To Trajan.
Sir, I have long admired the character and literary abilities of Suetonius Tranquillus, a man of the highest integrity, probity, and learning ; he has been my constant companion, and I have begun to love him the better as I have learned to know him the more thoroughly. There are two reasons why the privileges of the ius trium liberorum should be conferred upon him. One is that he wins the final proof of his friends' good opinion of him and is mentioned in their wills, * and the other is that he has not been fortunate in his marriage. He has therefore to rely, through us, upon obtaining from your kindness what has been denied him by the perversity of Fortune. I know, Sir, how great is the favour I am asking, but I ask it none the less from you, since I find you are always most indulgent in granting my requests. And you may see how earnestly I desire it, for I should not ask it when I am miles away if I were only half-hearted in preferring my petition.
[Note: By the Lex Papia Poppaea, married persons, without children, were unable to take bequests in their entirety, a portion going to the public treasury.]
L To Trajan.
Sir, I have long admired the character and literary abilities of Suetonius Tranquillus, a man of the highest integrity, probity, and learning ; he has been my constant companion, and I have begun to love him the better as I have learned to know him the more thoroughly. There are two reasons why the privileges of the ius trium liberorum should be conferred upon him. One is that he wins the final proof of his friends' good opinion of him and is mentioned in their wills, * and the other is that he has not been fortunate in his marriage. He has therefore to rely, through us, upon obtaining from your kindness what has been denied him by the perversity of Fortune. I know, Sir, how great is the favour I am asking, but I ask it none the less from you, inasmuch as I find you are always most indulgent in granting my requests. And you may see how earnestly I desire it, for I should not ask it when I am miles away if I were only half-hearted in preferring my petition.
(*) By the Lex Papia Poppaea, married persons, without children, were unable to take bequests in their entirety, a portion going to the public treasury.
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To Trajan.
Sir, I have long admired the character and literary abilities of Suetonius Tranquillus, a man of the highest integrity, probity, and learning ; he has been my constant companion, and I have begun to love him the better as I have learned to know him the more thoroughly. There are two reasons why the privileges of the ius trium liberorum should be conferred upon him. One is that he wins the final proof of his friends' good opinion of him and is mentioned in their wills, * and the other is that he has not been fortunate in his marriage. He has therefore to rely, through us, upon obtaining from your kindness what has been denied him by the perversity of Fortune. I know, Sir, how great is the favour I am asking, but I ask it none the less from you, since I find you are always most indulgent in granting my requests. And you may see how earnestly I desire it, for I should not ask it when I am miles away if I were only half-hearted in preferring my petition.
[Note: By the Lex Papia Poppaea, married persons, without children, were unable to take bequests in their entirety, a portion going to the public treasury.]
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.