Letter 1034: Here's Rusticus, barely freed from his business in Rome.

Here you have Rusticus, scarcely set free from the business of the city, for whom, in the name of our friendship, I want you to pardon the fault of his delays. For it was not flight from labor that indulged his leisure. It is difficult to depart from here once you have come; indeed, if you should wish to gaze upon the majesty of our city, Rusticus will seem to you to have returned too soon. But about this I am not troubled, since you are of so forgiving a disposition, among the rest of your virtues, that you take the lighter errors in good part. It is fitting that I entreat you the more earnestly on this point: that you give such care to your mind for writing as the love with which you deem me worthy is great. Farewell. XXXI (XXV) after the year 378.

£n tibi Rusticum vix urbanis negotiis absolutum, cui volo pro nostra amicitia 15 morarum culpam remittas. neque enim laboris fuga indulsit quieti. difficile est hinc abire, cum veneris; adeo si contemplari maiestatem urbis nostrae velis, dto tibi Rusti- cus videbitur revertisse. sed de hoc non laboro, quando ita es ingenio placabili inter reliqua virtutum, ut boni consulas errata leviora. illnd me orare inpensius convenit, tanta ut animo tuo scribendi cura sit, quanto me amore dignaris. vale. 20 XXXI (XXV) post a. 378.