Variae & Works 2 part 3/4

Whatever is said there by a rejoicing people is not reckoned an injury. It is the place that excuses the excess. If their chatter is patiently received, it is shown to adorn even the princes themselves. Let those at least answer us who are occupied with such pursuits: if they wish their adversaries calm, surely they want them to be victors, since they spring forth to injuries precisely when they blush at being shamefully overcome. Whence then do they wish to be angry at what without doubt they recognize they themselves desired? Worthy is the construction of a city in which royal care may commend itself, since it is the praise of the times to restore old cities: in which both the adornment of peace is acquired and the necessity of wars is guarded against.

And therefore by the present command we sanction what will be profitable, that, if anyone has stones of any kind whatsoever lying in his fields that would be profitable for the walls, let him with a willing heart and without any delay concede them—which he will then more truly possess, when he has yielded this for the benefit of his city. For what is more pleasing than to see the public splendour increase, where the benefit of all is comprised in the common good? And although cheap things be furnished, they will return with great advantage to their authors: for that is often given which is received with greater profit. And frequently a man embraces his own gains, when out of necessity he bestows according to the quality of the time.

There is no doubt that the safekeeping of the postal service pertains to the benefit of the commonwealth, through which the swiftest execution is furnished for our ordinances. And therefore, as for a necessary matter, greater caution must be applied, so that those appointed for the continuous journeys may not waste away in unseemly leanness, lest a starved feebleness, forestalled by labours, succumb, and the journey begin to become slow, which was plainly devised for speed. Wherefore let your devotion, admonished by the present command, restore the tracts of land which were formerly permitted for the post-horses, claimed by their owners, to their changing-stations, so that neither may losses be inflicted on those by the small space, nor what is recovered fail to suffice for these.

Our mind, conscript fathers, glowing with cares for the commonwealth and scrutinizing the counsels of diverse nations, has often been assailed by the complaint of the peoples, arising indeed from trivial causes, but belching forth grave excesses. For it bewails that, for the pleasure of spectacles, things have come to the utmost peril, so that, the rationale of the laws being trampled, a servile fury in arms despairingly persecuted the harmless, and what our humanity furnished them as a cause of joy, audacity—deserving punishment—converted into sorrow. This we restrain by the accustomed provision of our clemency, lest by little and little, through permitting it, we be compelled to avenge a graver offence.

For it belongs to a benevolent prince to wish not so much to punish offences as to remove them, lest either by avenging too sharply he be deemed excessive, or by acting too leniently he be thought improvident. And therefore by the present definition we sanction that, if the servant of any senator should perchance be involved in the slaying of a freeborn man, his master shall deliver him over, prosecuted by the laws, so that, the quality of the deed having been examined, a sentence valid in law may be pronounced. But if the master, in bad faith, should delay to present the guilty party of so great a crime to the courts, let him know that he is to be smitten with the loss of ten pounds of gold, and to undergo the perils of our displeasure, which is much graver.

But that an equal balance might compose all honourable interests, and that the grace of civility might agree with manners brought back to order, we have directed our precepts to the people also, which we gladly embrace to be disclosed to you, so that, the one command being weighed against the other, the concord rent among the citizens may be repaired. Accordingly, we remove no one from the joy of spectacles, but we cut away the seeds of sedition by the roots. Let there therefore be a distinction between your splendour and middling manners: shun such intimates as are ministers of injuries, who strive to ascribe to your favour what they themselves offend in, and who, while they desire to display their own frivolities, contend to implicate your reverence. For you, whom gravity always befits, do not fiercely pursue the empty words of the populace.

If perchance there be anything committed that deserves punishment, let it be brought to the notice of the prefect of the city, so that the fault may be checked by the laws, not by presumed injury. For how does he differ from the one offending, who strives to avenge himself by excess? Unrepentable is the vengeance upon a citizen which comes by the laws: and he is seen to have triumphed excellently over the man who assailed him, who is pronounced victor by a judge. Among the adversaries themselves too, as you know, there were not formerly armed contests, but a contention, however fervid, provoked itself with fists, whence even the fist-fight (pugna) took its name. Afterwards Belus first brought forth the iron sword, from whom war (bellum) was pleased to be named. A savage counsel, a cruel safeguard, a beastly struggle.

For even if it was granted him to overcome an unarmed man easily at first, nevertheless it must be charged as a crime, that thereby posterity could perish. Do not therefore permit there to be done by your servants upon citizens what ought still to be accused even in enemies. We wish the spectacles of pleasures to be the joy of the peoples, nor ought that which was plainly devised for the relaxation of the mind to stir up motions of wrath. For this reason we undertake the burden of so many expenses, that your assembly may be not the uproar of sedition, but the ornament of peace. Cast off foreign manners: let the voice of the commons be Roman, which it is a delight to hear. Reproaches neither bring forth joy nor are begotten of gladness. This indeed was what you used to blame in foreigners:

do not now contract those turbulent vices which you see others have cast off. And therefore by an edictal proclamation we define that, if an unjust voice should presume atrocious injuries against any of the senators, let him know that he is to be heard by the prefect of the city according to the laws, so that, the quality of the deed having been examined, he may receive a sentence promulgated in due course of law. But that every seed of discord may be utterly cut away, we command the pantomimes to exercise their arts in predetermined places: which the precept given to the prefect of the city will be able to instruct you. Only see that, with composed minds, you carry through the rejoicing of the city.

For there is nothing that we more zealously desire you to preserve than the discipline of your ancients, so that what you have always held praiseworthy from the ancients, you may rather augment under us. For you are accustomed to fill the very air with mellifluous shouts and to say with one sound what would delight even the beasts themselves to hear: you bring forth voices sweeter than the organ, and so, under a certain harmony of the cithara, the hollow theatre resounds through you, so that anyone might believe them tones rather than shouts. Surely brawls do not befit such things, nor inflamed contention? Cast off your furies while joyful, exclude wrath while rejoicing. For the minds of others too can be tempered, when your applause is sweetly heard. It befits the praetor of the eminent city to be the guardian of peace.

For from whom can moderation better be hoped than from him to whom Rome could be entrusted? For that mother of all dignities rejoices that men of virtues preside over her. And therefore you ought to make your spirit equal to your honour, so that what you have obtained by our benefits, you may be believed to have found by your own merits. It befits you to look around lest any cause of seditions arise at the shows, since a quiet people is your proclamation of praise. Let the custom of jeering be moderate, so that neither may honourable license perish for liberty, nor discipline be lacking to morals.

Wherefore, just as by our oracles we have both instructed the most ample order and decreed that the commons be admonished, this too we judge that your Greatness should observe: that, if injury be inflicted by anyone upon a senator, the loquacious rashness be forthwith smitten with the severity of the laws. But if a senator, forgetful of civility, should cause any freeborn man to be harassed by wicked slaughter, let him, the report having been immediately transmitted, be struck and receive the fine of our Perpetuity. For let all remember so to divide the pursuits and factions of the spectacles, that in their homeland they ought to be concordant, nor that contests of pleasures are exhibited to them for this, that thence hostile wrath should grow hot.

But lest hereafter any furious contention be able to arise again, let Helladius come forth from the midst to furnish the people's pleasure, being about to have the equality of the monthly stipend with the other pantomimes of the factions. That too, which stirs up frequent seditions among them, we define by the present command: that the lovers of Helladius, whom we have ordered to dance from the midst without partisanship of either faction, may have free liberty to watch wherever they have chosen. But if their slippery will should migrate into favour of a single colour, let the people have their devotions, both in the circus and in the theatre, for the faction it loves, so that he who has presumed may himself be judged to have sought a forbidden discord. The judgment once pronounced of our Serenity knows not to waver:

nor has it changed by the stealthy supplanting of any occasion what it has established by provident arrangement. For some time ago we recall that we gave precepts to the patrician men Albinus and Avienus, that they should choose a pantomime of the Green faction who would more excellently suit the spectacles: which they disclosed to us by their report as having been done. And therefore now by the present authority we decree that, to him who shall be established to have been chosen by the aforesaid magnificent men, you grant the customary monthly stipend of the Green faction without diminution, so that what our provision established for the sake of removing confusion may not become an occasion of sedition, but of quiet.

The abundance of grain ought first to benefit the province for which it is born, since it is more just that its own fertility serve the inhabitants than that the zealous greed of foreign commerce drain it away. For to foreign parts ought to be expended that which is left over, and then is foreign matter to be thought of, when the reckoning of one's own necessity has been fulfilled. And therefore let your illustrious Magnificence cause those who are seen to have charge of the shores in the several places to be admonished, that no one load foreign ships with grain to pass over to foreign shores, before the public expenditures can attain the desired abundance.

Since the drought of the present year, which is wont to rage savagely in certain seasons in particular localities, with the earth's bowels hardened by excessive heat, not so much brought forth as cast out, with imperfect richness, the abortive offspring of the harvests, now with greater zeal must those things be sought which used to be in demand even amid abundance. And therefore we are by all means disturbed that the public grain, which from the shores of Calabria and Apulia was wont to be dispatched by your chancellor in the summer season, has not arrived even in autumn, since the sun's return, coursing through the southern signs, modulated by the order of nature, rouses up tumultuous tempests by the commingling of the air: which is given to be understood from the very months, since they have fittingly received their names from the number of rains to come.

What then is such a delay, that amid such great calm the swift vessels have not yet been dispatched, when the bright position of the non-setting stars invites the sails to be spread in haste, and the assurance of the serene air could not frighten the vows of those hastening? Or perhaps, with the south wind pressing on and the oars helping, the bite of the echeneis has bound fast the courses of the ships amid the liquid waves: or the shells of the Indian sea with like power have fixed their lips to the ships' backs: whose quiet touch is said to hold back more than the buffeted elements can drive on. The sluggish ship stands winged with swelling sails, and has no course, though the wind smiles upon it:

without anchors it is fixed, without cables it is bound, and creatures so small resist more than so many aids of prosperity impel. Thus, while the wave beneath hurries on its course, upon the sea's back the ship stands fixed, and in a wondrous manner the floating things are unshakenly held back, while the wave is swept along by countless motions. But to speak of another nature of fish: perhaps the sailors of the aforesaid ships have grown most sluggishly numb at the touch of the torpedo: by which the right hands of those striking it are so weighed down that, through the spear with which it is wounded, it so infects the hand of the striker that a part of the living substance, without any sensation, grows immovable in stupor. I believe such things have befallen those who cannot move themselves.

But for those men the echeneis is an obstructing venality, the bite of the shells an insatiate greed, the torpedo a fraudulent pretence. For they themselves with a perverse zeal make delays, that they may seem to incur adverse occasions. Let your Greatness, to whom it especially befits to think of such matters, cause this to be set right by the swiftest correction, lest scarcity be seen to be born not so much from the barrenness of the time as from negligence its mother. The usefulness of good persons ought to be renewed by succession, lest, through a lack of those who serve, some matter, left in suspense, suffer loss. And therefore we order you by our authority to take up the post once held by Benedictus in the city of Pedona, so that, procuring all things with vigilant management, you may deserve increases of our favour.

For you ought to consider that we strive to render a return to the living, we who cannot forget the loyalty of the dead. We are likewise admonished by the custom of our piety that, since the proven memory of those devoted to us does not fail, you should cause the sons of the late Benedict aforesaid—who is known to have served us with sincere devotion—to be fenced about with civil protection, so that, relieved by the benefit of present defence, they may rejoice that their father's services have won security for them. Let it therefore profit a whole family, what could be earned by the devotion of one; for it befits us to bestow greater things than we seem to have received from those who serve us. Here equality is not equity, but our portion most justly weighs the more when, in repaying, it is the more heavily burdened.

Although the crime of murder is at first hearing detested, and the eyes of judges shrink from a bloodstained hand—since a readier path to mercy always lies open to good minds—nevertheless it must be weighed with consideration of justice, by which an injury done to anyone may become a necessary deed of guilt: such a man, by the strange misfortune of his lot, will then be the abomination of all if he keeps himself innocent. For who would endure to drag a man before the laws who has striven to violate the rights of marriage? It is implanted in wild beasts to defend their own union with the utmost struggle, since that thing is hostile to all living creatures which is condemned by natural law.

We see bulls defend their females in combat of horns, rams rage to the death for their ewes, stallions avenge with kicks and bites the mares joined to them. Thus even those who are not moved by shame lay down their lives for their mates. But how shall a man bear to leave adultery unavenged, which he knows he has neglected to his everlasting disgrace? And therefore, if you are in no way cheated of the truth of the petition you have laid before us, and have washed away the stain of the marriage bed with the blood of the adulterer caught in the act, and do not under the pretext of a bloodthirsty mind put forward a cause of honour falsely—we order you released from the exile that, it is established, was inflicted upon you; for to stretch out the sword for the love of chastity is, for husbands, not to trample the laws, but to establish them.

Yet on this condition: that, if a lawful accuser should arise, you know you must be heard concerning the nature of your deed; so that, if you slew the innocent, the crime may be cut off by public severity, but if you parted by the death of adulterers their wickedly entered embraces, it may be reckoned vengeance rather than fault. But if anyone among those who bring false charges has caused losses to you and to Agnellus your surety, and it is established that money was extorted, as you assert, by the vicarius or his staff, let him, when summoned by our command, restore according to the laws what was taken away. For we do not wish those whom our sentence has been seen to set free to fall as plunder to anyone.

In like manner, against the assaults of the lawless, we grant you protection against Candac under an equal defence, so that he may neither withdraw you from the laws, nor again permit you to labour against the public statutes. That is no benefit which is bestowed on the unwilling; nor does anything seem useful to anyone which is granted against his will. Wherefore let Your Excellency know that we have been approached with grave complaints of your nephew Wiliarit, a young man, namely that you hold his father's property not with intent to improve it but with the wish to make it worse. Therefore whatever of the said estate you know yourself to be retaining, restore without any delay, so that he may dispose of his parents' property by his own will; for the person also seems to us a fitting one, who advances having taken up the freedom of a lord.

Eagles nourish their bold young with food sought out for them so long until, gradually withdrawing from their soft down, in full-grown age they fledge with feathers; and when their flight has become firm, they accustom their new talons upon tender prey, nor need they live by another's labour, whom their own catch can satisfy. Thus it is unworthy that our young men, who are proven fit for the army, should be called feeble for the ordering of their own life, and be thought unable to govern their own household, who are believed able to manage wars. For the Goths, valour makes the lawful age, and he who is strong to pierce an enemy ought now to claim himself free from every vice. We gladly embrace the reasonable petitions of suppliants, we who, even unasked, ponder what is just.

For what is more worthy that we should turn over day and night in constant deliberation than that, even as arms protect our commonwealth, equity too should keep it inviolate? And so the worshipful Philagrius, residing in the city of Syracuse, long held back by attendance at our palace, has begged to return to his own home—he who for the sake of studies brought his brother's sons to the city of Rome. Let Your Illustrious Magnificence, holding to our command, establish them in the aforesaid city; nor let it be lawful for them to depart before we decree this again by a second command. For thus both an advancement of talent is acquired for them, and the reckoning of our advantage is preserved:

for to them delay can be profitable, since it is sometimes expedient to neglect one's homeland that a man may acquire wisdom. Ulysses of Ithaca might perhaps have lain hidden in his own home, whose wisdom the noble song of Homer chiefly asserts from this: that he went around many cities and peoples; since those are always held the more prudent who are proved learned by intercourse with many men. For human nature, even as it is instructed by hard labours, so by torpid leisure is made foolish. Our ordinance ought not to be hindered by delay, lest what is established to have been wholesomely arranged should, through the vice of slowness, run into obstacle.

And therefore arms must be distributed before necessity can demand them, so that, when the time requires it, men may be the readier for what is commanded. For the art of war, if it is not rehearsed beforehand, is not possessed when it becomes necessary. Accordingly let Your Illustrious Highness procure for the soldiers of Salona the necessary arms, as opportunity of equipping himself presents itself to each, by our command; for the safety of the commonwealth is a faithful one when it has an armed defender. Let the soldier learn in peace what he can carry out in war. Men do not suddenly rouse their spirits to arms save those who, by training sent before, trust themselves fit for the same. Calves long for the contests which they may fulfil in vigorous age; whelps play at their first huntings.

We kindle the very hearth-fires with tender twigs; but if you apply stout logs to the first sparks, you smother the little flame which you are striving to foster. So too the minds of men, unless they are first gently imbued, cannot be found fit for that to which you aim. All beginnings are timorous, and timidity is not removed otherwise than when novelty is abolished by necessary practice. The special care of your order makes us put forth more cautious judgements, and the honour of the senate compels us to examine more anxiously those to be admitted to that revered assembly—a body which we wish to be increased not only by the number of citizens but adorned above all by the light of merits. Let some other order perchance receive the mediocre: the senate rejects the eminently unproven.

Wherefore, whence should we seek a colleague for the nobility better than from the vein of the noble—one who promises to abhor baseness in character as much as he shuns it in blood? And therefore let Your Illustrious Magnificence decree to be assigned to the grown-up Faustus, son of the illustrious Faustus, those things which ancient usage prescribed concerning those to be enrolled in the curia. For in commanding this we diminish nothing of the accustomed authority of judgement belonging to the sacred order, since the greater glory of the dignity is to await the sentence of the nobles after the royal judgement. For it is their own adornment if we command what they are wont to choose, and if what is daily sought from them is greatly requested of us.

The remuneration of merits reveals the just rule of a sovereign, with whom that cannot perish which it has befallen anyone to have laboured for. For if we bestow unlooked-for things, how can we deny what we owe? With us every devotion lays up in safety what it deserves, and reaps a twofold fruit—he who knows that in anything he has obeyed us. Once indeed you deserved to hold from us something more precious in dignity, namely that you should worthily cleave to the royal side. Our affection bore that you should be deferred: with a lover you obtained the cause of your advancement the more slowly, that after the favour of sacred friendship you might come the more adorned to honours. For all things from which humanity catches renown have sat congenially in you—homeland, lineage, distinguished training.

Of which, if a single one completes nobility, gathered together in you they will achieve the more, since you shine no less by the fortune of your native soil than you are adorned by the glory of your pedigree and of virtue. Hence it is that now, by the felicitously third indiction, we raise you to the summit of the urban prefecture, granting you the fasces in that city where the honours are perpetual. And this we, who more modestly estimate our own gifts, will certainly confess: that you have greatly deserved of our judgement, that you may be able to preside over that assembly which you know to be reverend to the human race. Is this perhaps to rule palaces and to set in order one's own household? For the most part honour is acquired from things entrusted, nor is it the same to undertake the guarding of a wine-cellar as to keep precious diadems.

Those things which we deem more excellent we give to the better men to preserve, and in matters where we cannot endure to suffer losses we apply to minds assuredly more faithful. If Rome has an equal, judge that we have entrusted like things to others also; but if she is a singular good, we make you judge of a pre-eminent thing, which we ever desire to increase. You know, conscript fathers, that the summits of dignities are your own genius; you know that it profits you, whatever it has befallen us to bestow in the honour of the fasces. For whatever is undertaken by each one is the senate's, which deserves it. For you recognize what we may judge concerning you, when to men proven by long labour we give this assuredly as a reward: that they may deserve to be partakers of your body.

For this is the man who, leaving the sweetness of his native soil, chose rather to cleave to us; and though he was illustrious in his homeland, he nevertheless chose to undergo our fortune—overcoming the force of nature by the greatness of his favour, he who rejoiced in the emperor Zeno as one not so much benevolent as kindred. And what could the favour of a kinsman not obtain in that commonwealth, which so very easily favours strangers? But his excessive affection despised all these things, so that we ourselves, for whose sake he is known to have done these things, may seem deservedly to be astonished that for the favour of one person so many desirable things were scorned.

Who, above this excellent fidelity, added to us the solace of his conversation, so that he might soothe with the sweetness of speech the sometimes harsh cares of the commonwealth which we take up at the urging of emergent affairs. Bland in address, a faithful patron of suppliants, knowing not how to accuse, presuming to commend; who made himself illustrious by such purity of mind that, though he deserved courtly dignities with us, he claimed for himself as a most joyful service the ordering of the spectacles, so that under the appearance of pleasure he might seem freely willing to serve—refraining indeed from toils, yet dissociating himself from us in no part. Nay more, as a festive guest he adorned the royal table, striving to join himself to us there where it is certain that we can rejoice.

But what more is to be said of his character, for whom, as full proof, it suffices that he has continually deserved to possess our love? There is no greater merit than to have found the favour of those who reign; for they to whom it is lawful to seek out the best of all are always seen to have chosen the deserving. And therefore, weighing his labours with remuneration, we have granted to the illustrious man Artemidorus the fasces of the urban prefecture. To this man therefore, conscript fathers, shining before so many and such merits, give your favour with your tongues, give your favour with your fellowships. It will likewise be the praise of your benevolence that, when you bestow charity upon the worthy, you may incite the rest to the example.

You can recognize that we hold a special charity for you from this very care, on whose behalf we appear so solicitous that we suffer nothing of admonition to be omitted. For caution betrays affection, and the things we love the more zealously we guard with greater favour. Hence it is that to the illustrious man Artemidorus, long trained in our service, we have given the fasces of the urban prefecture to be wielded, so that—since civility was being disturbed by the unlawful seditions of certain men—the innocent might have a most pure witness, and the erring might endure a most just avenger. And this we, who delight in the guiltless, have judged ought to be brought to the notice of all, lest anyone presume to exceed his wonted bounds by an unexpected severity.

Wherefore you shall know that we have delegated such powers to the aforesaid man, that if anyone should prove uncivil, he may forthwith incur the severity of our command. And although the laws have given this power to the urban prefecture, we have nevertheless specially delegated it, so that what a twofold authority has permitted might be done with greater confidence. He will therefore dare to strike, by our authority, the seditious and those deviating from public discipline. Let the fervour of contending spirits be quiet. The goods of peace, which by God's favour you have earned through our labour—why are they defiled by unlawful seditions? Never have morals been imperilled with greater loss than when Roman gravity is blamed. Let the honourable city therefore restore its own moderation.