Letter 6067: You wrote that you'd taken a purgative to clear your bowels, hoping it would bring down the inflammation in your...

You had written that you had emptied your bowels with a purgative medicine, so that the inflammation of your eyes might subside along with the rest of the burden. I demand to know whether the aforementioned treatment was effective, and whether the cause has not also required that the veins be relieved by a letting of blood. My affection asks for an equal account, namely, how much assurance my daughter's good health gives you, so that, once these things are known according to my wish, I may lay aside the sharpest of my anxieties. For I am also distressed on other grounds, as I consider the troubles of my homeland. These are chiefly stirred up by the slaves demanded for military service. And we for our part resist with frequent entreaties, and we spend our days in supplication, and the matter has now come to the price of five pounds of silver by a wretched offering; but I am afraid lest the flight from one obligation strip us on both sides. The prefect, who appeared too sluggish in conducting the business, has been replaced by his successor Lampadius, by whose character men have believed that impossible things might be advanced. Now I ask that you relieve my anxiety with the greater care that concerns you. For up to now I am tormented by uncertainty through the delay of a little servant, who was sent some time ago to you for the purpose of learning these very things and has not yet returned.