Letter 2079: Some men delight in profits and gains; I prefer to spend on what fulfills my desires.

One part of mankind takes pleasure in profits and gains; for my part, it is spending on what I have vowed that delights me. And so, eager for the goodwill of my fellow citizens, in addition to the expenditures of my son's quaestorship I am eager to add another kind of largesse: that we may bestow even five slaves apiece upon the curule stables of the Eternal City [Rome]. And since slaves are easily found along the frontier and their price is usually tolerable, I beg you most earnestly to give orders, through energetic men, that twenty young men suited to the aforesaid business be procured. For this purpose I have sent you [...] solidi, an estimate having been made of the men, of whom not the appearance but the age and soundness of health are to be selected.

Pars hominum [alii] conpendiis et quaestibus gaudent, me votiva delectat ex- pensio. itaque avidus civicae gratiae quaestoriis filii mei sumptibus studeo aliud ge- 35 nus largitotis adicere, ut curulibus stabulis nrbis aetemae etiam quina mancipia lar- IS lybica P 19 copiam] LatimWy copia P 21 par^ P 33 alii del, lurttua, aliis alii Haupt^ mali conpendii quaestibus Momm^en conpendii P 1 m, Q. AVSB14V8 STMMACaVB. 9 66 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE P 2 giamur. et qaoniam servorum per limitem faeilis inventio et pretium solet esse tole- rabile, quam maxime te deprecor, ut per bomines strenuos viginti iuvenes praedicto negotio congruentes iubeas conparari. in quam rem .... solidos ad te misi babita aesti- matione bominum, quorum non forma sed aetas et sanitas eligenda est. LXXVnn (LXXVin) ante a. 395. 5