To Acacius. (361 AD)
In my previous letters I showed that you would rightly grant me favors, and I urged you to do well by Maximus — an excellent man and a friend to us — and I believe he has already received much from you. Now I must bring to completion a matter long deserving of attention but not yet resolved. In brief: it is the well-being of Maximus's household.
If the bearer of this letter were not himself a rhetorician, I would lay out the case myself. But since Eusebius has acquired, along with his gift of speech, every other capability as well, why speak at length when one has such an ambassador?
I would only add this: we ask for nothing outside the law, and we will be more grateful than those who seek unjust things from unjust men.
In my previous letters I showed that you would rightly grant me favors, and I urged you to do well by Maximus — an excellent man and a friend to us — and I believe he has already received much from you. Now I must bring to completion a matter long deserving of attention but not yet resolved. In brief: it is the well-being of Maximus's household.
If the bearer of this letter were not himself a rhetorician, I would lay out the case myself. But since Eusebius has acquired, along with his gift of speech, every other capability as well, why speak at length when one has such an ambassador?
I would only add this: we ask for nothing outside the law, and we will be more grateful than those who seek unjust things from unjust men.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.