See foot-note, p. 365
Æ. PLINIUS TO HIS DEAR SABINIAN.
“Your late slave, whom you have made free, and with whom you said you were angry, has prostrated himself at my feet, and clung to them, as if they had been yours. He wept much, entreated much, and was much silent. Altogether, he gave me the impression of being penitent. I believe him truly reformed, because he feels that he has done wrong. You will be angry, I know, and rightly so, I know too. But then the special praise of your clemency will be as just as is the cause for your anger. You have loved the man, and I hope you will love him still; meanwhile, it is enough if you will permit yourself to be entreated. You may be angry with him again, if he deserves it, and your anger will then be all the more excusable, because you had granted his prayer. Put something on account of his youth, and of his tears, and of your indulgence. Thus, you will not torment him, nor yourself either. For yourself must suffer if you are angry ever so little. I am afraid lest I should appear not as one who asks, but compels, by joining my prayers with his. But I do so all the more large and profusely, the more sharply and severely I have rebuked him myself, and threatened him roughly, that, after this, I should never intercede for him again; of course, this was meant for him who needed frightening, but not for you. For perhaps I shall ask and obtain again; provided it is of such a kind as it becomes me to ask and you to grant. Farewell.”