Letter 38: I believe your divine soul was sent into this world for the common good of humanity — and you should be grateful to...
Letter 38: A Recommendation
[1] To Aurelian
I think your divine soul must have been sent down for this very thing, the common good of mankind; and also to be grateful to those who introduce you to such men as are seeking their rights, because they supply you with material well suited to your taste. [2] It is not because the young Herodes note [An officer and relative of Synesius, recipient of Letter 19 .] is my relative that I recommend him to your notice, but because he is seeking his rights. A man most distinguished by his ancestry and one who has inherited a family estate subject to taxation by the Senate , he maintains that since he has become an officer he is contributing taxes on the same scale as the newly appointed senators, and that he is now taxed twice, in the first instance because of his fortune, in the second because of the post he has occupied.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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