To Trajan.
After the messenger of King Sauromates had stayed of his own free will for two days in Nicaea, where he found me, I thought, Sir, that he ought to delay no longer, in the first place, because it was still uncertain when your freedman Lycormas would put in an appearance, and, in the second, because I myself was bound by pressing official business to go and visit another part of my province. I have felt it my duty to bring these facts to your knowledge, as I just recently wrote and told you that I had been asked by Lycormas to keep back any deputation which might come from the Bosphorus until his arrival. There is now no justifiable reason for my delaying him any longer, especially as I fancy the letter of Lycormas which, as I said before, I did not like to keep back, will arrive in Rome some days before this messenger.
L To Trajan.
After the messenger of King Sauromates had stayed of his own free will for two days in Nicaea, where he found me, I thought, Sir, that he ought to delay no longer, in the first place, because it was still uncertain when your freedman Lycormas would put in an appearance, and, in the second, because I myself was bound by pressing official business to go and visit another part of my province. I have felt it my duty to bring these facts to your knowledge, as I just recently wrote and told you that I had been asked by Lycormas to keep back any deputation which might come from the Bosphorus until his arrival. There is now no justifiable reason for my delaying him any longer, especially as I fancy the letter of Lycormas which, as I said before, I did not like to keep back, will arrive in Rome some days before this messenger.
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To Trajan.
After the messenger of King Sauromates had stayed of his own free will for two days in Nicaea, where he found me, I thought, Sir, that he ought to delay no longer, in the first place, because it was still uncertain when your freedman Lycormas would put in an appearance, and, in the second, because I myself was bound by pressing official business to go and visit another part of my province. I have felt it my duty to bring these facts to your knowledge, as I just recently wrote and told you that I had been asked by Lycormas to keep back any deputation which might come from the Bosphorus until his arrival. There is now no justifiable reason for my delaying him any longer, especially as I fancy the letter of Lycormas which, as I said before, I did not like to keep back, will arrive in Rome some days before this messenger.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.