Letter 5038: You gave me more than I asked for.

You have rendered me a service more generous than I had asked for. For when I had requested that my household be assisted by you in the procurement of racing horses [equi curules, horses for the circus games], you increased the number assembled by four teams of four, free of charge. Of these, the care of the escorts brought through eleven surviving horses; the others perished, and after no long interval a portion of those handed over fell as well. Yet fortune has not diminished the gratitude owed to your devotion, for in the gifts of friends the losses of mishaps are not to be reckoned; on the contrary, that sum is to be entered as received which proceeded from the giver. To you we have sent, by your own man, the ivory diptych of a candidate and a gift-token of two pounds of silver, desiring to confirm that you were wanting to our public exhibition only in fact, not in intention. 57 (55).

Cumulatius officium mihi, quam poposceram, detulisti. nam cum domesticos meos iuvari a te in conquisitione equorum curulium postulassem , quadrigis quattuor gratui- tis auxisti numerum conparatum. ex illis equos undecim superstites ceteris prosecu- 5 torum cura perduxit, nec longo intervallo pars succubuit traditorum. gratiam tamen religionis tuae fortuna non minuit, quia in muneribus amicorum non sunt damna ca- suum cogitanda; quin immo ea in acceptum summa referenda est, quae ab offerente processit. ad te diptychum candidati et apophoretum librarum argenti duarum per hominem tuum misimus adprobare cupientes, editioni te nostrae re, non animo de- lo fuisse. LVn (LV).