Letter 10012: The vintage this year was excellent, and the estate manager has expressed a confidence in the coming season's yield...

Although Vettius Praetextatus [Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, the eminent pagan senator and magistrate, recently deceased] has been released by the law of nature, he yet lives on in the memory and the love of all men, made more fortunate by the tears of his fellow citizens than anyone else is by his own joys; and by this one thing he punishes envy, that his death has contributed so much to his glory that malice must envy even this fortune of his, our lords and emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, renowned victors and bringers of triumph, ever Augusti. For, apart from that unwonted grief of the Roman people, the senate also, unable to bear its loss, seeks consolation in an honor paid to virtue and prays your divine majesty that the lasting permanence of statues may hand down to the eyes of posterity a man wonderful in our age: not because he himself desires earthly rewards, who trampled upon the joys of the body, even while he played the part of a man, as upon perishable things; but because imitation is spurred on by the distinctions accorded to good men, and emulous virtue is nourished by the example of honor granted to another. From this it came about that, even in still rustic ages, all the best of the citizens, fashioned by hand and skill, were sent forth into long remembrance. And would that the readiness of flatterers had not afterward subtracted anything from this distinction! Though the things that are sought by unequal art are not equal. It is fitting, therefore, that he who abides in the hearts of all should be on the lips of the peoples: he was always loftier than his own magistracies; temperate toward others, severe toward himself; accessible without contempt, to be revered without inspiring terror; and if any advantage of an inheritance came to him, it soon reverted to the testator's nearest kin; a man who was neither broken by anyone's prosperity nor laughed at anyone's adversity; one who knew nothing of unseemly munificence, that man whom honor always followed against his will, [...] one to whose fairness every neighbor entrusted his own boundaries. I would wish to say more about him, I should owe more, but all things must be reserved for the testimony of your clemency; for more illustrious is the praise that has proceeded from a heavenly judgment. Therefore set forth the good things of your times, as patrons of probity, to be looked upon by future generations as well. Surely this is that Praetextatus whom you had rightly made consul, so that the mindful records of office might prolong his celebrated name. Repair by other titles the losses dealt by fate. Let the reward have departed along with the man, but let the judgment persevere after the man. Prove by these very circumstances that nothing is permitted against glory. For what he earned from his fellow citizens is unique; that which he lost is common to many.