Variae & Works 2 part 2/4

To violate such secrets, then, to wish thus to confound the most certain things—does it not seem a cruel and foul rending of truth itself? Let trades be carried on in merchandise: let things be bought broadly which are sold more narrowly: let weight and measure be reliable for the peoples, since all things are thrown into confusion if integrity be mingled with frauds. Certainly that which is given to labourers ought not to be mutilated; but from him of whom a faithful conduct is required, let no diminished recompense be rendered. Give a full solidus, and take away from it, if you prevail; deliver a pound, but diminish something of it, if you can. Against these things provision is made by the very names: either you bestow them whole, or you do not pay out the very things that are named.

You cannot by any means—you cannot—give the names of whole quantities and yet effect wicked diminutions. Provide therefore that the warden of the strong-box also keep his just customs, and that what we expend upon the well-deserving they may obtain as an uncorrupted gift. It befits you to display in your morals the honour which you bear in name, so that throughout the province over which you preside you may suffer no violent things to be done, but all may be compelled to the just, whence our empire flourishes.

Wherefore, moved by the supplication of Monarius, we address you by the present oracles, that, if you ascertain that in truth the Breones have unreasonably carried off his slaves—men who, accustomed to military duties, are said when armed to oppress civility, and on this account scorn to obey justice, since they are ever intent upon the wars of Mars, while, by I know not what fault, it is difficult for those continually fighting to keep the measure of good morals—wherefore, all insolence being removed which can be assumed from the presumption of valour, you shall cause the things demanded to be restored without delay, lest, through the inconveniences of delay, the suppliant seem to hate their victory. The reward of merits is the royal judgement, since we know not how to bestow these things save upon the worthy.

And although, by God's favour, everything that we will is subject to our power, yet we measure our will by reason, so that we may be deemed rather to have chosen that which it is worthy for all to approve. Hence it is that, finding you laudably pursuing the studies of literary doctrine, we chose you some time ago for the summit of the quaestorship, so that the dignity of letters might be the reward of your honest labour. For what is more adorned than the office of advocacy, if it be exercised in purity—which draws an alien affair to its own troubles, that it may come to the aid of others' labours? Trained in this field, by the course of your merits you have come to the palm of our judgement.

Yet our kindness, not content with a single recompense, doubles the honour, procures increases, and with such zeal renews its gifts as if it owed all that it bestows. Take therefore the insignia of the magisterial dignity, to enjoy all the privileges which your predecessors are agreed to have possessed. And therefore rejoice in so great a judgement received, you who have merited to receive a second honour for the labour of your honour. For what we have felt about your former reward, we declare by the increase of a second dignity. Fasces have been born from fasces, and the offspring of the tree, retaining their nature, have sprouted again, fittingly cut off. But let not this recompense fill you to satiety, nor let the praise found in our judgement grant a holiday to your labours.

Nay rather, let virtue be more desirable when it comes to its reward, and let it then become more pleasing to have endured anxious labours, when you understand that you have found their fruit. The honours, therefore, which you take from documents, repay from your merits. You know well by what zeal we are pleased, you who come from the very inner sanctuary of our council. You remember how often the innocent have been praised before us, how often we have rendered a return for good deeds. By your mouth we spoke our judgements: be incited by such examples. Be a temple of innocence, a shrine of temperance, an altar of justice. Let nothing profane be far from the minds of judges. Let the pious prince be served as under a kind of priesthood.

A dignity, conscript fathers, when it comes to one unknown, is a gift; when to one who has been proven, it is a recompense of merits. Of these, the one is a debtor of our judgement, the other is bound by our favour. For we exalt the former by our estimation, we promote the others by our grace, and our humanity relaxes itself to all the paths of indulgence. But by regard for your love we are reminded, as often as one is led into your assembly who is esteemed for glorious virtues. For it befits the curia to possess whatever there is of the flower of the human race: which, as a citadel is the glory of cities, so is it the ornament of all the other orders. And therefore we have raised the illustrious man Eugenites, resplendent in the reputation of literary doctrine, with the honour of the magistracy, that he might bear in name the dignity which he possessed by merits.

For who would be ignorant of his many dutiful labours, which he exercised not with baseness of mind, but preserved with the honour of patronage? We have therefore given a person equal to such great honours, so that, shining with one and the other ornament, they might adorn each other by the mutual grace of their quality. This is he who some time ago clung to our side as a juridical quaestor, whom no cloud of envy darkened, nor did he, with a zeal for malevolence, seek out arts of harming with venomous designs: with the sincere secret of his breast he obeyed our purity, and to the piety of our commands he offered his innocence. For a deceitful spirit follows not the will of him who commands, but rather unfolds its own wishes.

You certainly have our evident judgement in this matter, that after the summit of that high point he should ascend to another dignity. Nor did we suffer him to be idle, whom his merits did not allow to be a private man: to be esteemed after the manner of the serene sun, which, although it completes the day it has received, yet illumines another with the same grace of brightness. Him, therefore, conscript fathers, shining forth absolutely with so many merits, let your favour receive. For you owe it to those who govern well, that the assent of your praise should attend them. For if the courses of horses are spurred on by the shouts of men, and are driven by the hands of those who make a din, so that swiftness is sought from dumb animals, how much more can we believe that men are stimulated thereby—men whom we have found singularly born to the avidity of praise!

We willingly in every way grant our assent, as often as the voice of those who ask is just, since neither ought a benefit to be difficult which suffers no detriment by its liberality. And therefore let your most exalted magnificence cause that which was levied from the people of Catalium under the head of the 'thirds' to be paid each year within the sum of tribute, nor let the suppliants thereafter endure any question on this matter. For what difference does it make under what name the landholder pays, provided that he discharge without diminution what is owed? Thus we both take from them the suspect name of the 'thirds' and remove from our clemency the importunities of those who lay claim.

It is gratifying to us, as often as such an estimation proceeds concerning the merits of your greatness, that you are believed to be the aid of the weak and the protection of the absent. For you have therefore merited to be first in the senate, that you might furnish to those who follow a pattern by your regard for justice. Whence it comes about that a good opinion grows in you by the example of your glorious conduct. For to no one is his own property committed by one departing, save him of whose good conscience a favourable judgement is formed. Therefore by the present injunction we decree that the house of the patrician Agnellus, who is departing to Africa—who, seeking the kingdom of another, will serve our interests—be fortified, with the laws preserved, by your protection, lest, the master's defence being withdrawn, it suffer the violent assaults of anyone.

For the resources of the absent are ever open to injuries, and in a manner the occasion seems to draw men into wrongdoing, which cannot terrify the mind of the invader by any opposition. Therefore let your highness, whom it is our prayer to have as a neighbour, raise up the humble, snatch away those about to be oppressed, and—what is rare in those who hold power—be of profit to all, in that you are found higher than all. This much more we apply to our own interests, which we concede with merciful humanity. For the resources of a reigning power then become richer when it remits, and it acquires the noble treasures of fame by despising the cheapness of money.

Hence it is that, admonished by the humanity of our custom, we bring help to the weary and stretch out a hand to the burdened, so that by the remedy of our piety those may rise up who had fallen by the harshness of their fortune. For some time ago the Apulian contractors, complaining to us by a lamentable representation, declared that their grain had been consumed by the thefts of enemies, asking that they who have had the profits of their commerce diminished should not be compelled to the full payment. This we judge ought to be considered, in accordance with our inborn humanity, so that those whose sloth we cannot accuse, we may deem their fortune ought to be relieved. For we wish the appointed payments to be brought in from that source whence it is agreed that our subjects have obtained their profits.

And therefore we command your sublimity to inquire diligently into this matter, so that, by how much it is established that they sold for less, you may, with moderation observed, deduct as much from the remainder of the first indiction—yet in such wise that no fraud be inserted into our benefits, lest you be rendered liable by any negligence, you who have always pleased us by your provident attention; for as the losses of suppliants touch us, so their fruitful gains ought to be advantageous to us. Admonished by reason of public utility—a care which has ever gladly burdened us—we command the fort situated near you to be fortified, since the business of battles is well disposed whenever it is treated of in peace. For a fortification then becomes most powerful, if it has been strengthened by long-deliberated forethought.

All sudden things are proved to be ill-considered, and the construction of a site is sought out badly when the perils are already dreaded. Add to this that the mind itself cannot be prone to boldness which has been made anxious by diverse care. Our forebears rightly named this an 'expedition' (expeditio), because the mind devoted to battles ought not to be occupied with other thoughts. Wherefore the matter is to be embraced which is enjoined out of consideration for the general good; nor is it lawful to incur delay in a command which is known above all to assist the devoted.

And therefore by the present authority we decree that you eagerly build houses for yourselves in the aforesaid fort, rendering to our spirit an interchange of services, so that, just as we judge what shall be of profit to your interests, so we may perceive that you adorn our times with most beautiful structures. For then it comes about that you will be willing to gather suitable provisions for your own households, and that the dwelling will not be unwelcome to you which its own construction can commend. What sort of thing is it, I ask, to be in one's own home, when the enemy is compelled to endure the harshest quarters? Let him lie open to the rains; let your roofs defend you. Let hunger consume him; let provided abundance restore you.

Thus, when you are most safely established, your enemy, before the outcome of the contest, will suffer the fate of one already lost. For it is established that in time of necessity that man is proved the bravest, who does not distract himself with many things. For who would think that he had had prudence, if he then began to give attention to buildings or to store up provisions, when he ought to be conducting wars? It behoves you to cultivate and observe justice, who have undertaken to declare equity to the people, since it is not lawful to transgress for him who is believed to keep others within the rule of equity, lest he become a bad example who is known to have been chosen for a praiseworthy institution. And therefore we have taken care to furnish a response to your inquiry, lest through doubt you should be able to err—unless, which God forbid, you should be willing to transgress.

If a barbarian usurper has occupied, without the warrant of any allotting official, a Roman's estate—from which, by God's favour, we crossed the streams of the Sontius, where the empire of Italy first received us—let him restore it without delay to its former owner. But if he is seen to have entered upon the property before the time designated, then, since prescription is proved to bar after thirty years, we command the petition of the claimant to be at rest. For we wish those things to be brought back into the midst which, presumed upon in our own times, we condemn; since no place for calumny is left, when the obscurity of long time is passed over.

Concerning one who merely struck, and did not even slay, his brother: although by the common law of all he is condemned, and parricide alone is the one crime that surpasses the tragedy of every other guilt, nevertheless our humanity, which seeks a place for mercy even among the wicked, by the present authority decrees that monsters of this kind be driven from the bounds of the province. For those to whom the fellowship of their own kin was hateful do not deserve to share the company of citizens, lest the pleasant serenity of an unstained body be defiled by murky blots. We wish, however, that the lawful gain of the treasury be preserved, since our clemency is seen to be content with what is its own; and just as we desire to burden no one, so neither ought we to lose what is owed to us.

We rightly flee want, which counsels excess, since for one who rules, scarcity is a ruinous thing. Moderation everywhere is to be praised. For why should either blameworthy negligence let slip away what is one's own, or base greed scrape away what belongs to another? And therefore by the present command we charge you, that upon receiving the representation of the councillors of the city of Adriane, you compel to the fairness of repayment whoever among the Goths refuses to fulfil his obligation to the treasury, lest the poor man be forced to pay out of his own what it is plain the well-off are unjustly withholding:

this principle being of course observed, that if anyone through the vice of obstinacy should prefer to delay our commands, he shall pay as a fine what he ought to have offered even uncompelled, so that audacity, indecently raised up with an insolent spirit, may not be left unpunished in righteous ages. Although amid the glorious cares of the commonwealth and the salutary surges of royal anxieties it may seem a very small matter for a prince to speak of public shows, nevertheless, for love of the Roman commonwealth, it will not be irksome to enter upon these thoughts also; for wherever we are able to bestow benefit, we judge it worthy of our sentiments, especially since the happiness of the times is the joy of the peoples. For this, by God's favour, attests our labours: that the general populace knows itself to be at ease.

And so, on the petition presented by the Green faction—since this has become the custom, that the populace be called by their colour—we have learned that turbulent seditions are being stirred up by certain most wicked men, and that an occasion of public rejoicing has burst forth into contests of madness. This surely cannot possess the seemly character of joy, if it has not deserved to possess the common peace. And therefore it is fitting that our clemency look upon these matters too, so that uprightness of conduct may shine forth everywhere. For we are not concerned with the empty words of the populace, but we are shutting out the seed of ruinous sedition.

Wherefore let your illustrious Greatness, admonished by the present command, worthily take up the patronage of the Green faction which your father of glorious memory bestowed. For it ought not to be reckoned an injury to rule and govern the Roman peoples. For if the cause of all honours be weighed, those have been chosen for the people's benefit who deserved to receive the most glorious honours. When therefore the spectators have been summoned, let there be appointed by you, with the people's confusion removed, the Greens' pantomime—whichever of the two, Helladius or Thorodon, has been judged more suited to the public rejoicing—so that we may be seen to have conferred upon worthy men the expense which we expend for the city's spectacle.

This branch of the musical art our forefathers named the 'mute' art, namely that which with closed mouth speaks by means of the hands, and by certain gesticulations makes intelligible what can scarcely be recognized by a narrating tongue or the text of writing. We are bound to be summoned by the affectionate zeal of the citizens to the city's increase, since no one can love what he perceives the inhabitants do not cherish. To each his own homeland is dearer, while above all things he seeks its preservation, where from the very cradle he has dwelt. Wherefore let us be invited by equal vows to gifts, so that what we bestow of our own accord, we may confer with doubled favour.

And therefore let it be grievous to no one to render an account of the money assigned to the Roman public works, since a pure conscience desires to be approved, when it reaps the fruit of its labour, while it learns that prosperous reports about itself reach us. Wherefore by the present command we decree that you ought to examine the public works of the city of Rome, to see whether the labour of the work agrees with the expenditure: or, if it be established that money remains with anyone which has not been spent on the works, let him restore for disbursement the funds assigned to that purpose. When these accounts have been clearly set forth, send us a most faithful report, so that you who have been chosen for the investigation of the truth may be seen to answer to our judgment.

For we believe that no one wishes to be cheated of our bounty, since in such a matter we judge that he can also expend from his own resources. The very birds wandering through the air love their own nests; the roving beasts hasten to their thorny lairs; the pleasure-loving fish, as they pass through the liquid plains, seek out their hollows with eager searching; and all animals, where they know they can take refuge, desire to abide there to the longest age. What then ought we to say of Rome, whom it is right that her very children love more than themselves? Solid is the praise of royal bounty, as often as grants accord with sound judgments; nor does it dare to ascribe to chance what the test of good arrangement weighs out, for where offices are fitted to merits, nothing is owed to uncertainties.

For we are not pronouncing sentence on raw recruits, but judging among the most approved men. You have, indeed, in manifold ways extolled your talent upon the whetstone of the forum; you have nourished your eloquence by the exercise of cases; you have learned by experience how sweet are the fruits that good faith brings, so that it even wins for itself the hearts of those who reign. These things our sense, an observer of virtues, has discerned in you; by these endorsements you have deserved to please us, so that you should stand forth worthy for public causes, you who have hitherto conducted private ones with integrity. Take up therefore the affairs of our treasury, which are to be guarded, intending to follow the examples of your predecessors in using the privileges of your office. So then advance, governed along the middle path of justice, that you neither burden the innocent with false accusation nor relieve withholders of just demands.

For we judge those to be true gains which we obtain with integrity supporting us. We therefore inquire not how often you overcome, but in what manner you conquer. Intend equity, if you would please us: seek not victories from our power, but rather from the law, since it is more praiseworthy that a case be lost on the treasury's side, when justice is not maintained. For if the lord wins, there is the odium of oppression; but it is believed to be equity, if it happens that the suppliant overcomes. We therefore plead our causes at no small risk, since our reputation then advances when an unjust advantage withdraws itself. Wherefore let the treasury's cause sometimes be bad, that the prince may be seen to be good. For we lose with greater profit than if victory unjustly favoured us.

It befits the care of the royal summit to guard the concord of the general populace, since it redounds to the praise of him who reigns if peace be loved by all. For what is there that proclaims us better than a quiet people, a harmonious senate, and the whole commonwealth clothed with the honourableness of our manners? Hence it is that by the present command we decree that the magnificent and patrician men Festus and Symmachus put forward in your court the actions which they say they have against the illustrious and patrician Paulinus. When these have been received according to the reason of the laws and, if the order of right permits, decided, then let the patrician Paulinus set forth, with equal lot, whatever he alleges himself to have against the aforesaid magnificent men.

Nor do we wish the sentence in his part also to be delayed, since we desire that all matters between them be settled, and nothing else be left over except what is owed to affection. See therefore that you have been chosen arbiters of so great a judgment: see that our expectation demands even-handed justice: you who will reap the most abundant fruit of gratitude, if the present dispute proves those whom it has believed worthy to be not unequal. For there ought to be especial care concerning such men, who can plainly give examples to lesser folk. For he who neglects to put an end to a lawsuit among the highest men, without doubt allows the rest to imitate this. Contests are rather to be announced to the Goths than urged upon them, since it is the joy of a warlike stock to be put to the proof:

for he does not shun toil who covets the glory of valour. And therefore, with God's help, by whose authorship all things prosper, for the common benefit we have resolved to dispatch an army to the Gauls, so that you may at once have an occasion of advancement, and we may be seen to have conferred upon merits what we have bestowed. For praiseworthy fortitude lies hidden under leisure, and while it has no space for proving itself, the whole light of its merits is concealed.

And therefore we have taken care to admonish you through our sajo Nandus, that, equipped sufficiently for the expedition in God's name in the customary manner with arms, horses, and all necessary things, on the eighth day before the Kalends of July now coming, you set out by all means with God's favour, so that you may both show that the valour of your forefathers dwells within you and may happily carry out our command. Bring forth your young men into the discipline of Mars: under your eyes let them see what they may strive to recount to their descendants. For what is not learned in youth is not known in mature age. The very hawks, whose food is always from prey, drive their young from the nests when they grow slack with newness, lest they grow accustomed to soft leisure:

they beat the lingering ones with their wings, they force the tender chicks to flight, so that they may become such as a mother's love can presume upon. But you, whom both nature exalts and love of reputation sharpens, strive to leave behind such sons as it is plain you yourselves had for fathers. It profits nothing to consolidate the beginnings of a thing, if presumption shall avail to destroy what has been set in order: for those things are robust, those lasting, which prudence begins and care guards. And therefore greater caution is to be applied in preserving things than in discovering them, since for beginnings, the praise is owed to invention, but from things well guarded, praised perfection is acquired.

For some time ago, on behalf of the walls of the Roman city—where it will ever be our untiring ambition to bestow our zeal—our command ordained that the harbour of Licinius be repaired with the revenues assigned, so that it should furnish thousands of tiles by yearly delivery: and likewise that the adjoining harbours, which from antiquity belonged to those places, but which are now reported to be seized by the usurpation of various persons, be restored. You shall therefore have all things recalled without delay to the appointed contribution: for although our commands, by reason of the reverence due them, are in nothing to be violated, yet we wish those especially to be observed which seem to adorn the face of the city. For who would doubt that the marvels of the buildings are preserved by this provision, and the arched vaults turned from hanging stone are guarded by a covering of tiles?

so that the ancient princes may deservedly owe their praises to us, to whose buildings we have given a most prolonged youth, that they may shine through with pristine newness, which had already been darkened by decrepit old age. It is wrong that among them the good faith of a former benefit be diminished, to whom it is fitting that other things be more often bestowed by our bounty. But just as the things we have once granted do not deserve to be rescinded forever, so those who have obtained our bounty by moderate prayers ought not to overstep the bounds of our grants by immoderate presumption.

Wherefore, since we are admonished by reverence for religious zeal, that the things we some time ago granted to the church of the venerable man Unscila, its bishop, we should decree to be valid forever, now too we have judged that your illustrious Magnificence ought to be reminded, that the aforesaid church not feel the burdens of supplementary assessments under those headings, in that sum at which it was discharged from the times of the magnificent and patrician man Cassiodorus, known to us with pure faith and integrity. But that declared property which from the time of the benefit has been transferred to our church by certain persons, let it acknowledge a common burden of payment with all proprietors, and let it be subject to the obligation of him whose rights of ownership it has obtained.

Otherwise, his increases cannot be pleasing to us, who profits by loss to the treasury. Let the gain of his rent suffice the proprietor: tributes belong to the purple, not to the cloak; gain with odium is a peril: how much better to manage all things moderately, which no one would dare to accuse! If we govern the customs of foreign nations under law, if whatever is allied to Italy serves Roman right, how much more does it befit the very seat of civility to have greater reverence for the laws, so that through the example of moderation the grace of dignities may shine? For where shall a modest spirit be sought, if violent men dishonour the patricians?

And so it is represented to us by the petition of the people of the Green faction, that while they were arranging to come to our court asking the accustomed remedies, they suffered savage ambushes from the patrician Theodorus and from Importunus, the illustrious man and consul, in such wise that one of them is lamented as slain. This, if it be so, has moved us by the bitterness of the deed, that an armed fury should persecute the harmless commons, whom civic affection ought rather to have cherished.

But since the condition of the lesser folk evenhandedly implores the aid of him who reigns, we judge by the present command that the aforesaid illustrious men be admonished, that, with you urging it, they not delay to dispatch duly instructed representatives to the equal judgment of the illustrious men Caelianus and Agapitus, so that the inquiry, examined by the laws, may be concluded by their sentence. But lest perchance the loquacity of the populace may have given offence to the magnificent men, a discernment of this presumption is to be made. Let whoever insolently inflicted injury upon a most reverend senator as he passed by be held to blame, if he wished evil when he ought to have spoken well. But who would require grave manners at the shows? Catos do not know how to gather at the circus.