Letter 2042: I am getting ahead of your voluntary generosity with a formal request, so that what you would freely give may appear...

I forestall your voluntary kindnesses with a petition, so that what you grant of your own accord, I may appear to obtain by request, and so that the goodness of your nature may pass over into a favor to me. You have ordered that Nicagoras, a most distinguished man who has discharged the office of governor of Sicily [literally, who has held the fasces of Sicily], present himself in custody. To you both the integrity of his own life and his fraternal services [or, the services of his kinsmen] recommend him. To his claim there is added my own entreaty; and although I hope that your beneficence will answer to his uprightness, I nevertheless earnestly request that for this most upright young man the occasion of his being produced [for examination] may turn out for the good. Farewell.

Voluntaria beneficia tua petitione praevenio, ut quae tu sponte tribuis, ego videar impetrare et bonum naturae tuae in gratiam meam transeat. Nicagoran clarissimum 1 fort. adfolserit 2 oale add. VF quitur epist. K, 78 y magnae et insperatae poasnnt occultaii. uale M, sequitur epist. V, 81 9 insolentis P mae P l m. famulos toos praecipuus atque honorabilis F 20 haec epiatula in VF po$t ///, 4^ Ugitur inBeriptionem om. VF 21 Ignacio P, In ocio K, Egtiatio Mommsen in eum] meum V, in eo F 22 fort. nam parcior de illo testimonii cautione pro- miseram praemiseram F 23 coepisti F expliravit P 1 m. V 24 posset V 25 uale add. VF sequitur in V 1111, 21 56 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE PF virum Siciliae fascibus functum sub custodiam adesse iussisti. hunc tibi et suae vitae integritas et merita fraterna commendant. accedit illi ad praerogativam precatio mea; qui etsi spero, probitati eius responsuram beneficentiam tuam, sedulo tamen postulo, ut sanctissimo iuveni in bonum vertat exhibitionis occasio. vale. XXXXn a. 383—394. 5