Variae & Works 6 part 2/4

But what we have resolved should be arranged for your peace and for the equality of the tributes, our edicts, which we have given to the aforesaid illustrious man Severinus, will declare when published, so that each may clearly recognize whence he ought to seek redress. Although, by our constant custom, we decree things useful to the commonwealth, and on that account whatever we command can be most welcome to all, since it is known to be of profit to everyone, nevertheless it must be so handled that the prince's desire need prove burdensome to none. For even things excellently conceived, if not well carried out, are unwelcome: that alone is called perfect which is praised both for its intention and its execution.

Since, therefore, frequent care has been pricking our mind that Italy has no ships—where so great an abundance of timber lends support, so that it may even ship to other provinces what they seek—we have, by God's inspiration, decreed for the time being to take in hand the building of a thousand dromons, which may both convey the public grain and, should it prove necessary, meet hostile ships. But we believe that the accomplishment of so great a matter, such as we desire, must be procured by the diligence of Your Magnificence. Therefore, sending craftsmen throughout all Italy, seek out timber suited to the work; and wherever you find cypresses or pines in the neighborhood of the shore, let their owners be compensated by a fair price being given.

For these alone are the things which need be valued; the rest, by their cheapness, do not require to be appraised. But lest our provision, deserted in the midst of its efforts, should grow faint, we order you, with this moderation, even now to procure, by God's help, a suitable number of sailors. And if he who is judged necessary to us prove to be another man's slave, let his master either hire him out to serve in the fleets, or—if he himself should rather choose this—upon receiving a reasonable price let him cede his rights of ownership to the public. But if the chosen man enjoys liberty, let him know that he is to receive five solidi as a bounty and a suitable allowance of provisions.

In the same manner those too are to be dealt with who are stripped of their rights by their own masters, since it is a kind of liberty to serve the ruler (for often those prove patient of toils whose necks harsh masters have pressed down): yet on this condition, that the aforesaid sailors ought to receive from your office, by way of earnest-money, two or three solidi according to the quality of the men, so that each, when he has been summoned, may be found ready. But fishermen we do not order to be included in this enrollment, since he is lost with sorrow who is kept for procuring delicacies, seeing that it is another kind of practice both to face the raging winds and to furrow the fish-bearing shores.

One must press on eagerly with what has been begun, when now the nearness of completion has smiled upon us, when the hope of the result excludes the weariness of labor, and it is a great kind of incitement to believe that what is desired is being fulfilled. Some time ago, then, we ordered Your Magnificence to make ready crews of sailors from the shores of Italy, so that the dromons, which industry had been able to build, a foreseen force of oarsmen might man. But you, answering to our judgment and choice, have shown how undoubted is the achievement of having commanded the most effective men in what is sought. You report as forthwith finished what could scarcely be believed begun, so that almost with as great speed as ships are wont to be sailed, the construction of the ships has been completed. Nor have only words been related:

you have suddenly presented to our eyes a fleet-borne forest, water-borne houses, marching feet of the army that fail with no labor but bear unshaken men to their appointed goals—the trireme, a vehicle that displays so great a number of oars yet carefully hides the faces of men. This, we read, the Argonauts first established. And it is proved to be apt both for armed men and fitting for commerce, so that we, who used to long to behold foreign fleets, may now send to other provinces alike both terror and grace. You have adorned the commonwealth, restored by your enterprise. There is now nothing for which the Greek may reproach us or the African insult us. With us the envious behold thriving that whereby they used to fulfill their desires at great prices.

Now, for the aforesaid vessels, procure the rigging, and especially the sails that make wings for the ships—flying wood, a kind of breath of the running keels, the heralds of merchandise, the quiet helpers of sailors, by whose benefit men at their ease accomplish what can scarcely be proved to be done even by the swiftest birds. This Isis first hung upon a raft, when with daring feminine piety she sought her son Harpocrates over the seas. Thus, while maternal love hastens to fulfill her longing, the unknown regions of the world are seen to be unlocked. And therefore, with divine aid favoring us—whose virtue it is to fulfill the desires of men—on the day next before the Ides of June let the whole assembly of ships gather together at the city of Ravenna, so that affairs, rejoicing in their nearby close, may be brought to their fullest accomplishment.

But since, with God's help, we desire the number of dromons to be enlarged, if any timber necessary for their building can be found along either bank of the Po, we order it to be cut, no one opposing, since without prejudice to the owners we wish only what is found to be granted to the present work. Let our Po send forth native ships to the deep, and let the fir, which grew up nourished by the river's streams, learn to surmount the heaped-up billows of the sea. This too we have thought ought by all means to be cut away, which we have learned by your report comes to pass: that no one, in the navigable rivers running through diverse territories—that is, in the Mincio, the Oglio, the Auser, the Arno, the Tiber—dare, in his zeal for fishing, often to block off the channels of the rivers in a most shameful manner; and let whatever has been thus presumed be straightway removed.

Let the river lie open for the course of ships: let it suffice for human desire to seek delicacies by the accustomed arts, not to impede the freedom of the river by some rustic contrivance, lest—what it is impious to say—private pleasure should seem to have stood in the way of the public good. Public utility, just as it looks to the preservation of all, so ought to be perfected by the zeal and labor of all, since it is an occasion of great praise if, in a common cause, something should appear to be singularly accomplished. For he does that whereby he may be commended to the rest, who nonetheless knows that he has also profited himself. You remember, then, that we long ago ordered that, through our household, craftsmen of seamanship be sought out.

These men, provided by God's help, we command to present themselves at the city of Ravenna without delay on the day of the Ides of June, so that their arrival may opportunely be seen to be offered for the construction of the ships, lest matters divided should seem to engender for themselves some delay, and lest it be too little to complete the one, unless it chance that both be procured. If, too, along the bank of the river Po any timber suited for the building of dromons can be found on the royal estates, let license to cut it be granted to the craftsmen assigned to this work by the magnificent man Abundantius, praetorian prefect. For we wish to begin this example from our own estates, so that the command which constrains even the prince may be burdensome to none.

Whoever has effectively carried out what was enjoined makes greater things be entrusted to himself, since without doubt something is committed to him who is best approved; and an honorable recommendation is the proof of a second judgment from the first. And therefore, by the ordinance of the magnificent men Abundantius, praetorian prefect, and Wilias, count of the patrimony, we order you to hasten to that province, so that, both from the royal household and from those dwelling in other places, you may, according to the former precepts, compel the provided sailors to hasten, with God's help, to the city of Ravenna on the day of the Ides of June, so that no delay be brought to such illustrious commands.

Beware, therefore, lest venality stain you or shameful negligence enwrap you, and lest you be crushed by the weight of so great a matter falling upon you, should you prove unequal to so great and such affairs. We have learned that along either bank of the Po there is to be found timber suited for the building of dromons, and therefore by the present command we commit it to you, that, according to the ordinance of the magnificent men Abundantius, praetorian prefect, and Wilias, count of the patrimony, you go without delay with the craftsmen to the designated places, and—whether they be found on a royal estate or on private property—you cause them to be procured without any delay, since we believe it grievous to none to furnish what is being prepared, with God's help, for the common good.

But we wish you to carry out what is enjoined in such a way that nothing may seem to be deliberately sought out for the injury of the landholder, but only those things necessary to our advantage be taken in advance. Let nothing be exacted from the owner that is not afterwards said to have been received for the public. We order the woodland timber to be cut, not anything to be violently lopped from another's possessions. Such things profit us as cannot burden our subjects—things which, did not the present cause require them, that man would believe himself not to possess. In the rivers Mincio, Oglio, Auser, Tiber, and Arno we have learned that certain men have, with hedges, cut off the course of the river so far as pertains to the practice of navigation.

This we wish you, by the ordinance of the magnificent man Abundantius, praetorian prefect, to cut away by all means, nor to permit anyone to presume any such thing further, but let the stretches of the inviolate channel be left for the passage of ships. For we know that one must fish with nets, not with hedges. For from this too a detestable greed is betrayed, that one hastens to shut in for himself alone as much as could have reached to many. If our judgment had chosen you as a raw recruit, if you had come to the scales of examination unknown, we should think you ought to be admonished with what prudence, with what grace you should conduct yourself. But you are believed to have the understanding of all virtues, who have deserved to be trained in the warfare of letters.

For you judge with what modesty you ought to restrain yourself, you who have been seen to fulfill the wishes of another's business. For if the savage suspicion of a judge had touched you, by praising justice you corrected his mind with a gentle and penetrating remedy, obtaining by sweet persuasion what you could not have imposed upon a superior. Who, then, doubts that you love those things which it is agreed you have urged with the public voice? Goods professed are not held doubtful: nor does anyone's mind acquiesce that what he himself, when a veteran, was able to prosecute, should be taught to him by others as though he were a novice. You used to demand, with lawful voice, that the credibility of a produced document be established, examining whether the archives retained the truth uncorrupted. Now as judge display what you wished to obtain from others.

Come, lest your own speech be cast in your teeth, since it is a burden of the gravest shame to be convicted by one's own voice. Take up, therefore, with God as author, the governance of the decuriae, the most truthful witness of human acts, the security of possessors, the most splendid temple of public faith. From this so much praise is acquired for you as the welfare of those whose interest is there preserved uncorrupted. Let there live, in everlasting ages, the will of the departed: let the judgments of parents pass into their descendants: let the repose of all be preserved in your archives. Let others have honors and the dread fasces: to you, the most welcome guardians of human life are seen to render service. For there are the acquittals of men, the bonds of cases, the chain of lawsuits, the prison of fury. Of which the Mantuan bard might more truly say:

'The gates of strife are shut; impious Fury, shut up within, gnashes horridly with bloody mouth upon a heap of cruel arms.' Choose, therefore, the decurions with a weighed estimation of their merits, since it is not fitting to call to so great a city that which is base. Use also, when it shall be necessary, the counsel of the elder by birth, made senior to so many fathers, the voice of the senate while so many are silent. See what dignity you have received, that among so many eloquent men you should be the foremost in speaking—men whom we ourselves profess to be worthy of reverence. Undertake, then, to grant what we command, to bestow what we concede, so that you may open the doors of the curia to those whom our choice has ordered to enter the hall of Liberty.

Although he who is sent to you to be approved must always be carefully chosen—since he himself is rather submitted to examination, whose sentence is known to be weighed when delivered—nevertheless we desire those dignities to be associated with prudent men, which are affixed to the Roman citadels like noble gems. For where can the eloquent man more worthily advance than in the city of letters, that there he may display his merit where he nourished his talent? Every good thing is apt to its own places, and all praiseworthy things grow base unless they obtain a fitting seat. Battle requires strong hands, the ship desires a spirited breast: so your archives require a faithful purpose, so the curia an eloquent and well-spoken man. With much deliberation, therefore, he is believed to need weighing, who is daily offered to your discernment.

Our estimation, then, has regarded Capuanus, a respectable man (spectabilis), who, eloquent, might declare with the authority of an elder the sentence of your curia, and might preserve the archives of the senate with purity of conscience, so that he may render those acts, most renowned to the world, praiseworthy by his integrity. It is a great office, conscript fathers, to be chosen for integrity, nor is that conscience proved of mean worth to which the truth of the ages is committed. For if he is extolled as a witness who has spoken truths in a present case, with what praise can he be reckoned who transmits sure things for all times? But although, as your nurslings, you have all things most well known, it pleases the more to repeat those things which the consent of all can recognize.

There is always present to the chosen man a certain grace of words; it soothes the ears, draws the mind, employs the clarity of eloquence such as ought to flow from a pure conscience. For speech is a kind of mirror of the actor's character, nor can there be a greater testimony of the mind than the inspected quality of words. For—that we may describe his peculiar traits—he suffers in simple matters the reins of his tongue; yet by this he is the more terrible when he pleads to the end: and this has been granted to his grace by foreseeing nature, that the man whom you had seen hesitating before the doors, you should be amazed at as eloquent in the contests. But that memory, which is rightly called the treasury of orators, has settled in him with such firmness, that things once heard you would think to be stored up with him in writing.

It is a great benefit not to know the failing of forgetfulness: and it is a certain likeness of things truly heavenly always to hold present the things run through by time. These things we now declare for this reason, that you may know we hold the virtues of our subjects pleasing, and may teach that our judgment is conceived not by a chance wish but by the zeal of choice. To these men, therefore, conscript fathers, we command Capuanus, endowed with good qualities, to be rector of the decuriae from the present indiction; we also raise him by the authority of an elder by birth, so that he who has conducted himself with the hoary maturity of character—which is the most ample kind of reverence—may in your order rejoice in the honor of age.

He will increase his eloquence, enriched by a better office, since he is much more eloquent who dictates a sentence than he who supplicates. Liberty nourishes words, but fear frequently cuts off abundance. The very action, too, is far different, so that he who but lately stood by even mean and humble fortunes, may now introduce the consulars of your curia. Tata, our saio, with archers, we have judged ought to be directed to the illustrious man Wiliarius, count, so that the doubled army might take greater strength. Let our young men display in wars what they have learned in the gymnasium of valor. Let the Martial school send forth its swarms: he will fight in earnest who has been accustomed to exercise himself in leisure.

And therefore we resolve that Your illustrious Magnificence furnish them with provisions and ships according to custom, so that, with God's help, they may reach the place to which they have been directed. For we give to your diligence the carrying out of our commands, since what is begun by your ordinances, with God's help, can in no way be believed to be left undone. Iohanna is reported, by the bounty of the law, to have succeeded Andreas, formerly her spouse; she, intestate and with no kinsmen surviving, is said to have been deprived of the light.

Her substance is reported to be possessed, by voluntary usurpation, by various persons supported by no lawful right; and since the safeguards of the laws have decreed that ownerless goods (caduca bona) fall to our fisc, we therefore admonish you by the present edict that, the truth of this matter having been examined, if in very truth—as has been reported to us—no heir has come forth for her either by will or has succeeded by right of kinship, you cause it to be added to the profits of our fisc: since it is the profession of our innocence not to neglect just profits, with us in whom calumny could never find a place. For it befits a prince to be petitioned in such cases, not to be defrauded, since it is a vice of negligence to leave behind usurpations which the laws bid be cut away.

But if you find anything to the contrary, you shall suffer the owners to hold it in peace, since those patrimonies are rather ours which are lawfully possessed by our subjects. Our munificence strengthens the weary years, while it does not let an age in its decline feel the losses of want. For the strength of the young is animated by the boldness of toil: the life of the old alone is to have found the remedies of repose.

And therefore, moved by your supplication, we decree that the charge of the designated tribunate, to be administered most diligently in the city of Milan, pertains to you in such manner that—a thing new in the service of the commonwealth—as long as you live, no man's punishable presumption shall ever assign you a successor; so that, in the displaying of the pleasures of this office, you may continually enjoy, by the benefit of our clemency, having in both that which may console your age: the advantage of the place and the gladness of pleasures. Although our munificence is everywhere most welcome to all, yet we believe those things far more acceptable which are conferred by our presence, since benefits drawn from the sight of the prince take on a greater value than those obtained merely from his largesse.

For he is almost like a dead man who is not known by his lord and lives under no honor, whom the acquaintance of his king does not protect. And therefore by the present command we charge that on the eighth day before the Ides of June, with God's help, you ought to come into our presence: you who solemnly receive the royal gifts, if you make haste to come straightway. Yet we necessarily admonish this: that no excess be able to arise among those who come, lest you lay waste the crops or meadows of the landholders; but, hastening with all self-restraint, may your coming, by reason of your preserved discipline, be pleasing to us; for we gladly undergo the army's expenses for this very purpose, that civil order may be kept untouched by armed men.

By the custom of royal liberality we are reminded that we ought to bestow the solemn gifts upon our Goths. And therefore let your devotion, without any delay, admonish the millenarii of the province of Picenum and Samnium, that those who year by year receive the rewards of our clemency may, for the receiving of the donative, hasten without delay to the court, so that they who have served us well may rejoice in a greater munificence. For he must live blamelessly who knows that his presence is to be offered to princes: for praise attends the good, but complaint the bad. It befits us also, on this occasion, to inquire into the deeds of individuals, so that what each has done in the battle-line may not be allowed to perish for any.

For if the army should always expect its customary perquisites, neglect cannot love valor. Let the trembling man learn to come to the judge, who does not remember himself to have acted boldly in anything: so that he may the better rise up violently against the enemy, who prefers to avoid the wounds of our reproach. The merits of good persons have this glorious prejudice in their favor, that those who become known by upright actions are not allowed to grow torpid in idleness: and therefore, both satisfying your desire and because we have believed you necessary to us, we summon you by the present commands, so that both our service may be adorned by noble men, and we may, through you, be able to dispatch what we believe useful to us.

The poured-out entreaty of Anduit has indeed moved us, but the more pitiable did the lost adornment of his sight render the man, since it is necessary that a calamity seen should move us more deeply than one heard. For he, surviving in perpetual night, has hastened to our remedies by the benefit of a borrowed light, so that he whom he could not see, he might at least feel by the sweetness of our clemency. For he cries out that Gudila and Oppa are imposing upon him a condition of servitude unknown to his kind, since long ago he followed our armies in freedom. We have marveled that such a man should be dragged into bondage, who ought rather to have been expelled from it by a true lord. It is a strange ambition to seek out such a one as you might shudder at and call a slave, to whom by divine consideration you ought rather to render service.

He adds, moreover, that calumnies of this kind were set aside in his favor by the examination of Count Pitzia, a man of celebrated repute; but that now, crushed by the weight of his infirmity, he cannot vindicate himself by his own hand, which is proved to stand as a protectress to the strong. But we, whose proper task it is to keep impartial justice for unequals among equals, decree by the present command that, if in the judgment of the aforesaid late Pitzia he proved himself free-born, you straightway remove the calumniators: nor let them dare further to mock the necessities of others, men whom, once convicted, it had befitted to condemn their own pretensions. Those whom we choose as leaders (duces), to them likewise we lawfully delegate the weights of equity, since we desire you to be made more renowned not so much by arms as by judgments.

Let Costula, then, and Daila, with God's favor, rejoice in the liberty of our Goths; they complain that servile burdens are being laid upon them by you—burdens which it neither befits them to endure nor is it lawful unreasonably to impose upon anyone. And if you recognize that the matter has been so done, you shall cause it to be removed without any delay, lest a complaint be thereafter again brought back to us from that quarter, and a pleading rolled back upon a duke begin to weigh grievously upon our mind—a duke whom it rather behooves to carry out such things as it may delight us to hear.

Thomas, a most distinguished man (vir clarissimus), within the provinces of Apulia and Calabria, complains that certain persons owe a very great sum of money in respect of the siliquaticum tax of the eighth, ninth, eleventh, first, second, and fifteenth indictions, which he recalls pertained to his lease (conductio). And since it does not befit the public good to be put off by long mockery, therefore let your devotion, receiving the present decrees, approach Marcus the presbyter, Andreas and Simeonius, and the rest whom the schedule annexed below sets forth—civility being preserved in all things—so that, if it shall be established that they are debtors to the fisc not by calumny but in very truth manifestly, they may pay, without any diminution, the sum which is reasonably demanded.

For provision must be made that the spirit of contumacious persons may not seem to bring any loss to the public accounts. But those who acknowledge that less is charged against them, let them, under your pressure, come to a competent tribunal, so that what accords with equity may be fulfilled, with the laws kept safe, the allegation of both parties having been examined. The repeated complaint of Patzenis has reached us countless times: he, while stationed on a most prosperous campaign, asserted that his wife was mangled by your wife Procula with a triple wounding, so that she escaped only by the favor of being given up for lost, since she was believed not wearied by the blows but already extinct. We, marveling, if it be true, at the greatest audacity in a woman, do not suffer this to pass unpunished.

And therefore by the present decrees we admonish you that, if you clearly recognize the deed to be done, you refute the complaint laid before us—consulting your own honor—by marital correction, so that from the same cause a just complaint may not return to us. And know that what it had befitted you to correct by domestic correction can be cut short by the laws. But if, accusing rather the falsehood of the petitioner, you perhaps wish to plead your case, then—the obstacle of delay being removed—come without delay to our court with your aforesaid wife, about to receive either vengeance for an unjust presumption or victory over the woman's wickedness. Grievous is the complaint of Patzenis, made known to the feelings of our clemency.

He testifies that, while he was stationed on the Gallic campaign, Brandila broke out into such excess against him, as to lead away his wife Regina to be joined to himself in marriage of his own, and that, to the injury of our times, adultery was committed under a feigned law of matrimony. These things, if they be true, we by no means suffer to pass unpunished. For when could anyone hold his affections secure, if a man shall then be subject to crime, when he has fought for the safety of all? Behold, you unchaste women, the most chaste race of the moaning turtle-doves: which, if it be divided from its mate by some chance intervening, binds itself by a perpetual law of abstinence: it does not seek again the grace of union which it has lost:

She keeps faith while remaining ignorant of the praise of modesty, and she is found to cultivate good morals only because she boasts of no manner of life befitting widowhood. Women, alas! cannot restrain their vows, though reason persuades them to chastity, the penalty of the law imposes it, and the dread of a husband wrings it from them. Morals have surely perished, if they cannot even be compared with creatures that, lacking reason, are nonetheless governed by restraint. Therefore let Your Sublimity make the accused come forward to your examination, and, the truth of the matter once sifted, let the adulterers be cut off, as our laws prescribe, with favour shown to the husbands; for those who have been joined together by a criminal presumption have refused to let the defender of the commonwealth return. Without doubt they desired to throw all things into confusion, who attempted what is hostile to the laws.

But it is better that wrongdoing should be checked by the punishment of a few evildoers, since every marriage—which God forbid—is left uncertain, if sin is committed against so great a reverence without any dread. It has been suggested to us by frequent report that Frontosus, a witness to his own name, has squandered no small sum of the public money. We have caused him to be examined by various judges in a just inquiry, lest perchance, as often happens, it were not truth but envy that defamed him. He confessed all and undertook that he could repay, if a generous respite were granted him: