A ll the blessings you have prayed for me are bound up with your welfare. Health of body and mind, happiness, prosperity, are all mine, as long as you enjoy a body, a mind, a reputation so hale and well, while you are so dear to your father, so sweet to your mother, so blameless a husband, so good and kind a brother.1 It is this which makes me cling to life, in spite of my ill-health. Apart from you I have had enough and to spare of life and toil, of profession and fame, but of pains and infirmities something more than enough and to spare.
I gave my daughter the kiss you sent her: never has she seemed to me so kissing-ripe, never so kissed. Greet my Lady, my most sweet Lord. Farewell, and give your little matron2 a kiss from me.
? 149–153 A.D.
To my Lord.