The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 81

[Footnote 788: 'Eorum est etiam sudoribus applicandum, quod victuales expensae longe quidem positae, _sed tamquam in urbe Regia natae_ [I do not quite understand this ant.i.thesis] sine querela Provincialium congregantur.']

[Footnote 789: 'Labores, violenti magistri, solliciti paedagogi, per quos cautior quis efficitur dum incurri pericula formidantur.']

'Such men ought a.s.suredly to receive their stipulated rewards; and therefore we order you to pay regularly so many solidi of the third instalment, from the land-tax of the Province of Campania[790], to such and such a person, who has now just completed his term of service as Primiscrinius.'

[Footnote 790: 'Ex canone provinciae Campaniae tertiae illationis tot solidos solenniter te dare censemus.']

38. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOANNES, CANONICARIUS[791] OF THUSCIA.

[Footnote 791: Tax-collector.]

[Sidenote: Praises of paper.]

'Rightly did Antiquity ordain that a large store of paper should be laid in by our Bureaux (Scrinia), that litigants might receive the decision of the Judge clearly written, without delay, and without avaricious and impudent charges for the paper which bore it[792].

[Footnote 792: Lydus (De Magistratibus iii. 14) makes a similar remark, but says that in his time the copying clerks (Exceptarii, or Exceptores) supplied disgracefully bad paper made of gra.s.s, and charged a fee for doing so.]

'A wonderful product in truth is this wherewith ingenious Memphis has supplied all the offices in the world. The plants of Nile arise, a wood without leaves or branches, a harvest of the waters, the fair tresses of the marshes, plants full of emptiness, spongy, thirsty, having all their strength in their outer rind, tall and light, the fairest fruit of a foul inundation.

'Before Paper was discovered, all the sayings of the wise, all the thoughts of the ancients, were in danger of peris.h.i.+ng. Who could write fluently or pleasantly on the rough bark of trees, though it is from that practice that we call a book _Liber_? While the scribe was laboriously cutting his letters on the sordid material, his very thought grew cold: a rude contrivance a.s.suredly, and only fit for the beginnings of the world.

'Then was paper discovered, and therewith was eloquence made possible.

Paper, so smooth and so continuous, the snowy entrails of a green herb; paper which can be spread out to such a vast extent, and yet be folded up into such a little s.p.a.ce; paper, on whose white expanse the black characters look beautiful; paper which keeps the sweet harvest of the mind, and restores it to the reader whenever he chooses to consult it; paper which is the faithful witness of all human actions, eloquent of the past, a sworn foe to oblivion.

'Therefore for this thirteenth Indiction[793] pay so many solidi from the land-tax of the Tuscan Province to our Bureau, that it may be able to keep in perpetuity a faithful record of all its transactions.'

[Footnote 793: Sept. 1, 534. The reading 'de tertiae decimae Indictionis rationibus' seems required by the sense, instead of 'tertiam de decimae Indictionis rationibus.' It is quite clear that Ca.s.siodorus was not Praetorian Praefect at the tenth Indiction.]

39. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS VITALIAN, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Payment by Province of Bruttii of commuted cattle-tax.]

'The vast numbers of the Roman people in old time are evidenced by the extensive Provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as by the wide circuit of their walls, the ma.s.sive structure of their amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the enormous mult.i.tude of mills, which could only have been made for use, not for ornament.

'It was to feed this population, that mountainous Lucania paid her tribute of swine, that fertile Bruttii furnished her droves of oxen.

It was a glorious privilege for them thus to feed the Roman people: yet the length of roads over which the animals had to be driven made the tribute unnecessarily burdensome, since every mile reduced their weight, and the herdsman could not possibly obtain credit at the journey's end for the same number of pounds of flesh which he possessed at its beginning. For this reason the tribute was commuted into a money payment, one which no journeyings can diminish and no toil can wound. The Provinces should understand and respond to this favourable change, and not show themselves more slack than their ancestors were, under far more burdensome conditions. Your Diligence has now collected both these taxes[794] at the appointed periods; and I am glad of it, that my countrymen, who have served alien magistrates with praiseworthy diligence, might not seem negligent under my rule. These Provinces, which I, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather have benefited as private persons, I have endeavoured to help yet more earnestly while I bore the majesty of the _fasces_, that they who have rejoiced in my exaltation might see that I still retained my love for our common country. Let them pay the tax then, not from fear but from love. I have prevailed on the royal generosity to limit its amount; for whereas it used to be 1,200 solidi [720] annually, it is henceforward to be 1,000 [600][795].'

[Footnote 794: 'Ambos t.i.tulos.']

[Footnote 795: This sum seems ridiculously small for the Province of Bruttii. Can it be the sum a.s.sessed on each district?]

40. AN INDULGENCE [OR AMNESTY TO PRISONERS ON SOME GREAT FESTIVAL OF THE CHURCH, PROBABLY EASTER].

[Sidenote: General Amnesty.]

'All the year we are bound to tread in the path of Justice, but on this day we secure our approach to the Redeemer by the path of Forgiveness. Therefore we forswear punishments of all kinds, we condemn the torture, and thus feel ourselves, in forgiving, to be more truly than ever a Judge.

'Hail to thee, O Clemency[796], patroness of the human race! thou reignest in the heavens and on the earth: and most fitting is it that, at sacred seasons like this, thou shouldest be supreme.

[Footnote 796: 'Indulgentia.']

'Therefore, O Lictor, thou who art allowed to do with impunity the very thing for which other men are punished, put up thy axe; let it be henceforth bright, not b.l.o.o.d.y. Let the chains which have been so often wet with tears now grow rusty. The prison--that house of Pluto, in which men suffer a living death, from its foul odours, from the sound of groaning which a.s.sails their ears, from the long fastings which destroy their taste, from the heavy weights which weary their hands, from the endless darkness which makes their eyes grow dim--let the prison now be filled with emptiness. Never is it so popular as when it is seen to be deserted.

'And you, its denizens, who are thus in a manner transplanted to Heaven from h.e.l.l, avoid the evil courses which made you acquainted with its horrors. Even animals shun the things which they have once found harmful. Cattle which have once fallen into a pit seek not again the same road. The bird once snared shuns bird-lime. The pike buries himself in deep sand, that he may escape the drag-net, and when it has sc.r.a.ped his back leaps nimbly into the waves and expresses by his gambols his joy for his deliverance. When the wra.s.se[797] finds that he is caught in an osier trap, he moves himself slowly backwards till he can leave his tail protruding, that one of his fellows, perceiving his capture, may pull him out from his prison.

[Footnote 797: 'Scarus.']

'So too the Sauri (?), a clever race of fish, named from their speed, when they have swum into a net, tie themselves together into a sort of rope; and then, tugging backwards with all their might, seek to liberate their fellow-prisoners.

'Many facts of the same kind would be discovered on enquiry. But my discourse must return to thee, O Gaoler. Thou wilt be miserable in the general joy, because thou art wont to derive thy gladness from the affliction of many. But as some consolation for thy groans, we leave to thee those prisoners whom the Law, for very pity's sake, cannot set free--the men found guilty of outrageous crimes, whose liberation would make barbarous deeds frequent. Over these thou mayest still exert thy power.'

BOOK XII.

CONTAINING TWENTY-EIGHT LETTERS WRITTEN BY Ca.s.sIODORUS IN HIS OWN NAME AS PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

1. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE VARIOUS CANCELLARII OF THE SEVERAL PROVINCES.

[Sidenote: General instructions to the Cancellarii.]

'It is generally supposed that long attendance at the Courts of Law increases the love of justice. The character of the Judge also is in some degree estimated by that of his officers[798], as that of a philosophical teacher by his disciples. Thus your bad actions might endanger our reputation, while, on the other hand, with no effort on our part, we earn glory from all that you do well. Beware, therefore, lest by any misconduct of yours, which is sure to be exaggerated by popular rumour, you rouse anger in us, who as your Judge will be sure to exact stern recompence for all the wrong you have done to our reputation. Study this rather, that you may receive praise and promotion at our hands, and go forth, with Divine help, on this Indiction, to such and such a Province, adorned with the pomp of the Cancelli, and girt about with a certain proud gravity. Remember the honour of the _fasces_ which are borne before you, of the Praetorian seat whose commands you execute.

[Footnote 798: 'Per milites suos judex intelligitur.']

'Fly Avarice, the Queen of all the vices, who never enters the human heart alone, but always brings a flattering and deceiving train along with her. Show yourself zealous for the public good; do more by reason than by terror. Let your person be a refuge for the oppressed, a defence of the weak, a stronghold for him who is stricken down by any calamity. Never do you more truly discharge the functions of the Cancelli than when you open the prison doors to those who have been unjustly confined.'

2. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES (A.D. 534-535).

[Sidenote: General instructions to the Provincial Governors.]

'G.o.d be thanked, the Provincials have attended to all my admonitions, and I have kept all my promises to them. You, as Judges, have admirably copied my own freedom from corruption, and I can only desire that you will go on as you have begun.

'Let the peasant pay cheerfully his share of the public taxes, and I on my part will guarantee him the administration of justice in the courts[799].

[Footnote 799: 'Possessor mihi publicas pecunias libens inferat: ego illi in conventus just.i.tiae tributa persolvam.']

'It was evidently the intention of the legislators that you should be imitators of our dignity, since they have given you almost the same jurisdiction in the Provinces as ourselves.

'What avails the reputation of being a rich man? It confers no glory.

But to be known as a just man wins the praise of all. Nothing mean or avaricious is becoming in a Judge. All his faults are made more conspicuous by his elevation. Better were it to be absolutely unknown, than to be marked out for the scorn of all men. Let us keep our own brews clear from shame; then can we rebuke the sins of others. A terrible leveller is iniquity: it makes the Judge himself feel like the culprit who is tried before him. All these considerations, according to my custom, I bring before you in this my yearly address, since it is impossible ever to have too much of a good thing[800].