Letter 10029: I have read the manuscript you sent and found it, as I expected, better than its author's modest description; I set...

The guild of the collectarii [the corporation of money-dealers responsible for supplying gold coin] is liable for the sale of solidi [gold coins], which the public service for the most part demands, and to them the wine-fund [arca vinaria, the treasury chest for the wine supply] furnishes a fixed price. For this class of men, wavering under the meagre cheapness of the assessment, the deified brother of Your Divinity [Valentinian I, brother of the reigning Valens] laid down that just so much should be contributed for each solidus as the equity of that time required, O our lords the emperors [ddd. imppp.]. But as the exorbitance of gold has gradually increased, the force of that divine remedy has been broken; and since in the market of saleable goods the solidus is reckoned at a larger sum, smaller prices are weighed out to the money-changers. They therefore beg of Your Eternity, in proportion to the present circumstance, the just increases of the established rate, since they are no longer able to be equal to sustaining so great a burden. This is the ground of their complaint, which the credit of the official records will more fully convey to your divine perceptions; if you judge the nature of the petition to be deserving of approval, I ask that to this matter also a wholesome remedy be granted by the command of Your Clemency.