I could. You will therefore do me a very great favour, if you will regard this recommendation as one calling for your utmost consideration, that is, if you will assist and honour Titus Manlius in the highest degree in every way consistent with your honour and character. Finally, from his exceedingly grateful and cultivated character, I undertake that you will reap all the benefit you are accustomed to expect from good men's services.
DXVI (F XIII, 23)
TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)
Rome
I am very intimate with L. Cossinius, your friend and fellow
tribesman. For not only is there a long-standing acquaintance
between us personally, but my friend Atticus has caused
my relations with Cossinius to become still closer. Accordingly,
the whole family of Cossinius is attached to me, and
especially his freedman L. Cossinius Anchialus, a man who
possesses the high esteem both of his patron and his patron's
friends, of whom I am one. I recommend him to you as I
would a freedman of my own, and as though he held the
same position with me as he does with his patron. If he
did I could not recommend him with greater warmth.
Wherefore you will do me a very great favour, if you will
admit him to your friendship and assist him in anything in
which he may need your help, as far as you can do so without
inconvenience. That will be both very gratifying to me
and hereafter a source of pleasure to yourself: for you will
find that he is eminently honest, cultivated, and attentive.