B.C. 46, ÆT. 60 than common earnestness his family at Sicyon and his property, especially his freedman C. Avianius Hammonius, whom indeed I commend to you on his own account also. For, while he has earned my esteem by his remarkable loyalty and fidelity to his patron, he has also done me personally some valuable services, and stood by me in the time of my greatest distress with a fidelity and affection as great as though I had myself liberated him. Accordingly, I beg you to support Hammonius for himself, as well as in his patron's business, and to go so far as to like and reckon among your friends both his agent, whom I am commending to you, and Avianius himself. You will find him modest and serviceable, and worthy of your affection. Good-bye.
DXV (F XIII, 22)
TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)
Rome
I am very fond of T. Manlius, a banker at Thespiæ; for
he always paid me respect, and was most constant in his
attentions, and has besides some taste for our branch of
learning. I may add that Varro Murena[1] is very desirous
that everything should be done for him; who yet thought
that, though he felt confidence in a letter of his own in
which he had commended Manlius to you, some additional
advantage would be gained by a recommendation from me.
For myself, both my intimacy with Manlius and Varro's
eagerness have induced me to write to you as seriously as
- ↑ A. Licinius Murena was adopted by Terentius Varro, and was thus called A. Terentius Varro Murena. His sister Terentia was wife of Mæcenas, and his brother was Proculeius, celebrated for his liberality by Horace (Odes, ii. 2). His augurship is honoured by another ode of Horace (iii. 19), who also gave him a hint as to the rashness which seems to have led to his ruin in B.C. 22, the year after his consulship, when he was implicated with Fannius Cæpio in a plot against Augustus (Horace, Od. ii. 10; Suet. Aug. 19; Tib. 8; Dio, 54, 3).
