Symmachus Ausonio

Symmachus to Ausonius

THE ORIGINAL TEXT IN LATIN

Symmachus Ausonio

M
erum mihi gaudium eruditionis tuae scripta tribuerunt,
quae Capuae locatus accepi. erat quippe in his oblita Tulli-
ano melle festivitas et sermonis mei non tam vera, quam
blanda laudatio. quid igitur magis mirer, sententiae incertus addubi-
to, ornamenta oris an pectoris tui. quippe ita facundia antistas cete-
ris, ut sit formido rescribere ; ita benigne nostra conprobas, ut libeat
non tacere. si plura de te praedicem, videbor mutuum scabere et ma-
gis imitator tui esse adloquii quam probator. simul quod ipse nihil
ostentandi gratia facis, verendum est genuina in te bona tamquam
adfectata laudare. unum hoc tamen a nobis indubitata veritate cog-
nosce, neminem esse mortalium quem prae te diligam ; sic vadatum
me honorabili amore tenuisti.

Set in eo mihi verecundus nimio plus videre, quod libelli tui arguis
proditorem. nam facilius est ardentes favillas ore comprimere quam
luculenti operis servare secretum. cum semel a te profectum carmen
est, ius omne posuisti : oratio publicata res libera est. an vereris aemuli
venena lectoris, ne libellus tuus admorsu duri dentis uratur? tibi uni
ad hoc locorum nihil gratia praestitit aut dempsit invidia. ingratis
scaevo cuique proboque laudabilis es. proinde cassas dehinc seclude
formidines et indulge stilo, ut saepe prodaris. certe aliquod didasca-
licum seu protrepticum nostro quoque nomini carmen adiudica. fac
periculum silentii mei, quod etsi tibi exhibere opto, tamen spondere
non audeo. novi ego, quae sit prurigo emittendi operis, quod probaris.
nam quodam pacto societatem laudis adfectat, qui aliena bene dicta
primus enuntiat. eapropter in comoediis summatim quidem gloriam
scriptores tulerunt, Roscio tamen atque Ambivio ceterisque actoribus
fama non defuit.

Ergo tali negotio expende otium tuum et novis voluminibus ieiu-

nia nostra sustenta. quod si iactantiae fugax garrulum indicem perti-
mescis, praesta etiam tu silentium mihi, ut tuto simulem nostra esse,
quae scripseris. vale.
 ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Symmachus to Ausonius

Y
our learned pages, which I received while staying at Capua,
brought me sheer delight. For there was in them a certain
gaiety overlaid with honey from Tullys hive, and some eu-
logy on my discourse flattering rather than deserved. And so I am at a
loss to decide which to admire the morethe graces of your diction
or of your disposition. Indeed you so far surpass all others in eloqu-
ence that I fear to write in reply; you so generously approve my essays
that I am glad not to keep silence. If I say more in your praise, I shall
seem to be scratching your back and to be copying more than com-
plimenting your address to me. Moreover, since you do nothing cons-
ciously for the sake of display, I must beware of praising your natural
good qualities as though they were studied. This one thing, however,
I must tell you as an absolute factthat there is no man alive whom
I love more than you, so deeply pledged in honest affection have you
always held me.

But in this I think you are excessively modest, that you complain of
me for playing traitor to your book. For it is easier to hold hot coals
in ones mouth than to keep the secret of a brilliant work. Once you
have let a poem out of your hands, you have renounced all your rights:
a speech delivered is common property. Or do you fear the venom of
some jealous reader, and that your book may smart from the snap of
his rude fangs? You are the one man who up to now has owed nothing
to partiality, lost nothing through jealousy. Involuntarily everyone,
perverse or honest, finds you admirable. Therefore banish henceforth
your groundless fears, and let your pen run on so that you may often
be betrayed. At any rate assign some didactic or hortatory poem to
my name also. Run the risk of my keeping silence; and though I desire
to give you proof of it, yet I dare not guarantee it. Well I know how I
itch to give voice to your work when you are so popular. For somehow
he secures a partnership in the glory who first pronounces anothers
neat phrases. That is why in comedy authors have won but slight re-
nown, while Roscius, Ambivius,1 and the other players have had no
lack of fame.

So spend your leisure in such occupation and relieve my famine

with fresh books. But if in your flight from vainglory you dread a
chattering informer, do you also guarantee me your silence, that I may
safely pretendthat what you have written is mine! Farewell.
Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

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