1See to what a pinnacle you raise me, when you give me the same power and the same sovereignty that Homer gave to Jupiter Best and Greatest: 'One thing the father granted him, the other he refused.' For I too can answer your wish with a similar nod and shake of the head. 2For just as it is right for me, especially at your demand, to excuse myself to the people of Baetica from pleading against one man, so it is consistent neither with my loyalty nor with the constancy which you value in me to appear against a province which I once bound to myself by so many services, so many labours, and even so many dangers.
3I shall therefore keep to this compromise: of the two things, one or the other of which you ask, I shall choose rather the one in which I may satisfy not only your wishes but also your judgement. 3For I must consider not so much what you, excellent man, want at present, as what you will always approve. 4I hope to be in Rome around the Ides of October, and to confirm these same things to Gallus in person on your word and mine; 4yet you may even now pledge my intentions to him: 'he spoke, and nodded with his dark brows.' 5For why should I not deal with you in Homeric verses all the way?
5since you do not allow me to deal with you in your own, which I so burn to have that I feel I could be bribed by this reward alone to appear even against the Baeticans. 6I almost passed over what should least of all be passed over, that I have received excellent dates, which now have to compete with the figs and mushrooms. 6Farewell.