Letter 5024: Since I know you are a man of merciful disposition, I have undertaken the task of requesting a pardon on behalf of a...

Since I know that you are of a forgiving disposition, I have taken up on a friend's behalf the task of asking for pardon; for we have not strayed so far from what is right that we should ever suspect you of being moved without cause. The distinguished gentleman Epictetus, slipping into the manner of pleaders, while he wished too eagerly to please in the case he had undertaken, grazed with an indiscreet remark the holy Sabinus, a man approved by all good people. That affair is believed to have provoked the feelings of all of you who have him in your care, and not without reason. The complaint of the governor has even stirred up the praetorian authorities. Why say more? Epictetus, deprived of the honor of the lawyer's gown, is to be preferred to very many who are protected by firm patronage. Now that crowd of clients heaps insults upon one man's chance error; that this should not last long, your humanity will see to it. Enough has been granted to correction; now have regard to your own good nature. Let the former be earned by the case, grant the latter to leniency. I know that the illustrious gentleman, the praetorian prefect, will likewise yield promptly to these letters of yours. Epictetus, the distinguished gentleman, will be a debtor to you even for his own amendment, whom the great impunity of those who offend had made a little incautious. [...]