1You write that Robustus, a distinguished Roman knight, travelled together with my friend Atilius Scaurus as far as Ocriculum, and then was seen nowhere; 1you ask that Scaurus should come and, if he can, set us on some track for our search. 2He will come; 2I fear in vain. 2For I suspect that something has befallen Robustus like what once befell Metilius Crispus, a fellow townsman of mine. 3I had obtained a centurion's rank for him and had even given him forty thousand sesterces on his departure to equip and outfit himself, and afterwards I received neither letters from him nor any news of his fate. 4Whether he was killed by his slaves or with his slaves is uncertain: certainly neither he himself nor any of his slaves has appeared, just as none of Robustus' have either.
5Still, let us try, let us summon Scaurus; 5let us grant this to your entreaties, let us grant it to the most honourable entreaties of an excellent young man, who is searching for his father with wonderful devotion and wonderful shrewdness too. 5May the gods grant that he find his father himself as he has already found the man he was with! 5Farewell.