The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 25

4. KING THEODORIC TO ECDICIUS (OR BENEDICTUS), VIR HONESTUS.

[Sidenote: Collection of Siliquatic.u.m.]

'We wish always to observe long-established rules in fiscal matters, the best guarantee against extortion. Therefore, whatever dues in the way of _Siliquatic.u.m_ appertained to Antiochus are now transferred to you by the present authority, and the Sajo is charged to support your claims herein; only the contention must not be mixed up with any private matters of your own.'

[The _Siliquatic.u.m_ was a tax of one twenty-fourth--the _siliqua_ being the twenty-fourth of a _solidus_--payable on all sales in market overt by buyer and seller together.]

5. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.

[Sidenote: Soldiers' arrears.]

'We are always generous, and sometimes out of clemency we bestow our gifts on persons who have no claim upon us. How much more fitting is it then that the servants of the State should receive our gifts promptly! Wherefore, pray let your Magnificence see to it that the sixty soldiers who are keeping guard in the fastnesses of Aosta receive their _annonae_ without delay. Think what a life of hardship the soldier leads in those frontier forts for the general peace, thus, as at the gate of the Province, shutting out the entry of the barbarous nations. He must be ever on the alert who seeks to keep out the Barbarians. For fear alone checks these men, whom honour will not keep back.'

[A singular letter to write in the name of one who was himself a Barbarian invader.]

6. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, ILl.u.s.tRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Emba.s.sy to Constantinople.]

'We have decided to send you on an emba.s.sy to the East (Constantinople). Every emba.s.sy requires a prudent man, but here there is need of especial prudence, because you will have to dispute against the most subtle persons--artificers of words, who think they can foresee every possible answer to their arguments. Do your best therefore to justify the opinion which I formed of you before full trial of your powers.'

7. KING THEODORIC TO SURA (OR SUNA), ILl.u.s.tRIS AND COMES.

[Sidenote: Embellishment of the City.]

'Let nothing lie useless which may redound to the beauty of the City.

Let your Ill.u.s.trious Magnificence therefore cause the blocks of marble which are everywhere lying about in ruins to be wrought up into the walls by the hands of the workmen whom I send herewith. Only take care to use only those stones which have really fallen from public buildings, as we do not wish to appropriate private property, even for the glorification of the City.'

8. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP SEVERUS, VIR VENERABILIS.

[Sidenote: Compensation for damage done by troops on march.]

'None is more suitable than a member of the Priesthood to perform acts of justice towards his flock.

'We therefore send your Holiness, by Montanarius, 1,500 solidi (900), for distribution among the Provincials, according to the amount of damage which each one has sustained this year by the pa.s.sage of our army. See that the distribution is made systematically--not at random--so that it may reach the right persons.'

9. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.

[Sidenote: Allowance to a retired charioteer.]

'We always enjoy being generous. Compa.s.sion is the one virtue to which all other virtues may honourably give way. Long ago we made the charioteer Sabinus a monthly allowance of a solidus [twelve shillings]. Now, as we learn from Histrius [or Historius] that this former servant of the public pleasures is afflicted with the most melancholy poverty, we have pleasure in adding _another_ solidus to his monthly allowance. We are never so well pleased as when the accounts of our expenditure show these items of charitable disburs.e.m.e.nt.'

10. KING THEODORIC TO SPECIOSUS, VIR DEVOTUS, COMITIACUS [OFFICER OF THE COURT].

[Sidenote: The abduction of Agapita.]

'The laws guarding the sanct.i.ty of the marriage bed[250] must be carefully upheld.

[Footnote 250: 'Illud Humani generis procreabile Sacramentum.']

'Agapita[251] has explained to us that she was tempted away from her husband by seducers, who promised to procure his death. From the time of her leaving his company let all revenues which came to her under the marriage contract (invalidated by her unfaithfulness) be given up by her wrongful detainers[252] without any delay. It is too absurd that men who ought to be severely punished for their wrong-doing should even seek to make a profit out of it.'

[Footnote 251: 'Foemina spectabilis.']

[Footnote 252: 'Retentatores.' So the Gepid Prince is called the Retentator of Sirmium (Ennodius, Panegyric. Theod. 178. Ed. Migne).]

11. KING THEODORIC TO PROVINUS (PROBINUS?), ILl.u.s.tRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Gift obtained from Agapita under undue influence.]

[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The pet.i.tion of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good reason quitted her own home. Her own pet.i.tion confirms this; and she states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church, she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has brought the poor woman to dest.i.tution. Alienation of property should be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband causelessly.

'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in complying.'

[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores'

referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly identify him with them.]

12. KING THEODORIC TO THE COUNT OF THE SILIQUATARII (CUSTOMS OFFICERS), AND TO HIM WHO HAS THE CARE OF THE HARBOUR (OF PORTUS?).

[Sidenote: Prohibition of export of lard.]

'Italy ought to enjoy her own products, and it is monstrous that anything which she produces should be wanting to her own children.

'Therefore let no lard be exported to foreign parts, but let it by G.o.d's grace be all kept for consumption at home.

'Now take care not to incur the slightest blame in this matter. It is a very serious fault even in trifles to disobey orders. Sin consists in quality, not in quant.i.ty; and injustice cannot be measured. A command, if it be despised in one part, is violated in the whole.'

13. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO[253] FRUINARITH.

[Footnote 253: The Sajo was an officer, not of very high rank, apparently always of Gothic nationality, who was charged with executing the King's mandates. Perhaps our word 'henchman' would be the best translation of his t.i.tle. His conventional attribute was 'devotio.' See Dahn, 'Konige der Germanen' iii. 181-186, and my 'Italy and her Invaders' iii. 282-284.]

[Sidenote: Dishonest conduct of Venantius.]

'We are always especially touched by the prayers of pet.i.tioners who complain that they are forced to pay unjustly. Ulpia.n.u.s in his lamentable pet.i.tion informs us that on the request of Venantius he bound himself as a guarantor (fidei jussionis vinculo) to pay over to the public Treasury at the time of his administration 400 solidi (240). With the presumption of a truculent rustic Venantius despised his own promise, and Ulpia.n.u.s has therefore been burdened with payment of the money. We therefore order that Venantius, who has been accused of many other crimes besides this, shall be summoned before you, and if found to be legally liable, shall be at once, and sharply, compelled to fulfil his promise.'

14. KING THEODORIC TO SYMMACHUS, PATRICIAN.