Letter 4008: A certain sense of propriety held me back from writing first.

A certain sense of propriety held me back from writing first. There's an old custom that dictates the person who has traveled far from home should be the one to open the correspondence. So I'm deeply grateful both to learn that you've shaken off your illness and are feeling better, and to understand that the door is now, in a sense, open for me to write. For this reason I wish you even better prospects ahead. Although you've attained the summit of honors that your character and birth deserve, fortune has not yet paid you back in full — and even if she has given you great things, she could never equal your merit. But let me return to the customary formalities: I send you the duty of a greeting in the usual way and ask for the same in return. You know, after all, that the spirits of correspondents are kindled by the exchange. [To Protadius] Among the records of Sallust there survives a letter from Scipio Africanus, which Jugurtha carried to Micipsa after the destruction of Numantia as proof of his valor. I invoke that precedent now in commending to you a young man of similar promise.

Observatio quaedam me hacasque cohibebat, ne litteras primus emitterem. hunc enim morem quaedam institutio vetusta constituit, ut eorum ante recurrat adfatus, quos a proprio lare peregrinatio longa disterminat. ago igitur atque habeo uberes gratias, quod et te languore discusso rectius valere cognovi, et mihi ad scribendum 2 tanuam quodammodo intellego esse reseratam. pro qua re meliores tibi opto processus. nam etsi secundum mores ac natales tuos honorum culmen indeptus es, necdum tamen perfectum praemium debitamque mercedem tibi fortuna restituit, quae etsi in te magna contulerit, numquam tamen aequabit meritum tuum. nunc redeo ad verba sollemnia, quibus tibi salutationis officium de more persolvens mutnum munus exposco. intelle- gis enim vicissitudine scribentium animos incitari. 5 XXUn ante a. 395. AD PROTADIVM. Extant in monumentis Sallustianis Africani litterae, quas Ingurtha post excidium Numantinum testes ad Micipsam decoris sui pertulit. has ego in praesentia fratris nostri Florentini nomine ad verbum mandandas paginis puto, quia ut ambo in negotiis 2 suis pari gloria splenduerunt, ita utriusque virtuti idem testimonii honor congruit. et illum quidem Scipio regi Numidae volens reddidit: nos inviti tanto omamento tibi cedimus. fatendum quippe est, in gratiam tuam factum, ut hunc abire pateremur. de me, si quid pro amicitia postnlas edoceri, erit quaesitorum index, qui rerum mearum arbiter fuit. tantum epistnlae meae crede, quod valeam tuique diligentiam colam, quam mihi de te invicem fides aemula pollicetur. 10 15 20 XXV. PVMF AD PROTADIVM. 25 Desideravi litteras tuas adventantibus multis, quos mihi sermonem tuum prae- sumpseram tradituros. sed ubi expectationem meam spes ista frustrata est, ultro te adloqui studui, ut te exemplo officii ad curam similem provocarem. quaeso igitur, ne amicitiae munia frigere patiaris, quae inpatienter requiro, iicet noverim diligentiam circa me tuam, etiam cum scripti abstinens sis, fido animo contineri. so 15 SaU. lug. 9. num V 8 ac] et VM adeptus V 9 tibi] Af, tua PV 10 soUemnia (nia <n raa, 2 m.) P