Letter 13.24

While I was already taking pleasure in my dutiful action because I remembered how carefully I had recommended to you Lyso, my guest-friend and intimate, I was then most delighted when I learned from his letter that he had been under a false suspicion with you; I was very glad that I had been so careful in recommending him. For he wrote to me that my recommendation had been of the greatest help to him, because he said it had been reported to you that he was accustomed to speak about you in Rome in a manner unworthy of your dignity. Although he writes that he has been cleared of this with you thanks to your graciousness and humanity, I must first, as I ought, give you the greatest thanks that my letter had so much power that upon reading it you put aside all the offence of the suspicion you had held against Lyso. And secondly, I would have you believe me when I affirm -- I write this no more for Lyso than for everyone -- that there is no one who has ever mentioned you without the highest praise. Lyso, being with me almost daily and living with me, praised all your deeds and words to me, not only because he thought I was glad to hear it, but because he himself spoke of them even more gladly. Therefore, even though he is treated by you in such a way that he no longer needs my recommendation and considers that by my one letter he has obtained everything, I still ask you most earnestly to embrace him again and again with your services and generosity. I would write to you about what kind of man he is, as I did in my earlier letter, but I believe he is already sufficiently known to you through his own merits.

DXVII (Fam. XIII, 24) TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA) ROME: As it gave me great pleasure before to find that you had remembered my earnest recommendation of Lyso , my host and friend, so also, when I found from his letter that he had been the object of your undeserved suspicion, I was exceedingly rejoiced that I had been so earnest in recommending him. For he writes me word that my recommendation has been of the greatest assistance to him, as he says that a report had been brought you of his being in the habit of speaking disrespectfully of you at Rome . And though he writes word that your good nature and kindness of heart have enabled him to clear himself on that point, yet, first of all, as in duty bound, I thank you warmly that my letter has had such influence with you as to cause you on its perusal to lay aside all that irritating suspicion which you had entertained of Lyso . In the next place, I would have you believe me, when I assert that I write this not more in the name of Lyso than of everybody else — that no one has ever mentioned you except in the terms of the highest respect. As for Lyso , indeed, while he was with me every day and almost lived with me, not only because he thought that I liked hearing it, but also because it gave him still more pleasure to say it himself; he used to speak to me in praise of everything you did and said. Wherefore, though he is now being treated by you in a way that makes a recommendation from me unnecessary, and makes him think that he has got all he wants by means of one letter from me, yet I do beg of you with no common earnestness to continue to receive him with kindness and liberality. I would have written a description of his character, as I did in my previous letter, had I not thought that by this time he was sufficiently well known to you by his own merits.

XXIV. Scr. Romae a.u.c. 708. CICERO SERVIO SAL. Quum antea capiebam ex officio meo voluptatem, quod memineram, quam tibi diligenter Lysonem, hospitem et familiarem meum, commendassem, tum vero, posteaquam ex litteris eius cognovi tibi eum falso suspectum fuisse, vehementissime laetatus sum me tam diligentem in eo commendando fuisse; ita enim scripsit ad me, sibi meam commendationem maximo adiumento fuisse, quod ad te delatum diceret sese contra dignitatem tuam Romae de te loqui solitum esse; de quo etsi pro tua facilitate et humanitate purgatum se tibi scribit esse, tamen primum, ut debeo, tibi maximas gratias ago, quod tantum litterae meae potuerunt, ut iis lectis omnem offensionem suspicionis, quam habueras de Lysone, deponeres, deinde credas mihi affirmanti velim me hoc non pro Lysone magis quam pro omnibus scribere, hominem esse neminem, qui umquam mentionem tui sine tua summa laude fecerit, Lyso vero, quum mecum prope quotidie esset unaque viveret, non solum, quia libenter me audire arbitrabatur, sed quia libentius ipse loquebatur, omnia mihi tua et facta et dicta laudabat. Quapropter, etsi a te ita tractatur, ut iam non desideret commendationem meam unisque se litteris meis omnia consecutum putet, tamen a te peto in maiorem modum, ut eum etiam atque etiam tuis officiis, liberalitate complectare. Scriberem ad te, qualis vir esset, ut superioribus litteris feceram, nisi eum iam per se ipsum tibi satis notum esse arbitrarer.