Letter 10007: The season at the villa has given me the leisure to reflect on what the office demands and what it gives in return;...

The Kalends [first day] that inaugurate the year, with which the cycle of the months opens, antiquity consecrated to the bestowing of New Year's gifts [strenae], my lords the emperors Theodosius and Arcadius, ever-illustrious victorious Augusti. The observance of this institution you forestall by the haste of your munificence, accounting that liberality too tardy which is brought forward at the appointed times. A happy age, by Hercules, in which the princes for long do not know how to hold back what ought to be granted to the devoted, while they are slow to exact what is owed to themselves! What, then, should I proclaim first, what most of all? Your divinity's ready and swift bounty, or your mindful regard for those who are absent, or the fact that you have enhanced a sacred gift with the honor of your words? I shall say it as the matter stands: Your Clemency took care that I, as though placed in your very presence, should both enjoy the discourses of the princes and revere those august countenances in the very gifts themselves. When shall it befall me to seize rather the vivid and living joys that come from you? How great a blessing is the truth, whose likeness and image is itself a marvel! I give therefore and render thanks, and, since I am unable to pay it, I delegate my own turn of repayment to the heavenly powers. May they reward Your Clemency with worthy advancements; we for our part cherish, we love, that which you know to be more excellent than all things. For to this end you govern the commonwealth for its salvation, that you may merit these things alone.