Although in many ways I hope to perceive what I have indeed long perceived — that I am loved by you — yet a cause is now offered to you in which you can easily declare your good will towards me. L. Oppius, son of Marcus, does business at Philomelium, a man on close terms with me. I commend him to you most particularly — and the more so because, while I esteem him in himself, he also has charge of the affairs of L. Egnatius Rufus, the one Roman knight with whom I am most closely connected, and who is bound to me both by daily intimacy and by very many and very great services.

I ask you, therefore, that you esteem Oppius in person and look after the affairs of Egnatius in his absence on the same footing as if my own were at stake. I should be glad if, for memory’s sake, you would write yourself something in a letter, to be delivered to you in your province, and write it so that, when you read it, you may easily recall the careful weight of this commendation of mine. This I beg of you again and yet again.