Letter 3009: To Riothamus [a British king or warlord commanding a force of Britons in Gaul, allied with the Roman cause against...

To Riothamus [a British king or warlord commanding a force of Britons in Gaul, allied with the Roman cause against the Visigoths]. I maintain the usual pattern of my correspondence: I mix a complaint with a greeting — not because I set out deliberately to make my letters polite in the heading and harsh in the body, but because things keep happening about which a man of my position and office either earns hostility if he speaks or commits a sin if he stays silent. But I also appreciate the burden you carry in your sense of honor, for it has always been your way to blush at other people's faults. The bearer of this letter is a humble, obscure, and thoroughly insignificant man — even to the point of suffering damage through sheer harmless inoffensiveness. He complains that his slaves have been lured away by Britons acting in secret. Whether his case is valid, I cannot say. But if you will fairly examine the charges when both parties are before you, I believe this hardworking man can prove his claim — provided, that is, a lone, unarmed, cast-down, rustic, foreign, and poor man can get a fair hearing among men who are sharp-tongued, armed, rowdy, and insolent in their courage, their numbers, and their esprit de corps. Farewell.

EPISTULA IX Sidonius Riothamo suo salutem. 1. Servatur nostri consuetudo sermonis: namque miscemus cum salutatione querimoniam, non omnino huic rei studentes, ut stilus noster sit officiosus in titulis, asper in paginis, sed quod ea semper eveniunt, de quibus loci mei aut ordinis hominem constat inconciliari, si loquatur, peccare, si taceat. sed et ipsi sarcinam vestri pudoris inspicimus, cuius haec semper verecundia fuit, ut pro culpis erubesceretis alienis. 2. gerulus epistularum humilis obscurus despicabilisque etiam usque ad damnum innocentis ignaviae mancipia sua Britannis clam sollicitantibus abducta deplorat. incertum mihi est an sit certa causatio; sed si inter coram positos aequanimiter obiecta discingitis, arbitror hunc laboriosum posse probare quod obicit, si tamen inter argutos armatos tumultuosos, virtute numero contubernio contumaces, poterit ex aequo et bono solus inermis, abiectus rusticus, peregrinus pauper audiri. vale.