Letter 4033: I was wondering what could possibly explain the fact that a man so devoted to the courtesies of friendship had...

I kept wondering what the matter was, that for so long you, most attentive to our friendship, refrained from writing letters; but the course of your letter has revealed it, namely that you had been avoiding being the reporter of grievous matters, which neither family obligation nor the common cause permitted to be held back in longer silence. For it is generally useful to bring forward into public knowledge whatever you would wish to be corrected, so that, by the announcement of the danger to come, the concern of all may be moved to take counsel. 2. With great urgency, therefore, you have given warning of the coming year's scarcity. For what hope is left, when in the African provinces the threshing of the grain has not answered even for a meager sustenance, and the coming year awaits seed imported from other lands? Rightly, therefore, does the anxiety of the provincials take refuge in the foresight of the eternal emperors. Meanwhile, while a greater relief is sought from them, let your humane kindness cherish the exhausted, and, as one who shares in another's grief, persuade those who are suffering that whatever the provinces have endured has befallen yourself. I am well, although my ailing spirit knows not the blessing of health; but, that it may take some consolation, I beg that you write more indulgently and, by the example of your own diligence, invite me to reply.