Kitap 20
8.12
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.
8.13
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.
8.14
As praetorian prefects your clemency shall appoint for us those who are known for their justice and their merits; the promotion of the other civil officials and military officers, as well as of my bodyguard, is properly to be left to my decision. For it would be folly, since it can be prevented from happening, that those should be attached to an emperor’s person whose character and inclinations are unknown to him.
8.15
This at least I would declare without any hesitation: the Gauls, since they have been harassed by long continued troubles and grievous misfortunes, cannot voluntarily or under compulsion send recruits to foreign and distant countries, for fear that, if they lose all their young manhood, downcast as they are by the memory of their past afflictions, even so they may perish from despair at what may befall hereafter.
