Letter 38: I believe your divine soul was sent into this world for the common good of humanity — and you should be grateful to...

To Aurelian. I believe your divine soul was sent into this world for the common good of humanity — and you should be grateful to those who bring you cases like this, because they supply you with exactly the kind of work you were made for. I am not recommending the young Herodes to you because he is my relative, but because he is seeking justice. He is a man of distinguished ancestry who inherited a family estate subject to senatorial taxation. He argues that since he became an officer, he is now being taxed twice — once because of his fortune and again because of his military post. He pays like a senator and serves like a soldier. He deserves a fair hearing.

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.