Letter 9024: I readily recommend my friend Eusebius — not as someone new or unknown, but as a man already proven by his loyalty...

It is no new or unknown man, but one already proven by his loyalty and by his length of military service, that I, a ready commender, bring to your notice: my friend Eusebius; whom up to this time of life no fault in his conduct has disgraced, but rather his absence, which conceals the merits of very many men, is said to have brought his standing into a precarious condition of fortune, if it is deserted by the testimony of those present. Yet the singular fairness of your spirit will not allow, as I hope, that misfortune should prevail against the prior claim of his years of service. And so both my exhortation and his own confidence look to your judgment. I ask that, the case having been examined, you confirm the just reckoning of his old years of service, thereby furnishing both to us the security of a friend and to his colleagues an honorable partnership in the retention of an excellent man. Farewell. [Letter LX (LVII).]

Non novum vel incognitum sed conpertum iam fide et antiquitate militiae Euse- bium amicum meum promptus commendator insinuo; quem ad hoc aevi nulla actuum culpa foedavit, sed absentia, quae plerisque occulit merita, si testimonio praesentium deseratur, locum eius dicitur in ancipitem statum deduxisse fortunae. singularis tamen 15 animi tui aequitas non patietur, ut spero. adversum stipendiorum praerogativam ca- sum valere. et mea igitur hortatio et ipsius fiducia iudicium tuum respicit. quaeso, ut causa cognita veterum eius stipendiorum iusta confirmes, praestaturus et nobis amici securitatem et honestum collegis eius de optimi viri retentione consortium. vale. LX (LVII).