The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 41

4. 16. Nothing seems to be expressly said in this letter about the appointment of a _Curator_.]

36. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT. A.D. 509-510.

[Sidenote: Remission of taxes for Provincials of Cottian Alps.]

'A wise ruler will always lessen the weight of taxation when his subjects are weighed down by temporary poverty. Therefore let your Magnificence remit to the Provincials of the Cottian Alps the _as public.u.m_ for this year [the third Indiction], in consideration of their losses by the pa.s.sage of our army. [The army of Ibbas, on its march in 408 to fight Clovis, after the fall of the Visigothic Monarchy.] True, that army went forth with shouts of concord to _liberate_ Gaul. But so a river bursting forth may irrigate and fertilise a whole country, and yet destroy the increase of that particular channel in which its waters run.

'We have earned new subjects by that campaign: we do not wish them to suffer loss by it. Our own heart whispers to us the request which the subjects dare not utter to their Prince.'

37. KING THEODORIC TO THE ILl.u.s.tRIOUS WOMAN THEODAGUNDA.

[Sidenote: Theodagunda is admonished to do justice to Renatus.]

Warns Theodagunda [apparently a member of the royal family and governing some Province; but what place could she hold in the Roman official hierarchy?], that she must emulate the virtue of her ancestors and show prompt obedience to the royal commands. 'The lamentable pet.i.tion of Renatus states that, after judgment given in his favour by the King's Court, he is still hara.s.sed by the litigation (not in the way of regular appeal) of Inquilina, who appears to be not so much desirous of victory as anxious to ruin his adversary.'

[Notwithstanding the form of the name I think Inquilina is male, not female.]

'You must see that this is put right at once.'

38. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

[Sidenote: Taxes must be reduced to the figure at which they stood in the days of Odoacer.]

'The inhabitants of Gravasi (?) and Ponto (?) complain that they have been overloaded with taxes by the a.s.sessors (discussores) Probus and Januarius. They have bad land, and say that they really cannot cope with the taxes imposed upon them [at the last Indiction?]. The former practice is to be reverted to, and they are not to be called upon to pay more than they did in the days of Odoacer.' [An evidence that in one case at least the fiscal yoke of Odoacer was lighter than that of his successor.]

39. KING THEODORIC TO THEODAHAD, VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS [AND NEPHEW OF THE KING].

[Sidenote: The encroachments of Theodahad repressed.]

'Avarice, which Holy Writ declares to be "the root of all evil," is a vulgar vice which you, our kinsman, a man of Amal blood, whose family is known to be royal, are especially bound to avoid[352].

[Footnote 352: 'Amali sanguinis virum nos decet vulgare desiderium: quia genus suum conspicit esse purpuratum.']

'The Spectabilis Domitius complains to us that such and such portions of his property have been seized by you with the strong hand, without any pretence of establis.h.i.+ng a legal claim to them.

'We send the Sajo Duda to you, and order you on his arrival[353], without any delay, to restore the property which you have taken possession of, with all the moveables of which you have despoiled it.

[Footnote 353: 'Si momenti tempora suffragantur.' What is the meaning of this limitation?]

'If you have any claim to make to the lands in question, send a person fully informed of the facts to our Comitatus, and there let the case be fairly heard.

'A high-born man should ever act according to well-ordered _civilitas_. Any neglect of this principle brings upon him odium, proportioned to the oppression which the man of humbler rank conceives himself to have suffered at his hands.'

40. KING THEODORIC TO THE REPRESENTATIVES (ACTORES) OF PROBINUS.

[Sidenote: The affair of Agapeta. Basilius, her husband, ordered to plead.]

Recurs to the case of the Possessio Areciretina, which Agapeta, the wife of Basilius, had given (or sold) to Probinus, and which Probinus was commanded to restore. (See Letters ii. 10 and 11.)

The pet.i.tion, now presented by the representatives of Probinus, puts a somewhat different face upon the matter, and seems to show that the sale by Agapeta (notwithstanding her melancholy condition of fatuity and vice) was a _bona fide_ one, for sufficient consideration.

Her husband Basilius is now ordered to reply to the pleadings of the opposite party, either at the King's Comitatus, or in some local court of competent jurisdiction. The King's Comitatus is meant to be a blessing to his subjects, and recourse to it is not made compulsory where, on account of distance, the suitor would rather be excused from resorting to it.

41. KING THEODORIC TO JOANNES, ARCH-PHYSICIAN.

[Sidenote: An unjust judgment against Joannes reversed.]

'A King should delight to succour the oppressed.

'You inform us that, by the devices of the Spectabilis Vivia.n.u.s and his superior knowledge of the laws, an unjust judgment was obtained against you, in default, in the Court of the Vicarius of the City of Rome: that Vivia.n.u.s himself has now renounced the world, repents of his injustice to you, and interposes no obstacle to the rest.i.tution of your rights. We therefore (if your statements shall prove to be correct) quash the sentence against you, restore you to your country and your property, and that you may be preserved from future molestation, founded on the old sentence against you, we a.s.sign you to the guardians.h.i.+p (tuitio) of the Patrician Albinus, without prejudice to the laws (salvis legibus).

'We wish that nothing contrary to _civilitas_ should be done, since our daily labour is for the repose of all.' [I presume that this letter is in fact an edict for 'Rest.i.tutio in integrum.']

42. KING THEODORIC TO ARGOLICUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.

[Sidenote: The sons of Velusian to have their property restored to them.]

'Under a good King the loss even of a father should be less felt than with a different ruler, for the King is the father of his people.

'The pet.i.tion of Marcian and Maximius, sons of Velusian (Patrician and Magnificus), sets forth that they lost their father at Easter; that thus the time of joy to all Christians became to them a season of sorrow; that while they were immersed in their grief and incapable of attending to their affairs, "the tower of the circus and the place of the amphitheatre[354]," which had belonged to their ill.u.s.trious father, were by some heartless intriguer wrested from them, under the authority of the Praefect.

[Footnote 354: Can this be the Amphitheatrum Castrense?]

'Be pleased to enquire into this matter, and if those places truly belonged to Velusian, restore them to his sons. We wish to cherish rather than oppress the sons of ill.u.s.trious men, who are the germ of our future Senate.'

43. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Punishment of incendiaries who have burned a Jewish Synagogue.]

[On the burning of the Jewish synagogue. This synagogue of the Jews was in the Trastevere. See Gregorovius i. 296-298 for a description of it. I do not know on what authority he a.s.signs 521 for the date of the tumult in which it was burned.]

'The propriety of manners which is characteristic of the City of Rome must be upheld. To fall into the follies of popular tumult, and to set about burning their own City, is not like the Roman disposition[355].

[Footnote 355: 'Levitates quippe seditionum et ambire propriae civitatis incendium, non est velle Romanum.']

'But we are informed by Count Arigern[356] that the populace of Rome, enraged at the punishment inflicted on some Christian servants who had murdered their Jewish masters, has risen in fury and burned their synagogue to the ground[357], idly venting on innocent buildings their anger against the men who used them.

[Footnote 356: It happens that one of the letters addressed to Count Arigern also refers to a Jewish synagogue. See iii. 45.]

[Footnote 357: 'Quod in dominorum caede proruperit servilis audacia: in quibus c.u.m fuisset pro districtione publica resecatum, statim plebis inflammata contentio synagogam temerario duxerunt incendio concremandam.' The above is Gregorovius' explanation of the somewhat enigmatical language of Ca.s.siodorus.]

'Be pleased to enquire into this matter, and severely punish the authors of the tumult, who are probably few in number.