Epistola Porphyrii Ad Constantinum

LETTER OF PORPHYRIUS TO CONSTANTINE. To Lord Constantine, Greatest, Pious, Unconquered, and Venerable, Always Augustus. I confess, Lord Constantine, greatest and unconquered, and no less distinguished by piety than by valor, that the desires of my meager self—greedy and beyond merit though they were—have been surpassed by the condescension of your untiring clemency. For it had been abundantly sufficient for me that the poem, which I had bound with the stricter fetters of the Muses, and in which the zeal of my sincere devotion contributed more than the poverty of my talent, had come into your victorious hands, most august Emperor, to be read by your eyes. In that poem, instead of the grove of Helicon’s summit, instead of the versifying draught of the Castalian spring, instead of Apollo’s lyre with the harmonious choruses of the Muses, and the other things which poets are accustomed to invoke when composing a poem, the eternal felicity of your name, and its manifold preface with its veneration, sang to me the incentive for daring, and equally granted both the ability and the effect for accomplishing it. The noble Mantuan, high priest of the Roman Muse, serene light of poets and fount of pure nectar, fertile in song, exalts his sails and boasts greatly, and again and again glories in the testimony of Maecenas. What shall I do, poor in slender talent, of merit up to now very slight?

By the condescension of your heavenly judgment, an immense burden has been placed upon me—the testimony of that emperor who, among the virtues of war and peace, among triumphs and laurels, among the sanctions of laws and rights, also devotes yourself so much to the Muses, your familiars, that amid so many insignia of divine majesty, in which you are always foremost and unconquered, the exceptional splendor of this study also shines in you. Shall I indeed dare to give thanks, when even the most eloquent speech could not adequately repay even the smallest part, and you, pious emperor, have bestowed such great things that this cannot be fulfilled even by the most eloquent on account of your benefactions? For if, as the wise have held, most great emperor, judgments of this kind are to be esteemed, not counted, then since I have obtained such a testimony of your piety by heavenly condescension, I may now safely enter the ridges of Parnassus and dare to lead the Muses down from the very shrines of the Aonian peak, safe wherever my mind goes in song, fortified by the divine authority of your judgments, and, more credulous in my own flattery, I shall claim to have pleased the whole world, since I was able to please the emperor of the whole world. Finally, having been entreated, most august lord, grant pardon to my audacity, and deign to admit what I have now also dared to bind together by the favor of your piety: the clemency of your authority has kindled the fuel of my boldness. Farewell.

By your invincible Majesty. The edition of Petrus Pithoeus, among the Ancient Epigrams and Poems, published at Lyon in 1596, page 379, omits "maxime." To your indefatigable Clemency. Pithoeus: "indefatigabilis." It had sufficed. Pithoeus: "suffecerit." I had bound. Pithoeus: "illigaveram." The more to me. Pithoeus: "quod prius mihi." For Helicon's. Pithoeus: "pro Heliconii," which Barthius prefers, column 1107. Of Apollo's lyre. Pithoeus: "Apoll. lyra." Of your name to me. Pithoeus: "tui mini.... nom." Barthius read "tui divini nominis." With its veneration, the preface. Pithoeus: "cum sua venerabili.... praelatio." To dare, and. The "et" is absent from Pithoeus. Noble priest of Mantua. Pithoeus: "nobis." Incorrectly. Of nectar, fertile with sails. Pithoeus: "nectaris fecundus." He incorrectly omits the word. He exalts in songs. Pithoeus: "in carmine exultat." Of slender, poor talent. Pithoeus: "tenuis pauper ingenii." An immense burden upon me. Pithoeus omits "mihi." You are so devoted even to the Muses, your familiars. Pithoeus.

You praise these things as from the Muses familiar to you. By which you are always unconquered and foremost. Pithoeus: "by which you are always unconquered and foremost." With slender speech, Pithoeus: "whose slender speech." Lest they be able to be diminished by the least things. Pithoeus: "lest it be able to be diminished by the least things." Lest they be filled by the most eloquent? Pithoeus: "lest they be filled by the eloquent." Without a question mark. Now it is permitted of Parnassus. Pithoeus: omits "now." Wherever the mind will go into songs. Pithoeus: "wherever the mind will go, with song." I have dared to bind. Pithoeus: "I have dared to bind in verses." Farewell. Absent from Pithoeus. Barthius had written: "One should not doubt the genuineness of this letter because many in the Constantinian age wrote better Latin: for one may note others who spoke both thus and worse, as examples: the Chorography by Jacobus Gothofredus, the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum by Petrus Pithoeus, the published opuscula. We know that in inscribed books many such things survive, and let us place in place of all the Commentaries on the Psalms by some Arnobius, certainly of an age not later than those placed here, bearing the title, etc.