Letter 10016: The games this spring were the best I have provided, and the city's response confirmed my judgment that the...

I freely acknowledge what I know your clemency is able to write back in reply: it was out of deference rather than by right that I took up the appeal, since no judgment had yet been issued, lest I should be thought offended at the obstruction raised by an utterance that was indeed free but premature, O most august emperors three. For when an action concerning the law of a will was being contested among the next of kin and the heirs named in writing of Euphasius, a most distinguished man of revered memory who long ago by the praetor's favor enjoyed the use of the estates, and when those parties were impatiently demanding a judgment about possession to whom possession of the goods on the ground of intestacy was by no means due, because it was shown to have been granted to the heirs named in writing according to the tablets of the will, Priscianus and Polemonianus, the matter having been deferred upon their formal notice, lodged an appeal; and when an accounting was sought from them, they testified under oath that others had been the instigators of their utterance, as the official records joined to this letter will show. Nor did our office fail in its duty to suggest the penalty for a frivolous appeal; yet it befitted a judge of your age to reserve the force of the constitution to your sacred pronouncement, since the petitioners have alleged that an outsider urged and impelled them to a rash appeal.