Letter 10010: I cannot express, Sir, in words the joy I experienced when I received your letter telling me that you had granted...
Pliny the Younger→Trajan|c. 112 AD|Pliny the Younger
travel mobility
To Trajan.
I cannot express, Sir, in words the joy I experienced when I received your letter telling me that you had granted the Alexandrine as well as the Roman citizenship upon my ointment-doctor Harpocras, although you have made it a rule to follow the practice of your predecessors and not grant it promiscuously. I beg to inform you that Harpocras belongs to the district of Memphis. Let me beg of your great kindness, Sir, to send me a letter, as you promised, for your friend Pompeius Planta, the praefect of Egypt. As, Sir, I will come to meet you that I may enjoy the pleasure at the earliest moment of welcoming you on your long-hoped-for return, * I pray that you will permit me to join you on the road as far out from Rome as possible.
[Note: From Germany, in 99 A.D.]
L To Trajan.
I cannot express, Sir, in words the joy I experienced when I received your letter telling me that you had granted the Alexandrine as well as the Roman citizenship upon my ointment-doctor Harpocras, although you have made it a rule to follow the practice of your predecessors and not grant it promiscuously. I beg to inform you that Harpocras belongs to the district of Memphis. Let me beg of your great kindness, Sir, to send me a letter, as you promised, for your friend Pompeius Planta, the praefect of Egypt. As, Sir, I shall come to meet you that I may enjoy the pleasure at the earliest moment of welcoming you on your long-hoped-for return, * I pray that you will permit me to join you on the road as far out from Rome as possible.
(*) From Germany, in 99 A.D.
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To Trajan.
I cannot express, Sir, in words the joy I experienced when I received your letter telling me that you had granted the Alexandrine as well as the Roman citizenship upon my ointment-doctor Harpocras, although you have made it a rule to follow the practice of your predecessors and not grant it promiscuously. I beg to inform you that Harpocras belongs to the district of Memphis. Let me beg of your great kindness, Sir, to send me a letter, as you promised, for your friend Pompeius Planta, the praefect of Egypt. As, Sir, I will come to meet you that I may enjoy the pleasure at the earliest moment of welcoming you on your long-hoped-for return, * I pray that you will permit me to join you on the road as far out from Rome as possible.
[Note: From Germany, in 99 A.D.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.