1A small matter, but the beginning of no small one. 1Sollers, a man of praetorian rank, asked the senate for permission to establish a market on his estates. 1The envoys of the people of Vicetia spoke against it; 1Tuscilius Nominatus appeared for them. 2The case was adjourned. 2At another meeting of the senate the Vicetines came in without an advocate and said that they had been deceived, whether through a slip of the tongue or because they really thought so. 2Asked by Nepos the praetor whom they had briefed, they replied, the same man as before. 2Asked whether he had appeared without a fee on that occasion, they replied, for six thousand sesterces; 2asked whether they had given him anything a second time, they said a thousand denarii.
2Nepos demanded that Nominatus be brought in. 3That was as far as it went that day. 3But, as far as I can foresee, the affair will go further. 3For many things, once merely touched and stirred at all, spread very widely. 3I have pricked up your ears. 4How long, how coaxingly you must now beg in order to learn the rest! 4unless, that is, you come to Rome before then for this very reason, and prefer to be a spectator rather than a reader. 4Farewell.