Letter 3035: It's a blemish on justice that my friend Magnillus — who served as vicar [deputy governor] in Africa and earned...

It is like a blemish that my brother Magnillus, after discharging the office of vicar [deputy of the praetorian prefect] throughout Africa and being conspicuous, both publicly and privately, by the testimony of all, should be held back by various obstacles in that province. You know the good man's seasoned judgment and his other fine accomplishments, by which he drew to himself even your affection when he governed Liguria, and therefore to praise what is already well known would be, with you, superfluous labor. Wherefore I earnestly ask that, when you have learned from the bearer of this letter the reasons for his delays, you may deign to lend your devoted intervention on behalf of his return, so that, restored at last to his homeland, he may exchange the wrong of his long sojourn abroad for the repose he longs for.