Letters
The letters of the bishop of Milan to emperors, bishops and his sister. Several are his own reports of his dealings with the court: the dispute over the Altar of Victory, the contest for the basilicas in 386, and the letter to Theodosius after the massacre at Thessalonica.
Read the text at newadvent.org ↗The same translation (CCEL) ↗
Ambrose was bishop of Milan in the years when the western emperors often resided there, and his letters are first-hand evidence for his dealings with Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius. They are also his own presentation of those dealings: in the accounts he wrote for his sister and for other bishops he tells the story as he wished it to be remembered.
Letter 51 is different in kind. It is a private letter to Theodosius, written after the emperor had ordered a massacre at Thessalonica, and Ambrose says in it that he writes with his own hand for the emperor alone to read. It shows what he actually asked of the emperor and how: by letter, from a distance, urging him to repentance and declining to celebrate the eucharist in his presence. The scene at the church door told by later historians is not in it.
Cited in
- AD 390, estimated date