This is a full account of what took place, and I pray that you will receive it in a spirit of peace. Do not suspect that anything different was done, or listen to malicious and pernicious whisperers, whose habit it is to excite dissension between princes for their own profit; but rejecting flattery, the nurse of vices, turn to justice, the most excellent of all virtues, and accept in good faith the fair conditions which I propose, convincing yourself that this is to the advantage of the rule of RomeCf. Cic. I. 49. as well as to ourselves, who are united by the tie of blood and by our lofty position.

And pardon me: I am not so desirous that these things which are reasonably demanded should be done, as that they should be approved by you as expedient and right, and for the future also I shall eagerly receive your instructions.

What ought to be done I will reduce to a few words. I will furnish Spanish horses for your chariots, and to be mingled with the household troops and the targeteers some young men of the Laeti, a tribe of barbarians on this side of the Rhine, or at any rate from those of them who voluntarily come over to us. And this I promise to do to the end of my life, with not only a willing but an eager spirit.