Letter 10003: The recommendation I make in this letter is made on the basis of genuine knowledge and genuine judgment, not merely...

As soon as the most august Senate, ever devoted to you, recognized that the vices once subject to the laws had been purged, and saw that the reputation of recent times was being cleansed by pious emperors, it followed the authority of a good age, poured out the grief it had long suppressed, and once again ordered me to be the spokesman of its complaints. To that Senate a hearing before the deified emperor was once denied by wicked men, because justice would not have been wanting, O thrice-great, thrice-mighty emperors. Discharging therefore a twofold office, both as your prefect I pursue public affairs, and as a legate I commend the mandates of the citizens. Here there is no disagreement of wills, since men have now ceased to believe that they serve themselves by the zeal of courtiers if they disagree. To be loved, to be honored, to be esteemed is greater than empire. Who would endure that private rivalries should harm the commonwealth? Deservedly does the Senate pursue those who set their own power above the emperor's reputation; but our labor keeps watch on behalf of your clemency. For to whom does it bring more advantage that we defend the institutions of our ancestors, the laws and destinies of our country, than to the glory of the times? That glory is greater when you understand that nothing is permitted you against the custom of your forefathers. We ask therefore for the restoration of the state of the [traditional] religious rites, which long benefited the commonwealth. Surely let the emperors of each sect, of each opinion, be counted: the earlier part of them honored the ceremonies of the fathers, the more recent did not remove them. If the example of the older men does not provide a precedent, let the forbearance of the more recent ones do so. Who is so friendly with the barbarians as not to require an Altar of Victory? We are cautious for the future and shun the portents of other matters. Let honor at least be restored to the name, which has been denied to the divine power. Your Eternity owes much to Victory, and will owe still more: let those to whom she has brought no profit turn away from this power; do you not abandon a patronage friendly to your triumphs. To all that power is the object of prayer; let no one deny that she should be worshiped, whom he professes ought to be desired. But if there were no just reason to shun this omen, it would still have been fitting at least to refrain from the ornaments of the Senate-house. Grant, I beg you, that what we received as boys we, as old men, may leave to our descendants. The love of custom is great; deservedly the act of the deified Constantius did not long stand. All examples are to be shunned by you which you have learned were soon removed. We are taking care of the eternity of your fame and name, that no future age may find anything to be corrected. By what shall we swear upon your laws and words? By what religion shall the false mind be frightened, so that it may not lie in giving testimony? All things indeed are full of God, and no place is safe for the perfidious, yet it avails much toward the fear of transgressing to be pressed also by the presence of the divine power. That altar holds the concord of all, that altar appeals to the good faith of each, and nothing more lends authority to our decisions than that the whole order decrees everything as if under oath. Shall then a seat profaned by perjuries lie open, and shall my illustrious emperors approve this as acceptable, who are themselves kept safe by a public oath? But it will be said that the deified Constantius did the same. Let us rather emulate the other deeds of that emperor, who would have attempted nothing of the kind, if anyone before him had gone astray. For the fall of the predecessor corrects the one who follows, and from the censure of the preceding example correction is born. It was permissible that that parent of your clemency should not, in a matter still new, guard against odium: but can the same defense suit us also, if we imitate what we remember to have been disapproved? Let your Eternity receive other deeds of the same emperor, which it may more worthily turn to use. He stripped nothing from the privileges of the sacred virgins, [...] are allotted to peoples as their guardian spirits. There is added a usefulness, which most of all attaches the gods to man. For since all reasoning lies hidden, from where does the knowledge of the divine powers more rightly come than from the memory and the records of favorable events? Now if long age lends authority to religions, the faith of so many ages must be kept, and we must follow our forefathers, who followed their own with good fortune. Let us now imagine that Rome stands beside us and pleads with you in these words: "Best of emperors, fathers of your country, reverence my years, into which a pious observance has led me! Let me use the ancestral ceremonies, for I do not repent of them! Let me live in my own way, since I am free! This worship subdued the world to my laws, these sacred rites drove Hannibal from the walls and the Senones from the Capitol. Was I preserved for this, that in my old age I should be reproached? I shall see what kind of thing it is that men think ought to be instituted; yet late and insulting is the correction of old age." Therefore we ask peace for the gods of our fathers, the native gods. It is fair that whatever all worship should be reckoned as one. We gaze upon the same stars, the heaven is common, the same world enfolds us: what does it matter by what wisdom each man seeks the truth? By one road one cannot arrive at so great a mystery. But this is the disputation of men at leisure; now we offer prayers, not contests. With what advantage to your sacred treasury has the prerogative of the Vestal virgins been withdrawn? Shall that be denied under the most generous emperors which the most sparing granted? The only honor lies in that, as it were, stipend of chastity: as their fillets adorn the head, so it is reckoned a mark of priesthood to be exempt from public burdens. They ask for a certain bare name of immunity, since by their poverty they are safe from loss. And so those add more to their praise who take away something of their substance; since virginity dedicated to the public welfare grows in merit when it lacks reward. Let these gains be absent from the purity of your treasury; let the revenue of good emperors be increased not by the losses of priests but by the spoils of enemies! Does that slight gain make up for the odium? But avarice does not fall within your character. By this they are the more wretched, whose ancient supports have been cut away; for indeed under emperors who abstain from another's property, because they resist greed, the matter is reduced to the mere injury of the one who loses, since it does not stir the desire of the one who takes away. The treasury also retains fields bequeathed to the virgins and the ministers by the will of the deceased. I beg you, priests of justice, that to the sacred rites of your city the inheritance of private property be restored. Let men dictate their wills in security and know that under emperors who are not greedy what they have written is secure. Let this happiness of the human race delight you. The example of this case has begun to trouble the dying. Do the Roman religions then not pertain to Roman law? What name shall the removal of property receive, which no law, no chance has made [confiscable]? Freedmen receive legacies, the just advantages of testaments are not denied to slaves: shall only noble virgins and the ministers of the fated rites be excluded from the protections acquired by inheritance? What does it profit to dedicate a chaste body to the public welfare, and to prop the eternity of the empire with heavenly estates, to attach friendly powers to your arms, to your eagles, to undertake efficacious vows for all, and not to have a right in common with all? Is it thus