Letter 19: Your son has carried off my nurse's daughter: a disgraceful deed, and one that would have made enemies of us both,...

Sidonius to his dear Pudens, greeting. 1. The son of your nurse has carried off the daughter of mine: a disgraceful crime, and one which would have set us and you at enmity, had I not at once understood that you knew nothing of what was to be done. But, having put forward the clearing of your own conscience, you deign to ask impunity for a still-hot offense. I grant it on one condition: that, in place of a master, you should now as patron release the ravisher from his hereditary status as a tenant [inquilinus, a bondsman tied to the estate]. 2. As for the woman, she is already free; and she will only then be seen not as one consigned to mockery but as one taken in marriage, if our culprit, on whose behalf you plead, presently being made a client, should from a tributary begin to bear rather the standing of a plebeian than that of a coloured serf [colonus, a tenant farmer bound to the soil]. For this alone, whether you call it a settlement or a satisfaction, even moderately repairs the affront done to me; I who consent to this for your wishes and your friendship, on the understanding that if liberty loosens the husband, no penalty shall bind the ravisher. Farewell.

EPISTULA XIX Sidonius Pudenti suo salutem. 1. Nutricis meae filiam filius tuae rapuit: facinus indignum quodque nos vosque inimicasset, nisi protinus scissem te nescisse faciendum. sed conscientiae tuae purgatione praelata petere dignaris culpae calentis impunitatem. sub condicione concedo: si stupratorem pro domino iam patronus originali solvas inquilinatu. 2. mulier autem illa iam libera est; quae tum demum videbitur non ludibrio addicta sed assumpta coniugio, si reus noster, pro quo precaris, mox cliens factus e tributario plebeiam potius incipiat habere personam quam colonariam. nam meam haec sola seu compositio seu satisfactio vel mediocriter contumeliam emendat; qui tuis votis atque amicitiis hoc adquiesco, si laxat libertas maritum, ne constringat poena raptorem. vale.