1Our friend Macrinus has received a heavy blow: he has lost a wife of exceptional character, even if she had lived in olden times. 1He lived with her for thirty-nine years without a quarrel, without offence. 1What respect she showed her husband, though she herself deserved the highest! 1how many and how great were the virtues, drawn from different ages, that she gathered and blended in herself! 2Macrinus does indeed have a great consolation, that he held so great a blessing for so long, but for that very reason he is all the more embittered at having lost it; 2for the pain of going without grows with the enjoyment of pleasures.
3So I shall remain anxious for a very dear friend until he is able to admit distractions and endure a scar, which nothing brings on so well as necessity itself, length of days and the surfeit of grief. 3Farewell.