Letter 9025: I repay everyone who gives me an occasion to write with the currency of a recommendation.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 378 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
education booksillnessimperial politicsmonasticism

I repay everyone who gives me an occasion to write with the currency of a recommendation. The present favor I wish to do for the excellent Petrucius, who I know will regard this letter not so much as a recommendation of himself as of me — for his own merits speak loudly enough.

He is a man of solid character, tested in public service, and worthy of your notice. I ask only that you receive him with the courtesy that your station and his deserve, and that you count my word as a reliable guide to his worth. Farewell.

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

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