1I had withdrawn to my home town when news reached me that Cornutus Tertullus had been given charge of the Aemilian Way. 2I cannot express how glad I was, both on his account and on my own: on his because, though he is — as indeed he is — far removed from all ambition, still an honour given unasked must be pleasant to him; on mine because the office entrusted to me pleases me rather more now that I see an equal one given to Cornutus. 3For it is not more gratifying to be raised in rank than to be put on a level with good men. 3And what is better than Cornutus, what more upright, what more closely modelled on the pattern of antiquity in every kind of merit?
3which I know not from report, though he enjoys an excellent and well-deserved one, but from long and great experience. 4Together we love, and together we have loved, nearly all those of either sex whom our age has produced as worthy of imitation; 4and this sharing of friendships has joined us in the closest intimacy. 5There was added the bond of a public connection; 5for he was, as you know, my colleague, almost as if I had prayed for him, in the prefecture of the treasury, and again in the consulship. 5Then I saw most deeply what sort of man he was and how great, as I followed him as a master and revered him as a parent, which he deserved not so much for his ripeness of years as for his life.
6For these reasons I congratulate myself as much as him, and no more privately than publicly, that at last men arrive through virtue not at dangers, as before, but at honours. 7I would extend this letter without end if I were to indulge my joy. 7I turn instead to what I was doing when this news caught me. 8I was with my wife's grandfather, I was with my wife's aunt, I was with friends I had long missed, I was going round my little farms, listening to a great many rustic complaints, reading accounts unwillingly and hastily — for I have been initiated into other papers, other letters — and I had even begun to prepare for my journey.
9For I am hemmed in by the narrow limits of my leave, and the very news that the office has been assigned to Cornutus reminds me of my own. 9I hope your Campania will release you too about the same time, so that when I have returned to the city no day of our companionship may be lost. 9Farewell.