Letter 2010: Justice, admittedly, doesn't need an advocate.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 369 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus|AI-assisted
friendship

Justice indeed requires no support, but the speed of cases is for the most part assisted by regard for friendships. To what end is this, you will ask? It is so that your exceptional worthiness may know that the praiseworthy gentleman Carissimus, of the rank of count [comes], does indeed hope, given the nature of his business, that he may attain the outcome he desires, but understands that something will accrue to him toward earning the zeal of the examining magistrate [cognitor] if he is supported by a letter from me. I ask, therefore, that you advance the prayers of him whom I embrace with brotherly affection. These matters I have undertaken to commend for this reason, that, weighing the character of the petitioner, I have presumed them to be just.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

lustitia quidem suffragium non requirit, sed amicitiarum plerumque respectu cau-
sarum celeritas adiuvatur. quorsum istud, inquies? ut noverit eximia dignatio tua,
sperare quidem virum laudabilem Carissimum ex comitibus de negotii qualitate, quod
20 optatum exitum posrit adipisci , sed intellegere , cessurum sibi aliquid ad promeren-
dum studium cognitoris, si meis litteris fulciatur. quaeso igitur, ut eius, quem fra-
tema adfectione conplector, orata promoveas. quae ideo commendanda suscepi, quia
mores petent/s expendens aequa esse praesumpsi.

XI ante a. 395.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog

Related Letters