1I was present at a hearing held by our excellent emperor, having been called in as one of his advisers. 1Athletic games are held at Vienne under the terms of someone's will. 1Trebonius Rufinus, an excellent man and a friend of mine, had them stopped and abolished during his term as duumvir. 2It was alleged that he had done so without public authority. 2He pleaded his own case, no less successfully than eloquently. 2His speech was commended by the fact that, like a Roman and a good citizen, he spoke in his own affair with maturity and gravity. 3When opinions were being asked in turn, Junius Mauricus, than whom no man is firmer or more truthful, said that the games should not be restored to the people of Vienne; 3he added: 'I wish they could be abolished at Rome too.' 4Firmly, you say, and bravely; 4why not?
4but this is nothing new from Mauricus. 4He spoke no less bravely before the emperor Nerva. 4Nerva was dining with a few friends; 4Veiento was next to him and even reclining on his breast: I have said everything when I have named the man. 5The conversation turned to Catullus Messalinus, who, deprived of his sight, had added to the evils of blindness a savage temperament: he felt no fear, no shame, no pity; 5and for that reason he was hurled by Domitian all the more often against every good man, just like weapons, which themselves are also flung blind and heedless. 6Everyone at dinner was talking together of his wickedness and his bloodthirsty proposals, when the emperor himself said: 'What do we think would have happened to him if he were alive?' 6And Mauricus said: 'He would be dining with us.' 7I have digressed rather far, but gladly.
7It was decided that the games should be abolished, which had corrupted the morals of the people of Vienne, as ours here corrupt the morals of all. 7For the vices of the people of Vienne stay among themselves, ours spread far and wide, and as in bodies so in an empire the most serious disease is the one that spreads from the head. 7Farewell.