Letter 995: A letter of encouragement to a governor whose hard work promises civic restoration.

We knew that you would need hard work as you cared for cities worn down by hardship, but we also knew that you would take pleasure in work that was going to bear such fruit. The time before your belt of office, before the throne and the sword, had both toil and glory, and we often saw you like a horse leaving the racecourse for home after much sweat, having saved for some their houses, for others their land, for others gold, and for many their very lives. Since you have long practiced such things, you were not likely to find them burdensome. Heracles too lived more pleasantly than those who indulge themselves, precisely because he did not indulge himself. You will surely be glad that the Thebans enjoy such benefits and that people like us send out such reports about you, confirming our hopes. It would have been a great honor to me if you had remembered me even in silence; it is much greater now that you also write. I hope the emperor will place these cities too under your character.