Letter 5038: You gave me more than I asked for.

You gave me more than I asked for. When I requested your help in finding chariot horses for the games, you added four complete teams free of charge, swelling the number I'd already purchased. Of those horses, eleven survivors were brought safely by the escort; the rest, unfortunately, didn't last much beyond the handover. But fortune doesn't diminish my gratitude for your generosity — when friends give gifts, we shouldn't dwell on chance losses. What matters is the total that left the giver's hand. I've sent you a candidate's commemorative diptych [an ivory writing tablet given as a souvenir] and a gift of two pounds of silver, to show that you were absent from our games in body only, not in spirit.

Cumulatius officium mihi, quam poposceram, detulisti. nam cum domesticos meos iuvari a te in conquisitione equorum curulium postulassem , quadrigis quattuor gratui- tis auxisti numerum conparatum. ex illis equos undecim superstites ceteris prosecu- 5 torum cura perduxit, nec longo intervallo pars succubuit traditorum. gratiam tamen religionis tuae fortuna non minuit, quia in muneribus amicorum non sunt damna ca- suum cogitanda; quin immo ea in acceptum summa referenda est, quae ab offerente processit. ad te diptychum candidati et apophoretum librarum argenti duarum per hominem tuum misimus adprobare cupientes, editioni te nostrae re, non animo de- lo fuisse. LVn (LV).