Letter 10018: My son continues his studies and gives me, on the whole, satisfaction; I say this with the caution appropriate to a...

Your good fortune, our lords the emperors [the three reigning Augusti], indeed promises the eternal city its customary abundance of provisioning; yet we ought to be made secure by the fact itself rather than by hope. This is easily done, if the care of your clemency will also look to this quarter. For with summer now well advanced, since very little is being brought down from the African ports, it is no idle fear that touches us, lest the grain supply [res annonaria] be forced into grave straits; and therefore I beg and beseech the wholesome protection of your perpetuity, that sterner dispatches may goad the African judges [the provincial governors] and the notary to whom your eternity entrusted the grain shipments, with energetic men sent out for this business who, while sailing is still practicable, may furnish the accustomed cargoes for the sustenance of the city. This befits your age, this befits your divine excellences, that you should reckon the security of the Roman people among your chief and foremost cares. Laden vessels will be at hand for the longed-for voyages, and a frequent and freighted fleet will enter the Roman ports, if the favorable suffrages of your divine power breathe upon us.