Letter 9024: I readily recommend my friend Eusebius — not as someone new or unknown, but as a man already proven by his loyalty...

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 378 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship

I readily recommend my friend Eusebius — not as someone new or unknown, but as a man already proven by his loyalty and his long military service. No fault of conduct has tarnished his record to this day; only absence, which harms many honest men, has kept him from the recognition he deserves.

I ask that you take his case under your protection and ensure that a man whose service record is beyond reproach is not disadvantaged merely because he has been away. The faithful deserve to be remembered, especially when they cannot be present to speak for themselves. Farewell.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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