1When I wished, my lord, to look into the public debtors, revenue and expenditure at Apamea, I was answered that all were indeed eager for the colony's accounts to be read by me, but that they had never been read by any of the proconsuls; 1that they had had the privilege, and a most ancient custom, of administering their commonwealth at their own discretion. 2I required them to set down in a petition what they were saying and what they were reading out; 2I have sent it to you just as I received it, although I understood that most of it did not bear on the matter in question. 3I ask you to deign to instruct me what you think I ought to observe.
3For I fear that I may seem either to have overstepped or not to have fulfilled the duties of my office.