1I give you the greatest thanks, sir, because amid your very great concerns you have deigned to guide me too in the matters on which I consulted you; 1and I ask you to do so now as well. 2For a certain man approached me and reported that his opponents, who had been banished for three years by Servilius Calvus, a most distinguished man, were staying on in the province: they in turn asserted that they had been restored by the same man, and read out his edict. 2For this reason I believed it necessary to refer the matter to you undecided. 3For while it is laid down in your instructions that I am not to restore those banished by another or by myself, nothing is included about those whom another has both banished and restored.
3Therefore, sir, I had to consult you on what you wished me to observe, and indeed just as much about those who have been banished for life and, without being restored, are caught in the province. 4For a case of this kind too has come before my court. 4A man was brought before me who had been banished for life by Julius Bassus as proconsul. 4Since I knew that the acts of Bassus had been annulled, and that the senate had given all those about whom he had made any decision the right to plead their case afresh, though only within two years, I asked this man whom he had banished whether he had approached the proconsul and laid his case before him.
4He said no. 5This led me to consult you whether you thought he should be returned to his sentence or whether something more severe should be decided, and what in particular, both against him and against any others who might be found in a similar position. 5I have appended to this letter the decree and the edict of Calvus, and likewise the decree of Bassus.