Letter 9013: I take great pleasure whenever I receive one of your letters.
I take great pleasure whenever I receive one of your letters. They bring proof both of your good health and of your affection. I am especially glad that you promise to visit soon. To encourage you to hurry, I announce that my son, if divine favor smiles on us, will assume the praetorian fasces [take up the office of praetor, with its obligation to sponsor public games] in the coming year. I have written to you about this matter more fully through my household agents, whom I have charged with purchasing horses from Spain.
But since the opportunity presents itself, I press my request again: if winter storms should happen to delay the horses' return, please order them to be stabled on your estates for a few months and sent on to us when spring begins. Meanwhile, do not worry about your people here -- both my personal presence and my protection in the courts are defending them. I have warned the man bringing suit that the case concerns me directly, and that my legal support will not fail them. I have no doubt your people have already told you as much. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Multam capio animi voluptatem, quotiens sermonis tui munus accipio. est enim
in illis litteris et sanitatis tuae et amoris indicium. praeterea laetitiae mihi est, quod
brevi te adfore polliceris. quo magis autem venire deproperes, nuntio filinm meum,
si favor divinus adriserit, praetorios fasces anno veniente sumpturum. de qua re ad
te per familiares meos plenius scripsi, quibus equorum de Hispania mandavimus emp- 20
2 tionem. sed quia suadet occasio, nunc quoque reposco postulatum et quaeso te, ut
si forte equorum reditum mtemperies hibema retardaverit, stabulari in agris tuis equos
nostros paucis mensibus iubeas atque ad nos inde vemo tempore incipiente proficisci.
interea hominum tuomm cura submota est, quos et praesentia mea et iudiciaria tuitio
' defendit. denuntiavi enim litem moventi, quod ad me causa pertineat, nec defutumm 25
eis meae actionis auxilium. quod non dubito extmetSLti& tuae homines indicasse. vale.
XXV (XXni) a. 399.
Related Letters
I reap annual harvests of joy from your letters -- this is the return, these are the riches that Spain pays me.
Other letters of mine have been chasing you across Spain -- I had assumed you were living there because of the...
The results will show how much your diligence has accomplished for the public good, once unnecessary expenditures...
When I turn my gaze upon the world, and perceive the difficulties by which every effort after good is obstructed, like those of a man walking in fetters, I am brought to despair of myself. But then I direct my gaze in the direction of your reverence; I remember that our Lord has appointed you to be physician of the diseases in the Churches; and ...
Even if your office and the demands pulling you from every direction have driven Plato from your hands, Plato still...