Letter LII¶
A.D. 392
TITIANUS, or Tatianus, for both forms of the name are given, was a person in high position under Theodosius, and filled the office of Prætorian Prefect. He had incurred, as this Letter implies, the enmity of the Emperor’s favourite minister Rufinus, who eventually procured his exile. He is here congratulated on Rufinus’ removal from the position of ‘Master of the offices,’ and thereby from exercising an unfavorable influence on some private suit in which Tatianus was engaged.
AMBROSE TO TITIANUS
1. YOU have obtained a harmless victory, enjoying the security of victory without the bitterness of entreaty; for Rufinus from being Master of the Offices235, has been made in his consulate a Prætorian Præfect. By this he has acquired more power for himself, but to you he can be hurtful no longer, for he is become the Præfect of another district. I greatly rejoice both with him, as a friend, in having thus received an increase of honour, and at the same time a relief from odium, and also with you, as a son. And this, because you are delivered from him whom you deemed would be too rigid a judge to you, so that if you shall have arranged your business with your grand-daughter, it will have arisen from your affection, not from fear.
2. Exert yourself, therefore, to obtain an adjustment, both the hope and profit of which are now greater: the hope, because the father of your grand-daughter, who promised himself much from the sentence of Rufinus, has no longer anything to hope from him; for Rufinus is now concerned about other things, and neglects the past, or has laid it aside together with the office which he then held; the father now looks rather to the merits of his cause, than to a patron of his sentiments; the fruit too of an adjustment will be sweeter, for the credit of it must be ascribed to yourself; for you might have scorned it, and have not done so, regarding the pious claims of kindred, rather than the angry suggestions of injury.
Farewell: love me as a son, for I love you as a parent.
- 235
The Magister officiorum was a sort of Chief Secretary of state, both for home and foreign affairs. A summary of his duties may be seen in Gibbon ch. xvii, iv, 2. It was the influence which this post gave him over Theodosius which enabled Rufinus to stir the Emperor’s passionateness to the crime of Thessalonica.