Variae & Works 3

The solemn custom admonishes us to give a name to the calendar—Rome's own adornment, the earthly glory of the curia—so that through the number of the years the grace of dignities may run its course, and the memory of the ages may be consecrated by the benefits of princes. Let the happy year take its auspice from a consul, and let the time, dedicated by such a name, enter the gate of days, and let the fortune of the beginning favour the remaining part. For what can be believed more desirable to you than that Rome should gather her own nurslings back to her breasts, and number a Gallic senate in the assembly of a venerable name? The curia recognizes the glory of Transalpine blood, which more than once has clothed her crown with the flower of its nobility. She has known how to take consular men thence among the rest of the fasces.

He who, by a long lineage drawn through the robes of office, is by the law of the times a native-born heir of honours. For who would not know that Felix is of good natural disposition, who from his first auspices made known his merit from this, that he was seen to hasten toward the homeland of the virtues? Prosperity has followed a good judgement: he grew in advancements together with liberty; nor did we suffer him to be left inglorious, who has deserved to attain to the honour of the commonwealth. Plainly worthy of our bounties, who in the very flower of boyhood reined in his slippery age with mature morals, and—what is a rare good of self-restraint—being deprived of a father, became the son of gravity: he subjugated cupidity, the enemy of wisdom, despised the blandishments of vices, trod underfoot the vanities of pride.

Thus, having overcome excesses, he was seen to give a consulship of morals beforehand. We, however, who are bound by good institutions, whom proven probity conciliates, have granted the curule insignia to the candidate, that we may be able to provoke the desires of virtues by gifts: since zeal does not fail for that thing which has the more generous reward. And therefore you who can be delighted by the goods of both commonwealths with undivided favour, join your favour, unite your judgement: by the judgement of both he is worthy to be chosen, who deserves to be exalted with such great fasces. We love to double our benefits, nor does bounty once bestowed bring disdain, and they the more provoke us to frequent reward who have deserved to receive the beginnings of our grace.

For to new men judgement is accorded, but favour is exhibited to those approved. For it is becoming that a prince's decisions should not waver, since former gifts are commended by later ones, and every sentence is made undoubted by repetition. Long ago we granted you a degree of honours; now we concede the summit of dignities: that we may both seem to have deservedly conferred the former, and that our benignity may be esteemed to keep constancy in what follows. For we do not suffer those to be left inglorious who are extolled by the glory of their lineage. Nay rather let the grace of honours run through the parents; under the rule of a good prince let the fortune of all advance. For who would despair of increase, where there is a gift in love and a purpose to bestow?

You retain the proofs of this clemency that you have approved, when, the fortune of your native soil being abandoned, you returned as it were by a kind of right of return into your ancient homeland. Our affection received you, filled you with benefits, enriched you, and made it your prayer that you had sought our rule. For thus it befitted him to grow, who was seen to have chosen the better things. For fortune is changed with masters: and in the praise of one who reigns, that profits which a subject acquires. But you have shown yourself equal to this indulgence. For, enriched with illustrious honour, you bore yourself with such maturity that you suffered your light years to be under a burden—you whom in your first age the strongest force of nature could not conquer.

For enriched with your paternal substance, which always exalts new heirs, you preserved your riches, though you had come to them apart from the pursuits of labour. For that is wont easily to slip away which could be found without difficulties. You increased your patrimony by the diligence of your liveliness. For what greater sign of good management could be sought, where a consulship is the witness? In so great a substance you have deserved that to which men scarcely attain with their patrimonies overturned. Private thrift nourished public liberalities. You have surpassed your father's glory by laudable disposition: and what he could not undertake, you accomplished out of his resources. None but great confidence seeks the lofty chariots, since it is the mark of a generous mind to desire what is highest.

Confidence in oneself makes men daring, since it does not suffer him to be hidden whom nature bids to come forth. Through you the consulship has returned to the Transalpine family, and you have renewed the withered laurels with green shoots. Behold the sacred city made candidate by your prayers. Direct, then, your steps toward the heights of praises, that you may surpass in virtue your forebears, whom you restore in honour. Take, therefore, by the fourth indiction the insignia of the consulship, and prove yourself worthy of the desires of so many by your present liberality. This indeed is the place where lavishness deserves acclamation, and it is a kind of virtue not to love one's own substance, where as much of reputation is acquired as is taken away from resources.

Behold yourself flitting above the shoulders and lips of all, and show yourself such that you may be esteemed worthy of your lineage, worthy of the city, worthy of our judgement, worthy of the robes. Rejoice, conscript fathers, that the stipends of dignities have returned to you; rejoice that provinces long disused are paying you consular men, and from such an auspice promise yourselves greater things. Beginnings are wont to portend better things, since those things begin from small ones which in what follows exalt themselves with great admiration. The noble lineage lay prostrate under the Gallic suspension of justice, and, deprived of its honours, wandered as an exile in its own homeland. At length divine power has lifted the oppressed: it has received them at Rome with glory, and they have gathered the ancient laurels of their ancestors from the honoured grove of the curia.

For who could deny a gift to a lineage of which you hold, as it were, a deposit in its citadel? For it is in the mouth of rumour that the consulship of Felix of old still lives: since good things know how to endure after a man, and what is gloriously performed is not held by the end of time. And, that we may pass over his ancient stock, satiated with the abundance of the old, there is still before the eyes of all the most noble father of the candidate, who so shone forth in the curia with the torches of prudence that he was deservedly held illustrious among so many lights of dignities. Dedicated indeed to the studies of letters, he devoted his whole life to the most learned disciplines. Having attained eloquence not, as they say, with the first lips, he satiated himself from the whole Aonian fountain.

A vehement disputant in books, a charming declaimer in tales, a fresh sower of words, he had altogether equalled in merits the authors whom he had read again and again. He commended also the goods of his studies by the marks of his benignity: knowing that ignorance is the more puffed up by the breeze of pride, which is exposed to light gusts, since it is not held by the roots of virtues. He was a certain Cato of our times, who by abstaining from vices might form others by examples. Having also most subtly searched out the causes of natural things, he saturated himself with the Attic honey of the Cecropian doctrine. Plainly worthy knowledge, in which a most honourable mind may find rest, which ever embraces something salutary for the soul:

To him nothing unwelcome can befall, since he alone commends to himself all worldly things, and over him slippery fortune holds no command. As for the rest concerning him, it is enough that you remember it, since there is no leisure for busy men to set forth the merits of so great a man. Now turn your gaze upon the candidate, that in him you may recognize the trace of his father's praises, and that the father may be judged to have handed down not so much the likeness of his body as the marks of his virtue. For he has lived among you, as you know, not after the fashion of a foreigner, but with Roman gravity.

For from his very earliest years, while still admitted to honours, he—which is the surest token of unblemished probity—in his boyhood ever joined himself in emulous gravity to the most glorious men, so that after the examples of domestic virtue he might draw constancy from public authority. And although he pursued the goodwill of all with no partial choice—for from among the great one can rarely be chosen—yet he adorned himself with affection for the patrician Paulinus, that thence he might give a sign of his admirable judgement, in that he was seen to hasten toward an outstanding man. For a longed-for friendship with one's betters confers distinction, which the fellowship of good morals knows how to instil, since with concordant affection one strives to make him whom he loves an equal to himself.

To this man, therefore, conscript fathers, shining with his ancestral goods together with his own merits, bestow the splendour of your favour. He comes not unworthy to the insignia of the curials, who descends from a noble stock. For Rome has often chosen her fasces from the walls of Gaul, lest she either despise what is excellent to her own loss, or proven virtue should lie idle without honour. Let the noble curia therefore be filled with the goods of the provincials, to whom belongs whatever seems to be most excellent. The year itself, the father of the seasons, composes itself in a fourfold diversity, nor would it stir desire if it did not possess the grace of novelty. Favour, therefore, conscript fathers, your own increase by our judgement. For if the candidate is honoured, what he merits already profits you.

We delight in the discoveries of antiquity and gladly embrace the following of established rules, since no room is left for fraudulent encroachments whenever things reasonably ordained are observed. And therefore, the tenor of your supplications having been learned, by the present authority we determine that whatever pertained by our command to Antiochus, who held the titles of the siliquaticum and the monopoly, shall be transferred to you by like reasoning, you being protected by the present authority against the snares of all calumniators, with equity preserved; you shall also have the support of the saio, which our authority has solemnly assigned to you for vindicating the aforesaid titles—yet in such wise that your office of defence be in no way mingled with private affairs.

For what we have given as a support, let it in no way be felt as contrary to justice, since reasonably another's fault concerns you, if he whom you ask to be benefited should perceive that through you another has been harmed. Since our humanity seems to seek out an occasion for munificence, and at times out of love of clemency bestows its desires upon persons less in need, how much more does it delight to spend upon the advantage of the commonwealth, where whatever is granted, the giver's own advantage is doubled!

Wherefore we command your illustrious magnificence by the present authority to furnish without any hesitation the rations to the sixty soldiers continually stationed in the Augustan defiles, just as they have been decreed for others also, so that the advantage of the commonwealth may be fulfilled with a grateful spirit—the commonwealth which is aided by the conveniences of profits. For it is fitting to think of the soldier's dealings, who is known to sweat in the frontier places for the general peace, and who is proved, as if from a certain gate of the province, to shut out the inroads of the heathen. He will ever be ready for battle who strives to keep off the barbarians, since fear alone restrains those whom a promise given does not hold back.

The counsel of our deliberation requires the service of prudent men, that the design of the public advantage may be fulfilled by the ministry of the wise. And therefore let your illustrious greatness know, with God's help, that we have resolved to send an embassy to the East: judging you fit for it, we summon you by the present command, so that both your distinction may grow from our esteem, and the effect of our commands may be procured through you.

But though every embassy requires a wise man, to whom is committed the advantage of the provinces and the welfare of the whole realm to be defended, now nevertheless it is necessary to choose the most prudent, who can dispute against the most subtle and so act in the assembly of the learned that so many erudite minds cannot overcome the cause undertaken. It is a great art to speak against craftsmen and to accomplish something among those who think they foresee all things. Rejoice, then, in so great a judgement, since you receive the gift of election before you could have proved your own genius. It is not fitting that what can grow to the adornment of the state should lie unused, since to despise things destined to profit belongs not to wisdom.

And therefore let your illustrious sublimity have the squared marble blocks, which lie everywhere ruined and neglected, and to which this work seems to be enjoined, assigned to the building of the walls, so that the ancient construction may return to public adornment and the fallen stones may grace something after their ruin: yet in such wise that it be shown to you by manifest reasoning that these very stones have collapsed from public places, since just as we do not wish the adornment of the city to be violated by anyone's presumption, so we detest that calumny be inflicted for private gains. Who is better chosen for the laws of equity than he who is adorned with the priesthood, who out of love of justice knows not to judge from personal motives, and who, caring for all in common, leaves no place to envy?

Accordingly, considering an action suited to your merits, we signify that we have, through Montanarius, destined to your sanctity one thousand five hundred solidi, which you shall distribute to the provincials—an estimate of the injury having been made—according as you shall learn that each has suffered loss in this present year by the passage of our army, so that no one whom his damages have burdened may be left a stranger to our munificence. For we do not wish to bestow in confusion what ought to be distributed with reason: lest what we are known to have necessarily sent to the afflicted be granted superfluously to the unharmed. Our humanity knows how to be swayed by prayers, yet for the sake of affection of piety it cannot fail to keep the bounds of justice.

For it belongs to a kindly prince to overstep the bounds of equity for the sake of clemency's advantage: since mercy alone is that to which all the virtues honourably do not refuse to yield. Some time ago, indeed, having weighed his merits, we had made for Sabinus the charioteer one solidus monthly: but now, though an actor, he has moved us by an honourable supplication, asserting that one who stands as a minister of public gladness ought not to be weighed down by the most wretched beggary. And therefore by the present command we decree that the aforesaid driver of horses receive another solidus per month, which is to be charged to the public accounts.

For we rejoice as often as the pages of expenditures are laden with such items, since it is a great advantage to us whenever we bestow somewhat upon the poor in whatever manner of life. It is a royal purpose to come to the aid of those burdened by injury, so that the chastisement of the wicked may make justice the more loved. Nor can it be dissembled, the common life by which we live being kept safe, that the reverend society of the marriage-bed should have public solicitors, and that the procreative sacrament of the human race be profaned by criminal rashness.

Moved therefore by the supplication of Agapita, a woman of distinction, who asserts that her chamber was assailed by all manner of men, so that they even promised to bring about the death of her husband—by whom they rather justly deserve to be destroyed—we decree by the present command that, from the time when she, corrupted in mind, abandoned the conjugal bond, every contract (which, by the error of her levity, cannot be firm) being annulled by reason of the laws, whatever shall be found to be possessed by those withholding it shall without any delay be restored, nor shall the criminals, to the mockery of justice, be able to claim the profits of their frauds. For it is too absurd that those whom punishment has merited to consume should also be able to claim gains for themselves.

Among the other burdens of the human race, conjugal affection has claimed for itself a special care: and not without reason, since it deserves to be held in honour, from which the restoration of posterity is acquired. Every crime pursues only its authors: the mother's error passes to her children, and by a new mischance of misfortune another's wickedness becomes one's own disgrace. For this reason the laws, whether divine or public, command that the bond of marriage be guarded with such great caution, so that it is a great crime of conscience not to hold another's affections in reverence. For Basilius, a man of distinction, has by petitions given intimated that Agapita his wife was led away from his own household by certain men through the vice of solicitation, while that female sex lies open to the vices of mutability:

which he confirmed also by the petition presented to us of his aforesaid wife: adding that she, when she had fled into the precincts of the most holy church, without her husband's knowledge and setting reason aside, conferred the farmstead of Arcinatum upon your greatness. Whence now, coming to her senses, she bewails the most grievous destitution she has brought upon herself, condemning her own deed, in that, like a poor woman to a rich man, a wanton to a chaste, a foolish to a prudent man, she gave a gift. Now cast off the gains which seem not to commend an honourable person, since it rather befits you to acquire that which can also increase your good fame. Wherefore we had earlier given precepts on this matter, and now by a repeated command we reiterate, that you restore the above-written property without any hesitation.

For the alienation of property requires that one have sound judgement, and certainly she who has dealt in these matters is shown to have lost firm counsel. For what upright thing could she do, who, with no faults existing, left her husband? If foreign commerce serves our desires, if by gold brought forth external devotion is acquired, how much more ought Italy to abound in its own goods, since it is proved to feel no losses in obeying? And therefore we by no means command that any portion of bacon be transported to foreign parts, but that, by favourable divinity, it be reserved for our own uses, lest what is produced in our regions should, by harmful negligence, seem to be lacking.

Beware therefore lest, however small, an occasion be given to faults, knowing that the gravest peril will arise if you should endeavour, even lightly, to transgress in matters commanded. The sin lies in the quality, not in the quantity: for indeed injury does not seek a measure. Authority, if it is despised in a small thing, is violated in every part. We are moved indeed by zeal for piety at the complaint of suppliants, but most of all by that which is concerned with the losses of the innocent, so that those who had no gains in the exacting should undergo a grievous loss in the repaying. And it is manifest that this does not befit the justice of our times, that the slighting of one should burden another, and that there should be guilt for the harmless arising from the contempts of others.

For Ulpianus has in a tearful petition suggested that, in the time of his administration, a public debtor, at the demand of Venantius, bound himself by the chain of suretyship for four hundred solidi. When the demander, despising his pledge through the presumption of savage rustics, failed to fulfil it, the aforesaid sum of solidi burdened the suppliant. And therefore the aforesaid Venantius, whom the ill-will of many crimes frequently assails, known only by constant complaints, we decree to be summoned in the present matter, so that, being lawfully convicted, he may without any delay of tergiversation fulfil what he is suggested to have promised, since audacity is always better cured when pressed by the weight of the laws, and, while fear is imposed upon such men, licence for sinning is not afforded.

Who could accuse the rest, if the names of piety are proved to be cruel? A light guilt is neglected when the tragedy of a great crime has thundered, nor does anyone strive to avenge what is small, if the gravest offences are seen to escape. The very reason of his profession shows him a savage enemy: an angry colleague you may often find: but humanity does not permit a disobedient son to escape his punishment. Where is that force of nature, which by the embrace of union is destined for posterity? The cubs of wild beasts follow their parents: the shoots do not differ from their own turf: the offspring of the vine serves its own origin: and does man disagree with his own beginning from which he sprang? What shall we say of those benefits which can bind even a stranger?

They are nourished from their infancy, for them men labour, for them riches are sought: and although each one believes that what he possesses abounds to himself, while it is still sought from the fathers, the sin is rather committed on behalf of the other generation. Alas the grief! Shall we not deserve the affection of those for whom we refuse not to undergo death? Mary herself, stirred by savage tempests, does not shun a parent's care, so that by foreign wares she may acquire what she may leave to her own offspring. The very birds, whose life is ever in seeking food, do not stain their nature with foreign filth. The stork, the perpetual herald of the returning year, casting out the sadness of winter, ushering in the gladness of springtime, hands down a great example of piety.

For when their parents have loosened their feathers as old age consumes them, and they cannot be found fit to seek their own food, the young, warming the cold limbs of their begetters with their own plumage, refresh the weary bodies with food: and until the aged bird returns to its former vigour, the young repay with a dutiful exchange what as nestlings they received from their parents. And therefore not undeservedly are they preserved with long life, who do not abandon the offices of piety. The partridges too have the custom of repairing their lost eggs by the loss of another mother, so that by the adoption of another's offspring they may repair the misfortunes of their own bereavement: but as soon as the chicks have begun to have confidence in walking, they go out to the fields with their nurse:

who, as soon as they have been admonished by their mother's voice, rather seek out the mother of their own eggs, although they are reared by other furtive broods. What then ought men to do, when they recognize that this piety exists even in birds? Bring therefore Romulus, who, polluted by the bitterness of his deed, defiles the Roman name, to your judgement: and if it shall be established that he laid hands upon his own father Martinus, let him forthwith feel lawful vengeance: for we have chosen your customs for this reason, because you cannot spare the cruel, since it is a kind of piety to be severe against those who are taught to have mingled themselves in criminal deeds against the order of nature.

It is the rule of our providence to consider future merits in tender age, and to judge the success of the offspring from the virtues of the parents: since those goods are certain which draw their assurance from the beginning, while the origin knows not to fail which is wont to sprout from the root. The vital vein of springs is borne along too in a perennial course, and all flowing things sustain this condition, that the savour which has been granted to the source, unless perchance it be vitiated by accidents, knows not to be denied to its streamlets. Hence it is that, esteeming you by the merits of your magnificent father, we advance you to the honour of the vacant count of the domestics, so that you who are illustrious in lineage may shine in dignity. For who would not hold in you things that, though future, are yet certain, while he recalls the dutiful labours of your glorious father?

He, kindled by the reasoning of prudence, was so attentive to sudden emergencies, as if he were thought to be prepared through delay. For the prefecture, the noblest burden of all cares, which even alone it would have been praiseworthy to discharge, he ordered together with the joined care of our army, so that neither did ordinance fail the provinces nor did provident solicitude withdraw itself from the army. His indefatigable and ready prudence overcame all: he drew the barbarian customs to peace: he moderated all things according to our wish, so that he satisfied those receiving in such a way that the givers found no occasion for complaints. But that few things may suffice out of many, he proved so much concerning himself that his unexamined posterity was chosen.

Among these ornaments of lineage, however, which is the greatest glory of the fairest nobility, you do not lack the support of your own merits either. For the studies of letters, which are worthy of their own suffrage among all honours, you pursue as a diligent investigator, adding to the brightness of lineage the genius of sweet eloquence. Apply yourself therefore to such studies, love those things which you know are rewarded in you, so that you may direct our judgements also along with your advancements. For you demand as much from us as you know yourself to press toward by good deeds. It is our zeal, conscript fathers, to confer reward upon right purpose, and to kindle men of good character toward better institutions by the fruit of bestowed benignity.

For the examples of rewards nourish virtues, nor is there anyone who does not strive to ascend to the heights of morals, when that is not left unrewarded which is praised with conscience as witness. Hence it is that we have advanced the illustrious Venantius, shining both by his own and his paternal merits, to the dignity of the vacant count of the domestics, so that the implanted splendour of his birth might be rendered more adorned by the honours conferred. For you remember, conscript fathers, that the patrician Liberius was praiseworthy even in our adversity, who obeyed Odovacar with the most upright services in such a way that he was afterward most worthy of our affection, though he had seemed to do many things as an enemy against us.

For he did not come over to us in the most base condition of a deserter, nor did he feign hatred of his own lord in order to procure for himself another's affection: as a man of integrity he awaited the divine judgements, nor did he suffer himself to seek a king, unless he had first lost his ruler. Whence it came about that we gladly gave him a reward, because he had faithfully aided our enemy. He, by the patronage of contrary fortune, was rendered as acceptable to us as he could then be known to be undevoted. With his lord now almost overthrown, he was bent by no terrors: he steadfastly endured the ruin of his prince: nor could the novelty disturb him, which even heathen ferocity dreaded.

He prudently followed the common turns of fortune, so that, while he steadfastly endured the divine judgements, he might find human favour the more commended. We have proved the man's fidelity: sad, he crossed over to our jurisdiction, who, being overcome, converted his mind, but did not bring it about that he should be conquered. To whom, as soon as we granted the dignity of the praetorian prefecture, he so administered the great trust committed to him with such integrity that anyone might marvel that one was so simply devoted whom he had known to have been so cunningly an adversary. He therefore, with indefatigable care—which is the most difficult kind of virtue—is seen, under the grace of generality, to have procured public profits, extending the revenue not by adding but by conserving, while he well collected, by providing industry, those things which had been wont to be ill-scattered.

We perceived the revenues increased, you knew of no added tributes. Thus each thing was accomplished to our admiration, that both the fisc grew and private interest suffered no losses. It delights us to relate how in the assignment of the thirds of the Goths and Romans he joined both estates and minds. For whereas men are wont to collide over neighbourhood, to these the community of estates seems to have furnished a cause of concord: for so it came about that both nations, while they live in common, came together to one will. Behold a deed new and altogether praiseworthy: the goodwill of the lords was joined by the division of the soil; friendships among the peoples grew through losses, and a defender was acquired by a portion of land, so that the security of property might be kept whole.

One law and an equable discipline embraces them. For it is necessary that a sweet affection should grow among those who continually keep the appointed bounds. The Roman commonwealth therefore owes its tranquillity also to the said Liberius, who handed down zeal of charity to nations so renowned. Weigh, conscript fathers, whether we ought to leave this offspring unrewarded, whose author we remember to have done so many excellent things. May the heavenly powers favour our dispositions, so that, just as we invite virtues by benefits conferred, so we may approve that honoured consciences have grown by their merits. We wish our munificence to stand harmful to none, lest what is bestowed upon one be applied to the losses of another.

And therefore by the present authority know that, on account of the lot which by our liberality we have conferred upon the presbyter Butila, no one ought to pay the levy of the fiscal account, but in that contribution—as much as the solidi comprise—you should know yourselves to be relieved from the contributions of the thirds. Nor do we wish anything to be imposed by anyone, which by our humanity we have remitted to another, lest—which is impious to say—the gift of one well-deserving become the loss of an innocent. The reverend authority of the ancient laws dictates that a curial by birth can in no way deviate from the duties of his origin, nor be drawn into another office of the commonwealth, who has been overtaken by such a lot of birth.

But if the laws have even forbidden them to pass over to honours, how contrary does it seem that a curial of the commonwealth should, with liberty basely lost, be in servitude, and that he whom antiquity called the lesser senate should have come down to the lowest condition? Let your reverence therefore know that the municipal citizens of Sarsina have asserted that your church wishes irrationally to defend their colleagues for itself. Whence let your prudence, in keeping with its purpose of integrity, the truth having been examined, discuss what comes into complaint, and, if the desires of the petitioners subsist in truth, permit them to return to their own curia for the fulfilling of their duties.

But if indeed you believe that your clergy has something reasonably in their favour in this, by all means send to our court a well-instructed person, who ought to oppose the intentions of the adversaries. But if you are in doubt about the nature of the matter, it befits priestly institutions that you yourself should rather recognize justice before the controversy, than withdraw vanquished from judgement. For one ought not to be publicly overcome whom it befits to be found a lover of equity. We detest indeed all crimes by right, and a clement hearing execrates everything that is iniquitous, but most of all those things which, polluted by the shedding of human blood, have incited our censure against themselves.

For who could bear that in domestic protections there should be a place for perils, and that there should be found the end of sweet life, whence the aid of defence ought to have been born? And therefore by the present command we charge that you cut down, by the strictness of the laws, the household slaves who, slaughtering their master Stephanus by a punishable crime, also cast away the unburied reverence due to his funeral, so that those who are provoked by the worst examples may be restrained by the punishments seen. Alas the grief! Piety is found in birds, which is forsaken by the human condition.

The vulture itself, whose life is another's carcass, a body of such great size, is proved hostile not to the small birds, but rather strikes with its wings the hawk that pursues the life of the feathered birds, tears it with its beak, and with all its weight strives to come to the aid of those in peril: and men cannot spare him whose kind they recognize themselves to be. He does not wish to destroy that on which he might feed: the slaves preferred to kill him who, surviving, had been wont to nourish them. Let him then become the food of the pious vulture, who could cruelly desire the death of his shepherd. Let him rather be received in such a tomb, who rendered his master unburied.

It befits all to expend gladly what they see can regard the public advantages, since it is necessary that the members feel that which is felt by the head of the body. And therefore by the present command we decree that, as many transport barges as you can find in the city of Ravenna, you bring laden with the fiscal grain all the way to us, so that the public sustenance, relieved by such provision, may not have to endure the necessity of want. Let Ravenna render the abundance to Liguria, which it was wont to receive from her. For that which sustains our presence ought to find the comforts of many. For our court draws crowds of attendants, and, while there is a running together for the bestowing of benefits, a supply of necessaries is demanded for the peoples.

It is too grievous that the industrious man should be defrauded of the fruit of his labour, and that he to whom a reward ought to be conferred for his diligence should suffer an unjust loss, especially in that matter which looks to our liberality: where nothing ought to be permitted to negligence, lest we seem to have sanctioned things less profitable. Some time ago, indeed, our liberality had granted to Spes and Domitius, men of distinction, places in the Spoletine territory uselessly occupied by muddy waters, where a vast depth of waters had absorbed the earthly grace into uses that would profit none. The land lay shipwrecked, confounded by a marshy torpor, and, cast about under a twofold loss, it had neither merited the pure liquids of the waters, nor lost the adornment of earthly solidity.

This we, to whom it is at heart to change all things for the better, granted to the aforesaid on such a condition, that if by their effort or labour the foul slime should be dried up, the freed fields should profit themselves. But, as much as the petition lodged by the agents of Spes declares, by the fault of Domitius, a man of distinction—who, unmindful of the command, tenaciously spares his expenses—the labour of the workers was recalled to its beginning, when already on the face of the soil the dried softness was little by little hardening, and an unaccustomed sun was scorching the earth long concealed by the devouring depths. Which we shall by no means suffer to be neglected, that things well begun be destroyed by envious sloth.

Accordingly let your devotion approach the aforesaid Domitius with moderate execution, so that either he as a diligent operator may press on with the begun work, or, if he should believe this to be too costly for himself, let him cede his own portion to the suppliants. For it behoves that, if he himself cannot accomplish what is required, he should permit a partner in the benefit to fulfil the glory of our times. It is just that royal piety should lend itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, since they the more deserve to be raised up whom the adversities of their lot have pressed down.

And therefore by the present authority we declare to your magnificence, that you should order the sons of Ecdicius, whom we first decreed to reside in the city, to return to their homeland with the body of their father—a return indeed longed for, but by a bitter chance—lest, their desires being denied, the wound be doubled to the afflicted, and—which is impious to say—lest we, who always wipe away the clouds of sorrows with our serenity, should now seem to deny pious tears to the wretched. For insatiable indeed is the weeping which is not permitted to be present at the burying of bodies, since he ever judges himself guilty who does not render due rites to the ashes. At what price did Priam ransom Hector to be buried? He entreated the raging man, he supplicated the armed one, and chose rather to expose his own life, that he might not deny what was owed to the corpse.

And since in these relationships the duties of devotion are mutual, it is unjust that a son should not freely render to his parent that which it cost the father great resources to accomplish. XXIII. It befits the discipline of our age that those who serve the public welfare should not be burdened with superfluous loads. Nor is it fitting that any man's envy should harm what has been ordained by our decrees. Therefore, since the potteries have been granted to you by royal authority, devote your labour to them diligently, and do not fear that you can be transferred to other functions, from which we scarcely believe that your present duties can be disentangled. Therefore the wicked presumption of dishonest men against you shall cease, and our authority removes any effect achieved by hidden frauds. For in vain does he hate against whom the prince's clemency has set itself.

It is well known that the Senate has furnished the peoples with a rule of life; for what adorns the Roman name is read to have been established by you. To this end were the senators in that beginning named 'Fathers', that through you the life of the citizens might be ordered as that of sons. For you decreed loyalty for the provinces, you decreed rights for private persons, and you taught all subjects gladly to obey in every department of justice. And therefore it is not fitting that a sign of resistance should issue from that quarter whence the example of moderation could shine forth. This our clemency, whose concern it is to maintain measure in all things, has thought right to bring to your notice, lest excess be nourished by ignorance, since under those whose consciences are aware of it, error cannot be perpetual.

Therefore, from a report of the provincial judges directed to the magnificent man, the praetorian prefect, we have learned that the period of the first remittance has so elapsed that nothing, or next to nothing, is established to have been paid in by senatorial households; they allege that through this difficulty the humble are oppressed, who ought rather to have been relieved (for it happens that the excess of the tax-collectors, while it is scorned by the powerful, turns upon the humble and rages, and he rather pays another's dues who is loyal in paying his own); moreover, adding things far more bitter, namely, that each man, at his own pleasure, deigns to throw off something onto those who exact it — yet all these damages are said to be inflicted upon the curials, and the things which by our provision had been restored to public use are torn apart by the wrongs of contumacious men.

And therefore, conscript fathers, you who owe an effort equal to ours on behalf of the commonwealth, so arrange matters with fairness that whatever each senatorial household declares, it may pay to the appointed procurators throughout the provinces in three instalments. Or else — that which you used to seek as a favour — fill up the entire chest of the vicarial seat, if you prefer this, lest it be necessary for the curial, through the manifold and ineffective labour of dunning, to bear his own losses amid your scanty payments, and that detestable case arise, that he who as a loyal man could scarcely sustain his own obligation should, in his weakness, be crushed by another's burdens.

This we cannot, while preserving civil order, pretend not to see: that without the bitterness of war the oppressed should be stripped of their possessions, and that those should perish the more who hasten to obey the commonwealth. This too you shall know that we have brought, by an edictal proclamation, to the notice of all the provincials, that he may freely break forth into public who knows himself oppressed by the weight of another's obligation: they shall carry off from us the fruit of justice, who know how to grant protection to the weary. Although the voice of grief is querulous, and the diminished cannot contain themselves, and a wounded mind feeds on outcry, nevertheless a freer speech is brought forth which is loosened by our authority.

For we detest that the wretched be oppressed; we are moved even by the evils of those who do not complain, and what the silence of the sufferer conceals reaches us the more swiftly — and rightly, since the injuries of all concern us, inasmuch as we believe that to perish for our devotion which we feel through the losses of the lowly. Lately, therefore, from the report of the provincial judges, we have learned that certain houses of the powerful do not fulfil their functions in due order. Hence it comes about that, while a means is sought to procure the amount of the levy, a larger sum is exacted from the humble. Then we learned that, through the arrogance of the contractors, the canonical solidi were not handed over in due order, but were cast forth under an unjust weight upon the overseers, and that they did not pay in the whole 'siliqua' which they were accustomed to render, with due solemnity.

Hence it came about that the curials, for whom we wish provision to be made, being compelled by the pressure of the overseers, felt grievous losses; and — if it is right to say so — when they were pressed with another's debts under savage compellers, they were even deprived by the loss of their own possessions. That this crime may be cut away, we have sent instructions also to the most reverend Senate, and now by an edictal proclamation we determine that whoever among the landholders or curials feels himself burdened in another's reckoning of taxes should hasten to come before the audience of our serenity, knowing that the former excesses have utterly displeased us, when he shall see beneficial things succeed them. The judgement of a just prince has thus been laid open to you, although it is always made plain by many tokens.

Now either draw a veil of patience over your grief in silence, or open the path of your voice under justice. Henceforth the sum of this counsel shall rest with you, to whom it falls to choose what you perceive to be expedient for you. We take no delight in unjust gains, nor do those things reach the heart of our devotion which are abandoned by the grace of honesty. For indeed the commonwealth is always increased by the right of equity, and when it is cherished with temperance, beneficial things swiftly succeed. And therefore, moved by the supplication of the merchants of Apulia and Calabria, we have thought it right to instruct your illustrious magnificence that, as for the grain which is purchased for the public by the aforesaid merchants, no sum of solidi should again be exacted from them under the name of 'interpretium' (commission).

For if you do not need the purchased commodity as necessary for public expenditure, let the measured quantity received by your office be sold off in good faith: the fiscal account shall bear the outcome of the matter, which seems unjustly to have imposed what it rejects. For it is too unjust that he should suffer loss who carried out another's command. Determining by the same condition also concerning the 'sextarius' which the merchant of that province appears to bring in, let no one presumptuously dare to exact the condemned prices. And, that we may more strongly beat back excesses, we impose a penalty of thirty pounds of gold upon the prefects of your seat, if anyone, by rash daring, attempts to come against these most salutary ordinances.

But the official staff shall know that it is to be smitten with the loss of ten pounds of gold, if it presumes to carry out the prohibited orders. In that matter also our clemency extends itself toward the weary, that if the merchant pays the assessment of this title to the 'siliquatarius' (collector of the siliqua tax), he may also exercise a monopoly. But if the siliquatarius judges that this title is to be abrogated for the merchants, let him exact no payment from them, since it is quite absurd that he should be afflicted with losses who has no advantage from the transaction. Finally, in the gold-treasuries let the ancient order be preserved, and let that function regard only those whom the authority of antiquity has willed to serve under this title.

Therefore see that our benefits toward the merchants, who are proved necessary to your titles, are guarded in every way, lest the class of men which lives by profits be brought to ruin by losses. Just as, having been entreated, we desire to give a just consent, so we do not love that frauds be committed against the laws through our benefits, especially in that matter in which we believe the reverence due to the Divine is concerned. Let not the haughty seem to insult, who are destitute of the grace of the Godhead. Therefore we decree, by our present authority, that you may place a covering only upon the old walls of your synagogue, granting licence to your petitions only so far as the imperial constitutions have permitted.

Nor let it be lawful to add any ornament, or to extend yourselves in enlarging the building. And you shall know that you do not at all escape the severity of the old sanction, if you do not abstain from unlawful things. But in covering or propping up the walls themselves we give licence only so far, if the thirty-years' prescription cannot stand against you. Why do you desire things which you ought rather to shun? We grant indeed the permission, but we laudably disapprove the wish of those who err: we cannot command religion, since no one is forced to believe against his will. A recompense of rewards is to be granted to praiseworthy labours, for that service is held reproachful which passes by unrewarded. The palm marks out the athlete as victor before the peoples; the civic crown bears witness to the toils of war.

The horses too await their own rewards, and so great is the force of justice that not even to those is the price of their labour given too tardily who could not feel that it was withheld. If this is so, it is fitting to render this to a man, who is known to have given satisfaction through honourable services. For through so many slippery falls of public functions you have held fast the firm footprint of proven service; and — what rarely befalls a man in office — the change of judges never altered their affection toward you. Nor was there anyone envious of another's judgement against you, since you were rendered acceptable even to the ordinances of your predecessors. Indeed you deserved to please all, since you always guard things worthy of love: silence in secret matters, efficacy in your actions, diligence in the labour of observance.

And — that good of self-restraint which the frequent vices of men have made rare — though you furnished services to many, you sold your labour to none. You stained the title of 'princeps' (chief of office) with no defilement, preserving the dignity of the name by the exercise of virtue. Hence it is that the honour of the 'spectabilis' rank, which just antiquity assigned to those who had wiped off the sweat of service, we confer upon you by our present authority, so that you may now understand, free from care, that the watches of your toil are at last ended by the recompense of a countship of the first order. And because a bare dignity does not vouch for the favour of the prince, nor can that be called a benefit which is felt with no advantage, the privileges too which the imperial constitutions of former princes willed to be granted to your 'schola' (corps) we bestow with like munificence.

Nor ought you to fear anything in these matters, which perhaps are attempted by some novel usurpation. The ancient law has fortified you against all loss and against base burdens. But although we pay you worthy things in present recompense, yet we promise you the greatest hope for your future wishes. And since those benefits are narrow which do not also promise something concerning the future, the providence of the prince shall be at hand, so that those whom we believe worthy of our favour we may also heap with greater honour.

But since it is not fitting that a royal favour be hidden, see that the gift you have obtained comes to the notice of the provincial judge, so that the hearts of all may know your 'spectabilis' rank adorned by our testimony, and that for you, as one who has fulfilled the duty of service, a fitting honour may be preserved to the praise of our times. Although we wish that none should bear any grievance whom our devotion seems to protect — since the leisured tranquillity of subjects is the glory of him who reigns — yet we especially desire that the churches be kept free from all injury, for, while equitable treatment is afforded them, the mercy of the Godhead is acquired.

And therefore, moved by the petition of the most blessed man Eustorgius, bishop of the holy Church of Milan, we admonish you by the present address, that you take care to afford protection — while preserving civil order — to the estates and men of this church situated within Sicily, and that you suffer them to be oppressed contrary to right by no man of any nation whatsoever, since it is fitting that they be relieved out of regard for the Godhead: yet on this condition, that they do not defer to answer in public and private causes which are reasonably brought against them, because, just as we do not wish them to be unduly burdened by anyone, so we do not allow them to be found exempt from the path of justice.

A personal exemption does not prejudice public law, since although a prince may be beneficent, yet the royal munificence cannot be confined within the rules of an established statute. Let light anger be restrained by the gravest institutions; let impatient ambition be reined in by law; clemency has no law, nor ought it under narrow bounds to follow as something benign that which it befits to be praised without end. The defenders of the most sacred Church of Milan therefore desire that, for the expenditures on behalf of the poor, which are poured out with an accumulation of cost, one merchant of their own city ought to be assigned to them, who, having discharged the office of purchasing-agent and being exempt from the burdens of trade, may be bound to fulfil what he undertakes.

For they remind us that we granted this also to the Church of Ravenna, moved by a reasonable allegation, and they entreat that this example of devotion be transferred to their own advantage as well. And therefore your illustrious and most exalted magnificence — while preserving in the case of the other merchants the public advantage which is wont to be paid in by the whole body — shall assign to them one merchant, whom they shall appear to have chosen for themselves, who may so exercise the commerce of trade that he pays nothing of the monopoly-tax, nor of the siliquaticum, nor of the gold-tax, and bears no burden whatever from the trading permitted to him. For why should we delay to grant that from which we can suffer no loss? Those who have given their name to service ought to sweat for the public welfare.

For what is a man to do, if he be wanting in the service he has professed, so that he neither finds private advantages nor gains the glory of diligence? And therefore our authority has commanded the Count of the Sacred Largesses that you ought to be stationed at the place of Hostilia, so that, restored by the kindness of the treasury, you may make your courier-runs with the post-horses along the channel of the Po in the accustomed manner, so that, the labour being divided, the public horses may be relieved, since your course is not worn down which is carried out along watery ways. For it does not befall you to limp from excessive toil, you who walk with your hands. Your vehicle feels no injury and suffers no failure, which is borne rather by the running wave.

Pleasing to us, conscript fathers, is the devotion bestowed upon public affairs, since, while we approve the praiseworthy spirits of the citizens, we find an occasion for just benefits. For what is so worthy of a senator as that he should expend his affection on public matters, that he may be able to profit the fatherland to which he was born? The magnificent man and patrician Decius, therefore, bound by a glorious love toward the commonwealth, has of his own accord requested, with a marvellous vow, that which could scarcely have been imposed under the counsel of our power.

He has promised to swallow up the Decennovian marsh, which ravages the neighbouring lands like an enemy, by laying open the mouth of trenches — that notorious wasteland of the age, which, through the long-standing licence, a certain marshy sea has settled upon, and, overflowing with a hostile flood upon cultivated places, has confounded the comeliness of the land alike with a sylvan dread. Nourishing nothing useful, the soil has been despoiled of its fruits beneath the water, after it began to be subject to the marshes. And therefore we marvel at a man of ancient confidence, that what public valour long shunned, a private hand has undertaken. He has promised, then, that he will set about this bold labour with a praiseworthy completion, so that, the ruinous gulf perishing, the things which had been lost should not perish any further.

Hence he requests the commands of our serenity on this matter, that by public authority he may undertake this outstanding work, which will profit all travellers. But we, conscript fathers, who have it at heart to aid a good desire with appointed helps, by the present decrees give our assent, that you direct two men from your body to the very places of the Decennovian, by whose judgement, as great a space as the marshy inundation has occupied with its stagnant incursions, may be noted down with fixed boundaries set, so that, when the promised work shall have come to completion, the land restored to its liberator may yield profit, and that no one may presume to lay hold of anything thence which for so long it could not vindicate from the invading waters.

It is a principle of justice that prosperity of commands should follow a praiseworthy desire, and that what is undertaken with good will should also be fulfilled by royal exhortations. To you, therefore, requesting just desires, we grant by present authority that, the pools and marshes of the Decennovian being dried up, you may possess free of fiscal claim the lands recalled to dry ground, and that you need fear no rendering of cultivation-dues for the freed property, which we release under the testimony of the general public. Hence too we have sent instructions to the most ample Senate, that, the bounds being now defined, that which has been vindicated from the foul gulfs may pass handsomely into your ownership.

For it is fair that each man's labour should profit himself, and that, just as in spending he comes to know its inconveniences, so when the matter is completed he should obtain its increases. This too, we who ever keep vigilant in zeal for the commonwealth have regarded: that if anyone chooses to undertake this labour in joined partnership with you, an estimate of the work being made, he may have spaces of his own right in proportion to the part he undertakes, so that neither may you alone be overburdened with immense loads, and that what is undertaken with the help of a partnership may be carried out more spiritedly. Thus it shall come about that troublesome envy, which is the enemy of the greatest matters, may be wanting. Therefore press on diligently with your glorious desires, lest it be a heavy thing for your reputation to have grown faint in the efforts you have assumed.

Behold indeed the mouths and eyes of all turned toward you: look to the suspended judgements of our serenity, awaiting the accomplishment of the work undertaken. Hasten with as great a spirit as you are able, that you may be judged worthy to have emerged from so great a matter, you who even now are praised by the admiration of all. XXXIIII. We rejoice that our judgements have flourished in you: we are glad that a worthy guardian has stood forth for the Roman citadels, who, with a generous spirit, did not suffer a friend to veil a secret with frauds, lest either offences should make you accomplices, or security should rather incite you to greater things.

And therefore let the whole sum of money, which had been assigned to the buildings of Rome and now, by the investigation of your magnitude, is established to have been disavowed — since it is neither restored in its own time nor shown to have been spent — be recovered without any delay, and, at your direction, be again applied to the walls of Rome. For it is a wicked thing that those things should pass over to other uses which Rome, not without reason, sighs for as subtracted from herself. We ought therefore to strike the concealers of the assigned money with an immoderate penalty, who in such a cause have defrauded our munificence. But clemency was at hand, the moderatrix who is ever joined to us, lest we should grievously punish things unbecomingly done, with justice goading us on. Let it suffice for us that greed has not fulfilled what it wished.

Nor can a greater vengeance come about, when one seems to lose as his own that which, basely suppressed, he had judged himself to possess. It is too bitter that in our times the deeds of the ancients should diminish, we who daily desire to increase the adornment of the cities. Wherefore by the present orders we admonish you to search out with all eagerness, concerning the city of Como, the bronze statue which is reported to have perished: promising also a hundred gold pieces, if anyone should prefer to betray this sacrilegious theft, so that the promise of our serenity may invite the fearful to the hope of confession — which the edicts directed to you also proclaim.

But when you shall have promulgated these commands, if the crime should still have veiled itself in secret, after the venerable day cause the craftsmen of those places to be gathered together: from whom, under terror, search out by whose agency it was perpetrated. For by men unskilled in these matters the overturning of a statue would not have been easy, unless presumption, the mistress, had attempted to move it from its place. Although a penalty greatly relaxed may suffice for the betrayal of the crime, and it is no small reward for audacity to have escaped the terror of punishment, yet we add a reward such as innocence usually has: not because the deeds done have pleased us, but because it delights us to be munificent in the love of vengeance.

Wherefore by the authority of the present edict let each man know that he earns a hundred gold pieces by our largesse, if he betrays those who carried off the statue from the city of Como; and concerning his own deed, which is most harmful and demands investigation, let him know that he will have pardon. We give a golden gift in compensation for the bronze: and we bestow more precious metals than we are able to find again — redeeming by this liberality rather this, that what is established to be forbidden may not pass into use. Who, then, would be condemned by so great a blindness of folly as to hesitate to break forth, when he both finds security and gains the reward of confession?

But if anyone should perhaps think it a thing to be dissembled, and our serenity should detect him by some indication of the truth, let him know that he is to be carried off to the utmost peril. For it is unworthy that humanity should afterwards support those who spurn our indulgence, once they are detected. The advancement of our reign our benignity ought to emulate, so that humanity may relax its gifts as much as the commonwealth has received increases. For we cannot otherwise keep the praised measure, unless we ought to rouse our purpose to the consideration of affairs. For amid so many successes daily, by God's favour, it would be a vice of tenacity to be content with a narrow largesse.

And therefore let your illustrious magnificence know, by the present authority, that to the citizens of Spoleto, for the maintenance of their baths, another thousand 'modii' beyond the customary amount is to be assigned. For we gladly desire to expend those things which we know pertain to the health of the citizens, since the celebrated joys of the peoples are the praises of our times. We desire that our wealth be increased by the treasury of devotion, abhorring those advantages which have been acquired for us by the calamities of the harassed. A levy which is bewailed is troublesome to our clemency, since whatever is paid amid gladness is added to the praises of him who receives it. The merchants of the city of Siponto, then, assert that they have been laid waste by the depredation of enemies:

and since we esteem the relief of the needy rather as our own riches, let your illustrious magnificence cause the aforesaid men to be vexed by no compulsory purchase throughout this continuous biennium. But since to have relieved the fallen profits nothing, if another burden of payment is added, let your highness cause those who are known to have lent money to the said merchants to be admonished that in this space of two years they should reckon nothing of the entrusted sum to be demanded, so that, under the aforesaid respites, they may both be able to restore the money given and the substance of the debtors may to some extent be able to draw breath. For what does it profit a creditor to press himself, when in vain he strives to exact from the stripped? We provide for these men the more, if we cause them to attain to their borrowings by being sustained.

If we wish to retain the famed miracles of the ancients for the praise of our clemency — since they are increases of royal glory, when under us nothing diminishes — with what zeal does it befit that to be restored which is established to be offered even frequently to our own eyes? For it delights us to recall the power of the health-bringing Aponus, that you may understand with what desire we long to repair that which knows not how to depart from our memory. We have seen the azure spring boiling in the form of a cask with hollow gapings, and the furnaces of panting waters crowned, with a smooth rounded rim, by the admirable arrangement of nature:

which, although after the manner of hot water they exhale misty vapours, yet open this pleasant clarity to human sight, so that any man might desire to touch that grace, even though he is not unaware that it burns. With brimming mouth, in the likeness of a sphere, the backs of the waters swell above their own bounds, whence the stream flows down with such quiet, runs off with such seeming stability, that you would not think it to grow, except that you perceive something to issue thence with a hoarse murmur. The waters come through chilling channels, kindled with such fervour that, after winding spaces which by art are made longer, they are about to render the greatest heat.

O the ever-marvellous ingenuity of the Master, that He so tempered the ardour of raging nature to the use of the human body, that what at its source could give death, most learnedly moderated, He made to bestow both delight and health! It is pleasant to behold the secret: the streams exhaling fiery vapours, an ardour friendly to the waters unceasingly, and heat coming down the course of a stream, where it was wont usually to be extinguished. Rightly do the philosophers say that the elements are bound to one another by mutual combinations and joined by a marvellous confederation, which are understood to war against each other in their contrary variety.

Behold, it is established that the moist substance produces fiery vapours, which, when it shall presently have reached the fair buildings of the baths, the wave, descending and dashed against the rocks, both kindles the air by its quality and becomes manageable to the touch when it is received into the bathing-pools: whence not so much delicious pleasure is acquired as gentle medicine is conferred. To wit, a cure without torment, remedies without dread, health with impunity, baths apportioned against diverse pains of the body. These the beneficent antiquity named in the Greek tongue 'Aponos', that the sick man might recognize the cause of so great a remedy, since concerning such a name he might have no doubt.

But among the other goods of that very place we have learned that this too is to be wondered at, that one nature of the flowing waters appears suited to diverse services. For straightway, the rock receiving it, the dashed water breathes forth the sweating quality of the first chamber: then, descending into the basin, mitigated, with its menacing ardour laid aside, it softens into a sweet temperateness: presently, led on into the neighbouring place, when it has grown torpid with some delay, it cools much more gently into warmth: lastly, that very tepidity also being abandoned, it becomes so much the colder in the Neronian pool as it is felt to have boiled before. Not undeservedly, sharing the name of its author, it is a colleague with the greenness of gems, so that, itself also clear with the colour of a glassy element, it may quietly stir certain trembling waves.

But that the bath itself too might be rendered more cleanly, by a certain astonishing discipline of restraint, if a woman should descend into the water in which men are refreshed, it is kindled to greater heat — for this reason, that a separate provision has been fairly bestowed upon them as well: namely, lest they should not believe that the most fruitful place of burning waters had a source whence it might bestow very much, if either sex used the one gift in common. This perennial flow of the waters affords a token for understanding that, flowing in through the fiery veins of the earth by hidden channels, the irrigating purity of the seething spring bursts forth from below into the air. For if that burning had been of nature, it would not have been lost without the destruction of the substance:

but the perceptible matter of the water, just as it contracted a foreign fire, so again easily received its native chill. That medicinal force affords yet another kind of assistance. For beside the head of the sparkling spring provident nature has formed a certain channel for itself. Hence above, a seat is set in place, which is perforated in the shape of an apse for human necessities, and receives the sick as they pour forth with their inward moisture: where, when, wearied by excessive languor, they have sat down, refreshed by the delight of that vapour, they both restore their weary inward parts and, by a vital dryness, draw together the humours loosened by a noxious infusion.

And just as men, refreshed by some desirable food, can presently be found stronger, so to the healing substance there comes from the sulphur its warmth, and from the saltiness its drying power. Not to hand such things on to posterity is to sin grievously over a long span of time. Wherefore let the ancient solidity of those buildings be renewed there, so that whether in the conduits or in the baths anything needs repair, it ought to be reconstructed at your prompting. Let the noxious shrubs too, springing up with troublesome growth, be removed by tearing up the turf, lest the hair-like roots, gradually swelling, should insinuate themselves into the very vitals of the structures and, after the manner of vipers, nourish for themselves an offspring of contrary fertility, whereby the joined fabric, ready to fall, may burst apart.

Strengthen also by constant repair the palace, shaken by long old age. The space which lies between the public edifice and the source of the fiery spring, cleanse of its wild roughness. Let the comely face of the countryside laugh with flowering grass; indeed it rejoices in the fertility of the burning water, and in a wondrous manner, while close at hand it engenders barren salt, it likewise nourishes verdure. But not by these benefits alone is the Antenorean land fruitful: it brings forth other things at which you would marvel far more greatly. Those hearts of the mountains, so to speak, like a tribunal, disentangle contentious disputes.