Symmachus, bishop of the Catholic Church of the city of Rome, to Liberius, patrician, greetings.

When, with a conscience devoted to venerable religion, you direct your words concerning the election of the bishop of Aquileia, and a tongue initiated in divine worship strives for what is to be consecrated, the diligence of your unfamiliar words has bound us. For nothing surpasses judgments when a proven person presents them. What can the opinion of followers leave undone when it conforms to justice, whose definition is not called into question? You act with a good conscience, which your authority could scarcely deny. Among the arbiters, the venerable Maximus, our colleague of Marcellinus, has shown himself higher through human humility. Lest favor be attributed to authority through indirect agents, what he described with his own talent, he joined to the merit of praise. You have presented him moderately, lest the proclamation of the most exalted be suspect. The testimonies of the most illustrious are tempered so that their heights gain strength. Blessed is the priesthood illuminated by a mind full of light. Fortunate is the conduct that was brought to examination so that, with such a man supporting it, it might surpass, not having tasted victory’s savor unless subjected to uncertainty. Adversity has always brought glory to the innocent; modest opposition provides the strongest defenders.

But why have I prolonged the letter’s bounds with verbosity, transgressing the pages constrained by law with human eloquence? I, too, join your most eminent fathers with my modest assent, serving you with due reverence. What is considered admirable among men draws me to love through consideration of you. The affection inspired in me through another is pleasing, as charity remains deeply rooted in my heart. Though a person wanders, may celestial grace join as a companion to their desires, and as you wish to be the giver of effect, may it either bring or create a good pontificate.

Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of November, in the eighth indiction (A.D. 499).

Note: This letter is designated as the second (Epistola II) in Migne’s *Patrologia Latina* (PL 62, cols. 50–51) but was formerly the third (Olim III) in earlier manuscript traditions.