Letter 3037: My son Caecilianus, a distinguished man currently managing the grain supply of our common fatherland, has learned...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman Senator To: A friend (name lost) Date: ~383 AD Context: Symmachus asks a friend not to intervene in a lawsuit against his son Caecilianus, who is serving as Rome's grain commissioner. My son Caecilianus, a distinguished man currently managing the grain supply of our common fatherland, has learned from reliable evidence that his adversary -- a man named Pirata, or his procurator -- has drawn hope from the prospect of your support. I denied that you are in the habit of taking on financial lawsuits. Still, with the kind of excessive anxiety that is typical of people, he asked me for a letter consistent with your upright character. I did not refuse my help to a man asking for something easy and just. The essence of the duty laid on me is this: please do not let an opponent of a citizen who is absent and bound up in public duties hope for any advantage from your sense of justice. There are laws, there are courts, there are magistrates that the litigant may use without troubling your conscience. Farewell.

Filins mens Gaecilianns vir clarissimns, qni nnnc commnnis patriae gnbernat annonam, certo cognoylt indicio, adyersarinm snnm Piratam nomine vel eins procnra- torem spem tni favoris hansisse. negavi solere te recipere in tnam cnram pecuniarias s actiones. ille tamen, nt est hominum supervacua plernmque trepidatio, consentaneas sanctis moribns tuis de me litteras postulavit. non abnui operam meam facilia et insta poscenti. snmma est igitur inpositi mihi muneris : contra absentem civem simnl- qne districtum publicis curis non sinas quidqnam de iustitia tua sperare praesidinm. snnt leges, sunt tribnnalia, sunt magistratus, qnibus litigator utatnr salva conscientia lo tna. vale. XXXVn ante a. 398.