1Herennius Severus, a most learned man, sets great store on placing in his library portraits of your fellow townsmen Cornelius Nepos and Titus Catius, and asks me, if they are there, as is likely, to arrange for them to be copied and painted. 2This task I lay on you above all, first because you comply with my wishes in the friendliest way, next because you have the greatest reverence for literature and the greatest love for men of letters, and finally because you revere and love your home town, and all who have increased its fame, as you do the town itself. 3And I ask you to engage the most careful painter you can.
3For while it is hard to make a likeness from life, by far the most difficult thing is the imitation of an imitation; 3and from this I ask you not to let the artist you choose stray, not even for the better. 3Farewell.