Letter 10042: A legal question has arisen in the administration of the city that requires an imperial rescript to resolve; I set...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 386 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
imperial politics

Petronianus, long ago a soldier of the urban cohorts, was advanced to the rank of cornicularius [the senior clerk on a military staff] through the long duration of his blameless service, and, by the custom and institution of our ancestors, he has earned a testimonial to his diligence in the camp -- the same recognition which your judgments have conferred upon others as well after an honorable course of service: lords and emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, ever renowned victors and triumphators and Augusti. It is therefore worthy of the divine felicity of your times that, his military service having been completed without fault -- if the dutiful countenance of Your Perpetuity should smile upon him -- he may, by his entreaty, obtain the customary privilege [of the grant due to a discharged veteran].

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

TMr Petronianus urbanaruin dudum cohortium miles ad comiculorum gradum inculpati
laboris diutumitate provectus more institutoque maiorum testimonium mernit castrensis
industriae, quod ceteris quoque post honestum cursum stipendiorum iudicia detulerunt,
ddd. imppp. Valentiniane Theodosi et Arcadi inclyti victores ac triumphatores semper &
Augusti. dignum est igitur divina tempomm vestrorum felicitate, ut peractam sine
offensione militiam, si perennitatis vestrae pius vultus adriserit, praerogativa sollemnis
exoraet.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

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