1Septimius alone, Claudius, evidently understands how much you value me; for when he asks, and by his entreaty compels me, to try, of course, to recommend and introduce him to you as worthy of the mind and household of Nero, who chooses only the honourable, when he thinks that I fill the role of a closer friend, he sees and knows what I can do better than I do myself. 7I said many things, indeed, why I should go off excused; 8but I feared I might be thought to have made out my influence to be less than it is, a dissembler of my own power, obliging to myself alone.
10So I, fleeing the reproach of a greater fault, have stooped to win the prize of a city-bred boldness. But if you approve my laying aside modesty at a friend's command, enrol him in your band and believe him brave and good.