Letter 21

Even if I could honor you with letters every single day, I still wouldn't feel I'd done my duty as the situation demands — let alone reproach you for not doing the same. But while this restraint is proper to my modesty, it's equally proper to your good nature to match my effort with equal warmth. Notice where I'm heading with this: you haven't sent me anything to read in quite some time. "My work at the prefecture has consumed me entirely," you'll say. Fair enough — you hold the highest judicial office and deserve it. But great demands don't overwhelm a mind as powerful as yours. So attend to these smaller matters too: for busy men, they cause no trouble, and they often provide relief from trouble itself. Farewell.

Ego etsi continais litteris honorem tuum celebrare possem, non satis mihi viderer, proquam res postulat, fungi debitum meum: tantum abest, ut operam tibi adsiduitatis exprobrem. sed ut hoc meae verecundiae conpetit, item tuae humanitatis est stu- 5 dium nostrum pari gratia sustinere. animadverte, quo tendat summa verborum meorum : iamdudum nihil tribuis, quod legamus. totum me, itquies, emancipavit sibi cura praetorii. verum est: potiris merito summa iudicia, sed maximas ingenii tui vires fortuna magna non onerat. proinde etiam his rebus adtende, quae ita occupatis nihil molestiae adferunt, ut ipsas molestias plerumque solentur. vale. 10 XVIin pmi) a. 378.