Quintus Aurelius Symmachus → destinatário desconhecido
Tradução moderna em inglês
We tried to keep the crocodiles -- the ones displayed at the theater show -- alive for your visit. But they refused to eat, and after fifty days of fasting had wasted them away, they were finished off in the arena during the second round of games, in the usual style of staged combat. Two are still breathing, and we're saving them for when you arrive -- though their hunger strike doesn't give me much confidence they'll last long. Farewell.
Texto latino / grego
Crocodillos theatrali spectaculo publicatos in praesentiam vestram servare tempta- vimus, sed perseverante inedia, quae illos per dies quinquaginta producta macerabat, secundis ludis congressionum more confecti sunt. duos etiam nnnc spirantes in ve- 25 strum diflferemus adventum . licet eos cibi abstinentia longum vivere posse non spon- deat. vale. xxxxini (xxxxv).