Quintus Aurelius Symmachus → destinatário desconhecido

I hesitate to submit my writings to your eloquence, but I am equally careful not to refuse anything of mine to your affection. I have therefore sent you two short speeches recently published by me. One of them restrained a candidate who was resisting his appointment to the urban magistracy; the other took as its subject a censorial judgment that had long ago been condemned by decree of the Senate. But after the case was decided, I expanded the opinion I had delivered into a fuller work. Do not hold it against me that I upheld the rejection of old-fashioned severity. For certain things, impressive only in name, cause great harm in practice and experience. You will find the reasoning behind my position as you read. I ask only that you approach the examination of what I have written with fairness to both sides. The argument of the speech will deserve, I hope, that even you, a champion of ancient ways, extend your hand to the authority of the Senate.