Letter 11035: If the Olympic charioteer seizes his prize after his labors, if the disreputable spectacle of beast-fighting quickly...

XXXV. A WARRANT OF DELEGATION. [1] If the driver of an Olympic chariot snatches his rewards after his labors, if a contest of wild beasts, however dishonorable, is wont swiftly to crown its victors, what swiftness of recompense shall he deserve by whom the oaths of military service are praiseworthily fulfilled? For why should a soldier of the agentes in rebus [imperial agents/couriers] suffer anything doubtful and uncertain after so much toil, who, by keeping watch through frequent missions, has thereby earned the right to bear the prince's name, because in the oaths of military service he surpasses the rest? [2] For he has continually attended upon the imperial commands, and, that he might exalt the reverence of the praetorian seat, he came to its service at the very time when he began to hold a most distinguished title. To delay such men, therefore, is a sin, since after the palm no one has been kept waiting. That cannot be called the fulfillment of a vow which a man receives with sorrow. Let those who have been discharged fear no burdens, lest the harbor inflict upon free men what the storm was able to do to those it harassed. [3] Wherefore let your Experience, from that province, out of the third installment of the fiscal tributes, pay out without any delay the solidi which provident antiquity assigned to the prince of the Augusti, which you shall know are to be charged to the accounts of the thirteenth indiction. But beware of venal delays: shun ruinous disdain, so that you, who desire to obtain like rewards yourself, may not seem to have introduced a precedent of loss to your own cost. For by what reasoning would you put off the one who petitions, if you bind yourself by the nature of your own office? Veterans, indeed, are to be held honorable by all, but most of all by those who are still detained in the labor of military service. You therefore secure for yourself what you spare to another, since the indemnity of the man before becomes rather the gain of the man who follows.

XXXV. DELEGATORIA. [1] Si Olympiaci currus agitator rapit praemia post labores, si ferarum certamen inhonestum velociter solet coronare victores, quam celeritatem remunerationis merebitur, a quo laudabiliter militiae sacramenta peraguntur? cur enim agentum in rebus miles officii post tot laboris incerta aliquid patiatur ambiguum, qui crebris actionibus excubando ideo principis nomen habere promeruit, quia militiae sacramentis ceteros antecellit? [2] Observavit enim iugiter imperialibus iussis et ut reverentiam praetorianae sedis extolleret, tunc ad eius venit obsequium, quando vocabulum coepit habere praecipuum. tales ergo tardare piaculum est, quia post palmam nemo dilatus est. votivum non potest dici quod tristis suscipit. gravamina nulla metuant absoluti, ne portus hoc ingerat liberis quod facere potuit procella vexatis. [3] Quapropter experientia tua de illa provincia ex illatione tertia fiscalium tributorum solidos, quos principi Augustorum provida deputavit antiquitas, sine aliqua dilatione persolvat, quos noveris tertiae decimae indictionis rationibus imputandos. sed cave venales moras: declina damnosa fastidia, ut qui desideras similia consequi, exemplum tibi non videaris intulisse dispendii. qua enim poscentem ratione summoveas, si te actionis tuae qualitate constringas? honorabiles quidem a cunctis habendi sunt veterani, sed ab his maxime, qui militiae labore detinentur. tibi ergo praestas quod parcis alteri, quando indemnitas prioris lucrum potius fit sequentis.