DCXCV (F XII, 21)
[12.21] [Sh.695] TO QUINTUS CORNIFICIUS (IN AFRICA)
ROME
MY friend Gaius Anicius, a man possessed of every sort of accomplishment, has on urgent private affairs received a free legation [654] to go to Africa. I should be glad if you would render him every kind of assistance and would take pains to enable him to settle his business as satisfactorily as possible. Especially—what is most valuable in his eyes—I request you to have an eye to his dignity. And I ask that of you, because I myself when in a province was accustomed without being asked to be careful to assign lictors to all senators. That is a compliment which I had myself received, and I knew that it was habitually done by the most distinguished men. Therefore, my dear Cornificius, pray do this, and in all other respects, if you love me, consult for his dignity and his property. You will exceedingly oblige me by doing so. Take pains to keep well.
APPENDIX A
[The following letters of recommendation cannot be dated, and are put here as almost completing that class of letter, and as being no doubt earlier at least than B.C. 44, or at any rate than the March of that year. The first has been attributed by some to B.C. 63. If that is so, it is the only letter of the year of the consulship: but there is really no means of thus dating it, or indeed of dating it at all.]