Book 10

1.1. Your devotion, most sacred Emperor, had wished that you might succeed your father as late as possible; but the immortal gods made haste to set your virtues at the helm of the commonwealth you have now taken up.

1.2. I pray, then, that all good fortune may attend you, and through you the whole human race—blessings, that is, worthy of your age. I wish you strength and good cheer, best of emperors, both in private life and in public.

2.1. I cannot express in words, my lord, what joy you have brought me by judging me worthy of the right of three children. For although you granted it in answer to the entreaties of Julius Servianus—an excellent man and most devoted to you—I understand even from the rescript itself that you granted it to him the more readily because he was asking on my behalf.

2.2. I seem, then, to have attained the height of my prayer, since at the very outset of your most fortunate reign you have shown that I belong to your special favour; and I long the more for children, whom I wished to have even in that most grievous age—as you may believe from my two marriages.

2.3. But the gods ordered it better, for they reserved everything entire for your goodness; I would rather become a father now, at a time when I am to be both secure and happy.

3a.1. As soon as your indulgence, my lord, advanced me to the prefecture of the treasury of Saturn, I gave up all my work as an advocate—which in any case I had never undertaken indiscriminately—so that I might devote myself wholeheartedly to the office entrusted to me.

3a.2. For this reason, when the provincials wished to choose me as their counsel against Marius Priscus, I both asked to be excused from this duty and obtained leave. But when the consul-elect afterwards proposed that those of us whose excuse had been accepted should be subject to the will of the Senate and should allow our names to be cast into the urn, I thought it most in keeping with the tranquillity of your age, and especially with so moderate a wish on the part of that most august order, not to oppose it.

3a.3. For this compliance of mine I trust you will hold the reckoning sound, since it is my desire to have all my deeds and words approved by your most upright character.

3b.1. You have discharged the part of a good citizen and a good senator alike by yielding the obedience which that most august order so justly required. I am confident that you will fulfil that part in keeping with the trust you have undertaken.

4.1. Your indulgence, best of emperors, which I find to be most complete, encourages me to dare to put myself under obligation to you even on behalf of my friends; among whom Voconius Romanus claims for himself a foremost place—my schoolfellow and companion from earliest youth.

4.2. For these reasons I had already asked your deified father to promote him to that most august order. But the fulfilment of my prayer was reserved for your goodness, because Romanus' mother had not yet quite legally completed the gift of four million sesterces which she had declared, in a codicil addressed to your father, that she would confer upon her son; though she did so afterwards, on our advice.

4.3. For she made over the estates by emancipation, and accomplished the other formalities that are usually required in completing such a transfer.

4.4. Since, then, the obstacle that delayed our hopes is removed, it is not without great confidence that I pledge to you my word for the character of my friend Romanus—a character adorned by liberal studies and by an exceptional sense of duty, which has earned him this very generosity of his mother, and at once his father's inheritance, and his adoption by his stepfather.

4.5. To these is added the lustre of his birth and his father's fortune; and to each of these I believe much commendation will accrue to your indulgence even from my own entreaties.

4.6. I ask, then, my lord, that you make me master of the congratulation I most long for, and that you grant my honourable affections, as I hope, so that I may glory in your judgements not only on my own account but on that of my friend.

5.1. Last year, my lord, I was so afflicted by a most grievous illness that my life was in danger, and I called in a physician-masseur; for whose care and attentiveness I can make an adequate return of gratitude only through the favour of your indulgence.

5.2. I ask, therefore, that you grant him Roman citizenship. For he is of foreign condition, freed by a foreign woman. His own name is Harpocras; his patroness was Thermuthis, daughter of Theon, who died long ago. Likewise I ask that you grant the rights of Roman citizens to the freedwomen of Antonia Maximilla, a most distinguished lady—Hedia and Antonia Harmeris; this I ask at the request of their patroness.

6.1. I thank you, my lord, that without delay you have granted both the rights of Roman citizens to the freedwomen of a lady dear to me, and Roman citizenship to Harpocras, my physician-masseur. But when I was setting out his age and property qualification as you had instructed, I was reminded by those more expert that I ought first to have obtained for him Alexandrian citizenship, and then Roman, since he is an Egyptian.

6.2. I, however, because I believed there was no difference between Egyptians and other foreigners, had been content to write to you only this, that he had been freed by a foreign woman and that his patroness had died long ago. Of this ignorance of mine I do not complain, since through it I came to be the more often obliged to you on behalf of the same man. I ask, therefore, that I may lawfully enjoy your benefit, and that you grant him Alexandrian citizenship as well. His age and property qualification, that nothing might again delay your indulgence, I have sent to your freedmen whom you appointed.

7.1. I have made it my rule not to grant Alexandrian citizenship rashly, in keeping with the practice of the emperors. But since you have already obtained Roman citizenship for Harpocras, your physician-masseur, I cannot bring myself to refuse this further request of yours. You must let me know from what nome he comes, so that I may send you a letter to Pompeius Planta, prefect of Egypt, my friend.

8.1. When your deified father, my lord, had exhorted all citizens to munificence, both by a most beautiful speech and by his own most honourable example, I asked him to permit me to transfer to a town the statues of the emperors which, having been handed down to me through several successions, I had kept in distant estates just as I received them, adding his own statue.

8.2. This indeed he granted me with the fullest commendation; I at once wrote to the decurions to assign me ground on which I might build a temple at my own expense; and they, in honour of the work itself, offered me the choice of the site.

8.3. But, detained first by my own ill health, then by your father's, and afterwards by the cares of the office you both entrusted to me, I now seem able most conveniently to make an excursion to attend to the matter on the spot. For my month of duty ends on the Kalends of September, and the following month has a good many holidays.

8.4. I ask, then, before all else, that you permit me to adorn with your statue the work I am about to begin; and next, that I may do this as soon as possible, that you grant me leave.

8.5. But it is not in keeping with my candour to conceal from your goodness that in passing you will confer a great benefit upon my private affairs. For the lease of the estates which I possess in that same region, since it exceeds four hundred thousand, so cannot be deferred that the new tenant must do the next pruning. Besides, continual barren seasons compel me to consider remissions of rent; and I cannot settle the account of these except in person.

8.6. I shall owe, then, my lord, both the speed of fulfilling my duty and the settling of my affairs to your indulgence, if for both these reasons you grant me thirty days' leave. For I cannot fix a shorter time, since both the town and the estates of which I speak lie beyond the hundred-and-fiftieth milestone.

9.1. You have given both many reasons and all of them public for seeking leave; for me, however, your wish alone would have sufficed. For I do not doubt that, as soon as you are able, you will return to so demanding an office. I allow a statue to be set up to me by you in the place you desire, although I am most sparing of honours of this kind, lest I seem to have hindered the course of your devotion towards me.

10.1. I cannot express in words, my lord, with what joy your letters have filled me, from which I learned that you have granted to Harpocras, my physician-masseur, Alexandrian citizenship as well, although you had made it your rule not to grant it rashly, in keeping with the practice of the emperors. That Harpocras belongs to the . . . Memphite nome I inform you.

10.2. I ask, therefore, most indulgent Emperor, that you send me the letter you promised to Pompeius Planta, prefect of Egypt, your friend. And since I mean to go to meet you, that I may the sooner, my lord, enjoy the joy of your most longed-for arrival, I ask you to permit me to come out to meet you as far away as possible.

11.1. My recent illness, my lord, put me under obligation to Postumius Marinus, my physician; to whom I can make an equal return of gratitude through your favour, if you grant my entreaties in keeping with your wonted goodness.

11.2. I ask, therefore, that you give citizenship to his kinsfolk—to Chrysippus, son of Mithridates, and to the wife of Chrysippus, Stratonice, daughter of Epigonus, and likewise to the children of the same Chrysippus, Epigonus and Mithridates—on condition that they be under their father's authority, and that the rights of patrons over their own freedmen be preserved to them. Likewise I ask that you grant the rights of Roman citizens to Lucius Satrius Abascantus, to Publius Caesius Phosphorus, and to Pancharia Soteris; this I ask with the consent of their patrons.

12.1. I know, my lord, that our entreaties cling to your memory, which is most tenacious of doing good. Since, however, you have indulged me in this matter too, I both remind you and earnestly beg that you deign to honour Attius Sura with a praetorship, now that a place is vacant.

12.2. To this hope, though he is otherwise of the quietest temper, he is encouraged both by the lustre of his birth and by his complete integrity amid poverty, and above all by the happiness of the times, which summons up and lifts the good conscience of your citizens to make use of your indulgence.

13.1. Since I know, my lord, that it belongs to the witness and praise of my character to be honoured by the judgement of so good an emperor, I ask that to the rank to which your indulgence has advanced me you deign to add either an augurship or a septemvirate, since they are vacant, so that by right of priesthood I may pray to the gods for you in public, whom I now pray to with private devotion.

14.1. I congratulate you, best of emperors, on your greatest, most glorious, and most ancient victory, both in your own name and in that of the commonwealth, and I pray the immortal gods that an outcome as joyful may follow upon all your designs, so that with such great virtues the glory of the empire may be both renewed and increased.

15.1. Since I am confident, my lord, that it belongs to your care, I report to you that I have sailed to Ephesus with all my company, past . . . Malea, though delayed by contrary winds. Now I intend to make for the province partly by coasting vessels, partly by carriage. For just as the fierce heats are against travel by land, so the Etesian winds are against continuous sailing.

16.1. You did rightly to send word, my dear Secundus. For it concerns my mind by what route you reach the province. You decide prudently to use now ships, now carriages, as the places suggest.

17a.1. Just as I found the voyage to Ephesus most healthful, my lord, so from there, after I began to make the journey by carriage, I was troubled by most grievous heats and even by slight fevers, and halted at Pergamum.

17a.2. Again, when I had crossed over into coasting boats, I was delayed by contrary winds and entered Bithynia somewhat later than I had hoped—that is, on the fifteenth before the Kalends of October. Yet I cannot complain of the delay, since it fell to me, which was most auspicious, to celebrate your birthday in the province.

17a.3. I am now examining the expenditure, revenues, and debtors of the commonwealth of the Prusians; which from the very handling I understand to be more and more necessary. For much money is held back from the public by private persons for various reasons; and besides, certain sums are paid out for expenses that are not at all lawful.

17a.4. This I have written to you, my lord, at the very outset of my arrival.

17b.1. On the fifteenth before the Kalends of October, my lord, I entered the province, which I found in that obedience and in that loyalty towards you which you deserve of the human race.

17b.2. Consider, my lord, whether you think it necessary to send a surveyor here. For it seems that no small sums of money can be recovered from the supervisors of public works, if the measurements are honestly taken. So at least I foresee from the accounts of the Prusians, which I am at this very moment handling.

18.1. I could wish you had been able to reach Bithynia without any complaint of your own poor health or that of your people, and that your journey from Ephesus had been like the voyage you had experienced as far as that point.

18.2. On what day you reached Bithynia, however, I learned, my dear Secundus, from your letter. The provincials, I believe, will understand that I have looked to their interest. For you too will take pains to make it plain to them that you were chosen to be sent to them in my place.

18.3. The accounts of the communities are, above all, to be examined by you; for it is sufficiently established that they are in disorder. I have surveyors scarcely sufficient even for those works that are carried out at Rome or near it; but in every province men are to be found who may be trusted, and so they will not be wanting to you, provided only you are willing to examine diligently.

19.1. I ask, my lord, that you guide me with your counsel while I hesitate whether I ought to keep guard over the prisons through the public slaves of the communities, as has been done hitherto, or through soldiers. For I fear that, on the one hand, they may be guarded too unfaithfully by the public slaves, and, on the other, that this duty may detain no small number of soldiers.

19.2. In the meantime I have added a few soldiers to the public slaves. I see, however, that there is a danger that this very thing may be a cause of negligence to both, while each side trusts that it can shift the common fault upon the other.

20.1. There is no need, my dear Secundus, to turn more soldiers to the keeping of the prisons. Let us persevere in the custom which belongs to that province, that they be guarded by the public slaves.

20.2. For whether they do this faithfully rests upon your strictness and diligence. For first of all, as you write, it is to be feared that, if soldiers are mixed with the public slaves, they may grow more careless through mutual reliance on one another; and let this too stay fixed in our minds, that as few as possible are to be called away from the standards.

21.1. Gavius Bassus, prefect of the Pontic coast, came to me, my lord, with the greatest respect and attentiveness, and was with me for several days—so far as I could perceive, an excellent man and worthy of your indulgence. I made known to him that you had given orders that he should be content with the ten beneficiaries, two cavalrymen, and one centurion from the cohorts you wished me to command.

21.2. He replied that this number did not suffice him, and that he would write to you about it. This was the reason why I did not think those whom he has beyond the number ought to be recalled at once.

22.1. Gavius Bassus has written to me too that the number of soldiers which I included in my instructions, so that it should be given to him, does not suffice him. I have ordered to be appended to this letter what I wrote back to him, so that you may know it. It makes a great difference whether the matter requires it, or whether he wishes to make a wider use of these men under this pretext.

22.2. For us, however, only the public advantage is to be regarded, and, so far as can be done, care must be taken that the soldiers be not absent from the standards.

23.1. The Prusians, my lord, have a bath; it is filthy and old. They therefore think it of great importance that a new one be built; and you seem to me to be able to indulge their wish.

23.2. For there will be money out of which it may be done: first, that which I have already begun to recall from private persons and to exact; then, that which they are accustomed to spend on oil, and are ready to contribute to the work of the bath; which in any case both the dignity of the community and the splendour of your age demand.

24.1. If the building of a new bath is not going to overburden the resources of the Prusians, we can indulge their wish, provided only that nothing be levied on this account, nor anything less be available to them in future for necessary expenditures.

25.1. Servilius Pudens, my legate, my lord, came to Nicomedia on the eighth before the Kalends of December and freed me from the anxiety of a long expectation.

26.1. Your benefits towards me, my lord, have joined Rosianus Geminus to me by the closest bond; for I had him as quaestor in my consulship. I found him most observant of me; he shows me such great reverence after my consulship, and heaps private services upon the pledges of our public connection.

26.2. I ask, therefore, that you yourself favour my entreaties on behalf of his dignity. And if you trust me at all, you will grant him your indulgence; he himself will take pains to deserve greater things in whatever you entrust to him. What makes me more sparing in praising him is that I hope his integrity, his probity, and his industry are most well known to you, not only from the offices he held in the city under your eyes, but also from his service in the army.

26.3. There is one thing only which, on account of my affection for him, I do not yet seem to myself to have done fully enough, and which I do again and again: I ask you, my lord, that you should be willing, as soon as possible, to let me rejoice in the dignity of my quaestor being honoured—that is, in mine through him.

27.1. Maximus, your freedman and procurator, my lord, besides the ten beneficiaries whom you ordered me to assign to him through that excellent man Gemellinus, affirms that he also needs six soldiers. These for the present I thought ought to be left in his service, as I had found them, especially since he was going into Paphlagonia to procure grain. Indeed, for the sake of his protection, since he so desired it, I added two cavalrymen. As to the future, what you wish to be observed, I ask that you write back.

28.1. Now indeed, as he was setting out to procure grain, you rightly furnished my freedman Maximus with soldiers. For he too was discharging an extraordinary duty. When he has returned to his former task, the two soldiers given by you and as many from my procurator Virdius Gemellinus, whom he assists, will suffice him.

29.1. Sempronius Caelianus, an excellent young man, has sent to me two slaves found among the recruits; whose punishment I have deferred, so that I might consult you, the founder and strengthener of military discipline, about the measure of their penalty.

29.2. For I myself am in doubt chiefly for this reason, that, although they had already taken the oath, they had not yet been distributed into the units. What, therefore, I ought to follow, I ask, my lord, that you write, especially since the matter bears upon precedent.

30.1. Sempronius Caelianus acted in accordance with my instructions by sending to you those about whom it will be necessary to inquire whether they seem to have deserved capital punishment. It matters, moreover, whether they offered themselves voluntarily or were levied, or even given as substitutes.

30.2. If they were levied, the recruiting officer was at fault; if given as substitutes, the blame lies with those who gave them; if they came of their own accord, while aware of their condition, punishment will have to be inflicted upon them. For it makes little difference that they have not yet been distributed into the units. For that day on which they were first approved exacted from them the truth of their origin.

31.1. Without prejudice to your greatness, my lord, you must come down to my cares, since you have given me the right of referring to you the things about which I am in doubt.

31.2. In very many communities, especially in Nicomedia and Nicaea, certain men condemned either to the mines or to the gladiatorial school, or to like kinds of punishment, perform the office and service of public slaves, and even receive an annual allowance as public slaves. When I had heard this, I long and greatly hesitated what I ought to do.

31.3. For to send back to their punishment, after a long time, men now mostly old and, so far as is affirmed, living frugally and modestly, I judged too harsh; and to retain condemned men in public offices I thought not honourable enough; while to have these same men fed by the commonwealth in idleness I considered useless, and not to feed them even dangerous.

31.4. Necessarily, therefore, I left the whole matter in suspense, until I might consult you. You will perhaps ask how it came about that they were released from the punishments to which they had been condemned: I too asked, but I found out nothing that I could affirm to you. While the decrees by which they had been condemned were produced, there were no records by which it could be proved that they had been freed.

31.5. There were some, however, who said that they had been dismissed at the order of the proconsuls or legates upon their appeal. This was made the more credible by the fact that it was likely no one would have dared this without authority.

32.1. Let us remember that you were sent to that province for this reason, that many things appeared in it that needed correction. And this above all will need to be corrected: that those who had been condemned to punishment have not only been freed without authority, as you write, but are even brought back into the condition of honourable servants.

32.2. Those, therefore, who within these last ten years have been condemned and freed by no proper authority will have to be sent back to their punishment; if any be found of older date and aged men, condemned more than ten years ago, let us distribute them into those services which are not far removed from punishment. Such men are usually assigned to the bath, to the cleaning of the sewers, and likewise to the maintenance of roads and streets.

33.1. While I was going round another part of the province, a most devastating fire at Nicomedia destroyed many private houses and two public buildings, the Gerusia and the temple of Isis, although a road lay between them.

33.2. It was spread more widely, first by the violence of the wind, then by the inertia of the people, who, it is sufficiently established, stood by as idle and motionless spectators of so great a calamity; and besides, there was nowhere any public fire-engine, no bucket, in short no apparatus for checking fires. These, indeed, as I have already directed, will be provided.

33.3. You, my lord, consider whether you think a company of firemen ought to be instituted, of no more than a hundred and fifty men. I will see to it that none but a fireman is admitted, and that they do not use the right granted them for any other purpose; and it will not be difficult to keep watch over so few.

34.1. It has occurred to you that, after the examples of very many places, a company of firemen could be set up among the Nicomedians. But let us remember that that province, and especially those communities, have been troubled by associations of this kind. Whatever name we give, and for whatever cause, to those who are gathered together for the same purpose, they will become political clubs, and that quickly.

34.2. It is better, therefore, that those things be provided which can serve to check fires, and that the owners of property be warned that they themselves restrain the fire and, if the matter requires it, use the help of the bystanders for this purpose.

35.1. We have both undertaken and paid, my lord, the solemn vows for your safety, on which the public welfare depends, praying the gods that they may be willing to have them always paid and always pledged.

36.1. That you, together with the provincials, have paid your vows to the immortal gods for my health and safety, and have pledged them anew, I have learned with pleasure, my dear Secundus, from your letter.

37.1. On an aqueduct, my lord, the Nicomedians spent three million three hundred and eighteen thousand sesterces, which, still unfinished, was abandoned and even demolished; then a further two hundred thousand was disbursed on another aqueduct. This too having been left off, a new outlay is needed if those who have so badly squandered such great sums are to have water.

37.2. I myself went to a most pure spring, from which it seems the water ought to be brought, as was attempted at the beginning, by an arched conduit, so that it may not reach only the low-lying and level parts of the city. A very few arches still stand; others can also be raised with squared stone taken from the earlier work; some part, as it seems to me, will have to be done in brickwork, for that is both easier and cheaper.

37.3. But above all it is necessary that you send either a water-engineer or an architect, lest there happen again what has happened. I affirm this one thing: that both the usefulness and the beauty of the work are most worthy of your age.

38.1. Care must be taken that water be brought into the city of Nicomedia. I truly believe that you will undertake this work with the diligence you ought. But, by my faith, it belongs to that same diligence of yours to inquire by whose fault the Nicomedians have hitherto lost so great a sum, lest, while they gratify one another, they both begin aqueducts and abandon them. Whatever you find out, therefore, bring to my notice.

39.1. The theatre at Nicaea, my lord, already for the most part built, yet unfinished, has swallowed up—as I hear, for the account of the work has not been examined—more than ten million sesterces: I fear, to no purpose.

39.2. For it has settled in huge cracks and gapes open, whether because the ground is damp and soft, or the stone itself slight and crumbling; it certainly deserves deliberation whether it should be finished, or abandoned, or even pulled down. For the buttresses and substructures by which it is from time to time held up seem to me not so much firm as costly.

39.3. To this theatre much is owed from the promises of private persons, such as basilicas around it, and a portico above the auditorium. All these are now deferred, while that which must first be completed is at a standstill.

39.4. The same Nicaeans began, before my arrival, to restore their gymnasium, which had been lost by fire, on a far larger and more spacious scale than it had been, and they have already disbursed a good deal; the danger is that it may be to little purpose, for it is ill-arranged and scattered. Besides, the architect—a rival, to be sure, of him by whom the work was begun—affirms that the walls, although twenty-two feet thick, cannot bear the loads laid upon them, because they are packed with rubble in the middle and not faced with brickwork.

39.5. The Claudiopolitans too, in a low-lying place, with a mountain moreover overhanging it, are digging rather than building a huge bath; and that out of the money which the councillors added by your favour either have already offered for their admission or will contribute at our requirement.

39.6. Since, therefore, I fear that in the one case the public money, and in the other—what is more precious than any money—your gift may be ill-bestowed, I am compelled to ask you to send an architect, not only for the theatre but also for these baths, to determine whether it is more useful, after the expense already incurred, somehow to finish the works as they have been begun, or to correct what seems to need correcting, and to transfer what needs transferring, lest, while we wish to save what has been spent, we ill spend what must be added.

40.1. What ought to be done about the theatre that has been begun at Nicaea, you will best deliberate and decide on the spot. It will suffice me to be informed to which opinion you have come. Then, however, exact from private persons their works when the theatre, on account of which those things were promised, shall have been built.

40.2. The Greeks are fond of their gymnasia; for that reason perhaps the Nicaeans undertook the construction of theirs with too great spirit: but they must be content with what can suffice them.

40.3. What ought to be advised to the Claudiopolitans about the bath which, as you write, they have begun in a scarcely suitable place, you will decide. Architects cannot be wanting to you. There is no province that does not have both skilled and ingenious men; only do not suppose it shorter to send from the city, when they are accustomed to come to us even from Greece.

41.1. As I consider the greatness both of your fortune and of your spirit, it seems to me most fitting that works be pointed out worthy no less of your eternity than of your glory, and which will have as much usefulness as beauty.

41.2. There is in the territory of the Nicomedians a very large lake. Across it marble, produce, timber, and building-stone are carried by boat, at small cost and labour, as far as the road, and from there, with great labour and greater expense, by carriage to the sea . . . This work requires many hands. But these, again, are not wanting. For there is a great abundance of men in the fields, and a very great one in the city, and a sure hope that all will most gladly undertake a work profitable to all.

41.3. It remains for you, if it seem good to you, to send a leveller or an architect, who may carefully explore whether the lake is higher than the sea, which the engineers of this region maintain to be higher by forty cubits.

41.4. I myself find in those same places a channel cut by a king, but it is uncertain whether it was for collecting the moisture of the surrounding fields, or for joining the lake to the river; for it is unfinished. This too is doubtful, whether the king was cut off by death, or despaired of the completion of the work.

41.5. But by this very thing—for you will bear with me as I am ambitious for your glory—I am stirred and kindled to desire that there be completed by you what kings only began.

42.1. That lake may well prompt us to wish to join it to the sea; but it must plainly be carefully explored, lest, if it is let out into the sea, it should all flow away—certainly how much water it receives, and whence. You can ask Calpurnius Macer for a leveller, and I myself will send you from here someone skilled in works of this kind.

43.1. As I was inquiring into the expenditures of the commonwealth of the Byzantines, which are very great, it was pointed out to me, my lord, that an envoy is sent every year to greet you with a decree, and that he is given twelve thousand sesterces.

43.2. Mindful, then, of your purpose, I thought the envoy ought to be kept back but the decree sent, so that at once the expense might be lightened and the public duty fulfilled.

43.3. To the same community were charged three thousand sesterces, given yearly under the name of travelling money to an envoy going to greet, in the name of the state, him who governs Moesia. These I thought ought to be cut off in future.

43.4. I ask you, my lord, that by writing back what you think, you deign either to confirm my judgement or to correct my error.

44.1. You did excellently, my dear Secundus, in remitting those twelve thousand sesterces which were spent by the Byzantines on an envoy to greet me. They will discharge their part, even if only the decree is sent through you. The governor of Moesia too will pardon them, if they court him less expensively.

45.1. As to warrants of post, my lord, whose date has passed, I ask you to write whether you wish them to be observed at all, and for how long, and to free me from hesitation. For I fear that, falling into error one way or the other through ignorance, I may either confirm what is unlawful or hinder what is necessary.

46.1. Warrants whose date has passed ought not to be in use. For this reason I make it among my first duties to send new warrants throughout all the provinces before they can be wanted.

47.1. When I wished, my lord, to examine at Apamea the public debtors, the revenue, and the expenditure, it was answered me that all indeed desired the accounts of the colony to be read by me, but that they had never been read by any of the proconsuls; that the colony had a privilege and a most ancient custom of administering its own commonwealth at its own discretion.

47.2. I required that they should put in a written memorial what they were saying and reciting; this I have sent to you just as I received it, although I understood that very much of it does not bear upon the matter in question.

47.3. I ask you to deign to instruct me beforehand what you think I ought to observe. For I fear that I may seem either to have exceeded the bounds of my office or not to have fulfilled them.

48.1. The memorial of the Apameans, which you had appended to your letter, has relieved me of the necessity of weighing what those things were on account of which they wish it to appear that those who held this province with proconsular power abstained from inspecting their accounts, when they themselves did not refuse that you should inspect them.

48.2. Their probity, therefore, is to be rewarded, so that they may know even now that this inspection you are to make is by my will, and that their privileges, which they hold, will be preserved intact.

49.1. Before my arrival, my lord, the Nicomedians began to add a new forum to their old one, in a corner of which is a most ancient temple of the Great Mother, which must either be repaired or moved—chiefly for this reason, that it is much lower than the work which is now rising to its full height.

49.2. When I inquired whether any law had been laid down for the temple, I learned that the manner of dedication is one thing here, another among us. Consider, therefore, my lord, whether you think a temple for which no law has been laid down can be moved without violation of religion; otherwise it would be most convenient, if religion does not forbid.

50.1. You can, my dear Secundus, without any scruple of religion, if the position of the place seems to require it, move the temple of the Mother of the Gods into one that is more suitable; nor let it trouble you that no law of dedication is found, since the soil of a foreign community is not capable of the dedication that is made under our law.

51.1. It is difficult, my lord, to express in words what great joy I have felt, that you have granted both to me and to my mother-in-law that you should transfer her kinsman Caelius Clemens into this province.

51.2. For from this I understand thoroughly the measure of your benefit, when I experience so full an indulgence towards my whole house, to which I do not even dare to make an equal return of gratitude, much as I might be able to. And so I take refuge in prayers, and beseech the gods that I may not be judged unworthy of those favours which you constantly heap upon me.

52.1. The day, my lord, on which you saved the empire by taking it up, we have celebrated with as much joy as you deserve, praying the gods that they may keep you safe and flourishing for the human race, whose protection and security rest upon your safety. We led our fellow-soldiers also in the oath in the customary manner, the provincials swearing it in rivalry of the same devotion.

53.1. With what reverence and joy the soldiers, together with the provincials, celebrated under your lead the day of my accession, I have gladly learned, my dear Secundus, from your letter.

54.1. The public moneys, my lord, by your foresight and our administration, have both been collected and are being collected; which I fear may lie idle. For of buying estates there is either no occasion or a very rare one, nor are there found those who are willing to be in debt to the commonwealth, especially at twelve per cent, the rate at which they borrow from private persons.

54.2. Consider, therefore, my lord, whether you think the interest should be lowered, and by this means suitable debtors invited; and, if even so they are not found, whether the money should be distributed among the decurions, in such a way that they give proper security to the commonwealth; which, though they be unwilling and refuse, will be less harsh once a lighter rate of interest has been fixed.

55.1. I myself see no other remedy, my dear Secundus, than that the rate of interest be lowered, so that the public moneys may more easily be placed out. Its measure you will fix according to the number of those who will borrow. To compel the unwilling to receive what perhaps will lie idle in their own hands is not in keeping with the justice of our times.

56.1. I give you the greatest thanks, my lord, that amid your greatest occupations you have deigned to guide me too in those things about which I consulted you; which I ask that you do now also.

56.2. For a certain man approached me and informed me that his adversaries, banished for three years by that most distinguished man Servilius Calvus, were lingering in the province; they, on the contrary, affirmed that they had been restored by the same man, and recited his edict. For this cause I thought it necessary to refer the whole matter to you entire.

56.3. For, just as it is provided in your instructions that I am not to restore those banished by another or by myself, so concerning those whom another has both banished and restored, nothing is laid down. For this reason you had to be consulted, my lord, what you wished me to observe—just as, by Hercules, also about those who, banished in perpetuity and not restored, are found in the province.

56.4. For this kind of case too has fallen under my cognizance. For there has been brought before me a man banished in perpetuity by the proconsul Julius Bassus. I, because I knew that the acts of Bassus had been annulled and that the right had been given by the Senate to all about whom he had decided anything to bring their case afresh, provided they did so within two years, asked this man, whom Bassus had banished, whether he had approached and informed the proconsul. He said he had not.

56.5. Through which it has come about that I consult you whether he ought to be sent back to his punishment, or something more severe; and what in particular you think ought to be decided both against him and against those, if any happen to be found in a like condition. I have appended to this letter the decree of Calvus and his edict, and likewise the decree of Bassus.

57.1. What ought to be decided in the case of those who, banished for three years by the proconsul Publius Servilius Calvus and presently restored by an edict of the same man, have remained in the province, I will write back to you shortly, when I have inquired of Calvus the reasons for that act.

57.2. He who was banished in perpetuity by Julius Bassus, since he had the opportunity of pleading his case within two years, if he thinks himself wrongfully banished and has not done so, but has persisted in lingering in the province, ought to be sent in chains to the prefects of my praetorian guard. For it is not enough that he be sent back to his punishment, which he has eluded by contumacy.

58.1. As I was summoning the jurors, my lord, about to open the assize, Flavius Archippus began to seek exemption as a philosopher.

58.2. There were those who said that he ought not to be freed from the necessity of judging, but altogether struck off the number of jurors and sent back to the punishment which he had escaped by breaking his chains.

58.3. There was recited the sentence of the proconsul Velius Paulus, by which Archippus was shown to have been condemned to the mines for forgery: he brought forward nothing by which he might prove himself restored; yet he alleged, in support of his restoration, both a memorial given by him to Domitian and letters of his pertaining to his honour, and a decree of the Prusians. To these he added your own letters written to him, and your father's edict and letter, by which he confirmed the benefits granted by Domitian.

58.4. And so, although such grave charges were laid against him, I thought nothing ought to be decided until I had consulted you about a matter which seemed to me worthy of your decision. The things that were recited on both sides I have appended to this letter. LETTER OF DOMITIAN TO TERENTIUS MAXIMUS.

58.5. Flavius Archippus the philosopher has obtained from me that I should order land to be bought for him near Prusias, his native place, from the revenue of which he might support his household. This I wish to be granted him. You will charge the whole expense to my liberality. THE SAME TO LAPPIUS MAXIMUS.

58.6. I should like you to hold Archippus the philosopher, a good man and one who answers to his profession even in his character, as commended to you, my dear Maximus, and to show him your full kindness in those things which he modestly desires of you. EDICT OF THE DEIFIED NERVA.

58.7. Some things, Quirites, the very happiness of the times proclaims of itself, nor in these need a good emperor be awaited, in things where it is enough that he be understood, since the persuasion of my citizens may pledge this to itself even unprompted: that I have preferred the security of all to my own repose, so as both to confer new benefits and to preserve those granted before me.

58.8. Yet, lest any hesitation be brought to the public joys, whether by the distrust of those who have obtained favours or by the memory of him who granted them, I have thought it at once necessary and gladsome to send my indulgence to meet the doubting.

58.9. I do not wish anyone to suppose that what he gained under another emperor, whether privately or publicly, is to be rescinded by me on that account alone, so that he might rather owe it to me. Let these grants be ratified and assured, nor let the rejoicing of any man, whom the fortune of the empire has regarded with a kinder countenance, require renewed entreaties. Let them suffer me to be free for new benefits, and let them know that those things only are to be asked which they do not have. LETTER OF THE SAME TO TULLIUS JUSTUS.

58.10. Since the ordering of all those things which were begun and completed in former times is to be observed, the letters of Domitian too must be stood by.

59.1. Flavius Archippus begs me, by your safety and eternity, that I send to you the memorial which he gave me. This I thought ought to be granted to one so entreating, yet in such a way that I made it known to his accuser that I would send it; from her too I received a memorial and appended it to this letter, so that you might the more easily, as though having heard both sides, consider what you thought ought to be decided.

60.1. Domitian indeed may have been ignorant of the state Archippus was in, when he wrote so many things pertaining to his honour; but it is more suited to my nature to believe that his standing too was relieved by the intervention of the emperor, especially since the honour of statues was so often decreed to him by those who were not ignorant of what the proconsul Paulus had pronounced about him.

60.2. Yet these things, my dear Secundus, do not bear on the point so far that, if any new charge is brought against him, you should think it the less to be heard. I have read the memorials of his accuser Furia Prima, and likewise of Archippus himself, which you had appended to your second letter.

61.1. You indeed, my lord, most providently fear that the lake, if joined to the river and so to the sea, may flow away; but I seem to have discovered, on the spot, how I may meet this danger.

61.2. For the lake can be brought by a channel as far as the river, yet not let out into the river, but held in by leaving, as it were, a margin, so that it is at once kept distinct and joined. By this means we shall achieve that the lake be not emptied by being mixed with the river, and yet be as good as if it were mixed. For it will be easy, across that very short strip of land which will lie between, to transfer the cargoes brought by the channel into the river.

61.3. This will be done if necessity compels, and—I hope—it will not compel. For the lake itself is deep enough, and now lets out a river on the opposite side, which, if cut off there and turned where we wish, will pour out, without any loss to the lake, as much water as it now carries. Besides, along the space through which the channel must be dug, streams fall in; and these, if carefully collected, will increase what the lake supplies.

61.4. But indeed, if it should please to lead the channel farther, and, pressed deeper, to level it with the sea, and let it out not into the river but into the sea itself, the repercussion of the sea will hold back and check whatever comes from the lake. And if the nature of the place provided us none of these, it would still be easy to regulate the course of the water by sluices.

61.5. But both these and other things a leveller will discover and explore far more shrewdly—a man whom you certainly ought to send, my lord, as you promise. For the matter is worthy both of your greatness and of your care. I have meanwhile written, on your authority, to that most distinguished man Calpurnius Macer, to send the most suitable leveller possible.

62.1. It is plain, my dear Secundus, that neither prudence nor diligence has been wanting to you concerning that lake, since you have so many provisions made by which it may neither risk being drained nor be the less in use to us. Choose, therefore, that which the matter itself shall especially advise. I believe Calpurnius Macer will see to it that he furnishes you with a leveller, nor are those provinces without such craftsmen.

63.1. Lycormas, your freedman, my lord, wrote to me that, if any embassy came from the Bosporus bound for the city, it should be detained until his arrival. And an embassy indeed, at least to the community in which I myself am, has come none as yet, but there has come a courier of King Sauromates, whom I, using the opportunity which chance offered me, thought ought to be sent on with the courier who had preceded Lycormas on his journey, so that you might learn alike from the letters of Lycormas and of the king the things which perhaps you ought alike to know.

64.1. King Sauromates wrote to me that there are certain things which you ought to know as soon as possible. For this reason I assisted with a warrant of post the speed of the courier whom he has sent to you with letters.

65.1. There is a great question, my lord, bearing on the whole province, concerning the condition and maintenance of those whom they call 'foster-children' (threptoi).

65.2. In this matter, having heard the constitutions of the emperors, since I found nothing either particular or universal that referred to the Bithynians, I thought you ought to be consulted as to what you wished observed; nor did I think I could be content with precedents in a matter that called for your authority.

65.3. There was recited before me an edict said to be of the deified Augustus, pertaining to Andania; there were recited also letters of the deified Vespasian to the Lacedaemonians, and of the deified Titus to the same and to the Achaeans, and of Domitian to the proconsuls Avidius Tigrinus and Armenius Brocchus, and likewise to the Lacedaemonians; which for this reason I have not sent you, because they were both too little corrected and certain of them seemed of doubtful authenticity, and because I believed that true and corrected copies were in your archives.

66.1. That question, which pertains to those who, born free, were exposed, then taken up by certain persons and brought up in slavery, has often been handled, nor is anything found in the records of those emperors who were before me which has been established for all the provinces.

66.2. There are indeed letters of Domitian to Avidius Nigrinus and Armenius Brocchus, which perhaps ought to be observed: but among those provinces about which he wrote back, Bithynia is not. And therefore I think neither is the assertion of freedom to be denied to those who, on grounds of this kind, claim their liberty, nor is liberty itself to be redeemed by the price of their maintenance.

67.1. To the envoy of King Sauromates, who of his own accord had halted two days at Nicaea, where he had found me, I thought, my lord, no longer delay ought to be made—first because it was still uncertain when your freedman Lycormas would come, and next because I myself was setting out for another part of the province, as the necessity of duty required.

67.2. This I thought ought to be brought to your notice, because I had lately written that Lycormas had requested that I detain any embassy, if one came from the Bosporus, until his arrival. For doing this any longer no plausible reason occurred to me, especially since the letters of Lycormas, which I was unwilling to detain, as I said before, seemed likely to outstrip the envoy by several days.

68.1. To certain persons asking that I permit them, after the example of the proconsuls, to transfer the remains of their relatives elsewhere, whether on account of the injury of age or the encroachment of a river or other like causes, since I knew that in our city it is customary, in matters of this kind, to approach the college of pontiffs, I thought you, my lord, the chief pontiff, ought to be consulted as to what you wish me to observe.

69.1. It is harsh to lay upon the provincials the necessity of approaching the pontiffs, if they wish to transfer the remains of their relatives from one place to another for some just causes. You should rather follow the examples of those who governed that province before you, and, as the cause of each is, either permit or refuse.

70.1. As I was inquiring at Prusa, my lord, where the bath which you have indulged might be built, a site pleased me on which there once stood a house, as I hear, a beautiful one, now disfigured with ruins. For by this means we shall achieve that a most unsightly part of the city be adorned, and even that the city itself be enlarged, while no buildings are pulled down, but those that have collapsed through age are improved for the better.

70.2. The condition of this house is as follows: Claudius Polyaenus bequeathed it to the Emperor Claudius and ordered that a temple be made to him in the peristyle, and the rest of the house let out. From it the community received a revenue for some time; then, gradually, partly plundered, partly neglected, the whole house, together with the peristyle, fell into ruin, and now almost nothing of it remains but the ground; which you, my lord, whether you give it to the community or order it to be sold, it will receive as a most welcome gift, on account of the advantage of the site.

70.3. I, if you permit, intend to place the bath on the vacant ground, and to surround the place where the buildings stood with an exedra and porticoes, and to consecrate it to you, by whose benefit an elegant work worthy of your name will be made.

70.4. A copy of the will, though faulty, I have sent you; from which you will learn that Polyaenus left many things for the adornment of that same house, which, like the house itself, have perished, but shall yet be sought out by me so far as may be possible.

71.1. We can, among the Prusians, use that site, with the house that has collapsed, which you write to be vacant, for the building of the bath. That one point, however, you have too little made clear, whether the temple was made to Claudius in the peristyle. For, if it was made, even though it has collapsed, its sanctity has taken possession of the ground.

72.1. To certain persons demanding that I myself take cognizance of the recognition of children and the restoration of birthrights, both in accordance with the letter of Domitian written to Minicius Rufus and in accordance with the examples of the proconsuls, I had regard to a decree of the Senate pertaining to the same kinds of cases, which speaks only of those provinces over which proconsuls preside; and therefore I deferred the matter entire, until you, my lord, should instruct me what you wish me to observe.

73.1. If you send me the decree of the Senate which has caused you hesitation, I shall judge whether you ought to take cognizance of the recognition of children and the restoration of true birthrights.

74.1. Appuleius, my lord, a soldier who is at the post at Nicomedia, wrote to me that a certain man, by name Callidromus, when he was being detained by Maximus and Dionysius, bakers to whom he had hired out his labour, took refuge at your statue, and, being brought before the magistrates, declared that he had once been a slave of Laberius Maximus, and, captured by Susagus in Moesia and sent as a gift by Decibalus to Pacorus, king of Parthia, had been in his service for several years, then had fled, and so had come to Nicomedia.

74.2. Him, brought before me, when he had told the same story, I thought ought to be sent to you; which I did a little late, while I sought a gem, which he declared had been taken from him, bearing the image of Pacorus and the adornments he had worn.

74.3. For I wished to send this too, if it could be found, along with him, just as I have sent a little lump which he said he had brought from a Parthian mine. It is sealed with my ring, the device of which is a four-horse chariot.

75.1. Julius Largus, of Pontus, my lord, whom I have neither seen nor even heard of—he trusted, of course, to your judgement—has entrusted to me a certain stewardship of his devotion towards you, and a service.

75.2. For he asked in his will that I should enter upon and accept his inheritance, and then, having taken fifty thousand sesterces beforehand, should pay over all the rest to the communities of the Heracleots and the Tians, in such a way that it should be at my discretion whether I thought works ought to be made which should be consecrated to your honour, or that quinquennial games be instituted, to be called Trajan's. This I thought ought to be brought to your notice, chiefly for this reason, that you might consider which I ought to choose.

76.1. Julius Largus chose your good faith as though he knew you well. What, therefore, may most contribute to the perpetuity of his memory, consider yourself, according to the condition of each place, and follow what you judge best.

77.1. You acted most providently, my lord, in instructing that most distinguished man Calpurnius Macer to send a legionary centurion to Byzantium.

77.2. Consider whether you think the Juliopolitans too ought to be provided for in a like manner; their community, though very small, bears very heavy burdens, and suffers injuries the graver in proportion as it is the weaker.

77.3. And whatever you bestow upon the Juliopolitans will profit the whole province as well. For they are at the head of Bithynia, and afford passage to very many who travel through it.

78.1. The condition of the city of the Byzantines is such, with the crowd of travellers flowing into it from every side, that, in accordance with the practice of preceding times, we thought its dignity ought to be safeguarded by the protection of a legionary centurion.

78.2. If we think the Juliopolitans ought to be succoured in the same way, we shall burden ourselves with the precedent; for the more they are, in proportion to their weakness, the more will ask the same. I have such confidence in your diligence that I believe you will act by every means to see that they are not exposed to injuries.

78.3. But if any have conducted themselves contrary to my discipline, let them be checked at once; or, if they have committed more than can be sufficiently punished on the spot, you will, if they are soldiers, make known to their commanders what you have discovered, or, if they are about to come towards the city, write to me.

79.1. It is provided, my lord, by the Pompeian law which was given to the Bithynians, that no one under thirty years of age shall hold a magistracy or be in the senate. By the same law it is comprised that those who have held a magistracy shall be in the senate.

79.2. There then followed an edict of the deified Augustus, by which he permitted lesser magistracies to be held from twenty-two years of age.

79.3. The question, therefore, is whether one who has held a magistracy when under thirty years can be enrolled in the senate by the censors; and, if he can, whether those also who have not held one can, by the same interpretation, be enrolled as senators from that age at which they are permitted to hold a magistracy; which in any case is said to have been done hitherto and to be necessary, because it is somewhat better that the children of honourable men be admitted into the council-chamber than men from the common people.

79.4. When I was asked by the censors-elect what I thought, I held that those who had held a magistracy when under thirty years could be enrolled in the senate both according to the edict of Augustus and according to the Pompeian law, since Augustus had permitted magistracies to be held by those under thirty years, and the law had wished him who had held a magistracy to be a senator.

79.5. But concerning those who had not held one, although they were of the same age as those to whom holding it is permitted, I was hesitant; through which it came about that I consult you, my lord, what you wish to be observed. The heads of the law, and then the edict of Augustus, I have appended to this letter.

80.1. As to your interpretation, my dear Secundus, I am of the same opinion: that the Pompeian law has been so far amended by the edict of the deified Augustus, that those who are not under twenty-two years of age may indeed hold a magistracy, and that those who have held it may reach the senate of each community. But one who has not held a magistracy, being under thirty years, I do not consider can be enrolled in the council-chamber of any place merely because he can hold a magistracy.

81.1. At Prusa-by-Olympus, my lord, when, about to leave that same day, I was at leisure from public business within my lodging, the magistrate Asclepiades informed me that an appeal had been made to me by Claudius Eumolpus. When Cocceianus Dion wished a work, the charge of which he had overseen, to be assigned to the community in the council, then Eumolpus, acting for Flavius Archippus, said that an account of the work ought to be required of Dion before it was handed over to the commonwealth, because he had done it otherwise than he ought.

81.2. He added also that there was placed in the same building a statue of yours, and the bodies of those buried—Dion's wife and son—and demanded that I take cognizance from the tribunal.

81.3. When I had said that I would do this at once and put off my departure, he asked that I give a longer day for constructing his case, and that I take cognizance in another community.

81.4. I replied that I would hear it at Nicaea. When I had taken my seat there to hear the case, the same Eumolpus, as though still too little prepared, began to ask for a postponement, while Dion, on the contrary, insisted that he be heard.

81.5. Much was said on both sides, even concerning the case itself. I, since I judged that a postponement ought to be granted and that you ought to be consulted in a matter bearing on precedent, told both parties to give memorials of their demands. For I wished you to learn, especially in their own words, the things that had been set forth.

81.6. And Dion indeed said he would give one. Eumolpus answered that he would comprise in a memorial what he sought on behalf of the commonwealth, but that, as regarded the buried, he was not the accuser but the advocate of Flavius Archippus, whose instructions he had carried out. Archippus, for whom Eumolpus was acting, as at Prusias, said he would give a memorial. But neither Eumolpus nor Archippus, though awaited for very many days, has yet given me a memorial; Dion gave one, which I have appended to this letter.

81.7. I myself was present on the spot and saw your statue too placed in the library, and the part in which Dion's son and wife are said to be buried set in a courtyard which is enclosed by porticoes.

81.8. I ask you, my lord, that you deign to guide me especially in this kind of cognizance, since besides there is great expectation, as must be in a matter which both is admitted and is defended by precedents.

82.1. You could have refrained from hesitating, my dear Secundus, about that on which you thought you ought to consult me, since you knew my purpose most well—that reverence for my name is not to be acquired from the fear and terror of men or from charges of treason.

82.2. That question, then, being set aside, which I would not admit even if it were supported by precedents, let the account of the whole work carried out under the charge of Cocceianus Dion be examined, since both the advantage of the community requires it, and Dion neither refuses nor ought to refuse.

83.1. Being asked, my lord, by the Nicaeans, in their public capacity, by those things which both are and ought to be most sacred to me—that is, by your eternity and safety—to convey their entreaties to you, I did not think it right to refuse, and I have appended to this letter the memorial received from them.

84.1. The Nicaeans, who affirm that the right of claiming the property of their citizens who die intestate was granted them by the deified Augustus, you must give your attention to, all persons connected with the same business being brought together, with my procurators Virdius Gemellinus and Epimachus, my freedman, called in, so that, having weighed also the arguments to the contrary, you may decide what you judge best.

85.1. Maximus, your freedman and procurator, my lord, I gladly attend with my testimony before you, having found him, throughout all the time we were together, honest, industrious, and diligent, and as most devoted to your interest, so most tenacious of discipline—with that faith which I owe you.

86a.1. Gavius Bassus, my lord, prefect of the Pontic coast, I have found upright, honest, industrious, and amid all this most respectful towards me; and I attend him with my prayer and my vote alike, with that faith which I owe you.

86b.1. . . . than the things he hopes for, equipped by service in your army, to whose discipline he owes it that he is worthy of your indulgence. Before me both soldiers and civilians, by whom his justice and humanity have been thoroughly examined, have borne him testimony in rivalry, both privately and publicly. This I bring to your notice, with that faith which I owe you.

87.1. Nymphidius Lupus, my lord, I had as a fellow-soldier when he was a senior centurion and I myself a tribune, he a prefect: from then I began to love him familiarly. The affection afterwards grew with the very age of our mutual friendship.

87.2. And so I laid hold even of his repose and exacted that he should furnish me with counsel in Bithynia. This he, most affectionately, setting aside the consideration of his ease and old age, both has done and will do.

87.3. For these reasons I count his connections among my own—above all his son, Nymphidius Lupus, an honest, industrious young man, most worthy of his excellent father, and one who will answer to your indulgence, as you may learn from his first trials, since as prefect of a cohort he earned the fullest testimony of those most distinguished men Julius Ferox and Fuscus Salinator. You will crown my joy, my lord, and my congratulation, by the honour of his son.

88.1. I pray, my lord, that you may pass both this birthday and very many others as happily as possible, and that, flourishing in everlasting praise, you may increase the glory of your virtue . . . which, safe and strong, you will augment by works one upon another.

89.1. I acknowledge your prayers, my dear Secundus, in which you beseech that I may pass very many and most happy birthdays while the state of our commonwealth flourishes.

90.1. The people of Sinope, my lord, are short of water; which seems able to be brought, both good and abundant, from the sixteenth milestone. There is, however, right from the source, for a little more than a thousand paces, a suspect and soft stretch of ground, which I have meanwhile ordered to be explored at modest cost, whether it can receive and sustain the work.

90.2. Money will not be wanting, collected by our care, if you, my lord, indulge this kind of work both to the health and to the pleasure of a colony that greatly thirsts.

91.1. As you have begun, my dear Secundus, explore diligently whether that place which you hold suspect can sustain the work of the aqueduct. Nor do I think there ought to be any doubt that water must be brought into the colony of Sinope, if only it can attain it by its own resources, since that matter will contribute very greatly both to the health and to the pleasure of the place.

92.1. The city of the Amiseni, free and confederate, by the benefit of your indulgence uses its own laws. In it a memorial pertaining to a benefit society (eranos) was given to me, which I have appended to this letter, so that you, my lord, may consider what and how far you think ought to be permitted or forbidden.

93.1. The Amiseni, whose memorial you had appended to your letter—if by the laws of those people, which they use by the benefit of their treaty, it is permitted to have a benefit society, we cannot hinder them from having one, the more easily if they use such a contribution not for riots and unlawful assemblies, but for relieving the want of the poorer sort. In other communities, which are bound by our law, a thing of this kind is to be forbidden.

94.1. Suetonius Tranquillus, a most honest, most honourable, most learned man, I have long since, my lord, following both his character and his pursuits, taken into my company, and I have begun to love him the more, the more closely I have now observed him.

94.2. For him two reasons make the right of three children necessary; for he both wins the favourable judgements of his friends and has experienced a marriage of too little good fortune; and what the malignity of fortune has denied him, he must obtain through us from your goodness.

94.3. I know, my lord, how great a benefit I ask, but I ask it of you, whose indulgence I experience in all my desires. For you can gather how greatly I desire it, since I would not ask it in your absence if I desired it but moderately.

95.1. How sparingly I bestow these benefits, my dear Secundus, you at any rate well remember, since even in the Senate I am accustomed to affirm that I have not exceeded the number which I declared before that most august order would suffice me. Yet I have subscribed to your desire, and have ordered it to be entered in my records that I have given the right of three children to Suetonius Tranquillus, on the condition to which I am accustomed.

96.1. It is my custom, my lord, to refer to you all matters about which I am in doubt. For who can better guide my hesitation or instruct my ignorance? I have never been present at trials of Christians; therefore I do not know what is usually punished or inquired into, or to what extent.

96.2. Nor have I hesitated a little whether there is any distinction of ages, or whether those of however tender years differ in nothing from the more robust; whether pardon should be granted to repentance, or whether to one who has been altogether a Christian it should be of no profit to have ceased; whether the name itself, if free from crimes, or the crimes attaching to the name should be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those who were brought before me as Christians, I have followed this course.

96.3. I asked them themselves whether they were Christians. Those who confessed I asked a second and a third time, threatening punishment; those who persisted I ordered to be led away to execution. For I did not doubt that, whatever it was they confessed, their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved to be punished.

96.4. There were others of like madness whom, because they were Roman citizens, I marked down to be sent back to the city. Soon, in the very course of handling the matter, as commonly happens, the charge spreading itself, more kinds of cases came up.

96.5. An anonymous memorial was put forward containing the names of many. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when, with me leading them, they called upon the gods and made supplication with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose along with the statues of the deities, and besides reviled Christ—none of which, it is said, those who are truly Christians can be compelled to do—I thought ought to be discharged.

96.6. Others, named by an informer, said that they were Christians and presently denied it; they had been, indeed, but had ceased—some three years before, some more years, not a few even twenty years before. These too all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and reviled Christ.

96.7. They affirmed, moreover, that this had been the sum of their fault or error: that they had been accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn, and to recite among themselves in turn a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, not to any crime, but that they would not commit thefts, robberies, or adulteries, that they would not break faith, that they would not deny a deposit when called upon to restore it. When these things were done, it had been their custom to depart and to meet again to take food—but ordinary and harmless food; and this very thing they had ceased to do after my edict, by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political clubs to exist.

96.8. I thought it the more necessary to inquire, even by torture, what was the truth, from two maidservants who were called deaconesses. I found nothing other than a depraved and immoderate superstition.

96.9. Therefore, having postponed the cognizance, I hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me worthy of consultation, especially on account of the number of those in peril. For many of every age, of every rank, of both sexes also, are being called and will be called into peril. The contagion of this superstition has spread not through the cities only, but through the villages and the countryside as well; yet it seems that it can be checked and corrected.

96.10. At any rate it is sufficiently established that the temples, already nearly deserted, have begun to be frequented, and the solemn rites, long interrupted, to be resumed, and that fodder for the victims is being sold everywhere, for which until now a buyer was very rarely found. From which it is easy to conclude what a multitude of men could be reformed, if there were room for repentance.

97.1. You have followed, my dear Secundus, the course you ought to have followed in examining the cases of those who had been brought before you as Christians. For nothing can be laid down as a general rule, having as it were a fixed form.

97.2. They are not to be sought out; if they are brought before you and convicted, they must be punished, yet in such a way that one who denies that he is a Christian and makes this manifest by the fact itself—that is, by supplicating our gods—though suspected as to the past, may obtain pardon by his repentance. Anonymous memorials put forward ought to have no place in any charge. For it is both of the worst example and unworthy of our age.

98.1. The city of the Amastrians, my lord, both elegant and adorned, has among its chief works a most beautiful and likewise very long street; along the side of which, for its whole length, there stretches what is called a river, but is in truth a most foul sewer, and, as it is foul to the sight with its most unclean appearance, so it is pestilential with its most loathsome smell.

98.2. For which reasons it concerns no less the health than the seemliness of the place that it be covered over; which will be done if you permit, with us taking care that money too be not wanting for a work as great as it is necessary.

99.1. It is reasonable, my dear Secundus, that the water which flows through the city of the Amastrians be covered over, if, uncovered, it harms the public health. That money be not wanting for this work, I am sure you will see to it, according to your diligence.

100.1. The vows pledged the previous year, my lord, we have paid, eager and joyful, and have undertaken new ones again, the devotion of soldiers and provincials vying together, praying the gods that they may keep you and the commonwealth flourishing and safe with that kindness which, beyond your great and very many virtues, you have deserved by your especial holiness, your obedience to the gods, and your honour towards them.

101.1. That you, together with the provincials, with most joyful accord, have paid your vows to the immortal gods for my safety, with me leading, and have pledged them for the future, I have learned with pleasure, my dear Secundus, from your letter.

102.1. The day on which the protection of the human race was transferred to you by a most fortunate succession, we have celebrated with due reverence, commending to the gods, the authors of your rule, both the public vows and the public rejoicings.

103.1. That the day of my accession was celebrated, with due joy and reverence, by the soldiers and provincials, with you leading, I have learned with pleasure from your letter.

104.1. Valerius Paulinus, my lord, has left me, with the exception of Paulinus, the rights over his Latins; of whom I ask that you grant the rights of Roman citizens to three for the present. For I fear it may be excessive to invoke your indulgence for all alike, which I ought to use the more modestly the more fully I experience it. Those for whom I ask are: Gaius Valerius Astraeus, Gaius Valerius Dionysius, Gaius Valerius Aper.

105.1. Since you wish that those who have been deposited with your good faith by Valerius Paulinus should be most honourably provided for, in good time, through me, I have ordered it to be entered in my records that I have for the present given the rights of Roman citizens to those for whom you have now asked—and I will do the same for the rest, for whom you shall ask.

106.1. Being asked, my lord, by Publius Accius Aquila, a centurion of the sixth mounted cohort, to send you a memorial through which he implores your indulgence concerning the status of his daughter, I thought it harsh to refuse, since I knew how much patience and humanity you are accustomed to show to the entreaties of soldiers.

107.1. I have read the memorial of Publius Accius Aquila, centurion of the sixth mounted cohort, which you sent me; and, moved by his entreaties, I have given his daughter Roman citizenship. I have sent you the memorial with my reply, which you are to deliver to him.

108.1. What right you wish both the Bithynian and the Pontic communities to have in exacting the moneys owed to them, whether from leases or sales or other causes, I ask, my lord, that you write back. I have found that by very many proconsuls priority of payment was granted to them, and that it has had the force of law.

108.2. I think, however, that by your foresight something ought to be established and sanctioned by which their interests may be provided for in perpetuity. For the things established by those proconsuls, granted though they were wisely, are yet brief and weak, unless your authority attends them.

109.1. What right the Bithynian or Pontic communities ought to use in those moneys which from whatever cause are owed to the commonwealth, must be determined by the law of each. For, if they have a privilege by which they are preferred to other creditors, it must be observed; if they have not, it will not be right for it to be granted by me to the injury of private persons.

110.1. The advocate of the city of the Amiseni, my lord, claimed before me from Julius Piso about forty thousand denarii given to him publicly, twenty years ago, with the consent of the council and the assembly, and made use of your instructions, by which donations of this kind are forbidden.

110.2. Piso, on the contrary, said that he had contributed very much to the commonwealth and had spent nearly all his resources. He added also the lapse of time, and demanded that he be not compelled to repay, with the overthrow of the rest of his standing, what he had received long ago and on behalf of many services. For which reasons I thought the whole cognizance ought to be deferred, so that I might consult you, my lord, what you think ought to be followed.

111.1. Just as my instructions forbid largesses to be made out of public funds, so, lest the security of many be undermined, things done some time ago ought not to be raked up and annulled. Whatever, therefore, was done on this account more than twenty years ago, let us pass over. For I wish the men of each place to be provided for no less than the public money.

112.1. The Pompeian law, my lord, which the Bithynians and Pontians use, does not order those who are enrolled in the council by the censors to give money; but those whom your indulgence has permitted to be added to certain communities above the lawful number have paid in single and double thousands of denarii.

112.2. Anicius Maximus the proconsul afterwards ordered that even those who were enrolled by the censors should pay in—but only in very few communities, and different sums for different places.

112.3. It remains, therefore, for you yourself to consider whether in all communities all who shall hereafter be enrolled as councillors ought to give a fixed sum for their admission. For that which is to remain in perpetuity should be established by you, to whose deeds and words eternity is owed.

113.1. Whether all who become decurions in each community of Bithynia ought to pay an honorarium for the decurionate or not, cannot be laid down by me in general terms. I think, therefore—what is always safest—that the law of each community should be followed; but more truly I judge that those who are made decurions by invitation will act so as to be preferred to the rest by their contribution.

114.1. By the Pompeian law, my lord, the Bithynian communities are permitted to enrol as their citizens whomever they wish, provided it be none of those communities which are in Bithynia. By the same law it is sanctioned for what causes men may be ejected from the senate by the censors.

114.2. Hence certain of the censors have thought I ought to be consulted whether they ought to eject one who was of another community.

114.3. Since the law, just as it forbade a foreign citizen to be enrolled, so did not order one to be ejected from the senate for this cause; and besides, since it was affirmed to me that in every community there are very many councillors from other communities, and that it would come about that many men and many communities would be shaken by that part of the law which had long since fallen into disuse by a kind of common consent—I thought it necessary to consult you as to what you think ought to be observed. The heads of the law I have appended to this letter.

115.1. With reason you hesitated, my dear Secundus, what ought to be written back by you to the censors who consulted you whether those should remain in the senate who are citizens of other communities, though of the same province. For both the authority of the law and the long custom practised against the law could move you in different directions. This moderate course of it has pleased me: that we should change nothing as to the past, but that those should remain who, though enrolled against the law, are citizens of whatever communities, while for the future the Pompeian law should be observed; for if we should wish to maintain its force retroactively as well, many things must necessarily be thrown into confusion.

116.1. Those who assume the gown of manhood, or celebrate marriages, or enter upon a magistracy, or dedicate a public work, are accustomed to invite the whole council and even no small number from the common people, and to give two denarii apiece or one. I ask you to write whether you think this ought to be observed, and to what extent.

116.2. For I myself, as I judge, think that on solemn occasions especially this right of invitation ought to be allowed; yet I fear that those who invite a thousand men, sometimes even more, may seem to exceed the measure and to fall into the appearance of a public distribution (dianomē).

117.1. With reason you fear that the invitation may fall into the appearance of a public distribution, which both exceeds the measure in number and, as it were, gathers men by whole bodies, not individually one by one from acquaintance, to solemn doles. But I chose your prudence for this very purpose, that you yourself should regulate the morals of that province in shaping them, and should establish those things which would be conducive to the lasting tranquillity of that province.

118.1. The athletes, my lord, think that what you have established for the iselastic contests is owed to them straightway from that day on which they are crowned; for it makes no difference, they say, when they are conveyed into their native city, but when they have won the contest, from which they can be conveyed in. I, on the contrary, write 'in the name of the iselastic privilege': and so I strongly doubt of them whether rather that time ought to be regarded at which they made their entry.

118.2. The same men also claim provisions for that contest which has been made iselastic by you, although they won before it was made so. For they say it is consistent that, just as it is not given them for those contests which ceased to be iselastic after they won, so it should be given them for those which have begun to be so.

118.3. Here too I am no little perplexed, lest account should be taken of anyone retroactively, and that should be given which was not owed at the time when they won. I ask, then, that you deign to guide my hesitation—that is, to interpret your own benefits yourself.

119.1. The iselastic privilege seems to me to begin to be owed only from the time when anyone has himself made his entry into his own city. The provisions for those contests which it has pleased me to be iselastic, if they were not iselastic before, are not owed retroactively. Nor can it avail for the athletes' desire that they ceased to receive the rewards of those which, after they won, I have established not to be iselastic. For, the condition of the contests having been changed, the rewards they had received before are nonetheless not recalled.

120.1. Up to this time, my lord, I have lent warrants of post to no one, nor sent them for any business but yours. But a certain necessity has broken this constant observance of mine.

120.2. For when my wife had heard of the death of her grandfather and wished to hasten to her aunt, I thought it harsh to deny her the use of them, since the grace of such a duty rests on speed, and I knew that you would approve the cause of her journey, which was family affection. This I have written to you because I seemed to myself too little grateful if I concealed that, among other benefits, I owed this one too to your indulgence—that, in the confidence of it, I did not hesitate to do, as though by consulting you, a thing which, had I consulted you, I should have done too late.

121.1. With reason you had confidence in my disposition, my dear Secundus; nor would there have been any need to hesitate, if you had waited until you consulted me, whether your wife's journey ought to be assisted by the warrants of post which I gave for your office, since your wife ought to add even by speed to the grace of her arrival at her aunt's.