Letter 6023: The anger that comes from injustice cuts deep, but the medicine of patience should soften the pain.

The agitation that injustice begets is harsh, but the medicine of patience ought to soften the grief. Nor do you lack practice in bearing adversity, for you have learned often enough to endure the blow of fortune. But if you were carrying on amid favorable circumstances, your prosperity would justly be wounded by these unaccustomed evils. I write this so that you may know I was astonished that a private lawsuit has altered your steadfastness, which, under the name of a kinsman by marriage, as is my opinion, that prowler of the Baian shore stirred up. But for him there will be another sort of recompense. Yet a judicial bulwark was not lacking to your cause; for it was obtained from the one of the judges that what the apparitor committed should not go unpunished, and from the other that the inheritance should be kept secure. The mistress of the suit herself too, when she has withdrawn from the country estate, I shall admonish either to desist from her undertaking or to know that graver matters are to be brought to bear against her. Let these things said about domestic affairs be enough. But as for our native city, amid its other ills of grain scarcity, the canvassing for the legation has set a more wicked torch beneath it. For at the outset the election joined Postumianus and Pinianus to two leading men of the court, under that express form of decree that the legation was said to be complete in those men alone. A few days having intervened, when the assembly was weighing the conduct of its commissions, private interests joined Paulinus to them. From this arose a contest that proceeded, in my absence, even to wicked brawls. It is shameful to tell what charges and abuse the leading men of the senate hurled against one another. But they are said to have referred the disputes between the parties to be settled by my judgment. Chance may see what end awaits the public cause. Meanwhile the senate's reputation is being torn to pieces, and to its misfortunes a charge has also been added. If the records of what was done come into my hands, by reading them you will learn what the modesty of my words has been unwilling to set forth. Farewell. 23 (28).

Dnra commotio est, qnam gignit iniuria, sed mollire debet dolorem medicina pa- tientiae. nec deest vobis nsns adversa tolerandi, nam crebro ictnm fortnnae ferre di- dicistis. qnod si in secnndis rebus ageretis, iure insolitis malis felicitas laederetnr. haec eo scribo, nt miratnm me scias, qnod constantiam tnam lis privata mutaverit, 15 qnam snb adfininm nomine, nt opinio mea est, Baiani litoris persultator animavit. sed illi alind mercedis erit. cansae antem vestrae propugnacnlnm indiciale non de- 2 fnit; impetratnm est qnippe ab altero cognitomm, ne inpnne sit, qnod dissignavit apparitor, ab altero, nt hereditas tuta praestetnr. ipsam qnoqne dominam qnaestionis, cnm se ex agro receperit, admonebo, nt ant desistat incepto ant noverit, sibi gra- 20 yiora esse referenda. | haec de rebns domesticis satis dicta sint. patriae vero nostrae 3 P inter cetera frumentariae pennriae mala legationis ambitns nequiorem facem snbdidit. nam principio Postnmiannm et Piniannm dnobus anlae summatibus innxit electio snb ea expressione indicU; nt in ipsis solis plena esse legatio diceretnr. interiectis die- bns, cnm mandata ordinis tractatns expenderet, Panlinnm illis stndia privata innxe- 25 mnt. hinc orta certatio nsqne ad nefarias pngnas me absente processit. pndet di- cere, qnae in se optimates senatns crimina et maledicta proiecerint. sed dirimendas 4 partinm qnaestiones meo dicnntur detnlisse indicio. fors viderit, qni finis cansam pn- blicam maneat. interim senatns fama laceratnr, et infortnnatis etiam crimen accessit. si in manns meas venerint monnmenta gestornm, legendo noscetis, qnae verbornm 30 meomm verecnndia nolnit explicare. vale. xxni (xxnii) .