DX (F XIII, 17)
TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN
ACHAIA)
ROME
Manius Curius, 1 who has a bank at Patrae has
given me many weighty reasons for being attached
to him. My friendship with him is of very old
standing, dating from his first entrance into
public life: and at Patrae on many previous
occasions, and particularly during the late
unhappy war, his house was put entirely at my
disposal, and if there had been any occasion, I
should have used it as my own. But my strongest
tie to him is of what I may call a more sacred,
obligation- is that he is a very close friend of
my friend Atticus, and distinguishes him above
everybody by his attentions and affection. If you
are by any chance already acquainted with him, I
think that I am too late in doing what I am now
doing. For he is so cultivated and polite a man, that I should regard him as already
sufficiently recommended to you by his own
Character. Yet, if this is so, I beg you earnestly
that any inclination, which you have already
conceived for him before getting my letter, may be
enhanced to the highest possible degree by my
recommendation. But if; owing to his retiring
character, he has not put himself in your way or
you have not yet become sufficiently acquainted
with him, or if there is any reason of any sort
for his wanting a warmer recommendation, I hereby
recommend him to you, with a zeal as great and for
reasons as sound as I could have for recommending
anyone in the world. And I shall be acting in this
as those are bound to act who recommend
conscientiously and disinterestedly: for I shall
be pledging my word to you, or rather I do hereby
pledge my word and take upon me to promise, that
the character of Manius Curius, and his culture no
less than his honesty, are of such a nature that,
if once he becomes known to you, you will think
him deserving of your friendship and of such an
earnest recommendation. I, at any rate, shall be
exceedingly gratified, if I find that this letter
has had the weight with you which, as I write, I
feel confident that it will have.
ROME