雜記與文集 第 12 章 第 3/4 段

Wherefore render to your most pious lords with wholesome vows what you owe, so that your reckoning may by supplication accomplish that which the whole community may know to have been received in it. We ought zealously to raise up those whom royal piety has determined to relieve: for to those to whom the clemency of our lords willed to descend, it is fitting that their subjects also should contribute of their own dignity. Lately you returned thanks to me, because I had conferred upon you the hope of good things rather than any fruit. You invited me to benefits because you received great things by a promise of congratulation. We have discharged the vow of a bound judge. The things which were foretold are now proved fulfilled. We shall make our beginning, therefore, from the balance, because where it is right to direct the conscience, from thence ought the judge's discourse to begin.

Hence it is that you represent yourselves to be burdened in weights and measures. And therefore our care shall provide that no man's iniquity may henceforth be able to vex you on that account, since we judge it a grave crime either for measures to exceed their due amount or for the balance not to have the justice of a most equitable weight. The soldiers also of our see, as well as the exactors and receivers, by whom you have sighed that grievous losses are inflicted upon you, we have caused to be summoned by our precepts, so that, the accounts being clearly drawn out, if any fraud can be found, they may pay it without any delay: for we profess this to be hostile to our times, that one should rejoice in another's harm.

Now turn your wishes to the equipping of the most flourishing army, providing all things without complaint or any delay. For you bind me effectually to all kindnesses, if you gladly fulfil what is commanded. Let him obey with gladness whom the cause of the common good invites. Those losses alone ought to grieve us which are seen to be imposed by the zeal of cupidity. For that which is enjoined for the necessity of affairs—thereat the mind of prudent men is not burdened. If on this present day we have found the saving remedy of redemption, if by a heavenly benefit the hope of salvation is opened, it is fitting that we too should bring the medicine of joy to those wearied with long toil, so that the supernal goods which have been conferred upon a perishing world may be generally felt.

Otherwise it is a kind of sin to wish to rejoice among the sorrowful, and he flees from the affection of humanity who does not follow another's grief. On the contrary, how much better does gladness rouse itself from fellowship, when it is an incitement of great cheerfulness to behold very many rejoicing! Hence it is that the wise have testified that the mortal race is one man, since they willed that all men should be undivided from all their own chances. Wherefore let each man, according to the order of the roll, be made known by your designation, so that he whom the order of place demands may advance by the grades of promotion. Let one go forth, that he may set all the rest before. He draws the whole sequence of those that follow on to advancement, when the foremost, having discharged his service, shall have departed.

The welcome solemnity of promotions is to be embraced, which discharges the watches of the well-deserving, because to recruits there is granted the hope of their toil, when the recompense shall have been rendered to the veterans. And therefore let Anthianus, who is reported to have served the praetorian duties blamelessly, hasten among the tribunes and notaries to adore the princely countenance, so that, presented according to custom, he may be adorned with the insignia of the rank of spectabilis. Coming to the things he has wished for, let Optatus obtain the effect of his own name. And therefore we resolve that the aforesaid man, approved by assiduous toils, should take up the office of the cornicularii, so that he may rightly stand among the chief men who blamelessly performed the watches of the recruits. Long ago indeed, effectually carrying out the commands, you deserved the good judgements of many:

But now you are also raised up, commended by divine favour, since you are shown to have discharged the toils of service. Wherefore, upheld by the honour of the spectabilis, approach among the tribunes and notaries to adore the venerable purple, so that through the sacred countenance of the prince the firmness of your dignity may subsist. We do not suffer the merits of the faithful to be deferred, that we may provoke the wishes of all to the pursuit of good deeds. Let us therefore give what is just to toils, that by the advancement of the former we may invite the hearts of those that follow. And therefore let Andreas, who is known to have blamelessly obeyed the praetorian authority, happily ascend the grade of primiscrinius, so that he may rejoice to have found by upright character the place which cunning knew not how to seek out.

Justly does he obtain more powerful offices who is praised for the perfection of the business entrusted to him. And therefore Castellus, whom the order of the roll has caused to advance, our authority also commands to obtain the charge of scriniarius of the proceedings. Although many assert the merits of Constantinianus, our endorsement also commends them. For there is in him so great a sincerity of mind that, with the judge as witness, he deserves to be praised. Let him therefore, being advanced, receive the charge of the canonical letters, so that he may display the more the weight of his integrity, since he sees the public faith to have been entrusted to him. Fittingly does uprightness of conduct furnish an increase of honour, nor does it become him to be deferred whom it has frequently befallen to be approved as efficacious.

Hence it is that we command Lucinus to be scriniarius of the military charge: he shall render service to one to whom he doubts not he has been deservedly assigned. It becomes us without hesitation to bestow the ascents of promotion upon those whom the assiduous toil of service deserves. For as it is fair to deny to the slothful the rewards of those who labour, so it is fitting to grant the longed-for recompenses to those who keep watch. And therefore let Patricius know himself appointed by us primicerius of the exceptores, so that, brought to such an office, he may rejoice that the merits of his actions have given satisfaction. He is worthy in our judgement to be promoted who has deserved to be approved by many presidents. For to have been acceptable to one is sometimes favour, but to have pleased many is a judgement.

Let Iustus therefore know that he has obtained the place of the sixth scholaris, about to find the reward of service, when he shall have studied to associate himself with faithful actions. Who would not deem John deservedly to be promoted, who long ago by our judgement took up the office of cancellarius, and even then merited the prerogative of conscience, when he received the duty of the judicial secret? Let him therefore enjoy the joy both of rank and of honour, who is known to have pleased by praiseworthy character. Our sentence therefore confirms him as praerogativarius, so that, having attained the grade of a veteran, with more devoted spirit he may obey the public command. It is helpful to respond to the wishes of the well-deserving with vicarial benefits, so that he may serve with more devoted mind who has deserved to be preferred.

Wherefore let Heliodorus enjoy the office of the commentarienses. Worthily indeed do we commit to his integrity the things which we judge ought to be guarded. It seems suited to equity if, by an effective action, a recompense worthy of his character be furnished to the praiseworthy. For he has his own glory who, his watches being weighed, is known to advance military fortune. Hence it is that we resolve that Carterius should happily obtain the place of regendarius, so that in hope of future advancement he may the more eagerly cleave to the praetorian toils. It is fitting that the fruit of labours should follow the wishes of the faithful, and that a higher grade should receive those whom the studied integrity of their deeds commends. Hence it is that we resolve that Ursus be primicerius of the deputati and Beatus primicerius of the Augustales:

So that those who seem advanced to greater offices may follow examples of a praiseworthy conscience. It becomes those who are seen to have discharged the military oaths to obtain the rewards of the palm, because long toil claims for itself what untried nobility can scarcely find. And therefore, since Urbicus is known to have completed the time of his primiceriate, let him approach among the domestici and protectores to adore the sacred purple, so that, illustrious through the venerable countenances, he may rejoice to be freed from military watches. The integrity of the judge attends military duties, because he gladly pays out what he knows to be justly owed. Wherefore let Pierius know himself made primicerius of the singulares by our authority.

If there be any other matters, let them be confidently set forth: for there is no fear of hesitation where there is no venal hearing of the judge. He cuts short delays whom the custom of bestowing constrains, because that man is the more impelled to benefits who is admonished by an inborn benevolence. For it does not become us to be unlike our own deeds, since the multitude of remedy ought to grow for him whose times of administration are seen to be increased. And therefore from the present our humanity bestows on you the letters of allotment, so that you may then have the advantages of reward when you have also attained the end of your sweat. We do not suspend you with anxious delay, nor do we weary you with torturing postponement. Let there be one end of solicitude and of toil.

For who would think a thing must be deferred, if he does not draw back from selling his own benefits? The office shall retain your petition until, while the opportunity allows, we inquire into the consent of those that follow, because that is incautiously credited to one which must be asserted by many. Go forth, all you who have been advanced. Be all happily approved. You have endured nothing doubtful, while every judgement is held uncertain. Alpha alone embraces you, where that letter is not feared. For thus has each man enjoyed his own wish, as though he had not depended on another's decision.

If the driver of an Olympic chariot snatches rewards after his toils, if a base contest of wild beasts is wont swiftly to crown the victors, what swiftness of remuneration shall he merit by whom the oaths of service are laudably discharged? For why should the agens in rebus, a soldier of office, after so much toil suffer anything doubtful and uncertain—he who by frequent actions in keeping watch has thus deserved to bear the name of the prince, because in the oaths of service he surpasses the rest? For he has continually observed the imperial commands, and that he might exalt the reverence of the praetorian see, he came to its service then, when he began to have a most distinguished title. To delay such men, therefore, is a sin, because after the palm no one has been put off.

That cannot be called a thing of one's wish which a sorrowful man receives. Let those who are discharged fear no burdens, lest the harbour bring upon free men that which the storm could do to the harried. Wherefore let your experience, from that province, without any delay pay out from the third instalment of the fiscal tributes the solidi which provident antiquity assigned to the prince of the Augusti, which you shall know are to be imputed to the accounts of the thirteenth indiction. But beware venal delays: shun ruinous disdains, so that you who desire to obtain like things may not seem to have brought in an example of loss. For by what reasoning would you put off a petitioner, if you bind yourself by the quality of your own action?

The veterans indeed are to be held honourable by all, but most of all by those who are detained in the toil of service. To yourself, therefore, you furnish that which you spare another, since the indemnity of the former becomes rather the gain of him who follows. He who devised laborious watches and offices of great diligence reasonably also appointed the fixed terms of time, so that the reward, which was placed under the limit of life, might not be uncertain. Otherwise, who could always suffice and wait, when the very light should withdraw itself from mortals? Wherefore, under an uncertain life there is a certain term of service, nor has he anything that he can fear who has deserved to reach the appointed time without offence. The very stars themselves, as the astronomers will have it, although they revolve with assiduous repetition, keep the fixed limits of their courses.

It cannot be doubtful, that which is held enclosed within its own limit. Saturn in thirty years traverses the spaces of heaven appointed to it. The star of Jupiter in twelve years lights up the region assigned to it. The star of Mars, swept along with fiery swiftness, runs through the region allotted to it in eighteen months. The sun in the space of a year flies past the signs of the zodiac circle. The star of Venus in fifteen months crosses the spaces conceded to it. Mercury, girt with swiftness, conveys itself past the intervals set before it in thirteen months. The Moon, nearer to us by a peculiar neighbourhood, accomplishes in thirty days that which the golden sun, revolved through the space of a year, has completed.

Rightly therefore do mortals find an end of their toil, since, as the philosophers say, even those things which cannot fail save with the world itself have reasonably received the limits of their course—with this distinction intervening, however, that they finish their work in order to return to the beginning, whereas the human race serves for this end, that, its sweats being completed, it may rest. And therefore to him who has blamelessly discharged the office of cornicularius, hand over without ambiguity, through that indiction from the province of Samnium out of the third instalment, the seven hundred solidi which long-standing custom has assigned to him: because he cannot doubt of the reward whom the true attestation of the judge commends.

For he presided over the 'horns' of the praetorian secretariat, whence his name is derived, being approved by praiseworthy actions: with him ministering we wrote out the little cup unbought, which men wished to be filled at great prices: we gratified the man whom the laws favoured: we refused the man to whom justice made no promise. No one stood forth sorrowful over his own victory, because he obtained it with his resources unimpaired, since, in order to become superior, he did not buy himself off. You know all that we say: for it was not in our private chambers that your secretarial business was transacted: what we did, the cohorts knew. We were indeed private men for doing harm, judges for bestowing. Our severity was held in words, and our benignity felt in deeds.

We were angry while appeased, we threatened while harmless, and lest we should have been able to injure, we seemed to inflict terror. You have, as you were wont to say, a most chaste judge: I shall leave you behind as most upright witnesses. Well was it provided by ancient moderation that those who serve the public interests should receive the prices of their toil, lest any man should be held passed over who had been worthy to be praised for a commendable action. For to what office would remuneration be paid out, if the rewards were delayed to praetorian toils?

For almost whatever is transacted in the commonwealth is accomplished by their strenuousness; and—which is the most difficult kind of servitude, for it is thus compelled to fulfil all things in such a way that it is not permitted to exceed—it obeys the armies, complies with armed men, and thence carries back gratitude, where another can find offence. Why should we relate that the public revenues, gathered through difficult minutiae, are composed with great subtlety and exacted from those whom they do not presume to offend? To their sweats also is to be ascribed that the victual expenses, though placed far off, yet, as though born in the royal city, are gathered without complaint of the provincials, because, while at their own seasons something is fittingly sought, the cost is not reckoned against the giver.

Their service is our glory, the renown of the times, the visible power of our commands; and whatever we receive by way of gratification for the upholding of all things, we rightly apply to their provisions. By their very exercise the labors assigned to such men shine forth, for they render men ever well-trained: labors, I say, are violent schoolmasters, anxious tutors, through whom a man is made more cautious, while the perils he might run upon are dreaded. Let one man be schooled in forensic letters; let another be taught in whatever discipline you please: yet he is rendered more fully instructed who is trained by the practice of continual devotion. And therefore to such men what they merit must be paid with honor, that he may at last receive something for himself who was forever acquiring for the advantages of the commonwealth.

Wherefore, to that man, now that he has discharged the labor of service as chief clerk, we decree that you solemnly pay so many solidi from the tax-canon of the third instalment of the province of Campania, so that he may both enjoy the fruit of his just labors, and that his successors may receive an example of free service, when they learn that he was well rewarded for his fidelity. Antiquity, the careful governess of all things, considered diligently that, since counsel had to be furnished to very many through our offices, there should be no lack of a procured supply of charters, so that, when the judges decreed measures profitable to many, sweet benefits might suffer no hateful delays. This boon was granted to petitioners, lest they should be greedily constrained to pay for a commodity which they knew had been received from public bounty.

A place most shameless in its exactions has been taken away: he has specially exempted from losses those for whose sake the prince's humanity made the grant. A fair work indeed did ingenious Memphis conceive, that the elegant labor of a single place should clothe all the offices. There rises the Nile-born forest without branches, a grove without foliage, a harvest of the waters, the fair tresses of the marshes, softer than shrubs yet harder than herbs, full with a certain emptiness and empty in its fullness, an absorbent tenderness, a spongy wood whose strength, as in fruit, lies in the rind and whose softness in the pith, of light tallness yet self-sustaining, the most beautiful fruit of an ugly inundation. For what such thing is born in any kind of cultivation as that wherein the thoughts of wise men are preserved?

Before this, the sayings of the wise, the thoughts of our forebears, were in peril. For how could that be swiftly written which, with the resisting hardness of the bark, could scarcely be made ready? The heat of the mind endured surely unfitting delays, and when words were postponed, talents were forced to grow cold. Hence too antiquity called the little works of the ancients 'books' (libri); for even today we call the strippings of the green wood a 'book' (liber). It was unseemly, I confess, to commit learned discourses to unpolished tablets, and to impress upon withered branchwood that which the elegance of the senses could discover. With burdened hands one prompted the memory with few words, nor was he invited to say more, to whom such a page seemed to be offered.

But this was suited to the beginnings, when so rude a start ought to have had such a contrivance, which might provoke the talents of those who followed. The beauty of charters is said to invite abundance, where the material for taking down notes is not feared to be lacking. For this opens with its snowy surface a field for the eloquent, ever stands at hand in plenty, and that it may be made handy, it is gathered up rolled in upon itself, until it is unfolded for great treatises: a joining without seams, a continuity made of tiny fragments, the snowy entrails of green herbs, a writable surface that takes on blackness for its adornment, where, by the raised characters, the most fruitful crop of words, once planted, renders to minds a fruit ever most sweet, as often as it meets the reader's desire:

preserving a faithful witness of human deeds, talkative of things past, the enemy of oblivion. For our memory, even if it retains the substance, alters the words: but there it is safely stored away, so that it may always be heard alike. Wherefore we decree that you furnish to that under-clerk the appointed sum of so many solidi from the province of Tuscany, out of the third instalment, to be charged to the accounts of the thirteenth indiction, so that the public office may keep the integrity of its faith with praiseworthy perpetuity; for, knowing no failure among mortal things, it ever grows by yearly accumulation, perpetually receiving new things and guarding the old.

It is plain how great a people there was in the city of Rome, since even from far-off regions a provided abundance had to satisfy it, so that the surrounding provinces sufficed for the sustenance of strangers, while the food brought in kept itself for them. For how small a number could that be which possessed the governance of the world! The vast spaces of the walls bear witness to the throngs of citizens, the outstretched compass of the spectacle-buildings, the marvelous magnitude of the baths, and that multitude of mills which is known to have been specially assigned for sustenance. For unless this device be in common use, it is not held to be necessary, since it can neither contribute to ornament nor suit any other purpose.

In short, these things, like precious garments of bodies, are tokens of cities, since no one consents to make superfluous what he knows is to be unfolded at great cost. Hence it came about that mountainous Lucania paid out its swine, hence that the Bruttii furnished a native herd of cattle with native plenty. Both things were truly marvelous: that the provinces should suffice for so great a city, and that so vast a city should, by their benefits, have no want of provisions. It was indeed glorious for them to feed Rome: but at what expense did it seem possible to bring over by so many journeys the things that were given by weight, while no one could reckon up what was proved to dwindle away!

It has been reduced to a money-payment, where they could not endure loss—a payment which is neither diminished by journeys nor wounded by labors. Let the provinces understand their own goods. For if their ancestors were devoted to expenditures, why should these not be munificent in paying easy dues? And therefore your diligence shall provide for both items, now reduced to a public lump sum, by the appointed instalments, lest in my times those should seem negligent who, with praiseworthy integrity, obeyed the dignities of others. For although I have striven to restore other provinces as well, yet nothing was done in them which I should wish to claim as my own.

They felt me to be their judge; and those over whom I presided as a private man, through grandfathers and great-grandfathers, I strove the more eagerly to aid in my office, that they might recognize me as keeping the affection of my native land—those whom in my advancements I perceived to rejoice with eager exultation. Let them therefore obey, not by any compulsion, but out of love, since I have lessened for them even this sum which used to be offered. For whereas twelve hundred solidi were paid in yearly contributions, I have called them back to a thousand by royal bounty, that they might exult in the increase of their joys at their burdens being lightened.

Although the very name of judge seems dedicated to justice, and we are bidden to walk all the year round in the footsteps of equity, yet in these days we rightly turn aside into the dwelling-place of piety, that we may be able to come, by the road of remission, to the Redeemer of all. For from this virtue we gather the sweetest fruits, and by remitting to others we spare ourselves. For we who are perilously just, under security always grant pardon. Wherefore we renounce punishments, we condemn torments, and then we are truly judges. Hail, Indulgence, who loosest even the rulers! You are the patroness of the human race, you the singular physician of afflicted affairs. Who would not need your gift, since to sin is common to all?

You are of necessity sought by all, since under you the hope of life is taken up, which under justice is not had. For while you enjoy the heavenly grace with three other sisters and are bound together in lovely embrace, all yield to you with honor, although they too are virtues, when they recognize you to be salutary to the human race. But why do we say so much of earthly conduct? It is piety that governs even the heavens. O that it were permitted to dwell with you for long ages! All guilt would be shut out, and by sparing it would come to pass that there were no need to spare. But most providently so great a thing is seen to be granted only to sacred seasons, that the world might receive it more gratefully, having cause to rejoice at the novelty of the thing.

Wherefore withhold, lictor, the harmful axe, you who are permitted to do with impunity what in others you are known to punish: love for a little while the gleaming iron, not the bloody. Let a happier rust take hold of your chains, wet with tears: rather lay away that which used to shut men in. Let the audience-halls of deadly voices fall silent with a better lot. Thus in very truth you keep the name of guardian without the deaths of others. Why do you forever toil for the powers below? Sometimes serve also the powers above. A merciful act announces leisure to you. He who keeps watch for inexorable justice must needs be ungirded by kindly piety. And therefore let the cell of groans, the house of sorrow, the lodging of Pluto among the upper world, the place blinded by perpetual night, at last grow white with the inpouring of light:

in which the accused endures not one torment, who, before he runs upon the issue of death, is by the powers above adjudged cut off. First that foul stench, the companion of chains, racks him with abominable gloom; the hearing of another's groan and laments disturb him; long fastings weaken his taste; the pressing weights weary his touch; his eyes, dulled by lasting darkness, grow numb. There is not one destruction for the imprisoned: he is slain by a manifold death who is tortured by the squalor of the dungeon. Now therefore send forth from your Avernus the accused, who are to live: let them return to the upper world, who in great part have endured the lower: let your courts be filled with emptiness. Let that place of everlasting tears at last lose its once-sorrowful dwellers. There are none there who are glad:

for that place will surely then have favor, if it appear deserted. Go forth, you that are shut in, ever pale with death close at hand: return to the light, you whom darkening shadows possessed, destined to suffer nothing more from the death you longed for, except that you could still be slain. But you, who ought now to be deceived by no ambition, leave your offenses behind with your chains, absolved by the benefits of these days. Live now in honesty, you who have learned, though surviving, to die. Recognize how beneficial a good manner of life is: the one brought on a most hideous prison, the other has known how to bestow splendid liberty: this latter will grant that you should wish to live, the former gave that you should choose now to perish. If the laws bind you, henceforth no one shuts you in. Dread secret places: come to the forum without trembling.

Those things you justly flee, through which you have endured sorrows. Let those who saw you as accused marvel at you as free. You ought to hate that which delivered you to death. The very cattle know how to avoid the things by which they know they were hurt: they do not retrace those paths where they fell into a pit. The wary bird turns aside from clinging snares; the suspicious fowl does not settle on the sticky birdlime. The fish called the wolf plunges itself into the soft sands, so as to escape the snares of the leaded net: and when the over-drawn nets have scraped its back in vain, it leaps eager into the waves and, freed, knows the joys of a peril avoided. The scarus, lured by the bait, when it has begun to enter the rushen prison, as soon as it has realized it was invited to its own destruction, slips back upon its tail, little by little drawing itself out of the narrow place.