Variae & Works 13

Whoever is sent forth from the inner chambers of a judge is believed to be a great man, since a man is esteemed to love justice the more, the more often it is established that he heard it from him. A judge is understood through his soldiers, and as disciples betray the knowledge of their master, so the manners of those who attend us disclose us. The headlong man is not thought to have served a moderate master, the greedy is not perceived to have obeyed a self-restrained one: the foolish is not believed to have served the prudent. We are in peril, I confess, in our actions, if you should conduct yourselves with evil intent and—what befalls none of you—another's vice be celebrated as our reproach. We undergo such mishaps as we cannot judge in others, and the law which all enjoy cannot be kept in our case.

But on the other side we have again a consolation, in that your good deeds are believed to be our commands, and whatever of glory is gained by your labors is acquired for us though we be idle. For if anyone should see you acting wisely, at once he exalts the fame of your instructor, since such teaching is believed to have been given, as the deeds are no less perceived to be. The verdict of the common people is one: that judges are such as you may happen to be approved to be. And therefore great care must be taken, lest he begin to judge of you whose reputation you may chance to have torn before. He avenges with penalties what you have spread in tales, and repays with your torments what the wounded populace exaggerates.

How perilous it is to endure a judge reasonably angered, and to have him decide concerning your fortunes whom it is established that you have grievously provoked! Wherefore strive rather that you be praised by our voice, for as the judge's word, when adverse, can press you down, so a most prosperous verdict can raise you up. Go forth therefore, with God's help, through that indiction to that province, adorned with the pomp of the chancel-bars and girt with glorious gravity. Though absent, think on the modesty of one present. For why should you, who serve under honor, attempt anything base? The fasces of the judges obey you, and while you are believed to bear the commands of the praetorian seat, you in a manner assume that very power, to be revered. Be the first to observe our edicts: show the good way to those who look to you.

For what kind of judge is it to keep the commands, if the soldiers seem to neglect our ordinances? Flee that queen of shameless vices, avarice, to whom all crimes do service with detestable devotion: who, when once she has entered the breast of a man, admits also her malefic cohorts in droves. Once received, she cannot be borne, since she knows not how to be solitary. She has a most flattering retinue, takes up arms made of talents, and by sweetness overcomes those whom she captures with bitter deception. Therefore be diligent for public advantages: procure what is enjoined by moral compulsion. He who inculcates reason accomplishes more than the terrible can effect. Let your person be a refuge for the oppressed, a defense for the weak, a safeguard for one hemmed in by some calamity.

For thus you properly conduct our chancel-bars, if you loose the impious fetters of the injured. I give thanks to the Divinity, because the provincials too have done what I admonished, and I have fulfilled all that I promised. For no one felt me defiled by any venality, nor did I tolerate undutiful taxpayers. We have on both sides that which we ought to love in ourselves: they found affectionate judges, we have acquired most upright criers. Let us therefore, by God's grace, carry on what we have begun. Let the landholder gladly bring in to me the public moneys: I will pay out to him the tributes in the assembly of justice. To you, moreover, what is truly perceived to have been done is conveniently repeated, since a great hope for the future is rendered concerning things past.

For you have proved that we compelled no one to give what he ought not to have offered. No one was afflicted by me with losses, whether public or private. We made the terrors of the auditors to be unknown. Nor did we seek extraordinary exactions, who wished all things to be conducted by the laws. But neither should you be dissimilar in that part. The rulers willed that the laws be imitators of our dignity, on whom they conferred almost the same jurisdiction throughout the provinces as upon ourselves. Justice, which is to be followed, repudiates no one: it makes illustrious all whom it exalts by participation in itself: he alone makes himself less who has departed from it. Why should we follow the wishes of receiving? He receives no glory who is called rich: on the contrary, he is adorned with all praise who is proclaimed just.

Let us rather desire that which makes us more precious than the wealthy. We take up the fasces that we may be obliged to be weighty: we ascend the tribunals that we may be borne up by the grades of character. Nothing base, nothing covetous, becomes judges. For they render their own stains conspicuous, if those to whom many look should grow sordid by some reproach. Otherwise it is more expedient not to be seen than to be marked by the mockery of all. Let all of us, then, who seek the heights of the seats of office, forsake the lowliness of vices. Let there be in us an open brow, that we may be able to amend the sins of others. Every crime levels those whom it stains, and therefore he who judges ought to be unlike the accused. It befits us to speak these things in a yearly address, because of good things there is no surfeit. I confess the eagerness of my desire:

I desire that I may wish to be proclaimed together with you. Let us now come to the customary matters: which ought therefore to be received with gratitude, because they are proved to be solemn observances. Wherefore—and may it be spoken with good fortune—we command you and your office, with God's help, to admonish the landholder to pay the tributes of the thirteenth indiction with devout mind, so that, the regulation of the threefold instalment being kept, he may bring in the function owed to the commonwealth. Let the appointed times of the exactions be observed, yet so that no one may groan that he was levied upon under the wrong of premature compulsion, nor again that a ruinous bounty of postponements be furnished under base venality. For the delay of a tribute becomes the cause of a greater loss, when that is vainly suspended which is avoided by no procrastinations.

You shall also hasten, by the observed custom, to direct to our offices a faithful account of expenditures comprised every four months, so that, the fog of all error being wiped away, the clearness of the public reckoning may appear. For if you should do otherwise, the losses regard you, which through your neglect are heaped upon the public interests. And that you may the more easily, with God's aid, accomplish what has been ordained, we command, in the customary manner, that such-and-such soldiers of our seat press upon you and your office, so that our ordinance may attain its effect without blame. Beware therefore lest you show yourself unequal to our admonitions, for it is too foul that we should rather approve as needing pruning the very man from whom we demand back things worthy of praise.

It is indeed fitting that all things be carried on under tranquillity, in such manner as may accord with good morals. But so great in the commonwealth is the diversity arising from the variety of characters, that no one is able to defend the laws unless terror seem to temper something. For the sick there is not one cause of health: one is restored by foods, another is reduced by the benefits of abstinence: this one seeks soothing baths, that one the iron for his wounds: and the differing quality of afflictions demands a varied remedy. So he who is known to preside over peoples is found endowed with no single counsel. The fierce must be pressed down with strictness, the gentle admonished in a civil way: the crafty are to be handled cautiously, the simple under mildness.

And therefore prudence is everywhere proved to be necessary, since it is seen to apply itself fittingly to all matters. Wherefore we depute your devotion, in solemn manner, to the support of that most distinguished man, our chancellor, so that you rise up against no other man save him who has scorned to obey the laws. Drag to the forum him who does not accept what is just: be angry under self-restraint, exact under maturity. We wish you to be feared rather than approved, because that especially will be reckoned to your vigor, if by no one's presumption there be any sinning. Let the faithful exaction of the public money be considered before all things. Let the contempt of another be your advantage. Let him do under compulsion what he has neglected to fulfil of his own will. Apply yourself only to the cases delegated to you.

If you follow the precepts, you do not seek out byways. He is free from fault who has performed what was commanded. In an executor this is the worst, if he abandon the judge's discretion. Do not boast of this, that you cannot be opposed, nor wish to assume arrogance because the lowliness of many dreads you. Brave men are always modest in peace, and those who have often handled battles love justice exceedingly. How pleasing it is, if, returning among your kinsfolk, you bring back no reproach of complaints, but they recognize that you have so acted as diligent men are proved to wish! We too gladly receive him who comes with praise, and we do not allow him to be free for leisure whom we perceive to have acted commendably.

To these men also the Lord of affairs entrusts greater things, whom he has proved to have managed their own concerns with a good conscience. How great are the things that the wise can carry off! No one acquires more than he who has conducted himself with a good manner of life. The most opulent furnishing of the royal table is proved to be no small ornament of the commonwealth, since the Lord is believed to possess as much as the novelties on which he feasts. It belongs to a private man to have what one place produces: at a royal banquet this surely befits to be sought out, which the sight ought to admire. Let the Danube dispatch the carp, from the Rhine let the anchorago come, let the exormiston of Sicily be offered, however laborious; let the Bruttian sea send sweet acerniae: let savory fish be brought from diverse ends of the earth.

Thus it befits a king to feast, that by the envoys of the nations he may be believed to possess well-nigh all things. And therefore wines must be procured, such as Italy singularly nourishes in her fruitfulness, lest we who ought to crave foreign things should seem not to have sought out our own. By the report of the count of the patrimony it has been declared that the acinaticium—which has its name from the grape (acinus)—has been diminished in the court cellars. And since all dignities ought mutually to minister to one another the necessities which are proved to pertain to the lords of affairs, we command you to approach the landholders of Verona, where the special care of this matter lies, so that, a competent price being received, no one may delay to sell what he ought to offer to the royal favor. A worthy product indeed, of which Italy may boast.

For although ingenious Greece commends herself by manifold subtlety of diligence and seasons her wines either with perfumes or flavors them with admixtures of the sea, yet under so great a search nothing is found to have its like. For this is a wine both royal in color and pre-eminent in flavor, so that you would think the purple-fish to be dyed from its very springs, or its liquors to be pressed out of the purple. There a sweetness is felt of ineffable suavity: it is strengthened by I know not what firmness of body: its touch grows rich with density, so that you might say it is either a fleshy liquid or an edible drink. It pleases me to relate how singular its gathering appears to be.

In autumn, the grape gathered from the vines is hung upside-down on the trellises of the homestead, kept in its own vessels, guarded in natural casings. It wrinkles, it does not liquefy from age: then, sweating out its insipid humors, it grows sweet with great suavity. It is drawn out to the month of December, until the winter season opens its flow, and in a marvelous way it begins to be new, when in all the cellars it is found to be old. A wintry must, the cold blood of the grapes, a vintage in the frost, a bloody liquor, a drinkable purple, a violet nectar—it first ferments in its own origin, and when it has been able to mature, it begins to have a perpetual newness. It is not injuriously trodden with heels, nor darkened by any admixture of filth, but, as is fitting, so great a nobility is brought forth.

It flows down while the water hardens: it is fruitful when all the fruit of the fields is gone. It distills a liquor matching gems: it weeps forth I know not what delightful thing, and besides that its sweetness delights, in appearance its beauty is singular. This, sought out as quickly as may be and gathered at competent prices, hand over to the charter-keepers who have been dispatched for the matter, to be conveyed; nor should you think that to be neglected which shines back with a milky cup, since that is the more marvelous which you have been able only with greater difficulty to find. There the whiteness is comely and the purity serene, so that one would be believed born of roses, the other of lilies. Foreign indeed in color, but kindred in flavor: the aspect unlike, yet in both a like suavity.

For that it tastes sharply, that it quickly restores, is understood to be common to them both; but great is the distance which appears between them. This one you behold glad with redness, that one you look upon festive with whiteness. And therefore their procurement ought to be most swift, since there is known to be in both that which is equally to be sought. Generally indeed it befits a most exalted magistrate to enlarge his benefits, since he who is known to preside over all is judged to bestow profitable things upon all. But, nature favoring it, we owe more to those who are joined to us by some nearness, since to depart from equality seems to be a certain kind of right intention.

For we render modesty to colleagues, we exhibit reverence to fathers, we owe a common favor to fellow-citizens, but a singular affection to sons: and so great is the force of kinships, that no one judges himself to be despised, if he recognizes that another's pledges have been preferred to himself. And therefore it is nothing unjust to be more solicitous for one's native land, especially at that time when we seem to come to the aid of its perils. For we are believed to love the more those whom we hasten to rescue. Therefore the numerous army that is coming, which is known to be destined for the defense of the commonwealth, is said to have laid waste the cultivated lands of Lucania and the Bruttii and to have thinned the abundance of those regions by its zeal for plunder.

But since it is necessary, according to the quality of the time, both to give to the one and to take from the other, learn from the command of the Lord of affairs the prices which the ancient order established to be moderated, so that, far more closely than you were wont to sell, they ought to be reckoned as furnished into the public lump-sum, in such a way that neither may the landholder sustain losses nor the toiling army endure want. Be not, therefore, anxious. You have escaped the hands of the exactors; the present apparatus takes the tributes from you. But that your knowledge might be the more easily instructed, we have judged that the sums of the imputations should be set forth in the briefs written below, that no one may sell you a benefit which you know was conferred by public bounty. Restrain, therefore, the intemperate motions of the landholders.

Let those love quiet things whom no one drives headlong to uncertainties. While the army of the Goths wages war, let the Roman be at peace. It is the wish of the fortunate which is here commanded, lest the rustics, that rough kind of men, while they flee the wearinesses of labor, be carried away into unlawful acts of daring and begin to rise up against you, whom you could scarcely govern in peace. Wherefore, by royal command, admonish the several contractors of the great estates and the powerful landholders, that they contract no barbarity in contention, lest they hasten not so much to be of use in wars as to throw quiet things into confusion. Let them seize the iron, but that whereby they may cultivate the fields: let them take up the points as goads for oxen, not for fury.

The greatest praise of the defenders is, if, while they seem to protect the aforesaid regions, these others do not cease to cultivate their ancestral holdings. Let the judges have vigor from the laws: let the benches not cease to thunder the laws against evil manners: let the robber fear the judgment which he has always dreaded: let the adulterer tremble at the bosom of the judge: let the forger shudder at the voice of the crier: let the thief not laugh at the courts, because then liberty rejoices, if such things do not rejoice. For thus you will most prosperously perceive war to be waged, if you have in common a counsel concerning civic order. Let no one oppress the needy: assail the invaders, pursue the persecutors. A becoming civil battle is yours. You render all things peaceful, if you suppress the leaders of crimes.

In the reckoning of the grain-supplies be vigilant, lest anyone's cunning be able to defraud another. Know, moreover, that a deputy has been assigned to the commanders of the army by the lords of affairs in my own presence, so that, when they are duly requested by you, aid may be rendered for hardships imposed through injustice. Let them nonetheless preserve discipline, by which an army is ever more sturdily armed. A kind of benefit has also been added: that, from the present devotion to the royal commands, not even the divine household should seem exempted, but that whatever is levied for the general welfare should be borne by all in common. Now therefore rise up zealously together with your brethren, and provide with all needful caution, so that it may truly profit our most noble fatherland to have brought forward such records.

For men even of moderate understanding are able to rule provinces that are quiet and to administer them according to custom; but this is the toil, this the labour: to govern rather that which, once left to itself, cannot hold itself in check. For the sailors' skill lies idle in calm weather, nor does it lend a name to the craftsman, unless there be some great force of peril. You have, then, a time wherein you may both win the renown of wise men and, with the Lord's praiseworthy help, keep yourselves safe in every quarter. My own people, however, I commend not at all above the rest, since we desire that to befall all men which we wish to come to pass in our own household. For my private care has slipped away, ever since I began to ponder the guardianship of the whole.

I wish my own people well, but only such good as may be shared in common, since it is a kind of great injustice to want for oneself a judge other than the community at large can endure. Although the commands which the lords of affairs have given out of their inborn piety are abundantly sufficient, yet for the importunate and the foolish we double our threats by applying severity, so that those who cannot blush may at least restrain themselves through fear. For who shall congratulate himself on his own presumption, when he is about to lose his good name who has attempted what is forbidden? Let the blind ambition of the covetous be beaten back; let insolent audacity be reined in; let him who seeks gain from evil be terrified by the penalty set before him; let him who desires honour through wicked deeds be rather thrown into turmoil by the loss of his reputation.

It is added moreover that in our times ill-gotten money shall avail nothing, nor does he redeem his guilt who knows himself to be culpable. To unjust frauds no opening shall lie open: we prosecute transgressors, we do not sell them pardon. Where now, you evil takers, will you have hope, when both the lords of affairs and your own judges threaten you? You, however, whom our choice has caused to attain to public administrations, take confidence in the honesty of your conduct, for no venality shuts you out, if uprightness of action has restrained you. Serve the public interests, firmly fixed, since no private losses shall shake you. Render this return to my judgment, that you, whom I have caused to be burdened by no fee of your own appointment, may strive that my deeds be praised in you.

Know therefore that the term fixed beforehand by the lords of affairs must be observed, yet in such wise that you ought to provide and pay over those things which have been decreed to you for the public benefit. Under the clemency of a good prince it is established that nothing is permitted to chance occurrences, since they correct adverse mishaps who have decreed to bestow most prosperously. For how should the stripped man bear savage barbarism and a stern prince, when, despoiled, he refuses by right what in abundance he had learned to render? And therefore, to this man and that, whose lands were laid waste by the inroad of the Suevi, the royal serenity has remitted the treasury-dues of the fifteenth indiction, as the precept, when re-read, will be able to instruct you.

Wherefore, commending obedience, from the aforesaid proprietors, with respect to the estates which you shall have ascertained to be laid waste, you shall not exact the tributes of the present indiction; but the rest see to by the customary compulsion, so that at the appointed times you may make up to our treasurer the remaining sum. Beware therefore lest you become more grievous than the enemy, if you should still wish to strip those already laid bare: let not those tremble at the cloak who feared arms; let them feel no plunderings after the brigands. They have found valid receipts against you: their own calamity has given them invincible warrants of security: the violent man has taken away what you were seeking. He to whom nothing seems left over is established to be freed from tributes. It seems to be a new kind of profit that those requesting acquire and those granting feel no losses at all.

For it is received from one in such a way that it cannot perish from another: it is granted without expense, ceded without diminution, and that bears the name of munificence which knows not to depart from the rights of the lord. Wherefore that man complains that the treasury-due of his cottages situated in that province, which the schedule subscribed below sets forth, is vexed by the enormity of the tax-collectors, desiring, without any diminution of the public benefit, that he ought to render to our treasurers the due payment. To which we, who are known to study the harm of none, provided that the dues competent to the treasury be discharged by reasonable satisfaction, gladly assent, since this is to hold good desires in suspense, even as it is to perpetrate unlawful ones.

On which matter your Respectability, having admonished the decurions and the compellers, as well as those whose interest is recognized, shall cause the exaction from the aforesaid cottages to be removed from that indiction onward under this condition: that, if within those Kalends the sum which is due has not been fully paid to the treasurer, the customary exaction be carried out within the province; but if, on the contrary, he shall have proved by the treasurers' receipts that the pledge of his promise has been fulfilled, let the designated estates be freed from all disturbance of the compellers, since those things ought rather to be chosen which are proved to be offered without suspicion of loss and with a willing mind. For an exaction made without the pressure of a compeller is pleasing to us, and to make devout that which one could scarcely fulfil even under coercion.

And would that the proprietor of his own accord might both relieve us of the necessity of delays and free himself from losses by competent payments! For he himself makes the necessity imminent who has put off rendering the customary dues. It is full of piety to bind a foreign people by public benefits, and not so much to admit blood-kindred to the gains of an estate as to invite even strangers themselves: that inheritance which is without next of kin, succession apart from kindred, and the sole kinship of race is to speak the ancestral tongues. For the African so seeks benefits as to teach that they were once granted to him: a gift without the name of a recipient, bounty apart from the person, since it was first conferred upon the people, that afterwards the name of the petitioner might be affixed.

Hence it is that by a kind of right they claim others' inheritances, and to them alone does that seem to belong which a Roman cannot obtain in similar cases. They did not have such a benefit in their own homeland, but here all are kindred under this condition: the whole nation, as far as concerns the benefit of succession, is one family.

Wherefore let your Experience sift his petition by careful examination; and if in very truth that man whom he reports to have passed from this light left no sons, nor is established to be lawfully possessed by another, let your office celebrate, after the custom, the induction into the said property, so that the ancient piety of the present rulers may restore the benefits of their lords, and he may be able to supplicate for those under whom he understands himself the more to have merited what he had vowed. Let him resume the means which he had sighed to have lost. He could no longer call himself a foreigner who acquires the lands he longed for. Let him have a dignity like that of proprietors, and now, restored, let him render tributes, who had been seeking aid from another's hands.

Let him rejoice to have been brought to this, that he may give what assuredly is not proved to emerge except in one who possesses—to other proprietors inferior in this lot alone, namely that he cannot alienate what he has prevailed to possess. But this too we believe to have been devised with great equity: that he who succeeds in the place of a pledge should preserve his substance with a father's affection by right against outsiders. Once fed by compassion, let him now feed others also: a happy and praiseworthy captivity has befallen him, to enjoy Roman citizenship and to have been able to be mingled with the privileges of the Africans. The remnants of public accounts are to be compared to an ill-omened sickness, which burdens and weakens, unless they depart with speed. It is a kind of guilt to be under debt, nor can he truly be called free who is proved to be found liable.

The prudent man compels himself; less cautious is he who is urged on by another. For what has the whole year's undertaken compulsion accomplished? Let the sum of the coming indiction and its amount be exacted. By sparing you do not spare; by unburdening you weigh down the more; and while you seek venal delays, you double the burdens of tribute. Lay aside at last a cruel mercy, benefits embittered with every loathing. He strikes more grievously who advances by flattering, and he wounds under the guise of indulgence who has put off exacting the tributes at the accustomed seasons. And therefore cease at last to traffic in the losses of proprietors, since, constrained by inconveniences, you give back the whole that you took away by unjust postponements.

After these things do not believe that you are being admonished again by words, but compelled by an irremissible exaction. Wherefore if by that day you shall not, with accounts settled, have either brought in yourself or sent on to our treasurer the sum which is solemnly required of the provinces, degraded within the province you shall speedily render up what you know you have wrongly delayed, since it is exceedingly unjust that a public penny should lie idle through your negligence, and that the treasurer should ceaselessly spend out borrowed money for the public benefits. He ought to be of proven conscience who is set over the disbursing of the prince's bounties, lest by any filth of cupidity that be dried up which is poured forth from so great a liberality.

For the hands of plunderers alter any largesses whatever, and just as the purity of a spring is corrupted by miry ground, so the abundance of a good king is changed by greedy distributors. Even gold itself, when it is dissolved into liquid, unless it be received in a most clean little cup, is tainted; since those things alone preserve their purity which are darkened by no admixture of filth. How pleasing it is to see the rivulets running over snow-white pebbles and to behold nature's free purity, as it were, smiling, when, injured by no stains, it is not befouled! Thus the gifts of the lord of affairs ought to be darkened by no pollution, but, even as they go forth from him in plenty, so they ought to reach the Romans most pure.

For although every fraud seems grievous, yet that becomes insupportable which rages among the people of Romulus: a throng that lives quietly, a populace that is not noticed save when it is glad, a clamour without sedition, an uproar ignorant of fury, whose sole striving is to flee poverty and not to love riches. For they know not how to be money-grubbers, nor do they torment themselves with any cunning of trade: they live by the fortune of the middling sort and by the conscience of the rich. Is it not a sacrilege to plunder such men, who know not how to defraud another's goods? Wherefore we grant to you, with divinity propitious, the food-provisions to be distributed to the Roman people from that indiction, so that it may be able to receive without any diminution what it has earned by royal liberality.

Beware lest another receive what they have earned, and you yourself be rendered a stranger to our favour, if you depart from love of the citizens. Let no man become a Latian for a price who has not the rights of that city by birth. That name must always be honoured which has given rank to the nations, since he is rendered the more eminent in human affairs from whose splendour anything is bestowed. These gifts are of the Quirites. Let not the lot of a slave usurp the place of a freeman. He sins against the majesty of the Roman people who befouls the purity of that blood by the fellowship of slaves. When we were dining with the lord of affairs at the solemn banquet, and the various provinces were being praised for their delicacies, the discourse, as is wont, in its running course came round to the wines of the Bruttii and the sweetness of Silan cheese:

namely that by the benefit of the herbs there it is fashioned with such delight of nature that you would not believe the taste of honey to be lacking, which you perceive mixed in by no quality at all. There milk, lightly provoked, flows from the teats as from pipes, and, gathered as it were into other bellies by the richness of nature, it does not rain down in drops, but pours forth in certain sudden torrents. There breathes a sweet and varied fragrance of herbs: the pasturage of the cattle is recognized by the nostrils, which, fragrant with manifold virtue, is felt to breathe forth things like to incense. To this is joined so great a richness that you would judge a Palladian liquor to run down at the same time, save that it is distinguished from that leek-green hue by its snowy whiteness.

Then, in widely gaping vats, that marvellous abundance, received by the more than gladdened shepherd, when with the addition of rennet it has begun to be hardened into a firm tenderness, is brought to the form of a most beautiful disk, which, gathered for a little while in subterranean storehouses, makes the cheese to be of long-lasting substance. This, with all speed placed upon the ships, you shall consign, so that we may seem to have satisfied the royal desires with a small offering. The wine too, which antiquity, wishing to praise, named Palmatian, do you seek out for us—astringent, harsh, but pleasing in sweetness. For although among the Bruttian wines it may seem the last, yet by almost general opinion it has become the foremost. For there is found one both equal to Gazetan, like to Sabine, and singular for its great fragrances.

But since the latter has claimed for itself a most noble renown, let this one too, exceedingly elegant in its kind, be sought out, lest the prudence of our forefathers should seem to have named anything improperly. For it is softly thick with a sweet richness, most firm in vivacity, strong to the nostril, and clear too in brightness, which so exhales when belched from the mouth that the name seems deservedly to have been imposed upon it from the palm. It binds together failing inwards, dries up moist wounds, refreshes the weary breast; and what a drink artfully compounded can scarcely manage to achieve, this one naturally provides unprocessed. But see to it that you consign the aforesaid kinds, duly exacted, since we cannot be deceived, who hold this by patriotic truth:

for at present we have offered from our cellars the things that were desired. But you, at your own peril, do things unlike, the proofs of which you know can now be held against you. The expended liberality of all lords ought to be sustained with effort, since it is needful that there profit all what they, by the impulse of divinity, shall have been approved to have effected. For the piety of princes guards the whole empire, and while a worthy return is rendered to them, the members of the commonwealth are preserved unharmed. For some while since, the imperial constitutions throughout the Bruttii and Lucania aided the most sacred churches with a certain devotion of gifts.

But, as is familiar to sacrilegious minds, even to sin against divine reverence itself, the canon-collectors were withdrawing some part thereof under the name of the accountants, making the substance of the clergy into lay profit. Which thing the accountants of our see, rejecting it with execrable detestation, report was never brought in to them, of which crime impious hands have defrauded. What further, O scarcely human audacity, will you attempt, if you reach out thefts even there where you know you can in no wise lie hidden? To deceive mortal eyes perhaps there seems to be some presumption, however iniquitous; but with how great a blindness is he condemned who reckons that he is perpetrating what divinity cannot perceive!

But lest a like presumption should perchance rage further, or frequent excess be able to provoke the divine patience, by an edictal proclamation we determine that whoever shall henceforth have engaged in this fraud shall both lose his service and forfeit the profit of his own means. For he is to be punished with a heavier penalty who has stretched out his audacity even to divine injury. Let the poor have the gifts of the rulers; let those possess something who have no means at all. Why is another's substance, placed in the royal largesse, invaded? The possession thereof is the prince's gift. How may a subject presume to touch what looks to God—to offer the humility of the ruler? It is added that not to give to such men is to have taken away—and deservedly:

since he who is able to succour the hungry, if he does not feed them, slays them. Let them be ashamed to take from those to whom we are bidden to give. Beyond all cruelties is it to wish to become rich from the scantiness of a beggar. Let honest gains be loved, ruinous profits dreaded: let no one dare to take thence what he could scatter once gathered. He loses by adding who shall have gathered by retaining, and rather draws poverty to himself, if he does not repel the moneys of the needy.

The citizens of Regium, the farthest of the Bruttii, whom the violent onset of the sea once severed from the body of Sicily—whence their city took its name, for a division is in the Greek tongue called 'region'—report that they are wearied by the iniquitous presumption of the tax-collectors, imploring remedies known not to our ears alone but to our eyes, we who are able to know that their territory does not have what is demanded. For the land is most sparse with mountain stones, dry for pastures, but abounding in vintages: adverse to crops, but suited to olives; and therefore all its cultivation is in the hoe, since its surface, being dry, cannot nourish things born above. There the field, bare in its hide, is clothed by industry rather than by nature.

For it is covered with the greenness of Palladian woods, which on its soil is proved most parched. For in such places those things thrive which descend by tall roots to the depth of the ground. The crops are watered that they may live, and, the condition being changed, that is bestowed on the ears of grain which is afforded to garden-herbs. How great is the harvest which is tilled by hand? Rarely there does the farmer come from the threshing-floor burdened on his shoulders, so that he can not gather the harvest in barns, but scarcely fill some few baskets from the highest fertility. In the gardens, however, of the country folk a laborious band is kept, since every vegetable there is of savours, being sprinkled with sea-spray: what is wont to be done by human industry, this it received while being nourished.

But contrary to Maro's verdict, the fibres of the endives there are most sweet, which, girt about with twisted leaves, are clustered together with a firm tenderness: whence, after the manner of glass, anything plucked off is broken, while it is severed from the fertile turf. With these victuals, if you wish to know, that region is fertile: for it also enjoys the delicacies of the sea with copious delight, since there the upper and the nether sea, joined with intermingled fronts, by the rolling of its bay leads the delicacies of either deep into one gathering. For it is needful that fishes too hasten thither, where it is established that the wave too can flow down.

The exormiston too, among fishes a royal kind, equal to the murena in body, but differing in colour, with bristly nostrils, endowed with a beestings-like delicacy, curdled with an oily and sweet liquor—an appetizing and pleasing richness—when amid the floating foams it has begun to swim out into the borders of the air, knows not to return to the lairs which it deserts: I believe either unmindful of its return, or, softened by its utmost tenderness, it cannot, against the lifting waves, plunge down by a contrary struggle. It is borne along like a lifeless body, avoiding the peril by no efforts, by no art; and hence, destitute of strength, it is not believed to return, since it is not perceived even able to flee. This is plainly discerned to be of so great a sweetness that no fish may be compared to it.

These are the things on the Reginian shore which we have described, which we have come to know by no one else's report, though we hold them by visual proof. Wherefore we decree that the kinds of bacon and wheat be at no times demanded thence under the name of compulsory purchase, since that is too calumniously sought which by the benefit of the place is not had. Moreover, the defence of truth and the testimony of the judge ought to suffice, since it is too execrable an evil if, when conscience knows one thing, the tongue decrees another. It is added too that it is wearied by so many arrivals of travellers, worn down by so great a laceration of those running through it, that it ought reasonably to have remitted to it even what could be established to be able to be born there.

Scylacium, the first of the cities of the Bruttii, which Ulysses, the destroyer of Troy, is read to have founded, is said to be irrationally vexed by the excess of presumptuous men—a thing which, with us presiding, ought not to have been assumed, since we are compelled the more to grieve at its injuries, while it is proved to touch us with a patriotic affection. The city, set above the Hadriatic gulf, hangs upon the hills in the manner of a cluster of grapes, not that it swells with a difficult ascent, but that it may voluptuously look upon the green fields and the azure backs of the sea. This city beholds the rising sun from its very cradle, where the coming day does not send the dawn before it, but as soon as it has begun to rise, its brightness, brandishing its torch, shows itself. It looks upon the rejoicing Phoebus:

there it shines with the proper brightness of light, so that it is thought rather to be itself the very homeland of the sun, the renown of Rhodes being surpassed. It enjoys clear light: gifted too with a tempering of air, it feels sunny winters and cooled summers, and life is passed without any sorrow, where hostile seasons are not feared. Hence man too is freer in mind, since temperateness moderates all things. For a torrid homeland makes men fickle and sharp, a cold one slow and crafty: a temperate land alone composes the manners of men by its own quality. Hence it is that the ancients said Athens to be the seat of the wise, which, anointed with the purity of its air, prepared most lucid senses for the contemplative part by a happy bounty.

For is it the same thing to the body to swallow muddy waters as to draw in the clearness of a most sweet spring? Thus the vigour of the soul is burdened, while it is pressed down by a heavier air. For of necessity we are subject to such things, when by clouded weather we are made sorrowful, and again naturally we rejoice at fair skies, since the heavenly substance of the soul rejoices at all that is *** and most pure. It enjoys too the copious delicacies of the sea, while it possesses near at hand those Neptunian enclosures which we ourselves made: for at the foot of Mount Moscius, the bowels of the rocks being hollowed out, we have fittingly let in the flowing of Nereus' gulf, where a host of fishes, sporting in free captivity, both refreshes the spirits by delight and soothes the gaze with wonder.

They run eagerly to the hands of men, and before they become food themselves, they crave food. Man feeds his own delights, and while he holds in his power what he might catch, it frequently happens that, being satisfied, he leaves all behind. The spectacle too of those beautifully labouring is not taken away from those seated in the city. Copious vintages are seen in plenty, the rich threshing of the floors is beheld, the face too of the green olives is laid open. No one lacks the pleasantness of the fields, to whom it is given to behold all things from the city. Because in this way it now has no walls, you would believe it a rural city, you might judge the villa to be urban; and, placed between the two, it is known to be enriched with copious praise.

While travellers frequently desire to visit this city, while they wish to flee the wearinesses of toil, the proprietary citizens are wearied with expenses in the furnishing of post-horses and provisions on account of the pleasantness of the city. Wherefore, lest its own pleasantness should harm the city, or the matter of its renown become the cause of loss, we have ordained that the furnishing of post-horses and provisions, according to the conveyances granted, be charged to the public account. Abolishing too utterly the judge's 'dust-money,' we decree, according to the old constitutions, that provisions be furnished to magistrates for three days only, conveyances being charged at their own expense for any delay made. For the laws have willed those administering to be a remedy, not a burden.

On which matter, with a view to equity, it is to relieve our city's *** the judiciary burden, which we report to you, not as remitted. Live, with God's help, by the justice of the age and by a singular joy of security. Let others speak of islands; I would rather call your dwellings the Fortunate Isles. The season admonishes us, ever suited to human affairs, while, with opportunity ever seized, it reconciles to us even harsh things, that we should renew the care of fiscal payments by an annual festivity, since the order of the commonwealth is seen to consist in such an institution. And deservedly is that votive which is bestowed for the benefit of all. Those things are to be cherished whence the commonwealth is seen to be most firm, which, while it is restored by the returning census, is held together by the most firm strength of its own estate.

Wherefore devotion shown at any time is great, but then is it rendered more acceptable when it is held to be the more needful. Let the proprietors therefore furnish payments destined to profit their own favour. For a debt which cannot be avoided ought always to be offered with a ready mind, that it may become a benefit, which is established to be brought in without compulsion. And therefore—be it spoken with good omen—through the first indiction in your diocese we command you to admonish the proprietor, that, the three-fold payment being observed, he devoutly pay out the tributary penny in full, so that neither may anyone groan to have been exacted under premature compulsion, nor again, by a postponed remission, may anyone say himself to have been passed over.

Let no one exceed the amount of just weighing, and let the balance be most just: there will be no measure of plundering, if it be lawful for weights to be exceeded. A faithful record too of expenditures you shall solemnly send to our offices every four months, so that, the obscurity of all error being wiped away, the truth may shine forth in the public accounts. But that you may the more easily, with God's help, fulfil what has been ordained, we command this and that soldier of our see, mindful of their own perils to you and to your office, to press upon you, so that what you know to be commanded may blamelessly obtain its effect. Beware therefore lest the fault of either dishonest bribery or sluggish idleness regard you, and lest what you have neglected to expedite bring losses upon your own fortunes.

The fortification of cities is the sure hope of all, when in peace it is learned from foreign nations what may truly be feared in conflict. For the habitation of each several city is full of diverse kinds of men. Who knows with what nation he may clash? And therefore all ought to recognize what it would not be pleasing for future enemies to hear. Wherefore by our command you shall take care to admonish the proprietors that near Mount Caprarius and the surrounding places huge mouths of trenches be opened in the walls, and that there gape such a chasm that no entrance be left there. Why, O wicked men, do you scrutinize unlawful approaches, to whom the entry of the gates is freely permitted? I know not what you seem to conceal, who do not desire to enter openly.

A right conscience keeps to the public ways, rejoices in conversation with those it meets, and, while it gladly inquires after diverse persons, is not weighed down by the weariness of toil. But it is the friend of crime to wish to be unknown, and he who hides his own ways betrays his conscience. Accordingly let the ancient routes be recalled to general use, lest, while they seek a saving of toil, they suffer the costs of life. For that man is rightly to be held an enemy who strives to violate the safeguards of a city. The royal apparatus, just as it brings peril to the negligent, so to those labouring strenuously it lends adornment, since it is the reward of life to serve while the lord beholds, from whom neither fault can be hidden nor good thing concealed.

How pleasing it is to make the appointed journey without any offence, to see the tokens of diligence, to pass dubious places without fear, to ascend the mountainous ground with easy step, on the bridges not to tremble at the swaying of the beams, and to accomplish the way in such wise that all things be proved to have suited the mind! You surpass your own service, if you can please the lord of affairs. For with him whom we strive to obey, it is a great advancement if you deserve to come into his placid sight. Wherefore the road of the Flaminian Way, furrowed and channelled by streams, do you join its gaping banks by the very broad interposition of bridges; lay bare the oppressed margins of the streets from the roughest woods. Let the assigned number of post-horses be procured, with a choice quality of limbs:

Let the supply of designated provisions be collected without any loss to the landowners, for in this way you render all things pleasing—if you fail in no part. One item withdrawn disfigures the whole, and everything is thought to be wanting wherever even the smallest complaint stirs up resentment. Moreover, seek out with all diligence the provisions that are prepared for the royal tables, exactly as required. For what will it profit to satisfy the army, if it should befall you to offend in the very feeding of our lords? Let the provincials, when admonished, comply; let each city supply what is set forth in the schedules. For as often as one meets a joyful prince, favours are effectively requested. Consider also that I, being present, pass judgment upon your deeds:

Either I joyfully render thanks to you, my lords, or, angered, I lay upon you the prince's displeasure. Act, therefore, so that your excess be not charged to me, for I make satisfaction to all whom I shall have offended through your faults. Rather let the whole army repay me with gratitude. It will be great glory to you both to render me secure and to have earned the good opinion of so many. Indeed you can recognize the royal arrival from the very throng of travellers, since a great affair must always send fitting signs before it. The rising Morning Star reveals the coming day; the favouring wind shows that calm weather will follow; we discern imminent good things by a certain presaging of the mind, and hardly is a great matter accomplished that is not heralded by the running-ahead of signs.

Nevertheless we too of necessity give warning that you solemnly clothe the Tiber's waves with the joining of a bridge, so that a vessel made fast by a chaining-together may afford an unshaking passage and grant us a swift crossing from its fixed position. Let it not be moved by sluggish ropes, as was the custom; let so great a mass not grow torpid by the hands of those who haul it; rather let it, being fixed, confer the speed which, when moving, it did not formerly afford. Let the bands of travellers walk indeed, not sail; let the divided wave carry us across. Thus it is fitting that the lord be received, so that he ought to rejoice in some novelty. The joining of the planks, strongly bound together, must afford the needful solidity, so that by an earth-like semblance it may take away from the hesitant the dread of the waves.

Nay rather, let it be wished that the crossing had been longer, since it is traversed without harm. Let the protection of railings be fittingly fixed on the right and left: a prosperous passage is granted when the chance of a hard fall is shut out. See how you prepare the rest of the things pertaining to you, you who know that you are to go forth to meet him. For what a thing it is, amid so great a throng, to have been unable to be blamed! He afflicts all who withdraws anything needful from the king, because, while he is desired joyful by all, he saddens everyone if he be found offended. Add that it is so glorious, under so great a gathering of senators, to be praised, to receive the prince in such a way that all understand nothing is lacking, and to come before the lord himself joyful rather than confounded by any alarm.

It is an unhoped-for good if he to whom the danger of being deceived belongs procures for himself an increase of favour. Know that for this purpose we have dispatched that officer of our court, who is to keep watch over you and your office, so that he may report to us that all is prepared; for that cannot be entrusted to chance which is reckoned to our peril. You recall with me, most faithful men, that the holy Agapitus, pope of the city of Rome, when by royal command he was being sent on an embassy to the prince of the East, having received pledges from you, solemnly accepted so many pounds of gold upon a written bond, so that, as the provident lord had commanded, it might hasten even his sudden departure. He indeed first acted kindly who in necessity gave money on loan:

But how much more gloriously did he act in bestowing even that which might have been offered with the rendering of thanks! Necessity was overcome without loss: the hand of the pope gave what his substance did not possess, and that journey was rendered harmless which was completed by gifts. What a thing, I ask, did it seem—for the bishop to pour out upon those who asked, and yet for the Church to feel no detriment? He was a distributor rather than a giver, for that must be credited to him out of whose resources the expenditure seemed to be made. What may such an embassy not accomplish before a pious prince, an embassy which is shown to have been sent forth by a singular example?

Wherefore, admonished by our command and made secure by the royal order, restore without any delay the holy vessels, together with the obligation of the written bond, to the agents of Saint Peter the Apostle, so that, profitably returned, they may seem swiftly to obtain what is desired. Let the sacred ministries be carried back into the hands of the levites, to be recounted throughout the whole world; let that be given which was its own, since it justly receives through bounty what the priest pledged under the laws. Surpassed is the precedent which we have recounted with great earnestness in our history.

For when King Alaric, sated with the plundering of the city of Rome, had received from his own men, who were bringing them, the vessels of the Apostle Peter, as soon as by inquiry he learned the cause of the matter, he ordered them to be carried back to the sacred thresholds from the hands of the plunderers, so that the greed which through the course of pillage had committed a crime might, by a most lavish devotion, blot out the transgression. But what wonder is it if he was unwilling to plunder the venerable things of the saints, he who had enriched himself by so great a devastation of the city? Our king, however, by a religious purpose restored the vessels which by the right of pledge seemed to have been made his own. And therefore let frequent prayer be offered for such deeds, since we believe that joyful things can be granted, when we ask a recompense for good actions.

The office of the scribes is wont to be the security of all, since the right of all is guarded by his diligence. For fire devastates some men; furtive theft strips others bare; through negligence some lose what a diligent man had acquired: but through public trust whatever is lost by private persons is most robustly restored. He is more careful in others' affairs than care can be over one's own: unprompted he does what one scarcely asked would fulfil, and when consulted he cannot deny what the interested party confesses he has lost. His cabinet is the fortune of all, and rightly is it called the refuge of all, where the security of everyone is found. He passes over into paternal duties, if the truth be kept uncorrupted.

For just as a diligent parent preserves what an idle heir may find, so the arbiter of the parties suffers no one to be defrauded of his own benefit. And therefore we command you to be the continual guardian of so great a matter, so that you, who hitherto have pleased by your integrity, should be darkened by no inconstancy. See what is entrusted to you—ancient faith and daily diligence. You settle the quarrel of the litigants: before all magistrates men plead by reason of your care, and you rather are the judge, you who loose the bonds of cases. This is an honorable distinction, an indisputable testimony: when the ancient voice of the documents comes forth uncorrupted from your inner shrine, the examiners receive it reverently; the litigants, however shameless, being constrained, nevertheless obey.

And although it is lawful for a promulgated sentence to be suspended, it is not permitted that you be opposed. Wherefore have no venal intent. The moth of the documents is the malicious bribe of the buyer-off, while they seek to consume what they have recognized as an obstacle to themselves. Let the comely publication of the truth feed you; let your wealth be reckoned as integrity. Give to those who ask what was done of old. Be a transmitter, not a founder, of ancient deeds. Imprint the copy as a ring upon wax, so that, just as the impressed features cannot escape their marks, so your hand may not be able to diverge from the authentic. But if anyone should mislead you by an unjust subornation, how, in another case, shall he acquiesce in believing you, whom he knows could have been corrupted?

He attacks you by his own fraud and easily convicts the one whom he has deceived in one matter. Love justice, of which no one complains, so that even one angered may speak a wholesome testimony—he who wished in vain to lead you astray. Everything you do is public, since either, being praised, you may find favour, or, being accused, you may find offence. Public expenditures, tottering through the diverse variety of the times, will be able to restrain themselves by this principle, if the wholesomeness of the orders follows the yield of the localities. For there management is easy where the produce has been more abundant. For if there is levied what hungry barrenness has denied, then both the province is harmed and the desired effect is not obtained.

By the testimony of travellers, therefore, we have learned that the province of Histria, renowned with praise for three excellent products, teeming by divine gift with wine, oil, and wheat, rejoices in the fecundity of the present year. And therefore let the aforesaid commodities, supplied to the value of so many solidi, be reckoned to you as your tributary obligation for the present first indiction; but the remainder, on account of the customary expenditures, we leave to the devoted province. But since the things we have mentioned must be procured by us in a larger sum, we have also transmitted so many solidi from our treasury, so that the necessary goods may be gathered most abundantly without loss to you.

For often, while you are pressed to sell to outsiders, you are wont to feel losses, especially at that time when the foreign buyer has been snatched away from you and gold is hard to obtain, since you find that the merchants are not present. But how much better it is to obey one's lords than to render service to far-off men, and to pay one's debts in produce than to endure the disdain of buyers! We disclose also, out of love of justice, what you might have suggested to us, namely that we ought not to harm in the matter of price, seeing that we are not burdened by the provision of freight-charges. For there is a region near to us, set above the gulf of the Ionian Sea, filled with olives, adorned with crops, abundant in the vine, where, as from three breasts bestowing surpassing abundance, every fruit has flowed forth with desirable fecundity.

This region, not undeservedly, is called the Campania of Ravenna, the storeroom of the royal city, a place exceedingly delightful and a charming retreat. Lying toward the north, it enjoys an admirable temperateness of climate. It has also—I should not absurdly say—its own Baiae, where the billowing sea, entering the hollows of the land, is laid down in a fair appearance with the levelness of a pool. These places nourish many garum-vats and glory in an abundance of fish. There is there not one Avernus only. Numerous Neptunian fishponds are to be seen, in which, even when industry ceases, oysters are everywhere born unbidden. Thus there is proved to be neither toil in the rearing nor doubt in the taking of these delicacies.

The mansions, shining far and wide, you would think to be arranged in the likeness of pearls, so that from this it appears what kind of judgments the ancestors of that province had, which is shown to be adorned with such great buildings. There is added also to that shore a most beautiful row of islands, which, arranged with lovely usefulness, both defends ships from dangers and enriches the cultivators with great abundance. It plainly restores the watches of the court, it adorns the empire of Italy, it feeds the magnates with delicacies and the middling sort with the outlay of victuals, and what is born there is almost wholly possessed in the royal city. Let the province now, more devoted, furnish its supplies of its own accord: let it obey the more, while it is hoped of, since it acted most graciously while it was least asked.

But lest any doubt should arise concerning our orders, we have dispatched Laurentius, a most experienced man, approved to us by his great labors in the commonwealth, with present authority, so that, according to the schedules annexed below, he may without delay carry out what he knows has been enjoined upon him for the public expenditures. Now provide what has been commanded. For you make a devoted soldier when you willingly accept the order. The moderate prices, however, we shall declare to you on the following occasion, when the bearer of the present letter shall have suggested to us, by a report sent, the measure of the produce. For nothing can be justly assessed unless the abundance of the thing can be evidently ascertained.

For he is an unjust arbiter who issues a sentence in vain, and he proves ill-conscious to himself who is about to speak things undeliberated. The deliberation of a judge ought to employ approved men in public business, so that what is sought under the barrenness of the season may easily be fulfilled. In an abundance of things any person whatever can manage himself; but chosen soldiers are needed when the impulse of necessity has come.

And therefore we command Your Experience—most pleasing to us by frequent and such devotion—to hasten to the province of Histria, so that to the value of so many solidi you must procure the commodities of wine, oil, and wheat from the tributary solidus; while with the other so many solidi, which you have received from our treasurer, you will make haste to buy both from merchants and from landowners, just as the notice furnished by the accountants has instructed you. Wherefore now raise up your spirit to obey, you who have pleased in such great vigils by an undistinguished lot. Let the example of your former conduct admonish you, since it is exceedingly grievous for a veteran to offend, who as a recruit is shown in no way to have erred.

But what abundance of the aforesaid commodities has, as desired, freely opened itself, indicate to us by a truthful report—as we believe of you—so that we, the measure being known, may determine that which neither harms the provincials nor can burden the public expenditures. By an order given before, we have decreed that Histria should happily direct to the Ravennate station the commodities of wine, oil, and wheat, of whose abundance, granted in the present year, it enjoys the full benefit. But you who possess numerous ships on its borders, provide with an equal grace of devotion, so that what that province is prepared to deliver, you may strive to carry with speed. For the grace of completion will be alike for both, since one of these, kept separate, does not permit the effect to be fulfilled.

Be most ready, therefore, for nearby places, you who often traverse boundless distances. You run, as it were, through your own lodgings, you who sail through your homeland. There is added also to your conveniences that another route is opened to you, tranquil with perpetual safety. For when, with raging winds, the sea has been closed, a way is spread open to you through the most delightful of rivers. Your keels do not dread the rough blasts; they touch the land with the utmost good fortune and know not how to perish, though they frequently run aground. From afar they are thought to be borne as if through meadows, when it happens that their channel cannot be seen. Drawn by ropes they walk, which were wont to stand still by their cables, and, the condition being changed, men aid their ships with their feet:

They draw the carrying-vessels without toil, and instead of the dread of sails they employ the more prosperous step of the sailors. It is pleasant to relate how we have observed your dwellings to be situated. The Venetiae, once praiseworthy and full of nobles, touch on the south upon Ravenna and the Po, and on the east enjoy the delight of the Ionian shore; where the alternating tide, going out, now closes, now opens the face of the fields by its reciprocal inundation. Here you have a home after the manner of water-birds. For he who is now of the land is presently seen to be of the islands, so that you might think you were rather among the Cyclades, where you suddenly behold the faces of the places altered. For in their likeness, dwellings seem scattered across the widely-extending waters, which nature has brought forth, but the care of men has established.

For with flexible withies bound together, earthen solidity is there gathered, and so fragile a fortification is not feared to be set against the sea-wave—namely, when the shoaly shore does not know how to cast forth the mass of waves, and that is borne without force which is not aided by the help of depth. The inhabitants therefore have one resource, that they may be sustained by fish alone. Poverty there dwells together with riches under equality. One food refreshes all, a like dwelling encloses everyone; they know not how to envy one another over their households, and living under this measure they escape the vice to which all the world is shown to be liable. In the working of the salt-pans, however, is all their striving: instead of plows, instead of sickles, you roll cylinders:

Thence every fruit springs up for you, since in those very salt-pans you possess even what you do not make. There, in a manner, a coinage of victuals is struck. Every wave is devoted to your craft. Someone may seek gold the less, but there is no one who does not desire to find salt, and rightly, since to salt every food owes whatever it can be that is most pleasing. Accordingly, repair with diligent care the ships which, after the manner of animals, you tie to your walls, so that, when the most experienced man Laurentius, who has been dispatched to procure the commodities, shall have attempted to admonish you, you may hasten to set out, so that you may delay the necessary expenditures by no difficulty—you who, according to the quality of the weather, can choose for yourselves the shortcut of the journey.

For the most part those become anxious who behold the altered orders of things, because they often portend certain matters which are proved adverse to custom. For nothing is done without a cause, nor is the world entangled in fortuitous chances, but whatever we see coming to its term is established to be a divine counsel. Men are held in suspense when kings have changed their established ways, if they go forth attired otherwise than their wont had grown accustomed. But who would not be troubled with great curiosity about such things, if, by an inverse turn of customs, something obscure should seem to come from the stars? For just as it is a sure security to mark the seasons running in their courses, so we are filled with great curiosity when such things are perceived to be changed.

What a thing is it, I ask, to behold the chief of the stars and not to see its accustomed light? to gaze upon the moon, the glory of night, full in its orb yet emptied of its natural splendor? We all still discern, as it were, a bluish sun; we marvel that at midday bodies cast no shadows, and that that vigor of the strongest heat has come to the inertness of an extreme tepidness—a thing which is established to be brought about not by the momentary failure of an eclipse, but throughout the course of well-nigh an entire year. What dread, then, is it to endure for so long that which is wont to terrify peoples even in its utmost swiftness? And so we have had a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, a summer without heats.