1It is laid down, sir, in the Pompeian law which was given to the Bithynians, that no one under thirty years of age may hold a magistracy or be in the senate. 1In the same law it is included that those who have held a magistracy should be in the senate. 2Then followed an edict of the deified Augustus, by which he permitted the lesser magistracies to be held from the age of twenty-two. 3The question is therefore whether a man who has held a magistracy under the age of thirty can be enrolled in the senate by the censors, and, if he can, whether those too who have not held one can by the same interpretation be enrolled as senators from that age at which they have been permitted to hold a magistracy; 3and this, moreover, is said to have been done regularly up to now and to be necessary, because it is a good deal better that the children of respectable men be admitted to the council than men from the common people.
4When I was asked by the censors-elect what I thought, I considered that those who had held a magistracy under thirty could be enrolled in the senate according to both the edict of Augustus and the Pompeian law, since Augustus had permitted those under thirty to hold magistracies, and the law had wished anyone who had held a magistracy to be a senator. 5About those who had not held one, however, although they were of the same age as those who were permitted to hold office, I was hesitant; 5and this led me to consult you, sir, on what you wished to be observed. 5I have appended to my letter the chapters of the law, and then the edict of Augustus.