Letter 1111: Lest you think I've been entirely idle, I'm entrusting to your learned judgment a little book — a record of my...

Lest you suppose me wholly idle, I entrust to your learning a little book that bears witness to my night-labors, the one by which I recently won in the senate the favorable votes of my fellow citizens. You see by what prior verdict I forestall the severity of your most weighty scrutiny. [...] It is not the merit of my own pen that I put forward, but the judgment of the order. The case is shared between me and my hearers. All will know either the agreement of your judgment concerning us, or its affront to their own. Farewell.

Ne me otiosum penitus arbitreris, committo eruditioni tuae vigiliarum mearum testem libellum, quo nuper in senatu sustuli civium secunda suffragia. vides, quo quo M 9 posthae] P(r), posthaeo VM epistolae P hyble P, ///biblae V, iUe M in- homeeti F, thimeti M Bnlata} P 15 pro ifuer. Latinua LaUnku, om. PVM list! F Q. Atkklits Stmmaohvs. 5 42 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE PVF praeindicio antevertam gravissimi examinis tui severitatem. non stili mei praetendo meritam sed ordinis iudicatum. communis mihi et auditoribus meis causa est. scient omnes aut consensum tuae de nobis sententiae aut contumeliam suae. vale. CVI (C).