Will that field of yours, Octavianus, ever see us together by the nod of the gods, my lord and elder, and not yours alone so much as that of friends? Which, being near the city, the river, and the sea, feeds guests with banquets, sustains you for your guests, and besides is handsome to the eyes in situation; in the first place because the dwelling is raised with walls set skillfully to an architectural consonance; then gleaming far and wide with a shrine, porticoes, and conspicuous baths; moreover with fields and waters, vineyards and olive-groves, most delightful in its vestibule, plain, and hill; now furthermore abundantly filled with provisions or with ample furniture, largely stocked with bibliothecal treasures, where you yourself, while you bend over the stylus no less than the ploughshare, it is difficult to discern whether the master cultivates the country more or his mind.

2. igitur hic tu, quantum recordor, citos iambos, elegos acutos ac rotundatos hendecasyllabos et cetera carmina musicos flores thymumque redolentia, nunc Narbonensibus cantitanda, nunc Biterrensibus, ambigendum celerius an pulchrius elucubrasti, apud aequaevos gratiam tuam, famam apud posteros ampliaturus. certe mihi, quotiens tui versus a meditationis incude tamquam adhuc calidi deferebantur, sic videbatur, qui, etsi non bene scribo, bene iudico.

2. therefore you here, as far as I remember, quick iambs, sharp elegies and rounded hendecasyllables and other poems breathing musical flowers and thyme, now to be sung for the Narbonenses, now for the Biterrenses, it must be debated whether more swiftly or more beautifully you wrought them, with your grace among your contemporaries, your fame among posterity to be enlarged. certainly to me, whenever your verses were borne down from the anvil of meditation as if still hot, so it seemed to one who, although I do not write well, judges well.

3. sed, quod fatendum est, talibus studiis anterior aetas iuste vacabat seu, quod est verius, occupabatur; modo tempus est seria legi, seria scribi deque perpetua vita potius quam memoria cogitari nimiumque meminisse nostra post mortem non opuscula sed opera pensanda.

3. but, which must be confessed, the earlier age justly gave itself to such studies or, which is truer, was occupied with them; sometimes time is for serious things to be read, for serious things to be written, and for matters concerning perpetual life rather than for memory, and to think that after our death one should not have little trifles remembered but works to be weighed.

4. quae quidem ad praesens non ita loquor, quasi tu non utraque laudanda conficias aut, si adhuc durat in sermone laetitia, non custodiatur in actione censura, sed ut qui Christo favente clam sanctus es, iam palam religiosa venerandus iugo salubri colla pariter et corda subdare invigiletque caelestibus lingua praeconiis, anima sententiis, dextra donariis: praecipue tamen dextra donariis, quia quicquid ecclesiis spargis, tibi colligis; ad cuius exercitia virtutis illud vel principale te poterit accendere, quod inter opes quaslibet positi quae bona stultis falso vocantur, si quid agimus, nostrum, si quid habemus, alienum est. vale.

4. I do not say this now as if you do not accomplish both things worthy of praise, or, if joy still endures in speech, that censure must be restrained in deed, but so that, as you are secretly holy with Christ favoring you, you may now openly be revered as religious, and be mindful to bow both neck and heart alike to the salutary yoke, and to see them yielded: with the tongue by heavenly proclamations, with the soul by judgments, with the right hand by gifts; above all, however, with the right hand in gifts, because whatever you scatter to the churches you gather to yourself; and this may especially kindle you to the practice of that virtue — that among whatever riches are held, the goods which fools falsely call theirs, if we give anything it is ours, if we have anything it is another’s. Farewell.

EPISTULA V

EPISTLE 5

Sidonius Fortunali suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Fortunalis, greeting.

1. Ibis et tu in paginas nostras, amicitiae columen, Fortunalis, Hibericarum decus inlustre regionum; neque enim tibi familiaritas tam parva cum litteris, ut per has ipsas de te aliquid post te superesse non deceat. vivet ilicet, vivet in posterum nominis tui gloria.

1. You too will go into our pages, pillar of friendship, Fortunalis, illustrious ornament of the Iberian regions; for your familiarity with letters is not so slight that it would be unbecoming that by these same pages something about you should not survive after you. may the glory of your name live here, may it live in posterity.

2. nam si qua nostris qualitercumque gratia reverentia fides chartulis inest, sciat aetas volo postuma nihil tua fide firmius forma pulchrius, sententia iustius patientia tolerantius, consilio gravius convivio laetius colloquio iocundius. illud quoque supra cetera agnoscet, praeconia laudibus tuis ex votorum contrarietate venisse. nam prope est, ut eminentius censeatur quod probaverunt te adversa constantem, quam si celarent secunda felicem.

2. For if any grace, reverence, or fidelity of ours in any way dwells in these little sheets, let posterity know — I wish — that nothing in your faith is firmer, nothing in your form fairer, nothing in judgment more just, in patience more tolerant, in counsel more grave, in conviviality more joyful, in conversation more pleasant. It will also recognise this above other things: that the praises of you came from the contrariety of vows. For it is near at hand that what proved you steadfast in adversity will be esteemed more highly than if good fortunes had hidden you.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA VI

LETTER 6

Sidonius Namatio suo salutem.

Sidonius to Namatius, his greeting.

1. Gaium Caesarem dictatorem, quo ferunt nullum rem militarem ducalius administrasse, studia certatim dictandi lectitandique sibi mutuo vindicavere. et licet in persona unius eiusdemque tempore suo principis viri castrensis oratoriaeque scientiae cura certaverit ferme gloria aequipari, idem tamen numquam se satis duxit in utriusque artis arce compositum, priusquam vestri Arpinatis testimonio ceteris mortalibus anteferretur.

1. Gaius Caesar, dictator, about whom they say no one administered military affairs more ducally, had rival pursuits eagerly claiming for themselves the honours of dictating and of reading aloud. And although, in the person of one and the same man and at the same time, the solicitude of a princely soldier and the science of oratory strove with one another and glory was almost made equal between them, yet he never held himself sufficiently perfected in the citadel of both arts, until he was preferred before other mortals by the testimony of your Arpinates.

2. quod mihi quoque, si parva magnis componere licet, secundum modulum meum quamquam dissimillimo similiter accessit. quae super cunctos te quam primum decuit agnoscere, quia tibi est tam gloria mea quam verecundia plurimum curae. Flavius Nicetius, vir ortu clarissimus, privilegio spectabilis, merito inlustris et hominum patriae nostrae prudentia peritiaque iuxta maxumus, praeconio, quantum comperi, immenso praesentis opusculi volumina extollit, insuper praedicans, quod plurimos iuvenum nec senum paucos vario genere dictandi militandique, quippe adhuc aevo viridis, ipse sim supergressus.

2. which thing likewise approached me also, if it is permitted to compare small things with great, according to my small measure, although very dissimilar. Those things which above all ought to be acknowledged to you as soon as possible, because to you belongs as much my glory as my modesty is very much a care. Flavius Nicetius, a man most distinguished by birth, notable by privilege, deservedly illustrious, and in the prudence and expertness of the men of our fatherland next to the greatest, proclaims, as far as I have learned, that the immense volumes of this little present work he extols; moreover declaring that I have outstripped very many young men and not a few old men in the varied art of dictating and of military service, since still green in age, I myself have surpassed them.

3. equidem, in quantum fieri praeter iactantiam potest, gaudeo de praestantissimi viri auctoritate, si certus est, amore, si fallitur: licet quis provocatus nunc ad facta maiorum non inertissimus, quis quoque ad verba non infantissimus erit? namque virtutes artium istarum saeculis potius priscis saeculorum rector ingenuit, quae per aetatem mundi iam senescentis lassatis veluti seminibus emedullatae parum aliquid hoc tempore in quibuscumque, atque id in paucis, mirandum ac memorabile ostentant.

3. I, for my part, insofar as it can be done apart from vaunting, rejoice in the authority of a most distinguished man — if he is sure, in admiration; if he is mistaken, in affection: for who, now provoked to the deeds of his ancestors, will be the least inactive? who likewise will be the least inexperienced in words? For the virtues of those arts, born in rather remote ages by a master of centuries, which through the world’s already ageing span, their forces wearied, as it were gnawed out at the core by seeds, show but little at this time in any, and that little in few, marvelous and memorable.

4. huius tamen ego, etsi studiorum omnium caput est litterarumque, quia personam semper excolui, vereor sententiam supra quam veritas habet affectu ponderatiore prolatam. neque ob hoc infitias ierim me saepe luculentis eius actionibus adstitisse, quarum me, etsi reddere mutuum videor, vel ex parte cursimque fieri memorem fas est.

4. of this man, however, although he is the head of all studies and of letters, because I have always cultivated his person, I fear that an opinion has been advanced with an affection weightier than truth. Nor on that account would I deny that I have often stood by his very luculent deeds, of which it is lawful that I should make mention of myself, although I seem to repay them in kind, either in part or briefly.

5. audivi eum adulescens atque adhuc nuper ex puero, cum pater meus praefectus praetorio Gallicanis tribunalibus praesideret, sub cuius videlicet magistratu consul Asterius anni sui fores votivum trabeatus aperuerat. adhaerebam sellae curuli, etsi non latens per ordinem, certe non sedens per aetatem, mixtusque turmae censualium paenulatorum consulis, proximae proximus eram. itaque, ut primum brevi peracta, nec brevis, sportula datique fasti, acclamatum est ab omni Galliae coetu primoribus advocatorum, ut festivitate praeventas horas antelucanas, quae diem serum cum silentio praestolarentur, congrua emeritorum fascium laude honestarent.

5. I heard him as a youth and even lately from boyhood, when my father, praefectus praetorio, presided over the Gallican tribunals, under whose, to be sure, magistracy the consul Asterius had opened the votive trabea of his year at the doors. I clung to the curule chair, though not hidden by rank, certainly not sitting by age, and mingled with the turma of censual paenulators of the consul, I was nearest of the nearest. And so, when at first the brief business was completed—no brief— the sportula and the fasti of the gift having been given, it was shouted by the entire assembly of Gaul’s leading advocates that, with the festivity anticipating the pre-dawn hours, which awaited the late day in silence, they should honor with fitting praise the fasces of the emeriti.

6. Nicetium protinus circumspexere conspicati, qui non sensim singulatimque, sed tumultuatim petitus et cunctim cum quodam prologo pudoris vultum modeste demissus inrubuit. atque ob hoc illi maximum sophos non eloquentia prius quam verecundia dedit. dixit disposite graviter ardenter, magna acrimonia maiore facundia maxima disciplina, et illam Sarranis ebriam sucis inter crepitantia segmenta palmatam plus picta oratione, plus aurea convenustavit.

6. They at once looked around and caught sight of Nicetius, who, not slowly and one by one, but assaulted tumultuously and all together, with a certain prologue of shame having modestly cast down his face, blushed. And on account of this that greatest sophist was given him not eloquence before but modesty. He spoke arrangedly, gravely, ardently, with great acrimony, with greater facundity, with the utmost discipline, and that oration, Sarranic-juices drunk amid the creaking planks and struck as if by a palm, made it more painted by rhetoric, more goldenly comely.

7. per ipsum fere tempus, ut decemviraliter loquar, lex de praescriptione tricennii fuerat proquiritata, cuius peremptoriis abolita rubricis lis omnis in sextum tracta quinquennium terminabatur. hanc intra Gallias ante nescitam primus, quem loquimur, orator indidit prosecutionibus edidit tribunalibus prodidit partibus addidit titulis, frequente conventu raro sedente, paucis sententiis multis laudibus.

7. about nearly the same time, to speak decemvirally, a law concerning the prescription of thirty years had been procured, the peremptory rubrics of which abolished, all litigation was dragged into a sixth quinquennium and brought to an end. This, before unknown within the Gauls, the very orator we speak of first introduced, proffered in prosecutions, issued to the tribunals, presented to the parties, and augmented with titles, with a frequent convent sitting rarely, with few judgments and many praises.

8. praeter ista per alias vices doctrinam illius, quo more citius homo discitur, inobservatus inspexi tunc, cum quae regit provincias fascibus Nicetiano regeretur praefectura consilio. quid multa? nil quod non meum vellem, nil quod non admirarer audivi.

8. besides these things, by other turns I then, unobserved, inspected that man's doctrine — in what manner a man is taught more quickly — when the praefectura which rules the provinces was governed with fasces by Nicetianus with council. what more? I heard nothing which I would not have wished to be my own, nothing which I did not admire.

9. propter quae omnia bona in viro sita laetor ad puncta censoris omnium voce concelebrati. granditer enim sua in utramvis de me opinionem sententia valet; quae, si vera comperimus, tantum mihi est favens securitati, quantum fieret adversata formidini. de cetero fixum apud me stat constitutumque, prout rem ex asse cognovero, vel silentio lora laxare vel stringere frena garritui.

9. for all these reasons I rejoice that every good thing is sited in the man, praised to the points of the censor by the voice of all. For his verdict carries great weight on both sides concerning me; which, if we find to be true, favors my security as much as it would, if turned against me, occasion fear. Henceforth it stands fixed and settled with me that, as I shall learn the matter from the foundation, I will either by silence loosen the reins or tighten the bridles against chatter.

namque si supradicti confirmor assensu, Athenis loquacior, si minus, Amyclis ipsis taciturnior ero.

for if I am confirmed by the assent of the aforesaid, I shall be more loquacious than Athens; if less, I shall be more taciturn than Amyclae itself.

10. sed de sodali deque me satis dictum. tu nunc inter ista quid rerum? quas mihi ad vicem nosse non minus cordi.

10. but enough has been said about my sodalis and about me. you now, what of these matters? to know them in turn is no less dear to me.

venaris, aedificas, rusticarisne? an horum aliquid unum? an singula vicissim?

Do you go hunting, do you build, do you farm? Or one single thing of these? Or the several things each in turn?

an pariter et cunctim? sed de Vitruvio sive Columella, seu alterutrum ambosve sectere, decentissime facis. potes enim utrumque more quo qui optimo, id est ut cultor aliquis e primis architectusque.

Or both alike and altogether? But concerning Vitruvius or Columella, or either one or both, you do most seemly to follow them. For you can treat each in the manner which is best, that is, as a cultivator among the foremost and as an architect.

11. ceterum, ut tibi de venatoris officio quam minimum blandiaris, maxume iniungo. namque apros frustra in venabula vocas, quos canibus misericordissimis, quibus abundas, et + si quidem solis, movere potius quam commovere consuesti. esto, sit indulgentia dignum, quod reformidant catuli tui bestiis appropinquare terribilibus corpulentisque: illud ignoro quomodo excuses, quod capreas, pecus simum, pariter et dammas in fugam pronos iacentibus animis pectoribus erectis, passibus raris crebris latratibus prosequuntur.

11. moreover, that I flatter you about the hunter’s office as little as possible I enjoin especially. For you call boars to the venabula in vain, whom you are wont to move rather than to attack with your most misericordissimus dogs, with which you abound — and + if indeed to the dogs alone. Let it be, let it be worthy of indulgence, that your pups dread to approach beasts terrible and corpulent: that, however, I do not know how you excuse — that you pursue capreae, the swine‑herd (pecus simum), and dammas alike, prone to flight, with spirits lying low, their chests uplifted, with steps seldom and oft, and with barking.

12. quapropter de reliquo fructuosius retibus cassibusque scrupeas rupes atque opacandis habilia lustris plosor statarius nemora circumvenis ac, pudor si quis, temperas cursibus apertis quatere campos et insidiari lepusculis Olarionensibus; quos nec est tanti, raro te insectante superandos, copulis palam ductis inquietari, nisi forsitan, dum tibi ac patri noster Apollinaris intervenit, rectius fiet ut exerceantur.

12. wherefore henceforth more profitably with nets and baskets, with scrapers, rocks, and implements fit for shading and patrols, range the stately groves about; and, if any modesty remain, temper your courses, beat the open fields, and lie in wait for the little hares of Olarion; whom it is not worth much to overcome when, with you seldom in pursuit, they are driven to flight and openly led in pairs to be troubled—unless perhaps, while our father Apollinaris interposes for you, it will rather be right that they be exercised.

13. exceptis iocis fac sciam tandem, quid te, quid domum circa. sed ecce dum iam epistulam, quae diu garrit, claudere optarem, subitus a Santonis nuntius; cum quo dum tui obtentu aliquid horarum sermocinanter extrahimus, constanter asseveravit nuper vos classicum in classe cecinisse atque inter officia nunc nautae, modo militis litoribus Oceani curvis inerrare contra Saxonum pandos myoparones, quorum quot remiges videris, totidem te cernere putes archipiratas: ita simul omnes imperant parent, docent discunt latrocinari. unde nunc etiam ut quam plurimum caveas, causa successit maxuma monendi.

13. excepting jests, let me at last know what concerns you, what concerns home. But behold, while I was now wishing to close the letter, which chatters on long, there came a sudden messenger from Santonis; with whom, while we drew out a few hours of talk by your pretext, he firmly averred that recently you had sounded the classicum in the fleet, and that among the duties now of a sailor, now of a soldier you wander the curved shores of the Ocean against the Saxon pandos myoparones; of which ships, as many rowers as you see, you will think you behold just as many arch-pirates: thus at once all command, obey, teach, learn to practice robbery. Whence now also that you beware as much as possible, the greatest cause of warning has arisen.

14. hostis est omni hoste truculentior. inprovisus aggreditur praevisus elabitur; spernit obiectos sternit incautos; si sequatur, intercipit, si fugiat, evadit. ad hoc exercent illos naufragia, non terrent.

14. the enemy is more truculent than any foe. He attacks the unprovided, when foreseen he slips away; he spurns things hurled at him, lays low the unsuspecting; if one pursues, he intercepts, if one flees, he escapes. Moreover shipwrecks train them, they do not terrify them.

est eis quaedam cum discriminibus pelagi non notitia solum, sed familiaritas. nam quoniam ipsa si qua tempestas est huc securos efficit occupandos, huc prospici vetat occupaturos, in medio fluctuum scopulorumque confragosorum spe superventus laeti periclitantur.

they have with the hazards of the sea not merely notitia but a certain familiaritas. for since even a little tempestas here makes those present securos to occupy, it forbids those looking out from occupying here; rejoicing at the hope of a haven, they hazard themselves in the midst of the waves and of the jagged scopuli.

15. praeterea, priusquam de continenti in patriam vela laxantes hostico mordaces anchoras vado vellant, mos est remeaturis decimum quemque captorum per aequales et cruciarias poenas plus ob hoc tristi quod superstitioso, ritu necare superque collectam turbam periturorum mortis iniquitatem sortis aequitate dispergere. talibus se ligant votis, victimis solvunt; et per huiusmodi non tam sacrificia purgati quam sacrilegia polluti religiosum putant caedis infaustae perpetratores de capite captivo magis exigere tormenta quam pretia.

15. moreover, before they weigh sail straightaway for the fatherland and, hostile, tear up their anchors with the keel, it is the custom for those returning to exact the tenth of each group of captives by equal and crucifying punishments; and moreover, they put to death in a superstitious rite, and, over the assembled throng of the doomed, they seek to disperse the injustice of death by the equity of lot. with such vows they bind themselves, with victims they pay; and by such deeds they reckon not so much sacrifices purified as sacrileges polluted, thinking the perpetrators of an ill-omened slaughter to owe torments from the head of the captive rather than ransom.

16. qua de re metuo multa, suspicor varia, quamquam me e contrario ingentia hortentur: primum, quod victoris populi signa comitaris; dein quod in sapientes viros, quos inter iure censeris, minus annuo licere fortuitis; tertio, quod pro sodalibus fide iunctis, sede discretis frequenter incutiunt et tuta maerorem, quia promptius de actionibus longinquis ambigendisque sinistra quaeque metus augurat.

16. concerning which matter I fear many things, I suspect various ones, although on the contrary great things exhort me: first, that you accompany the standards of the victorious people; secondly, that among wise men, whom you reckon among the law, it is less by a nod permitted to indulge in fortuitous deeds; thirdly, that for comrades joined by faith, seated apart, they frequently inspire even a guarded sorrow, because fear more readily augurs sinister things from actions that are remote and doubtful.

17. sed dicas non esse tantum forte curanda quae perhorresco. id quidem verum est; sed nec hoc falsum, quod his, quos amplius diligimus, plus timemus. unde nihilominus, precor, obortum tui causa sensibus nostris quam primum prospero relatu exime angorem.

17. but you will say that not only, perhaps, ought to be cared for what I dread. That indeed is true; but neither is it false that we fear more those whom we love more. Wherefore nevertheless, I beseech, remove as soon as possible, for your sake, from our senses the anguish that has arisen by a favorable report.

neque enim ex integro flecti umquam ad hoc possum, ut de peregrinantibus amicis, quippe quos bellicum militarisque tessera terit, donec secunda cognosco, non adversa formidem.

for I can never again be wholly turned to such a point that I would not fear for friends travelling abroad, namely those whom the tessera of war and military service wears down, until I learn of favorable, not adverse, tidings.

18. Varronem logistoricum, sicut poposceras, et Eusebium chronographum misi, quorum si ad te lima pervenerit, si quid inter excubiales curas, utpote in castris, saltim sortito vacabis, poteris, postquam arma deterseris, ori quoque tuo loquendi robiginem summovere. vale.

18. I have sent Varron the logistorian, as you requested, and Eusebius the chronographer; if their dossier reaches you, if, amid the sentry cares — as is the case in camp — you shall at least by lot be free, you will be able, after you have wiped your arms, to rub off from your mouth the rust of speaking as well. vale.

EPISTULA VII

LETTER 7.

Sidonius Audaci suo salutem.

Sidonius. To his Audax, greetings.

1. Ubinam se nunc, velim dicas, gentium abscondunt qui saepe sibi de molibus facultatum congregatarum deque congestis iam nigrescentis argenti struibus blandiebantur? ubi etiam illorum praerogativa, qui contra indolem iuniorum sola occasione praecedentis aetatis intumescebant? Ubi sunt illi, quorum affinitas nullo indicio maiore cognoscitur quam simultate?

1. Where now, I would have you say, do those of the nations hide themselves who often vaunted themselves on the masses of resources collected and on their heaps of silver already blackening? Where too is the praerogative of those who, contrary to the nature of youth, swelled with pride at the mere occasion of preceding age? Where are those whose affinity is known by no greater sign than by rivalry?

2. nempe, cum primum bonis actibus locus et ad trutinam iudicii principalis appensa tandem non nummorum libra sed morum, remansere illi, qui superbissime opinabantur solo se censu esse censendos quique sic vitiis ut divitiis incubantes volunt vanitatis videri alienam surrexisse personam, cum nolint cupiditatis notari suam crevisse substantiam. in qua tamen detrahendi palaestra exercitati tamquam per oleum sic per infusa aemulationum venena macerantur.

2. For when, at first, by good deeds the place for the balance of the principal judgment was finally hung not by a pound of coins but by morals, those remained who most proudly supposed themselves to be to be judged worthy by census alone, and who, thus reclining on vices as on riches, wish by vanity to seem to have risen into another person, since they will not have it noted that their substance has grown from cupiditas. In which, however, trained in the palaestra of detraction, they are steeped—as if through oil—in the infused poisons of emulations.

3. tu vero inter haec macte, qui praefecturae titulis ampliatus, licet hactenus e prosapia inlustri computarere, peculiariter nihilo segnius elaborasti, ut a te gloriosius posteri tui numerarentur. nil enim est illo per sententiam boni cuiusque generosius, quisquis ingenii corporis opum iunctam in hoc constans operam exercet, ut maioribus suis anteponatur.

3. But you, meanwhile, bravo, who, raised by the titles of a praefectura, although until now you were reckoned of a distinguished prosapia, have worked peculiarly no less diligently for private advantage, so that your posterity might be reckoned more gloriously because of you. For nothing is, in the judgment of any good man, more generous than he who, steadfastly exerting combined ingenium, corporis, and opes in this labor, is preferred before his ancestors.

4. quod superest, deum posco, ut te filii consequantur aut, quod te plus decet velle, transcendant, et quicumque non sustinet diligere provectum, medullitus aestuantes a semet ipso livoris proprii semper exigat poenas, cumque nullas in te habuerit umquam misericordiae causas, habeat invidiae; siquidem iuste sub iusto principe iacet qui, per se minimus et tantum per sua maxumus, animo exiguus vivit et patrimonio plurimus. vale.

4. what remains, I ask God, that your sons may follow you or, what befits you more, surpass you; and whoever cannot endure to love one advanced, boiling from his very marrow with his own envy, may always exact punishments from himself, and since he will never have any causes of mercy in you, let him have envy; for justly lies under a just prince he who, least by himself and great only through his goods, lives small in spirit and very great in patrimony. farewell.

EPISTULA VIII

EPISTLE 8

Sidonius Syagrio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greeting to his Syagrius.

1. Dic, Gallicanae flos iuventutis, quousque tandem ruralium operum negotiosus urbana fastidis? quamdiu attritas tesserarum quondam iactibus manus contra ius fasque sibi vindicant instrumenta cerealia? quousque tua te Taionnacus patriciae stirpis lassabit agricolam?

1. Say, flower of Gallican youth, how long at last, busy with rural labors, will you disdain urbane matters? how long will hands, worn by former tossings of game‑counters, claim cereal implements for themselves against law and right? how long will your Taionnacus of patrician stock weary you as a farmer?

quousque prati comantis exuvias hibernis novalibus non ut eques sed ut bubulcus abscondis? quousque pondus ligonis obtusi nec perfossis antibus ponis?

how long will you hide the spoils of the combed meadow in winter fallows, not as a horseman but as an ox-herd? how long will you bear the weight of a blunt mattock and not set it upon the trenches already dug?

2. quid Serranorum aemulus et Camillorum cum regas stivam, dissimulas optare palmatam? parce tantum in nobilitatis invidiam rusticari. agrum si mediocriter colas, possides; si nimium, possideris.

2. why, rival of the Serrani and Camilli, when you sit upon the stool do you feign to hide that you long for the palm? spare your rusticity only from envy of nobility. if you till the field moderately, you possess it; if too much, you will be possessed.

redde te patri, redde te patriae, redde te etiam fidelibus amicis, qui iure ponuntur inter affectus. aut si te tantum Cincinnati dictatoris vita delectat, duc ante Raciliam, quae boves iungat.

Give yourself to your father, give yourself to your fatherland, give yourself also to faithful friends, who rightly are ranked among affections. Or if only the life of the dictator Cincinnatus delights you, lead forth Racilia, who yokes oxen.

3. neque dixerim sapienti viro rem domesticam non esse curandam, sed eo temperamento, quo non solum quid habere sed quid debeat esse consideret. nam, si ceteris nobilium studiorum artibus repudiatis sola te propagandae rei familiaris urtica sollicitat, licet tu deductum nomen a trabeis atque eboratas curules et gestatorias bratteatas et fastos recolas purpurissatos, is profecto inveniere, quem debeat sic industrium quod latentem non tam honorare censor quam censitor onerare. vale.

3. I would not say that the domestic affair should not be tended by a wise man, but with that moderation by which he considers not only what to possess but what he ought to be. For if, rejecting all the other arts of noble studies, you are vexed by the nettle of preserving the household alone, you may cultivate the name derived from trabeae and ivory‑inlaid curule seats and bratteated sedan‑chairs and fasti dyed purple; they have surely found him whom they ought thus to set industrious — one whom the censor will not so much honor by leaving him concealed as burden by censuring. vale.

EPISTULA IX

EPISTLE 9

Sidonius Lampridio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Lampridius, greetings.

1. Cum primum Burdigalam veni, litteras mihi tabellarius tuus obtulit plenas nectaris florum margaritarum, quibus silentium meum culpas et aliquos versuum meorum versibus poscis, qui tibi solent per musicum palati concavum tinnientes voce variata quasi tibiis multiforatilibus effundi. sed hoc tu munificentia regia satis abutens iam securus post munera facis, quia forsitan satiricum illud de satirico non recordaris: Satur est cum dicit Horatius 'euhoe'.

1. As soon as I came to Burdigala, your courier presented to me letters full of the nectar of flowery pearls, by which you demand my silence, my faults, and some of my verses answered with your own verses, which are wont to be poured out to you through the hollow of the palate by a musician, tinkling with varied voice as from many‑holed pipes. But you, now secure and making excessive use of that royal munificence, do this, because perhaps you do not remember that satirical saying about the satirist: Satur est when Horace cries 'euhoe'.

2. quid multis? merito me cantare ex otio iubes, quia te iam saltare delectat. quicquid illud est, pareo tamen, idque non modo non coactus verum etiam spontaliter facio; tantum tu utcumque moderere Catonianum superciliosae frontis arbitrium.

2. why many words? rightly you bid me sing from leisure, since it now pleases you to dance. Whatever that is, I obey nevertheless, and I do it not only not compelled but even spontaneously; only you, somehow, curb the Catonian judgment of your haughty brow.

nosti enim probe laetitiam poetarum, quorum sic ingenia maeroribus ut pisciculi retibus amiciuntur; et si quid asperum aut triste, non statim sese poetica teneritudo a vinculo incursi angoris elaqueat. necdum enim quicquam de hereditate socruali vel in usum tertiae sub pretio medietatis obtinui.

You know well the poets' delight, whose very geniuses are so yoked to sorrows as little fish are to nets; and if anything harsh or sad occurs, poetic tenderness does not at once, having been struck by the bond of an oncoming anguish, slip away. Nor have I yet obtained anything from a sisterly inheritance, or for the use of a third person under the valuation of a half.

3. interim tu videris, quam tibi sit epigrammatis flagitati lemma placiturum; me tamen nequaquam sollicitudo permittit aliud nunc habere in actione, aliud in carmine. illud sane praeter iustitiam feceris, si in praesentiarum vicissim scripta quasi compares. ago laboriosum, agis ipse felicem; ago adhuc exulem, agis ipse iam civem: et ob hoc inaequalia cano, quia similia posco et paria non impetro.

3. meanwhile you will see how the demanded lemma of an epigram will please you; yet no solicitude at all permits me now to have one thing in actione, another in carmine. That indeed you will have done beyond iustitia, if in praesentia you by turns compare the written things as though they were equals. I play the laborious man, you yourself act the felix; I still play the exul, you yourself already act a civis: and for this reason I sing inaequalia, because I ask for similia and do not obtain paria.

4. quod si quopiam casu ineptias istas, quas inter animi supplicia conscripsimus, nutu indulgentiore susceperis, persuadebis mihi, quia cantuum similes fuerint olorinorum, quorum est modulatior clangor in poenis: similes etiam chordae lyricae violentius tensae, quae quo plus torta, plus musica est. ceterum si probari nequeunt versus otii aut hilaritatis expertes, tu quoque in pagina, quam supter attexui, nil quod placeat invenies.

4. but if by any chance you, with a more indulgent nod, have accepted any of those ineptitudes which we inscribed among the tortures of the mind, you will convince me that they were like the songs of certain songsters, whose clangor is more modulated in punishments; likewise like the lyre-strings more violently stretched, which the more they are twisted, the more musical they become. moreover, if the verses cannot be approved as free from leisure or from cheerfulness, you too will find nothing pleasing on the page which I have woven below.

5. his adhuc adde, quod materiam, cui non auditor potius sed lector obtigerit, nihil absentis auctoris pronuntiatio iuvat. neque enim post opus missum superest quod poeta vel vocalissimus agat, quem distantia loci nec hoc facere permittit, quod solent chori pantomimorum, qui bono cantu male dictata commendant.

5. add to these also that material which falls to a reader rather than to a hearer is not helped at all by the pronouncement of an absent author. For after the work has been sent forth there remains nothing that even the most vocal poet can do, whom the distance of the place does not allow to do even that which the choruses of pantomimes are wont to do, who by good singing excuse poorly spoken lines.

Quid Cirrham vel Hyantias Camenas,
quid doctos Heliconidum liquores,
scalptos alitis hinnientis ictu,
nunc in carmina commovere temptas,
(5) nostrae Lampridius decus Thaliae,
et me scribere sic subinde cogis,
ac si Delphica Delio tulissem
instrumenta tuo novusque Apollo
cortinam tripodas, chelyn pharetras,
(10) arcus grypas agam duplaeque frondis
hinc bacas quatiam vel hinc corymbos?
tu iam, Tityre, rura post recepta
myrtos et platanona pervagatus
pulsas barbiton atque concinentes
(15) ora et plectra tibi modos resultant,
chorda voce metro stupende psaltes:
nos istic positos semelque visos
bis iam menstrua luna conspicatur,
nec multum domino vacat vel ipsi,
(20) dum responsa petit subactus orbis.
istic Saxona caerulum videmus
assuetum ante salo solum timere;
cuius verticis extimas per oras
non contenta suos tenere morsus
(25) altat lammina marginem comarum,
et sic crinibus ad cutem recisis
decrescit caput additurque vultus.

What to Cirrha or Hyantian Camenae,
what to the learned waters of the Heliconids,
carved by the blow of the winged neighing one,
do you now attempt to move into verses,
(5) Lampridius, our glory of Thalia,
and thus you force me to write again and again,
as if to Delphic Delos I had borne
your instruments and a new Apollo —
I will carry the curtain, tripods, chelys, quivers,
(10) gryphic bows and double-tissued garlands —
here shall I shake berries or there corymbs of foliage?
You now, Tityrus, after reclaiming the fields,
wandering through myrtles and plane-trees,
strike the barbiton and your harmonizing
(15) lips and plectra resound with measures for you,
you, wondrous psalterist, string with voice and meter:
we, placed there and once beheld,
the monthly moon twice now looks upon us,
and little leisure remains even for the master himself,
(20) while the world, compelled, seeks answers below.
There we see the Saxon blue
accustomed formerly to fear only the salt plain;
whose highest summit along the far shores
not content to hold its own bites
(25) the blade lifts the edge of its locks,
and thus with hairs cut back to the skin
the head decreases and a face is added.

hic tonso occipiti, senex Sygamber,
postquam victus es, elicis retrorsum
(30) cervicem ad veterem novos capillos.
hic glaucis Herulus genis vagatur,
imos Oceani colens recessus
algoso prope concolor profundo.
hic Burgundio septipes frequenter
(35) flexo poplite supplicat quietem.

here, with his occiput shorn, the old Sygamber,
after he was overcome, draws back his neck,
(30) turning it backward toward the old new hairs.
here Herulus wanders with bluish cheeks,
dwelling in the deepest recesses of the Ocean,
near an algal, like-colored profound.
here the Burgundian, seven‑footed, often
(35) with bent knee entreats repose.

istis Ostrogothus viget patronis
vicinosque premens subinde Chunos,
his quod subditur, hinc superbit illis.
hinc, Romane, tibi petis salutem,
(40) et contra Scythicae plagae catervas,
si quos Parrhasis ursa fert tumultus,
Eorice, tuae manus rogantur,
ut Martem validus per inquilinum
defendat tenuem Garumna Thybrim.
(45) ipse hic Parthicus Arsaces precatur,
aulae Susidis ut tenere culmen
possit foedere sub stipendiali.

that Ostrogoth thrives beneath those patrons
and pressing on the neighboring Chuni now and then,
this he subdues, that he scorns above them.
from here, Roman, you seek your safety,
(40) and against the bands of the Scythian plague,
if any tumults the Parrhasian bear brings forth,
Eorice, your hands are entreated,
that vigorous Mars through a tenant
defend the slender Garumna from the Tiber.
(45) here himself Parthian Arsaces prays,
that he may hold the summit of Susis’ court
by treaty under tributary service.

nam quod partibus arma Bosphoranis
grandi hinc surgere sentit apparatu,
(50) maestam Persida iam sonum ad duelli
ripa Euphratide vix putat tuendam;
qui cognata licet sibi astra fingens
Phoebaea tumeat propinquitate,
mortalem hic tamen implet obsecrando.
(55) haec inter terimus moras inanes;
sed tu, Tityre, parce provocare;
nam non invideo magisque miror,
qui, dum nil mereor precesque frustra
impendo, Meliboeus esse coepi.

for he perceives that from the Bosphoran quarters arms rise here with great apparatus,
(50) and he scarce deems the sad sound now of Persian war to be defended on the Euphratian bank;
he, although fashioning the stars as kin to himself, swells with Phoebean propinquity,
yet this mortal he fills by beseeching. (55) meanwhile we wear away these empty delays;
but you, Tityrus, spare your provocation;
for I do not envy and rather marvel at him,
who, while I deserve nothing and pour forth prayers in vain,
have begun to be Meliboeus.

En carmen, quod recenseas otiabundus nostrumque sudorem ac pulverem spectans veluti iam coronatus auriga de podio. de reliquo non est quod suspiceris par me officii genus repetiturum, etiamsi delectere praesenti, nisi prius ipse destiterim vaticinari magis damna quam carmina. vale.

Behold the poem which you may read over, idle, and looking at our sweat and dust, like a charioteer already crowned from the podium. As for the rest, there is nothing for you to suppose that an equal sort of duty will be repeated by me, even if it should please the present, unless first I myself cease to prophesy more harms than poems. Farewell.

EPISTULA X

EPISTLE 10

Sidonius Ruricio suo salutem.

Sidonius to Ruricius, greetings.

1. Esse tibi usui pariter et cordi litteras granditer gaudeo. nam stilum vestrum quanta comitetur vel flamma sensuum vel unda sermonum, liberius assererem, nisi, dum me laudare non parum studes, laudari plurimum te vetares. et quamquam in epistula tua servet caritas dulcedinem, natura facundiam, peritia disciplinam, in sola materiae tamen electione peccasti, licet id ipsum praedicari possit in voto, quod videris errasse iudicio.

1. I rejoice greatly that your letters are both of use to you and dear to your heart. For how much your stylus is attended either by a flame of feeling or by a wave of discourse I would assert more freely, were it not that, while you are not a little eager to praise me, you would forbid yourself to be most highly praised. And although in your letter charity preserves sweetness, nature eloquence, and skill discipline, yet in the single choice of the subject you have sinned, although that very thing may be said to be in the will — that you seem to have erred in judgment.

ingentes praeconiorum titulos moribus meis applicas; sed si pudoris nostri fecisses utcumque rationem, Symmachianum illud te cogitare par fuerat: ut vera laus ornat, ita falsa castigat.

You lavish enormous titles of praise upon my morals; but if you had in any way taken account of our modesty, you would have been apt to recall that Symmachian saying: as true praise adorns, so false praise chastises.

2. quo loci tamen si animum vestrum bene metior, super affectum, quem maximum ostendis, hoc tu et arte fecisti. nam moris est eloquentibus viris ingeniorum facultatem negotiorum probare difficultatibus et illic stilum peritum quasi quendam fecundi pectoris vomerem figere, ubi materiae sterilis argumentum velut arida caespitis macri glaeba ieiunat. scaturrit mundus similibus exemplis: medicus in desperatione, gubernator in tempestate cognoscitur; horum omnium famam praecedentia pericula extollunt, quae profecto delitescit, nisi ubi probetur invenerit.

2. yet in this place, if I measure your mind rightly, beyond the affectation which you display most strongly, you have achieved this both by art. for it is the custom of eloquent men to test the faculty of their talents by the difficulties of affairs, and there to fix the skilled stylus as it were a sort of ploughshare of a fecund breast, where the sterile matter’s argument starves like a dry clod of lean sod. the world gushes with similar examples: a physician is known in desperation, a steersman in a tempest; the fame of all these is raised by preceding perils, which surely lie hidden unless he be proven to have encountered them.

3. sic et magnus orator, si negotium aggrediatur angustum, tunc amplum plausibilius manifestat ingenium. Marcus Tullius in actionibus ceteris ceteros, pro Aulo Cluentio ipse se vicit. Marcus Fronto cum reliquis orationibus emineret, in Pelopem se sibi praetulit.

3. thus also the great orator, if a cause is narrow, then more plausibly makes it appear large and manifests his ingenium. Marcus Tullius in other actions surpassed all others; in the case for Aulus Cluentius he himself prevailed. Marcus Fronto, although he excelled in his remaining orations, set himself forward in the Pelopem cause.

Gaius Plinius pro Attia Variola plus gloriae de centumvirali suggestu domum rettulit, quam cum Marco Ulpio incomparabili principi comparabilem panegyricum dixit.

Gaius Plinius, speaking for Attia Variola, carried home more glory from the centumviral rostrum than when he delivered a panegyric comparable to the incomparable prince Marcus Ulpius.

4. sic et ipse fecisti, qui, dum vis exercere scientiam tuam, non veritus es fore tibi impedimento etiam conscientiam meam. quin potius supplicando meis medere languoribus neque per decipulum male blandientis eloquii aegrotantis adhuc animae fragilitatem gloriae falsae pondere premas. sane cum tibi sermone pulchro vita sit pulchrior, plus mihi indulges, si mei causa orare potius velis quam perorare.

4. thus you yourself did likewise, who, while you wish to exercise your science, did not fear that my conscience would be an impediment to you. Nay rather, by supplicating, heal my languors, and do not, by the trifle of deceitfully flattering eloquence, press down the fragility of a soul still ailing with the weight of false glory. Certainly, since life is more beautiful for you when clothed in fine speech, you show greater indulgence to me if, for my sake, you prefer to pray rather than to harangue.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA XI

LETTER 11

Sidonius Lupo suo salutem.

Sidonius sends his greeting to Lupus.

1. Quid agunt Nitiobroges, quid Vesunnici tui, quibus de te sibi altrinsecus vindicando nascitur semper sancta contentio? unus te patrimonio populus, alter etiam matrimonio tenet; cumque hic origine, iste coniugio, melius illud, quod uterque iudicio. te tamen munere dei inter ista felicem, de quo diutius occupando possidendoque operae pretium est votiva populorum studia confligere!

1. What do the Nitiobroges contend, what your Vesunnicus, between whom in striving to claim you for themselves there ever arises a sacred contention? One people holds you by patrimony, the other even by marriage; and while this one by origin, that by conjugal tie, better is that which both by judgment. You, however, happy among these by the gift of God, concerning whom it is worth the pains to struggle longer in seizing and possessing — let the votive zeal of the peoples be brought to clash!

2. tu vero utrisque praesentiam tuam disposite vicissimque partitus nunc Drepanium illis, modo istis restituis Anthedium. et si a te instructio rhetorica poscatur, hi Paulinum, illi Alcimum non requirunt. unde te magis miror, quem cotidie tam multiplicis bibliothecae ventilata lassat egeries, aliquid a me veterum flagitare cantilenarum.

2. but you, distribute your presence to both and, having divided it in turn, now restore Drepanium to those, now Anthedium to these. and if rhetorical instructio is requested of you, these do not seek Paulinum, those do not require Alcimum. whence I marvel at you the more — you whom daily the ventilated multiplicity of the bibliotheca wearies with egeries — that you should demand from me something of the elder cantilenas.

pareo quidem, licet intempestiva videatur recordatio iocorum tempore dolendi.

I indeed yield, although the recollection of jests may seem untimely in a time of grieving.

3. Lampridius orator modo primum mihi occisus agnoscitur, cuius interitus amorem meum summis conficeret angoribus, etiamsi non eum rebus humanis vis impacta rapuisset. hic me quondam, ut inter amicos ioca, Phoebum vocabat ipse a nobis vatis Odrysii nomine acceptus. quod eo congruit ante narrari, ne vocabula figurata subditum carmen obscurent.

3. Lampridius, an orator, is now first known to me as slain, whose death would have undone my affection with the greatest angues (anguish), even if force had not, having struck, snatched him away from human affairs. He once, as a jest among friends, used to call me Phoebus himself, accepted by us under the name of the bard Odrysii. This it is suitable to recount beforehand, lest the figurative words obscure the poem beneath.

huic quodam tempore Burdigalam invisens metatoriam paginam quasi cum Musa praevia misi. puto hanc liberius offerri, quam si aliquid super decedentis occasu lugubre componens, qui non placebam per eloquentiam, per materiam displicerem.

At a certain time, visiting Bordeaux, I sent him a metrical page as if with the Muse sent before. I think this may be offered more freely than if, composing something mournful on the occasion of the deceased’s passing, I displeased — not by eloquence, but by the subject-matter.

Dilectae nimis, et peculiari
Phoebus commonitorium Thaliae.
Paulum depositis, alumna, plectris
sparsam stringe comam virente vitta,
(5) et rugas tibi syrmatis profundi
succingant hederae expeditiores.
succos ferre cave nec, ut solebat,
laxo pes natet altus in coturno;
sed tales crepidas ligare cura,
(10) quales Harpalyce vel illa vinxit,
quae victos gladio procos cecidit.

Too beloved, and as a peculiar reminder of Thalia, Phoebus.
A little, putting aside your plectra, alumna, bind up with a green fillet the hair scattered,
(5) and let ivy, more ready, gird the folds of your deep syrma.
Beware to bear succos nor, as you were wont, let your foot swim loose in a high coturn;
but take care to tie such crepids,
(10) such as Harpalyce or that one bound, who with the sword felled the vanquished proci.

perges sic melius volante saltu,
si vestigia fasceata nudi
per summum digiti regant citatis
(15) firmi ingressibus atque vinculorum
concurrentibus ansulis reflexa
ad crus per cameram catena surgat.
hoc pernix habitu meum memento
Orpheum visere, qui cotidiana
(20) saxa et robora corneasque fibras
mollit dulciloqua canorus arte;
Arpinas modo quem tonante lingua
ditat, nunc stilus aut Maronianus
aut quo tu Latium beas, Horati,
(25) Alcaeo melior lyristes ipso,
et nunc inflat epos tragoediarum,
nunc comoedia temperat iocosa,
nunc flammant satirae et tyrannicarum
declamatio controversiarum.
(30) dic: 'Phoebus venit atque post veredos
remis velivolum quatit Garumnam;
occurras iubet, ante sed parato
actutum hospitio.' Leontioque,
prisco Livia quem dat e senatu,
(35) dic: 'iam nunc aderit.' satis facetum et
solo nomine Rusticum videto.

you will fare better thus with a springing leap,
if, your tracks bound, bare-footed,
over the tops your quick toes rule
(15) with firm steps and the fetters’
joined rings thrown back,
and a chain rises through the chamber to the leg.
mind that, fleet in bearing,
you visit my Orpheus, who daily
(20) by sweet-speaking harmonious art
softens rocks and oaks and corneous fibers;
him whom with thundering tongue Arpinates
now enrich, now a pen or Maronian
or by which, Horace, you bless Latium,
(25) a lyrist better than Alcaeus himself,
and now the epic swells of tragedies,
now comedy tempers playful things,
now satiric flames and the tyrannic
declamation of controversies blaze.
(30) Say: “Phoebus has come and, after the green paths,
he shakes Garumna with oar-flying sails;
he bids that you meet him, but first have ready
instantly a lodging.” And to Leontius,
whom ancient Livia gives from the senate,
(35) say: “he will be present even now.” Consider Rusticus
witty enough and known by name alone.

sed si tecta negant ut occupata,
perge ad limina mox episcoporum,
sancti et Gallicini manu osculata
(40) tecti posce brevis vacationem,
ne, si destituor domo negata,
maerens ad madidas eam tabernas
et claudens geminas subinde nares
propter fumificas gemam culinas,
(45) qua serpylliferis olet catillis
bacas per geminas ruber botellus
ollarum aut nebulae vapore iuncto
fumant cum crepitantibus patellis,
hic cum festa dies ciere ravos
(50) cantus coeperit et voluptuosam
scurrarum querimoniam crepare,
tunc, tunc carmina digniora vobis
vinosi hospitis excitus Camena
plus illis ego barbarus susurrem.

but if the houses refuse as already occupied,
go straightway to the thresholds of the bishops,
having kissed the hand of Saint Gallicinus
(40) ask of the shelter a brief vacation,
lest, if I am abandoned and the house denied me,
sorrowing I go to those damp taverns
and ever closing both my nostrils
on account of the smoky twin kitchens,
(45) where by thyme-bearing little pans the air smells,
and through the twin pots a red little sausage fumes,
or the mists joined with steam smoke
when they hiss with crackling pans,
here, when the festival day begins to raise
(50) hoarse songs and the voluptuous
clamor of buffoons begins to creak,
then, then the Muses, roused by a drunken
guest, will whisper to you songs more worthy;
I, a barbarian, will murmur to them even more.

4. O necessitas abiecta nascendi, vivendi misera, dura moriendi! ecce quo rerum volubilitatis humanae rota dicitur. amavi, fateor, satis hominem, licet quibusdam, tamen veniabilibus, erratis implicaretur atque virtutibus minora misceret.

4. O necessity of abject birth, miserable to live, severe to die! behold to what a wheel of human volubility is said. I loved, I confess, the man enough, albeit to some, yet venial, entangled in errors and blending lesser vices with virtues.

namque crebro levibus ex causis, sed leviter, excitabatur, quod nilominus ego studebam sententiae ceterorum naturam potius persuadere quam vitium; adstruebamque meliora, quatenus in pectore viri iracundia materialiter regnans, quia naevo crudelitatis fuerat infecta, praetextu saltim severitatis emacularetur. praeterea etsi consilio fragilis, fide firmissimus erat; incautissimus, quia credulus; securissimus, quia non nocens. nullus illi ita inimicus, qui posset eius extorquere maledictum; et tamen nullus sic amicus, qui posset effugere convicium.

for he was frequently stirred up by slight causes, but slightly; yet I strove to persuade the nature of his judgment by the opinion of others rather than to brand the fault; and I was adding better things, insofar as wrath, materially reigning in the man's breast, since it had been infected by the stain of cruelty, might at least be blanched under the pretext of severity. moreover, though weak in counsel, he was most firm in faith; most incautious, because credulous; most secure, because harmless. no one was so hostile to him as to be able to wrench a curse from him; and yet no one so friendly as to be able to escape reproach.

difficilis aditu, cum facilis inspectu, et portandus quidem, sed portabilis.

difficult of approach, though easy of inspection, and indeed to be carried, yet portable.

5. de reliquo, si orationes illius metiaris, acer rotundus, compositus excussus; si poemata, tener multimeter, argutus artifex erat. faciebat siquidem versus oppido exactos tam pedum mira quam figurarum varietate; hendecasyllabos lubricos et enodes; hexametros crepantes et cothurnatos; elegos vero nunc echoicos, nunc recurrentes, nunc per anadiplosin fine principiisque conexos.

5. as to the remainder, if you measure his orations, they are sharp, rounded, composed, and polished; if his poems, a tender, multimetric, glib artifex. For he made verses indeed wrought as from a workshop, wondrous alike in the variety of feet and of figures; hendecasyllables slippery and smooth; hexameters crepant and cothurnate; elegies, however, now echoic, now recurrent, now bound by anadiplosis of ending and beginning.

6. hic, ut arreptum suaserat opus, ethicam dictionem pro personae temporis loci qualitate variabat, idque non verbis qualibuscumque, sed grandibus pulchris elucubratis. in materia controversiali fortis et lacertosus; in satirica sollicitus et mordax; in tragica saevus et flebilis; in comica urbanus multiformisque; in fescennina vernans verbis, aestuans votis; in bucolica vigilax parcus carminabundus; in georgica sic rusticans multum, quod nihil rusticus.

6. here, when a seized work had suggested itself, he varied his ethical diction according to the quality of the person, of the time, and of the place, and not with words of any sort but with grand, beautiful, elaborated ones. in controversial matter strong and muscular; in satiric mode solicitous and mordant; in tragic dour and lachrymose; in comic urbane and multiform; in fescennine frolicsome with words, seething with vows; in bucolic watchful, sparing, given to song; in georgic so much rusticating that he was in no respect rustic.

7. praeterea quod ad epigrammata spectat, non copia sed acumine placens, quae nec brevius disticho neque longius tetrasticho finiebantur, eademque cum non pauca piperata, mellea multa conspiceres, omnia tamen salsa cernebas. in lyricis autem Flaccum secutus nunc ferebatur in iambico citus, nunc in choriambico gravis, nunc in alcaico flexuosus, nunc in sapphico inflatus. quid plura?

7. moreover, as for the epigrams, pleasing not by copiousness but by acumen, which were finished neither in the shorter distich nor in the longer tetrastich; and the same pieces in which you would notice not a few peppery lines and much honeyed sweetness, yet in all you would discern a saltiness. in lyric meters, however, having followed Flaccus he was at one moment swift in the iambic, at another weighty in the choriambic, at another sinuous in the alcaic, at another inflated in the Sapphic. what more?

subtilis aptus instructus quaque mens stilum ferret eloquentissimus, prorsus ut eum iure censeres post Horatianos et Pindaricos cygnos gloriae pennis evolaturum.

subtle, apt, instructed, and with each mind bearing the stylus, most eloquent; altogether that you would rightly reckon he would, after the Horatian and Pindaric swans, take wing on the feathers of glory.

8. aleae ut sphaerae non iuxta deditus; nam cum tesseris ad laborem occuparetur, pila tantum ad voluptatem. fatigabat libenter, quodque plus dulce, libentius fatigabatur. scribebat assidue, quamquam frequentius scripturiret.

8. not devoted to dice as to spheres; for when he was occupied with tesserae for work, he used the ball only for pleasure. He labored gladly, and whatever was more sweet he was the more gladly fatigued by. He wrote assiduously, although he was more frequently written about.

legebat etiam incessanter auctores cum reverentia antiquos, sine invidia recentes, et, quod inter homines difficillimum est, nulli difficulter ingenii laude cedebat.

He also read authors incessantly, reverencing the ancients, without envy the recent, and—what among men is most difficult—he yielded to no one with reluctance in the praise of genius.

9. illud sane non solum culpabile in viro fuit, sed peremptorium, quod mathematicos quondam de vitae fine consuluit, urbium cives Africanarum, quorum, ut est regio, sic animus ardentior; qui constellatione percontantis inspecta pariter annum mensem diemque dixerunt, quos, ut verbo matheseos utar, climactericos esset habiturus, utpote quibus themate oblato quasi sanguinariae geniturae schema patuisset, quia videlicet amici nascentis anno, quemcumque clementem planeticorum siderum globum in diastemata zodiaca prosper ortus erexerat, hunc in occasu cruentis ignibus inrubescentes seu super diametro Mercurius asyndetus seu super tetragono Saturnus retrogradus seu super centro Mars apocatastaticus exacerbassent.

9. That, certainly, was not only blameworthy in the man, but decisive: that he once consulted mathematicians about the end of his life — the citizens of African cities, whose mind is all the keener as is their region; who, having inspected the constellation of the question, equally declared the year, month, and day, whom, to use the word of mathesis, they said he would have as climacteric, since, with the theme laid out, as it were the schematic disclosure of a sanguinary nativity had opened, because plainly the year of the friend’s birth — whichever kindly globe of the planetary stars had raised him prosperously into the zodiacal intervals — this one, at his setting, Mercury, asyndetic, or Saturn retrograde over the tetragon, or Mars apocatastaticus over the center, would have inflamed into bloody fires and redden him.

10. sed de his, si qua vel quoquo modo sunt, quamquam sint maxume falsa ideoque fallentia, si quid plenius planiusque, rectius coram, licet et ipse arithmeticae studeas et, quae diligentia tua, Vertacum Thrasybulum Saturninum sollicitus evolvas, ut qui semper nil nisi arcanum celsumque meditere. interim ad praesens nil coniecturaliter gestum, nil per ambages, quandoquidem hunc nostrum temerarium futurorum sciscitatorem et diu frustra tergiversantem tempus et qualitas praedictae mortis innexuit.

10. but concerning these things, if there be any or in any way, although they are exceedingly false and therefore deceptive, if anything more fully, more plainly, more correctly be stated openly, you may also yourself study arithmetic and, with the diligence you show, unroll Vertacus, Thrasybulus, Saturninus carefully, as one who always meditates on nothing but the secret and the lofty. meanwhile, for the present nothing conjectural is to be done, nothing by circumlocution, since he has bound this our rash diviner of the future, who long and in vain procrastinated, to the time and the quality of the aforesaid death.

11. nam domi pressus strangulatusque servorum manibus obstructo anhelitu gutture obstricto, ne dicam Lentuli Iugurthae atque Seiani, certe Numantini Scipionis exitu periit. haec in hac caede tristia minus, quod nefas ipsum cum auctore facti parricidalis diluculo inventum. nam quis ab hominum tam procul sensu, quis ita gemino obtutu eluminatus, qui exanimati cadavere inspecto non statim signa vitae colligeret extortae?

11. for at home, pressed and strangled by the hands of servants, his breath and throat stopped, — not to say that he suffered the fates of Lentulus, Iugurtha, and Sejanus; certainly he perished by the exit of Numantine Scipio. These things in this grim slaughter are the less (tragic), because the crime itself together with the author of the parricidal deed was discovered at dawn. For who so far removed from human sense, who so illumined by a double scrutiny, having looked upon the lifeless corpse, would not immediately gather signs of life in the man who had been strangled?

12. etenim protinus argumento fuere livida cutis, oculi protuberantes et in obruto vultu non minora irae vestigia quam doloris. inventa est quidem terra tabo madefacta deciduo, quia post facinus ipsi latrones ad pavimentum conversa defuncti ora pronaverant, tamquam sanguinis eum superaestuans fluxus exinanisset. sed protinus capto qui fuerat ipsius factionis fomes incentor antesignanus ceterisque complicibus oppressis seorsumque discussis criminis veritatem de pectoribus invitis tormentorum terror extraxit.

12. for immediately by the evidence there was livid skin, eyes protruding, and on the swollen countenance no less traces of anger than of pain. Indeed the ground was found soaked with putrefaction from the fallen, because after the crime the robbers themselves, their faces turned to the pavement, had collapsed, as if an overflowing stream of blood had emptied them. But straightway the man who had been the very tinder of the faction, the instigator and foremost leader, when seized and, with the other accomplices overwhelmed, examined apart, drew forth the truth of the crime from unwilling breasts by the terror of tortures.

13. atque utinam hunc finem, dum inconsulte fidens vana consultat, non meruisset excipere! nam quisque praesumpserit interdicta secreta vetita rimari, vereor huius modi a catholicae fidei regulis exorbitaturum et effici dignum, in statum cuius respondeantur adversa, dum requiruntur inlicita. secuta quidem est ultio extinctum, sed magis prosunt ista victuris.

13. and would that he had not merited to receive this end, while rashly trusting in vain counsel! for whoever would presume to pry into secret, forbidden interdictions, I fear that such a will stray from the rules of the catholic faith and become worthy to be made subject to a condition in which adversities are answered, while illicit things are sought. vengeance indeed followed the one put out, but such things profit the victors more.

nam quotiens homicida punitur, non est remedium sed solacium vindicari.

for as often as a murderer is punished, it is not a remedy but a consolation that vengeance is taken.

14. longiuscule me progredi amor impulit, cuius angorem silentio exhalare non valui. tu interim, si quid istic cognitu dignum, citus indica, saltim ob hoc scribens, ut animum meum tristitudine gravem lectio levet. namque confuso pectori maeror, et quidem iure, plurimus erat, cum paginis ista committerem sola.

14. Love urged me to go a little farther, the anguish of which I could not breathe forth in silence. You meanwhile, if there is anything there worthy of cognizance, report it swiftly, at least writing for this reason, so that reading may lighten my mind, weighed down with tristitude. For to my confused breast sorrow, and with justice, was very great, when I committed those matters alone to the pages.

neque enim satis mihi aliud hoc tempore manu sermone consilio scribere loqui volvere libet. vale.

for I am not, at this time, inclined to undertake anything else by hand, by speech, or by counsel—to write, to speak, or to ponder. Farewell.

EPISTULA XII

EPISTLE 12

Sidonius Trygetio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greeting to his Trygetius.

1. Tantumne te Vasatium civitas non caespiti imposita sed pulveri, tantum Syrticus ager ac vagum solum et volatiles ventis altercantibus harenae sibi possident, ut te magnis flagitatum precibus, parvis separatum spatiis, multis exspectatum diebus attrahere Burdigalam non potestates, non amicitiae, non opimata vivariis ostrea queant? an temporibus hibernis viarum te dubia suspendunt et, quia solet Bigerricus turbo mobilium aggerum indicia confundere, quoddam vereris in itinere terreno pedestre naufragium?

1. Is it only the town of Vasatium — not set on turf but on dust — only the Syrticus field and wandering soil and the birds, the sands quarrelling with the winds, that possess you, so that, though urged by great entreaties, though separated by small distances, though long-expected for many days, neither powers, nor friendships, nor oysters rich with provisions can draw you to Burdigala? Or do the uncertain winter seasons of the roads suspend you, and, because the Bigerricus whirlwind is wont to confound the signs of movable embankments, do you fear some sort of pedestrian shipwreck on a land journey?

2. ubi, quaesumus, animo tam celeriter excessit vestigiis tuis nuper subacta Calpis? ubi fixa tentoria in occiduis finibus Gaditanorum? ubi ille Trygetio meo idem qui Herculi quondam terminus peregrinandi?

2. where, we ask, has Calpe, lately subdued by your footprints, so swiftly slipped from the mind? where the tents fixed on the western borders of the Gaditans? where that very boundary to my Trygetius, the same which once was the terminus of Hercules’ wandering?

tantumne a te ipso ipse tu discrepas, ut totus in desidiae iura concesseris, quo peragrante secreta regionum fabulosarum prius defuit actio laboris quam fatigationis intentio?

do you yourself differ from yourself so much that you have wholly conceded to the rights of idleness, so that, in traversing the secret places of the fabled regions, an act of labour was lacking rather than an intention to be fatigued?

3. et post haec portum Alingonis tam piger calcas, ac si tibi nunc esset ad limitem Danuvinum contra incursaces Massagetas proficiscendum, vel si nunc etiam tuae navi stagna Nilotidis aquae per indigenas formidata crocodillos transfretarentur. et cum nec duodecim milium obiectu sic retarderis, quid putamus cum exercitu Marci Catonis in Leptitana Syrte fecisses?

3. and after these things you tread the harbour of Alingon so sluggishly, as if now you were to set forth to the Danubian limit to repel incursions of the Massagetae, or as if even now the pools of Nilotic water for your ship, guarded by natives’ dread crocodiles, were to be crossed. And since you are not thus delayed by an obstacle of twelve miles, what do we suppose you would have done with the army of Marcus Cato in the Leptitan Syrte?

4. sed quamlibet sola hiemalium mensium nomina tremas, tam clemens est facies caeli, tam tepida, tam suda et sic auras mage quam ventos habet, ut te non valeat enixius retinere tempus quam invitare temperies. sed si epistulam spernis evocatoriam, credo, vel versibus non reluctaberis impulsoribus blandis et desiderii mei, quantum suspicor, strenuis executoribus, quorum in te castra post biduum commovebuntur.

4. but although you tremble at the mere names of the wintry months, the face of the sky is so mild, so warm, so soothing and thus has more airs than winds, that the season is not able to detain you more strenuously than the mildness invites you. But if you spurn the summons-letter, I believe, you will not resist with verses the bland instigators and, as much as I suspect, the vigorous executors of my desire, whose camp will be moved against you after two days.

5. ecce Leontius meus, facile primus Aquitanorum, ecce iam parum inferior parente Paulinus ad locum quem supra dixi per Garumnae fluenta refluentia non modo tibi cum classe verum etiam cum flumine occurrent. hic tuas laudes modificato celeumate simul inter transtra remiges, gubernatores inter aplustria canent. hic te aedificatus culcitis torus, hic tabula calculis strata bicoloribus, hic tessera frequens eboratis resultatura pyrgorum gradibus expectat; hic, ne tibi pendulum tinguat volubilis sentina vestigium, pandi carinarum ventres abiegnarum trabium textu pulpitabuntur; hic superflexa crate paradarum sereni brumalis infida vitabis.

5. behold my Leontius, easily first of the Aquitanians, behold now scarcely inferior to his sire Paulinus, will meet you at the place which I above named by the backflowing streams of the Garumna not only with a fleet but even with the river. here, with a modified celeumate, the rowers between the thwarts and the steersmen among the benches will sing your praises together. here a couch built for you with mattresses, here a board strewn with two‑coloured counters, here a frequent tessera of ivory, about to rebound from the steps of the towers, awaits; here, lest a slippery bilge stain your swinging footstep, the opened bellies of the keels will be floored with a woven decking of fir timbers; here, beneath an arched lattice of shutters, you will avoid the treacherous serenity of a wintry calm.

6. quid delicatae pigritiae tuae plus poterit impendi, quam ut te pervenisse invenias, cum venire vix sentias? quid mussitas? quid moraris?

6. what more can be expended on your delicate laziness than that you should find yourself arrived, when you scarcely feel yourself coming? what are you muttering? what do you tarry?

ipsae mihi tuum videntur adventum reptiles cocleae cum domibus nativis antecessurae. est praeterea tibi copiosissima penus aggeratis opipare farta deliciis, modo sit eventilando par animus impendio.

They themselves seem to me about to precede your arrival, creeping snails with their native homes. Moreover you have heaped up a most copious larder, richly stuffed with delicacies, provided only that your spirit be equal to the outlay in dispensing it.

7. quid multa? veni ut aut pascaris aut pascas; immo, quod gratius, ut utrumque; veni cum mediterraneo instructu ad debellandos subiugandosque istos Medulicae supellectilis epulones. hic Aturricus piscis Garumnicis mugilibus insultet; hic ad copias Lapurdensium lucustarum cedat vilium turba cancrorum.

7. why say more? I came that you may either be fed or feed; nay, what is more pleasing, both; I came with Mediterranean provision to vanquish and subdue those banqueters of Medulica’s household-furniture. Here the Aturricus fish will spring upon the Garumnian mullets; here the vile throng of crabs will yield to the forces of the Lapurdenses’ locusts.

8. tu tamen etsi ceteris eris in hoc genere pugnandi dimicaturus, si quid iudicio meo censes adquiescendum (neque enim iniustum est credere experto), senatorem nostrum, hospitem meum, conflictui huic facies exsortem; cuius si convivio tectoque succedas, dapes Cleopatricas et loca lautia putas. nam quamvis super hoc studio tam ipse quam patria confligant, olim lata sententia est, quod ille transeat ceteros cives, licet et illa ceteras civitates. vale.

8. you, however, although you will contend with the others in this sort of fighting, if in my judgment you deem anything to be acquiesced in (for it is not unjust to trust one experienced), shall make our senator, my host, excluded from this conflict; to whom, if you yield in feast and roof, you reckon Cleopatra’s banquets and sumptuous places. For although both he himself and the fatherland contend with zeal about this, long ago a widespread decree was passed that he should take precedence over the other citizens, just as those others take precedence over other states. farewell.

EPISTULA XIII

EPISTULA 13

Sidonius domino papae Nunechio salutem.

Sidonius to the lord Pope Nunechius, greetings.

1. Multa in te genera virtutum, papa beatissime, munere superno congesta gaudemus. siquidem agere narraris sine superbia nobilem sine invidia potentem, sine superstitione religiosum sine iactantia litteratum, sine ineptia gravem sine studio facetum, sine asperitate constantem sine popularitate communem.

1. We rejoice that many kinds of virtues, heaped upon you by the heavenly office, O most blessed pope. For you are said to act noble without pride, powerful without envy, religious without superstition, learned without vaunting, grave without ineptitude, witty without affectation, steadfast without harshness, and common to all without popularity.

2. praeterea his hoc praestantissimum bonis Fama superaggerat, quod te asserit hasce tot gratias fastigatissimae caritatis arce transcendere; Fama, inquam, quae de laudibus tuis cum canat multa, plus reticet. nam longius constitutis actionum tuarum propositum potest assignare, non numerum. quarum relatione succensus ultro primus, ut longe inferiorem decet, ad solvenda officia procurro nec vereor garrulitatis aliquando argui, qui potui taciturnitatis hucusque culpari.

2. furthermore Fame had heaped upon these goods this most outstanding thing, that she asserts you to transcend these so many graces from the very apex citadel of charity; Fame, I say, which though she sings many things of your praises, keeps silent about more. for, having fixed the scope of your actions, she can assign their extent, not their number. Inflamed by the relation of which, I am the first to run forward of my own accord to discharge the duties, as befits one far the more lowly, nor do I fear to be at any time charged with garrulity, who hitherto could be blamed for taciturnity.

3. commendo Promotum gerulum litterarum, vobis quidem ante iam cognitum, sed nostrum nuper effectum vestris orationibus contribulem; qui cum sit gente Iudaeus, fide tamen praeelegit censeri Israelita quam sanguine, et municipatum caelestis illius civitatis affectans occidentemque litteram spiritu vivificante fastidiens, pariter huc iustis praemia proposita contemplans, huc, nisi faceret ad Christum de circumcisione transfugium, praevidens sese per aeterna saecula aequiterna supplicia passurum, patriam sibi maluit Ierusalem potius quam Hierosolymam computari.

3. I commend Promotus, a humble carrier of letters, to you—indeed already known to you, but lately made ours and made common to you by your prayers; who, although by nation a Jew, preferred to be reckoned an Israelite by faith rather than by blood, and, desiring admission to that heavenly city and scorning the western letter that vivifies the spirit, equally contemplating the rewards proposed to the righteous here, here—unless he should make a defection from circumcision to Christ—foreseeing that he would endure just punishments through eternal ages, chose that Ierusalem rather than Hierosolyma be counted his fatherland.

4. quibus agnitis adventantem Abrahae nunc filium veriorem maternis ulnis spiritalis Sara suscipiat. namque ad Agar ancillam pertinere tunc desiit, cum legalis observantiae servitutem gratiae libertate mutavit. de cetero, quae ipsi fuerit isto causa veniendi, praesentaneo conducibilius idem poterit explicare memoratu.

4. these things having been recognized, let spiritual Sarah receive into her maternal arms the one now coming to Abraham, a truer son. For she then ceased to pertain to Hagar the handmaid, when she changed the servitude of legal observance into the liberty of grace. Henceforth, as to what the cause was of his coming to that man, he himself will be able more suitably to explain the same in the present narration by recollection.

nobis vero propter quae supra scripsi carissimus habetur; quod ideo significo, quia is efficacissime quemque commendat, qui meras causas iustae commendationis aperuerit. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

He is indeed held most dear by us on account of the things I wrote above; I state this for that reason, because he most effectively commends anyone who has disclosed the pure causes of a just recommendation. Deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA XIV

EPISTLE 14

Sidonius domino papae Principio salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Principius, greeting.

1. Iamdiu nobis, papa venerabilis, etsi necdum vester vultus aspectus, tamen actus inspectus est. namque sanctorum laus diffusa meritorum stringi spatiis non est contenta finalibus. hinc est quod, quia bonae conscientiae modus non ponitur, nec bonae opinioni terminus invenitur.

1. For a long time now, venerable pope, although as yet your face has not been seen, your action has been observed. For the praise of the saints, being diffusely spread, is not content to be bound by the confines of their merits. Hence it is that, because no measure is set to a good conscience, nor is any terminus found for a good reputation.

2. quae loquor falsa censete, nisi professioni meae competens adstipulator accesserit, satis in illo quondam coenobio Lirinensi spectabile caput, Luporum concellita Maximorumque et parsimoniae saltibus consequi affectans Memphiticos et Palaestinos archimandritas. is est episcopus Antiolius, cuius relatu, qui pater vobis, quique qualesque vos fratres, qua morum praerogativa pontificatu maximo ambo fungamini, sollicitus cognoscere studui, gaudens cognovisse me memini.

2. Count what I say as false unless a fitting adstipulator to my profession has come forward; there was, in that former Lirine coenobium, a notable personage, Lupus, conspicuous and joined with the greatest, and striving in the walks of frugality to attain the Memphite and Palestinian archimandrites. He is the bishop Antiolius, whose account — concerning who is father to you, and who and what sort you brothers are, by what praerogative of manners you both discharge the highest pontificate — I was anxious to learn, and I remember rejoicing that I had learned it.

3. cui patri quondam, videlicet vos habenti, vix domus Aaron pontificis antiqui merito compararetur; quem licet primum in medio plebis heremitidis sanctificationis oleo legiferi fratris dextra perfuderit, filios eius in similis officii munia vocans, tamen ipsius super Ithamare et Eleazaro felicitatem Nadab et Abiu fulminibus afflati decoloravere; quorum quamlibet interemptorum credamus absolvendas animas, punitas tamen scimus esse personas.

3. to whose father formerly, namely you holding him, scarcely would the house of Aaron of the ancient pontiff rightly be comparable; whom, although at first in the midst of the people the right hand of the law-bearing brother of hermitlike sanctification poured with oil, calling his sons to the duties of a like office, nevertheless Nadab and Abihu, struck by thunderbolts, stained his felicity above Ithamar and Eleazar; of whom, although we may believe the souls of each slain to be absolved, yet we know the persons to be punished.

4. vos vero tacturi paginam altaris nihil, ut audio, offertis ignis alieni, sed comitantibus victimis caritatis castitatisque fragrantissimum incensum turibulis cordis adoletis. ad hoc quotiens iugum legis cervicibus superbientum per vincula praedicationis adstringitis, tunc deo tauros spiritaliter immolatis. quotiens conscientiae luxuriantis fetore pollutos ad suaveolentiam pudicitiae stimulis correctionis impellitis, hircorum vos obtulisse virulentiam Christus sibi computat.

4. you, however, touching the page of the altar, offer, as I hear, nothing of an alien fire, but, with victims of charity and chastity accompanying, you perfume the most fragrant incense with the censers of the heart. moreover, whenever you bind the yoke of the law on the necks of the proud by the bonds of preaching, then you have spiritually immolated bulls to God. whenever you drive those whose conscience is polluted by the stench of luxury toward the sweet-scent of chastity by the goads of correction, Christ reckons to himself that you have offered the virulence of goats.

5. quotiens hortantibus vobis in quocumque conpuncto culpas suas anima poenaliter recordata suspirat, quis vos ambigat paria turturum aut binos pullos columbarum, qui duplicem substantiam utriusque hominis nostri tam numero quam gemitu assignant, mystico litasse sacrificio? quotiens vestro monitu obesum quicumque corpus aestuantemque turgidi ventris arvinam crebro ieiuniorum decoquendus igne torruerit, nulli dubium est vos tunc simulam frictam in quadam continentiae sartagine consecraturos.

5. how often, when at your urging in any contrite one the soul, recalled to its faults and sighing with penitential memory, who would doubt that you present as equal the pair of turtledoves or the two chicks of the doves, which by number as well as by groan assign a double substance to each of our man, as a mystic propitiatory sacrifice? how often, at your admonition, whoever with a fat and seething body and a swollen belly scorches that arvina by the fire of frequent fasts to be boiled down, there is no doubt that you then will consecrate that same thing, rubbed, in a certain pan of continence.

6. quotiens aliquem mentis perfidae figmenta ponentem sanam respondere doctrinam fidem credere, viam tenere vitam sperare suadetis, quis vos dubitet in huius emendatione conversi, qui iam sit liber ab haeresi, liber ab hypocrisi, liber ab schismate, purgatissimum propositionis panem cum sinceritatis et veritatis azymis dedicaturos?

6. how often, when the figments of perfidious mind set forth someone to hold sound doctrine, to believe faith, to keep the way, to hope for life, do you exhort him, who will doubt that you, converted in this correction, who now is free from heresy, free from hypocrisy, free from schism, will dedicate the most pure bread of proposition with the azymes of sincerity and truth?

7. postremo quis nesciat, quicquid legis diebus figuraliter immolabatur in corporibus, quod totum id gratiae tempore manifeste vos offeratis in moribus? atque ideo gratias uberes deo refero, quod secundum vestrae paginae qualitatem facile agnosco antistitem suprafatum de vobis, cum magna dixerit, maiora tacuisse. quapropter nemo dubitaverit, qui bonus es, cum indicaris, et melior, cum legeris, esse te optimum, cum videris.

7. finally who does not know that whatever was offered figuratively in bodies in the days of the law, you now present whole in manners at the time of grace? and therefore I render abundant thanks to God, because according to the quality of your page I easily recognize the aforesaid antistite among you, he who, when he spoke great things, kept still greater silent. wherefore let no one doubt that you are good when you are pointed out, better when you are read, and best when you are seen.

8. Megethius clericus, vestri gerulus eloquii, rebus ex sententia gestis, quia tuorum apicum detulit munera, meorum reportat obsequia; quem saltim iuvimus voto, quia re forsitan non valemus. per quem obsecro impense, ut sitim nostram frequenter litteris litteratis, ambo germani, tu frequentius, inrigetis. sed si difficultas itineris intersiti resultat optatis, vel aliquotiens pro supplicibus supplicate.

8. Megethius the cleric, your bearer of eloquence, for deeds performed to judgement, because he brought the apices of your gifts, bears back the respects of mine; whom at least we aid with a vow, since in deed perhaps we are not strong enough. Through whom I beseech earnestly that you often irrigate our thirst with learned letters — both of us brothers, you more frequently — but if the difficulty of the journey should prevent the desired meeting, at least pray sometimes on behalf of the suppliants.

maius est autem, si nobis tribuere dignemini raris intercessionibus salutem quam si crebris affatibus dignitatem. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

But it is greater, if you deign to grant to us salvation by rare intercessions than to grant dignity by frequent petitions. Deign to be mindful of us, Lord Pope.

EPISTULA XV

EPISTLE 15

Sidonius domino papae Prospero salutem.

Sidonius to lord pope Prospero, greetings.

1. Dum laudibus summis sanctum Annianum, maximum consummatissimumque pontificem, Lupo parem Germanoque non imparem, vis celebrari fideliumque desideras pectoribus infigi viri talis ac tanti mores merita virtutes, cui etiam illud non absque iustitia gloriae datur, quod te successore decessit, exegeras mihi, ut promitterem tibi Attilae bellum stilo me posteris intimaturum, quo videlicet Aurelianensis urbis obsidio oppugnatio, inruptio nec direptio et illa vulgata exauditi caelitus sacerdotis vaticinatio continebatur.

1. While with highest praises you press that the holy Annianus, the greatest and most consummate pontiff, be celebrated, equal to Lupo and not unequal to Germano, and you wish that the ways, merits, and virtues of so great and such a man be fixed in the breasts of the faithful — to whom also that is given to glory not without justice, namely that he died leaving you as his successor — you urged me to promise that I would intimate to posterity by my pen the war of Attila, in which, namely, the siege, assault, inrush and pillage of the city of Aurelianum, and that widely heard from heaven prophecy of the priest were contained.

2. coeperam scribere; sed operis arrepti fasce perspecto taeduit inchoasse; propter hoc nullis auribus credidi quod primum me censore damnaveram. dabitur, ut spero, precatui tuo et meritis antistitis summi, quatenus praeconio suo sub quacumque et quidem celeri occasione famulemur. ceterum tu creditor iustus laudabiliter hoc imprudentiae temerarii debitoris indulseris, ut quod mihi insolubile videtur tibi quoque videatur inreposcibile.

2. I had begun to write; but when I saw the bundle of the work taken up, I was wearied of having begun; for this reason I trusted no ears with that which at first I had condemned myself as censor. It will be granted, as I hope, to your entreaty and to the merits of the supreme prelate, insofar as by his proclamation on whatever, and indeed on any swift occasion, we may be served. Moreover you, a just creditor, have laudably indulged this imprudence of a rash debtor, so that what seems insoluble to me may also seem to you not to be demandable.

memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

deign to be mindful of me, Lord Pope.

EPISTULA XVI

LETTER 16

Sidonius Constantio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his own Constantius, greeting.

1. Spoponderam Petronio, inlustri viro, praesens opusculum paucis me epistulis expediturum; cuius auribus non peperci, dum tuis parco. malui namque, ut illum correctionis labor, te honor editionis aspiceret perveniretque in manus vestras volumen istud alieno periculo, obsequio meo. peracta promissio est; nam peritia tua si coactorum in membranas inspiciat signa titulorum, iam copiosum te, ni fallor, pulsat exemplar; iam venitur ad margines umbilicorum, iam tempus est, ut satiricus ait, Orestem nostrum vel super terga finiri.

1. I had promised Petronius, an illustrious man, that I would dispatch the present little opus in a few letters; to whose ears I did not spare it, while I spare yours. For I preferred that the toil of correction, the honor of edition, should behold him, and that this little volume by my service might reach your hands, free from another’s hazard. The promise is fulfilled; for if your skill inspects the impressed signs of titles on the gatherings’ membranes, already, if I am not mistaken, a plentiful copy knocks at you; already it comes to the margins of the folds, already it is time, as the satirist says, that our Orestes be finished even upon the backs.

2. non hic ego commenticiam Terpsichoren more studii veteris adscivi nec iuxta scaturriginem fontis Aganippici per roscidas ripas et pumices muscidos stilum traxi. atque utinam hic nil molle, nil fluidum, nil de triviis compitalibus mutuatum reperiretur! siquidem maturo, ut es ipse, lectori non tantum dictio exossis tenera delumbis, quantum vetuscula torosa et quasi mascula placet.

2. I did not, in the manner of old study, adopt a fictive Terpsichore nor draw my stylus beside the bubbling source of Aganippus along dewy banks and mossy pumices. Would that here nothing soft, nothing effusive, nothing borrowed from compital shrines at the crossroads were discovered! For since you are mature, as you are yourself, reader, not only does diction from spineless tender grottoes displease you, but rather the somewhat aged, knotted, and quasi-masculine style is agreeable.

sed reserventur ista potioribus; mihi sufficit, si cito ignoscas, quod sumus tardi.

but let those matters be reserved for the more capable; it suffices me if you quickly forgive that we are slow.

3. praeterea si vir inlustris aliquid insuper ampliuscule scribi depoposcisset, in moras grandes incidissemus. nam per armariola et zotheculas nostras non remanserunt digna prolatu. unde cognosce, quod, etsi tacere necdum, coepimus certe taciturire, duplici ex causa: ut si placemus, pauca lecturis incitent voluptatem; si refutamur, non excitent multa fastidium, quippe in hoc stilo, cui non urbanus lepos inest, sed pagana simplicitas.

3. moreover, if a man illustrious had demanded that anything somewhat more ample be written besides, we should have fallen into great delays. for through our little armariola and zothecula nothing worthy to be borne has remained. whence know that, although we have not yet ceased from speaking, we have at least begun to be taciturn, for a twofold cause: so that, if we please, few things may excite pleasure in readers; if we are rejected, many things may not arouse disgust — for in this style there is no urbane lepos, but a pagan simplicity.

4. unde enim nobis illud loquendi tetricum genus ac perantiquum? unde illa verba saliaria vel Sibyllina vel Sabinis abusque Curibus accita, quae magistris plerumque reticentibus promptius fetialis aliquis aut flamen aut veternosus legalium quaestionum aenigmatista patefecerit? nos opuscula sermone condidimus arido exili, certe maxima ex parte vulgato, cuius hinc honor rarus, quod frequens usus, hinc difficilis gratia, quod facilis inventio est.

4. whence for us that harsh and very ancient manner of speaking? whence those words, saliary or Sibylline or Sabine and even Curiate, called forth, which, with the magistri for the most part silent, some bolder fetialis or flamen or old‑timed riddler of legal questions would more readily disclose? we have composed little works in a dry, meagre speech, certainly for the most part in the vernacular, whose honour is scarce on one side because of frequent use, and whose grace is hard on the other because invention is easy.

5. sane profiteor audenter, sicut istic nil acre, nil eloquens, ita nihil inditum non absolutum, non ab exemplo. sed quid haec pluribus? dictio mea, quod mihi sufficit, placet amicis.

5. indeed I profess boldly: just as there is there nothing sharp, nothing eloquent, so there is no innate thing that is not made complete, not drawn from example. but what are these things to the many? my diction, which suffices me, pleases my friends.

in quibus tamen utrumque complector, sive non fallunt examine seu caritate falluntur, deumque, quod restat, in posterum quaeso, ut secuturi aut fallantur similiter aut censeant. vale.

in which matters, however, I embrace both: whether they do not deceive by examination, or are deceived by charity; and as for God, what remains, I beg for the future, that those who will follow may either be deceived likewise or may judge. Farewell.