Official rescripts and injunctions were brought to him ready written out; Statius looked through them, and if he said it was all right his master affixed his seal. It was about this time that Statius was manumitted, against the advice of Marcus Cicero, who was much vexed at his brother's neglect of his counsels. He writes to Quintus afterwards[1]: "I confess that it displeased me to hear that he has more influence with you than is consonant with the gravity of your time of life, or with the prudence which your high station demands. You cannot think how many persons came to beg it as a favour from me, that I would say a good word for them with Statius; or how often in the freedom of conversation Statius himself came out with 'I did not approve of this,' 'I warned him,' 'I persuaded him,' 'I deterred him.' Now however great his faithfulness in these matters (which I quite accept on your judgment), yet for the world to see a slave or freedman in such favour is far from dignified." Quintus revenged himself very neatly for his brother's sermonising. When the time comes for Tiro to be manumitted, Quintus writes[2] expressing great pleasure that Tiro, "who is so much superior to the station in which he was born, will by your act be raised from being a slave to be our friend," and he adds that he knows what a treasure is a faithful freedman from his own experience of Statius.
Tiro was beloved by the whole family. Quintus writes to him in the most cordial tone; he scolds
