Letter 5048: The quadragesima [a 2.
The quadragesima [the one-fortieth, 2.5%] customs duty [or excise] is not rightly demanded from senators who are candidates [for office], because the public burdens of our order ought not to be weighed down with double inconveniences. I pointed this out to you some time ago, in a letter sent on behalf of Cynegius. Now an equal necessity, on behalf of my son Pompeianus, a most distinguished and excellent young man, has required that I should renew the request. I ask, therefore, that you bestow that kindness which is foremost among your virtues, plainly and openly, upon the sponsors of public games [editores] of our order, and that you withdraw the transport of bears from the greed of the contractors [mancipes]. The favor of this benefaction will reach both the senate, which is relieved of inconveniences, and the people, to whose pleasures this exemption is granted.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Quadragesimae portorium [sive vectigal] non recte poscitur a senatoribus candi- 25
datis, quia nostri ordinis functiones onerari geminis incommodis non oportet. hoc tibi
etiam pro Cynegio dudum missis litteris indicavi. nunc filii mei Pompeiani cla-
rissimi et optimi iuvenis par necessitas depoposcit. ut repeterem postulatum. quaeso
igitur, ut humanitatem, quae inter virtutes tuas prima est, nostri ordinis editoribus
(tignanter inpertias et ursorum transvectionem cupiditati mancipum subtrahas. perve- 30
niet beneficii istius gratia et ad senatum, qui levatur incommodis, et ad populum,
cuius voluptatibus praestatur immunitas.
singrafls V 3 m, M 6 pigit P l m, strofls (Hs ^ m. in raa,) P, stroflt V adparatio PF, ap-
paratio M 8 pro se iuris] PF, pro se et iuris F, pro se et uirea M criminosis nerborum bia V
LXVI (LXmi) a. 396—397.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
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