The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 85

16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO A REVENUE OFFICER[850].

[Footnote 850: 'Canonicario.']

[This interesting letter is one of the few written by Ca.s.siodorus as Praetorian Praefect which we can date with certainty. It is written apparently at the beginning of the first Indiction, i.e. Sept. 1, 537.

Witigis and the Goths have been for nearly six months besieging Rome, and are beginning to be discouraged as to its capture. Ca.s.siodorus is probably at Ravenna, directing the machine of government from that capital.]

[Sidenote: Payment of Trina Illatio.]

'Time, which adapts itself incessantly to the course of human affairs, and reconciles us even to adversity[851], has brought round again the period for collecting the _Trina Illatio_ from the taxpayer. Let the peasant (_possessor_) pay in your Diocese, for this first Indiction, his instalment of the tax freely, not being urged too soon nor allowed to postpone it too late, so that he may plead that he has been let off from payment[852]. Let none exceed the fair weight, but let him use a just pound: if once the true weight is allowed to be exceeded, there is no limit to extortion[853].

[Footnote 851: 'Dum res n.o.bis etiam asperas captata semper opinione conciliat.' Apparently a veiled allusion to the disasters of the Goths.]

[Footnote 852: 'Nec iterum remissione lentata quisquam se dicat esse praeteritum.']

[Footnote 853: This mention of the just weight of course suits a tax paid in kind, not in money.]

'Let a faithful account of the expenses of collection be rendered every four months to our office[854], that, all error and obscurity being removed, truth may be manifest in the public accounts.

[Footnote 854: 'Expensarum quoque fidelem not.i.tiam per quaternos menses ad scrinia nostra solemniter destinabis.']

'That you may, with G.o.d's help, be the better able to fulfil our instructions, I have ordered A and B, servants of our tribunal, who are mindful of their own past responsibilities, to a.s.sist you and your staff[855]. Beware therefore, lest you incur the blame of corruptly discharging the taxpayer, or of sluggish idleness in the discharge of your duties, in which case your own fortunes will suffer from your neglect.'

[Footnote 855: 'Illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites, tibi officioque tuo periculorum suorum memores praecipimus imminere.']

17. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOHN, SILIQUATARIUS[856] OF RAVENNA.

[Footnote 856: Collector of the Siliquatic.u.m, or tax of one twenty-fourth on sales. See ii. 30, iii. 35, iv. 19.]

[Sidenote: Defence of Ravenna.]

'In times of peace, by contact with foreigners who swarm in our cities, we learn what will be our best defence in war. Who can tell with what nation we may be next at war? Therefore, to be on the safe side, make such preparations as our future enemies, whosoever they may be, will dislike to hear of. Accordingly you are to order the peasants to dig a series of pits with wide mouths near the mountains of Caprarius and the parts round about the walls[857]; and let such a chasm yawn there that there shall be no possibility of entrance that way.

[Footnote 857: No doubt the walls of Ravenna. I cannot identify the Mons Caprarius. The name Caprera is a common one in Italy.]

'If strangers want to enter the city, why do they not enter it in the right way--by the gates--instead of going skulking about these bye-paths? Henceforth, anyone trying to take any such short cut to our city will probably find that he loses his life in consequence[858].'

[Footnote 858: One may conjecture that this letter was written in 535, when war with the Empire was imminent, but before it was actually declared.]

18. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO CONSTANTIAN, VIR EXPERIENTISSIMUS.

[Sidenote: Repair of Flaminian Way.]

'Great is the reward of those who serve Kings efficiently; as severe is the punishment of those who neglect their duties towards them.

'How delightful is it to journey without obstacles over a well-made road[859], to pa.s.s doubtful places without fear, to ascend mountainous steeps by a gentle incline, to have no fear of the planking of a bridge when one crosses it[860], and in short to accomplish one's journey so that everything happens to one's liking!

[Footnote 859: 'Videre judicia diligentia.' I leave this clause untranslated, as I cannot understand it.]

[Footnote 860: 'In pontibus contrabium non tremere.']

'This is the pleasure which you can now prepare for your Sovereign.

Therefore, as the Flaminian Way is furrowed by the action of torrents, join the yawning chasms by the broadest of bridges; clear away the rough woods which choke the sides of the highway; procure the stipulated number of post-horses, and see that they have all the points which are required in a good steed; collect the designated quant.i.ties of provisions without plundering the peasants. A failure in any one of these particulars will ruin your whole service.

[Sidenote: Supply of delicacies for the King's table.]

'Collect, too, with the utmost diligence the spices which are needed for the King's table. What avails it to have satisfied the army, if the King's own board lack proper care. Let all the Provincials attend to your admonitions: let the cities furnish the stores set forth in the accompanying letters. Then, when they have put the Sovereign in a good humour, they may ask him for benefits to some purpose.

'Think of me as present and as judging of all your deeds. I shall have to bear the blame of your failures at Court; so act rather as to set my mind at rest, to cover me and yourselves with glory, and to ent.i.tle me to receive on your behalf the thanks of the whole army.'

[This letter was probably written in the autumn of 535, when Theodahad was preparing to march to Rome. The mention of the delicacies for the royal table suggests that that King, in addition to the other excellencies of his character, was probably an epicure.]

19. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO MAXIMUS, VICARIUS OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Bridge of boats across the Tiber.]

'As all great events in Nature have their heralding signs, so is the approaching visit of the King announced to you even by the concourse of wayfarers to your City. We, however, have to order you to clothe the waves of Tiber with a bridge [of boats]. The boat, thus used, is no longer moved by slowly hauled ropes, as it is wont to be. Fixed itself, it affords a means of transit to others. The joining of its planks gives the desired appearance of solidity; all the terror of the waves is removed by its likeness to the land, and the traveller pa.s.sing over it unharmed only wishes that the bridge were longer.

'Let a safe bulwark of lattice-work shield the bridge on the right side and on the left. See that you give no cause for misadventure of any kind. You have a n.o.ble opportunity of distinguishing yourself in the presence of so many Senators and of the King himself, the rewarder of every well-done work. On the other hand, if you do it badly and put him out of humour, woe be unto you!

'We send A B, a servant of our Praefecture[861], to a.s.sist you and your staff and bring us report of the accomplishment of the work; for so heavy is our responsibility in this matter that we dare not leave anything to chance.'

[Footnote 861: 'Illum sedis nostrae militem.']

[The King whose advent to Rome is here announced may be Witigis, after his election in the plains of Regeta (August, 536). But the fact that he is apparently approaching Rome by the northern bank of the Tiber, coupled with the directions in the preceding letter for the repair of the Flaminian Way, makes it more probable that some visit of Theodahad (probably in the year 535), when he would come from Ravenna to Rome, is here in prospect.]

20. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THOMAS AND PETER, VIRI CLARISSIMI AND ARCARII.

[Sidenote: Sacred vessels mortgaged by Pope Agapetus to be restored to the stewards of the Papal See.]

'You will remember, most faithful Sirs, that when the holy Agapetus, Pope of the City of Rome, was sent as amba.s.sador to the Sovereign of the East[862], he received so many pounds of gold from you for the expenses of the journey, for which he gave his bond[863] and deposited some of the Church plate as security[864]. The provident ruler thus lent him money in his necessity, and now, far more gloriously, returns as a free gift those pledges which the Pope might well have thanked him for taking.

[Footnote 862: He was sent by Theodahad; entered Constantinople February 20, 536, and died there 21st April of the same year.]

[Footnote 863: 'Facto pictacio.']

[Footnote 864: 'Vasa sanctorum.' One would think this must refer to the vessels used in celebrating ma.s.s; but I do not quite see how the meaning is to be got out of the words.]

'Therefore, in obedience to these instructions of ours, and fortified by the Royal order, do you return without any delay to the stewards[865] of the holy Apostle Peter the vessels of the saints together with the written obligation, that these things may be felt to be profitably restored and speedily granted, that the longed-for means of performing their world-famous ministrations may be replaced in the hands of the Levites. Let that be given back which was their own, since that is justly received back by way of largesse which the Priest had legally mortgaged.

[Footnote 865: 'Actoribus.']

'Herein is the great example of King Alaric surpa.s.sed. He, when glutted with the spoil of Rome, having received the vessels of the Apostle Peter from his men, when he heard the story of their seizure, ordered them to be carried back across the sacred threshold, that so the remembrance of the cupidity of their capture might be effaced by the generosity of their restoration.