1You ask me to look out for a husband for your brother's daughter; 1a task which you rightly lay on me above all others. 1For you know how greatly I looked up to and loved that excellent man, with what encouragement he fostered my youth, and with what praise too he brought it about that I seemed to deserve praise. 2There is nothing greater or more welcome that you could entrust to me, nothing more honourable that I could undertake, than to choose a young man from whom it would be fitting for grandchildren of Arulenus Rusticus to be born. 3He would indeed have had to be sought for a long time, had not Minicius Acilianus been ready to hand and, as it were, provided in advance, who loves me most intimately as one young man loves another (for he is younger by a very few years), and reveres me as an old one.
4For he wishes to be shaped and trained by me as I used to be by you and your brother. 4His native town is Brixia, in that Italy of ours which still keeps and preserves much modesty and frugality, and even old-fashioned rusticity. 5His father is Minicius Macrinus, a leading man of the equestrian order, because he wished for nothing higher; 5for though he was enrolled by the deified Vespasian among the ex-praetors, honourable retirement to this of ours — shall I call it ambition or dignity? 5— he most steadfastly preferred. 6He has a maternal grandmother, Serrana Procula, from the town of Patavium. 6You know the character of the place: yet Serrana is a model of strictness even to the people of Patavium.
6He has been fortunate also in an uncle, Publius Acilius, a man of almost unique seriousness, good sense and integrity. 6In short, there will be nothing in the whole household which will not please you as if in your own. 7Acilianus himself, moreover, has a great deal of vigour and energy, though combined with the greatest modesty. 7He has run through the quaestorship, the tribunate and the praetorship with the greatest credit, and has already spared you the need of canvassing on his behalf. 8He has a gentlemanly face, flushed with healthy colour and a ready blush; he has a natural handsomeness of his whole body and a certain senatorial dignity.
8These things I think should by no means be neglected; 8for this ought to be given to the chastity of girls as a kind of reward. 9I do not know whether I should add that his father has ample means. 9For when I picture you and your family, for whom we are seeking a son-in-law, I think nothing should be said about means; 9but when I look at public custom and even the laws of the state, which consider that men's fortunes are to be regarded above all, it seems that not even this should be passed over. 9And certainly, for one who is thinking of descendants, and many of them, this item too must be counted in choosing a match.
10You may perhaps think that I have indulged my affection, and exalted these qualities beyond what the facts allow. 10But I pledge you my word that you will find everything far greater than I proclaim it. 10I do indeed love the young man most ardently, as he deserves; 10but this itself is the mark of one who loves, not to burden him with praises. 10Farewell.