ave heard from others that a third year has been added to my
loss and your labour, yet I thought you ought to receive from me also
the news of this tiresome circumstance. For not in one, but in several
of my previous letters, in spite of others having given up the idea in
despair, I gave you hope of being able at an early date to quit your
province, not only that I might as long as possible cheer you with a
pleasurable belief, but also because I and the praetors took such pains
in the matter, that I felt no misgiving as to the possibility of its
being arranged. As it is, since matters have so turned out that neither
the praetors by the weight of their influence, nor I by my earnest
efforts, have been able to prevail, it is certainly difficult not to be
annoyed, yet our minds, practised as they are in conducting and
supporting business of the utmost gravity, ought not to be crushed or
weakened by vexation. And since men ought to feel most vexed at what has
been brought upon them by their own fault, it is I who ought in this
matter to be more vexed than you. For it is the result of a fault on my
part, against which you had protested both in conversation at the moment
of your departure, and in letters since, that your successor was not
named last year. In this, while consulting for the interests of our
allies, and resisting the shameless conduct of some merchants, and while
seeking the increase of our reputation by your virtues, I acted
unwisely, especially as I made it possible for that second year to
entail a third. And as I confess the mistake to have been mine, it lies
with your wisdom and kindness to remedy it, and to see that my
imprudence is turned to advantage by your careful performance of your
duties. And truly, if you exert yourself in every direction to earn
men's good word, not with a view to rival others, but henceforth to
surpass yourself, if you rouse your whole mind and your every thought
and care to the ambition of gaining a superior reputation in all
respects, believe me, one year added to your labour will bring us, nay,
our posterity also, a joy of many years' duration. Wherefore I begin by
entreating you not to let your soul shrink and be cast down, nor to
allow yourself to be overpowered by the magnitude of the business as
though by a wave; but, on the contrary, to stand upright and keep your
footing, or even advance to meet the flood of affairs. For you are not
administering a department of the state,