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in P. Vatinius, who desires the formal pleading of a case on his behalf. You will not, I take it, refuse the defence of a man when in office, whose defence you undertook when he was in danger. Besides, from my point of view, whom should I rather select and call to my aid than the man whose defence taught me the secret of success? And surely I need not fear that the man who turned his back upon a coalition of the most powerful men in Rome to fight for my political status will not overpower and crush the slanderous jealousies of a pack of contemptible marplots. So if you love me as much as ever, take up my case without reserve, and consider that you should accept and shoulder whatever burden of service it may be that the defence of my prestige involves. You know that my good fortune in some strange way finds plenty of detractors, though I swear I don't deserve it; but what does that matter, if, do what I will, it is somehow my fate to find it so? Should it happen then, by any chance, that there is anybody who wants to prejudice my claims,[1] I beg of you not to abate your customary generosity in defending me in my absence. I have transcribed you below my despatch to the Senate on my achievements; it is an exact copy of what I sent.
2 They tell me that your slave[2], your reader who ran away, has joined the Vardaei; you gave me no instructions about him, but I have, nevertheless, issued a provisionary warrant for his pursuit by land and sea, and I am sure I shall find him for you, unless he has escaped to Dalmatia; still I shall rout him out even from there sooner or later. Whatever you do, remain my friend. Farewell.