Letter 9012: Other letters of mine have been chasing you across Spain -- I had assumed you were living there because of the...
Other letters of mine have been chasing you across Spain -- I had assumed you were living there because of the extent of your estates. Now that more reliable reports tell me you are enjoying leisure at your ancestral home, I am grateful for the mistake, since it gave me a reason to write to you again. Yet even this second letter, though it should satisfy your expectations, does not yet satisfy mine. I wish I could honor your friendship with letters as continuously as I have never ceased to cherish it in my heart.
I add a request. My son's praetorian games [public spectacles, usually involving chariot races and wild beast shows, that Roman officials were expected to fund], which I have long been preparing you for, are now approaching -- if fortune smiles on us. This reminds me that I need to assemble noble chariot teams for the competition, selecting the best horses from many herds. Do not let the fact that you have settled far away in Spain work against my peace of mind. Just help the agents I have sent for the horse purchases with your letters of introduction. Your recommendation will carry weight with your friends on our behalf, I trust.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Requirunt te per Hispanias aliae litterae meae; illic enim te degere ob rei fa-
miliaris amplitudinem duxeram. postquam te in avitis penatibus otiari constantior
fides adtulit, egi huic errori gratias, qui mibi praestitit, ut te rursus adloquerer. et *
tamen ista geminatio, quamvis satisfacere animo tuo debeat, nondum meo sufGcit;
vellem quippe ita continue honorare amicitiam tuam litteris, ut mente iugiter colere
r 2 numquam dissimulaverim. | subiungo postulatum. iampridem commendata sensibus
tuis praetoria filii mei, si fors dictum iuvet, instat editio. ea nos admonet, ut qua-
drigas nobiles in certamen quae posset ex multorum gregibus edecumare me- lo
liores. non obsit securitati meae, quod Hispanias longinqua sede Twu/asti; admotos a
me equorum coemptioni tantum litteris iuva. valebit pro nobis, ut spero, apud ami-
cos curae tuae delegatio.
xxnn (XXH) a. 399.
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