1Fannia's illness distresses me. 1She contracted it while nursing the Vestal virgin Junia, at first of her own accord — for she is a relative — and then also by authority of the pontiffs. 2For when the virgins are compelled by the force of illness to leave the hall of Vesta, they are entrusted to the care and keeping of married women. 2While Fannia was diligently performing this duty, she was caught up in this danger. 3The fevers persist, the cough grows worse; 3extreme wasting, extreme weakness. 3Only her mind and spirit stay strong, most worthy of her husband Helvidius and her father Thrasea; 3the rest is failing, and wears me down not only with fear but also with grief.
4For I grieve that a very great woman is being snatched from the eyes of the state, which may never see her like again. 4What purity she has, what integrity, what dignity, what steadfastness! 4Twice she followed her husband into exile, and a third time she was herself banished on her husband's account. 5For when Senecio was on trial for having written books on the life of Helvidius, and had said in his defence that he had been asked to do so by Fannia, and Mettius Carus asked her menacingly whether she had asked him, she replied: 'I asked him'; 5whether she had given him notebooks when he was about to write: 'I gave them'; 5whether her mother knew of it: 'She did not know'; 5in short, she uttered not a word that yielded to danger.
6Indeed, those very books, although they had been abolished by decree of the senate through the necessity and fear of the times, she saved and kept when her property was confiscated, and took with her into exile the cause of her exile. 7And she is also so pleasant, so courteous, so — a gift granted to few — no less lovable than venerable! 7Will there be anyone hereafter whom we can hold up to our wives as a model? 7Will there be anyone from whom we men too may take examples of fortitude, whom we may admire, seeing and hearing her, as we admire those women we read about? 8And to me the house itself seems to be tottering and, wrenched from its foundations, about to collapse, although it still has descendants.
8For by what great virtues, what great deeds, will they ensure that she has not died the last of her line? 9What afflicts and torments me too is that I seem to be losing her mother again, that mother — I can say nothing more glorious — of so great a woman, whom she, just as she restores and brings her back to us, will take away with her, and strike me with a wound both new and reopened. 10I revered them both, I loved them both: which more I do not know, nor did they want a distinction to be made. 10They had my services in good fortune, they had them in adversity.
10I was their comfort when banished, I was their avenger when they returned; 10yet I have not repaid them in full, and so all the more I want her to be spared, so that there may still be time left for me to pay my debt. 11Such were the anxieties I was in when I was writing to you; 11and if some god turns them to joy, I shall not complain of my fear. 11Farewell.