Letter 3057: I testify that my servant Firmus has completed his military service with honor.

It was fitting that Firmus, a member of my household who has discharged the obligations of military service [stipendia, terms of paid service] with honor, should be aided by my testimony, so that he might gain easier access to your acquaintance. Extend therefore, I beg you, a helping hand to one who, after the custom, desires the lawful rewards. For to veterans of this kind such a prerogative is owed, that the rank of protector [protectores, the imperial guard corps] should accrue to them as the price of long toil. And this will come to Firmus without delay, if your favor assists the prayers of a man who strives after what is customary. [Letter] 68 (formerly), 394. To Ricomer. The just measure of your merits demands that I devote my effort frequently to letters of friendship, since I have learned by experience that the courtesies bestowed upon wise men are not lost. I perform therefore the act of greeting, which alone attests one's care for those who are absent, and I beg your excellence that, as you are wont to do, you both cultivate the good of friendship in your speech and guard it in your mind. [Letter] 69, 383. To Ricomer. [marginal: PF] I do not allow that my lord and our brother Flavianus, a man exalted by his virtues and his honors, should be excluded from your justice. Deservedly, on behalf of his honors, I make appeal as the cause demands, knowing that without your authority were committed those things which are said to have been carried out by certain malicious men under the pretext of your name. Whence I have the greater confidence that the matter can be gravely avenged, since your reputation too has been struck at. But the representation of that man's complaint, if you so order, will pursue the kind of grievance, because the manifold injury exceeds the measure of a letter of friendship. No lesser things, moreover, did the son of that illustrious man, himself now also of honor and merit, endure in his own proconsular possession, matters which pertain indeed to the harm of one man but to the contempt of both. Therefore, as is your custom, when you have heard the pleas of those who safeguard the resources of the absent, deign to defend first their reputation, which is precious to every best man, then friendship, the index of good faith, and finally the laws, for which you keep watch, so that to that illustrious man, who through the absence of his people does not know their troubles, the favor of your kindness may come before the grief and complaint of his own. [Editorial apparatus: line 3, est opus in MS F; b omitted in F; line 10, quid in P first hand; m. flavio in F; line 17, sermone with correction mark in P; (possit P first hand) allego in P, while F reads eiusque causa posita lego; line 23, designata in F; est added after fiducia by the second hand of P, F; sequitur in P and F; excidit P first hand; line 26, et ipse etiam in F; line 29, cuique with cui|que split in P, tum in F; line 31, absentiam written over an erasure in P. 12* / 92 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE (Symmachus, Letters).]

Firmum domesticum menm militiae stipendiis cum honestate perfunctum testi- monio meo decuit adiuvari, nt faciliore aditu ad tuam notitiam perveniret. porrige igitur, oro te. adiutricem manum legitima praemia ex more cupienti. huinsmodi quippe veteranis praerogativa debetur, ut illis protectorum dignitas tamquam pretium longi 10 laboris accedat. quod Firmo incnnctanter eveniet, si tuus favor vota hominis ad con- sneta nitentis adiuverit. LXVIII antea. 394. AD RICOMEREM. Meritorum tuorum iusta ratio deposcit, ut familiaribus litteris operam frequenter 15 inpendam, expertus quippe, non perire ofGcia dclata sapientibus. fungor igitur salu- tatione, quae sola cnram testatur absentinm, tuamque oro praestantiam , nt amicitiae bonnm, sicuti facere soles, et sermone excolas et mente cnstodias. LXVIIII a. 383. AD RICOMEREM. PF 20 Dominnm meum et fratrem nostmm Flavianum celsum virtutibus et honoribns vimm iustitiae tuae exsortem esse non patior. merito pro honoribus eins, quae cansa poscit, allego sciens sine tna auctoritate commissa, quae snb obtentu tuo a quibusdam scaevis dissignata dicuntnr. unde mihi maior fidncia, posse rem graviter vindicari, cum tua quoque fama pulsata sit. querellae autem genns hominum eius suggestio, 25 gi iusseris, persequetur, quia multiplex iniuria modnm epistulae familiaris excedit. non minora etiam filius inlnstris viri, et ipse iam honoris et meriti, in sua proconsulari 2 possessione toleravit, quae ad unius quidem pertinent noxam sed ad utriusque con- temptum. ergo ut mos est tibi, anditis eorum allegationibus , qni tnentur absentium facnltates, primo famam, quae optimo cuique pretiosa est, tnnc amicitiam fidei indicem, 30 postremo leges , pro quibus excubas , dignare defendere , ut ad inlustrem vimm , qui per absentiam suorum nescit incommoda, prius gratia beneficii tui quam suomm dolor et querella perveniat. 3 est opns F b om. F 10 quld P 1 m. flnnio F 17 sermone^ P (possit P l m.) allego P, eiasque cauu posita lego F 23 designata F eat post flducia ndd, P 2 m. F sequitur PF excidit P J m. 26 et ipse etiam F 29 cuiqu|que P tum F 31 ab- sentiam in ra8. P 12* 92 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE