雜記與文集 第 2 章

It behooves us, most clement emperor, to seek peace, who are known to have no causes of wrath: since he is already held bound by his own conduct who is found unprepared for what is just. For tranquillity ought to be desirable to every kingdom, in which both peoples prosper and the welfare of nations is guarded. For this is the comely mother of the good arts; this, multiplying the race of mortals by a reparable succession, extends their faculties and refines their manners: and he is recognized as ignorant of such great things who is perceived to have by no means sought it. And therefore, most pious of princes, it befits your power and your honor that we should be bound to seek your concord, in the love of which we still prosper.

For you are the fairest glory of all kingdoms, you the saving safeguard of the whole world, whom the other rulers rightly look up to, because they recognize that there is in you something singular—we most of all, who by divine aid have learned in your commonwealth in what manner we may rule the Romans with equity. Our kingdom is an imitation of yours, a model of good purpose, the exemplar of a unique empire: and as much as we follow you, so much do we go before the other nations. You frequently exhort me to love the senate, to embrace gladly the laws of princes, that I may compose all the members of Italy. How can you separate from the august peace one whom you do not wish to differ from your own manners?

There is added also the venerable affection for the city of Rome, from which those things cannot be sundered which have been joined by the unity of its name. Accordingly we have thought that such and such a one should be sent on the office of an embassy to your most serene piety, so that the sincerity of peace, which is known to have been impaired by emergent causes, may, with contentions wiped away, henceforth remain restored in its firmness: because we do not believe that you would suffer any discord to remain between the two commonwealths, which are declared always to have been one body under the ancient princes. Which it behooves not only to be joined together by a leisured love, but also it is fitting that they be aided by mutual strength. Let the Roman realm have one will, ever one mind.

Whatever we too can do, let it be applied to your renown. Wherefore, putting forward the honorableness of our greeting, with prone mind we earnestly beseech that you do not withhold the most glorious charity of your gentleness, which I ought to have hoped for, even if it seemed it could be granted to no others. The rest, indeed, we have committed to be suggested by word to your piety through the bearers of this present letter, that neither might the epistolary discourse be rendered too extended, nor might we seem to have passed over anything for our advantage. By the report of Count Stephanus we have learned that the work of the sacred vestment, which we wished to be completed with necessary haste, hangs unfinished, its labor rather disrupted: by withholding the customary use of it, you are recognized to bring in, rather, an abominable tardiness.

For we believe that some neglect has occurred, so that either those milky fleeces, twice and thrice sated with the fleshy draught, blushed too little with the loveliest intoxication, or the wools did not drink in the most precious quality of the adorable murex. Wherefore, if the searcher of the Hydruntine sea had duly stored away the shut-up shellfish at the fitting time, that Neptunian heap, the ever-generator of flourishing purple, the adorner of the throne, dissolved by an abundance of waters, would have loosed a courtly shower with its flame-colored liquor. The color, blooming with excessive charm, the reddening darkness, the blood-red blackness, distinguishes the reigning one, makes the lord conspicuous, and grants to the human race that they may not err concerning the aspect of the prince.

It is wonderful that that substance, finished by death, exudes from itself, after the space of so long a time, the gore which is wont to flow from living bodies wounded by injury. For when those marine delicacies have been for almost six months separated from vital vigor, they know not how to be most offensive to keen nostrils, namely lest that noble blood should breathe forth anything of horror. When this substance, once dyed, perseveres, it knows not how to be withdrawn before the garment can be consumed. But if the quality of the shellfish is not changed, if there is but one vintage of that wine-press, the fault assuredly will be the craftsman's, from whom no abundance of material has been withdrawn.

But in those ruddy fountains, when the learned controller shall have dipped the locks of whitening silk, he ought to have the purest chastity of body, because the secrets of such things are said to shun the unclean. If all these things have been fulfilled, if in no part does the due ceremony seem to have been omitted, we marvel that you have given no thought to your own perils, since it is a sacrilegious guilt of negligence to sin in such a vestment. For what do so many craftsmen accomplish, so many bands of sailors, so many households of country-folk? You too, raised by the dignity of a count, give orders to such great matters, and defend yourself with so great a presumption of that name, that, when you are believed to be doing a royal work, you may seem to command in many your fellow citizens.

This, then, your slackness neglects—that very thing which had both raised you in the province and made you come into the honorable sight of the prince. But if the care for your fortune does not yet desert you, if the affection for your own safety touches you, within that day, with the bearer of this letter pressing upon you, hasten to come with the purple which you have been accustomed to give yearly to our bedchamber: for now we send to you not a compeller, but an avenger, if you should believe that there is anything to be delayed by any mockery. Yet how easy a stroke of luck this so great and weighty matter is read to have been discovered! When a dog, greedy with hunger, had crushed with pressed jaws the shellfish cast upon the Tyrian shore, those, naturally letting the blood-red moisture flow down, dyed his mouth with a wondrous color.

And as it is the way of men to draw sudden occasions toward the arts, men meditating on such examples brought it about that a thing which is known to have a moderate substance gives a noble honor to princes. The eastern Tyre is the Italian Hydruntum, a courtly wardrobe indeed, keeping not old things, but unceasingly transmitting new ones. See therefore whether anyone suffers you to fulfill less fully that which you know we so necessarily demand. Although that which is by nature praiseworthy enjoys its own honor, and the fasces of a proven conscience are not lacking, since it engenders dignities for the mind—for indeed all good things are joined with their fruits, nor can that virtue be believed which is sundered from its reward—yet the summit of our judgment is lofty:

since he who is advanced by us is esteemed full of outstanding merits. For if he is to be believed equitable whom the just man has chosen, if endowed with temperance whom the moderate has taken on, surely he can be capable of all merits who has deserved to have as his judge the one possessed of all virtues. For what greater thing is sought than to have found the testimonies of praise there where gratification cannot be suspect? For the sentence of the reigning one takes its judgment from deeds alone, nor does a mind fortified by a lord's power deign to flatter. Let there be recalled, at any rate, the things which have poured you into our senses, that you may take the fruit of your labor, when you recognize that each thing has sweetly clung to our minds.

For in the very beginning of our reign, when, amid still fluctuating affairs, the hearts of the provinces wandered, and the very novelty allowed a new lord to be neglected, you turned the minds of the suspicious Sicilians away from headlong obstinacy, removing the fault from them, and withdrawing from us the necessity of vengeance. A wholesome persuasion accomplished what a vehement severity could have corrected. You gained back the losses of the province, which deserved under your devotion to know them not: where, keeping the civil laws under the girding of Mars, an uncovetous arbiter, you weighed public and private interests, and, your own revenue neglected, without envy of gain you brought back the riches of good morals, shutting out both an approach to complaints and a place to disparagements:

and from a quarter whence scarcely the silence of patience is wont to be reported, the voices of those praising you fought on your behalf. For we know, by the testimony of Tully, how prone the nature of the Sicilians is to complaints, so that by their wonted custom they can accuse judges even on suspicions. But not content with that limit of public praises, we gave you the manners of the Bruttians and of Lucania to be governed, lest the good which a foreign province had deserved should be unknown to the fortune of your native soil. But you, expending the custom of devotion, bound us by that gift whereby we think we have repaid you all things: amplifying the debt from that very quarter whence it could have been believed discharged. You acted throughout as a judge free from all error, neither depressing anyone by envy nor exalting anyone by flattering favor.

Which, though it is everywhere arduous, becomes especially glorious in one's homeland: where it is necessary either that kinship provoke favor or that long contentions exasperate hatred. It delights us, therefore, to recall your conduct of the prefecture, a good most well known to all Italy, where, disposing all things with provident ordering, you showed how light a thing it is to pay tributes under the integrity of a judge. No one offered grudgingly what he paid under equity, because whatever is rendered in due order is not reckoned a loss. Enjoy now your goods, and receive doubled the advantage of your own which, out of regard for the public, you despised. For this is the glorious benefit of life: to have lords as witnesses, to have citizens as praisers.

Incited therefore by these so many and so ample praises, we confer upon you the summit of the patriciate by a just remuneration, so that what is to others a reward may be to you a repayment of merits. Well done, most excellent man, in your praiseworthy felicity, who at this utterance have impelled the minds of the ruler, so that we confess that what we yield is rather of your own goods. May these things be divine and perpetual, so that, when we bestow these as a remuneration, we may again be required to give better things to your merits. We desire indeed, conscript fathers, that your crown be painted with the flower of diverse fasces: we desire that the genius of Liberty may behold a pleasing throng of the senate. For the assembly of such men is the dignity of those who rule, and whatever in you is regarded with festive congratulation is truly applied to our praises.

Yet this above all we desire with longing, that the lights of dignities may adorn your college, since they fittingly render increase to the fatherland who have grown by the power of the court. These men our intention searches out: in these treasures of character we rejoice when they are found, in whom, as in figured countenances of honors, the clemency of our serenity is expressed. Hence it is that to Cassiodorus, an illustrious and magnificent man, most well known for his distinguished renown in the commonwealth, we have given the rank of the patriciate as a remuneration of his suggestion: so that by the honor of a great name the merits of the servant might be declared.

He who, not advanced by a fragile felicity, did not fly up by sudden successions to the summit of the fasces by fortune's sport, but, as virtues are wont to grow, ascended to the pinnacle of renown by the steps of dignities. For his first entrance into administration, as you know, was founded upon the weighty office of the count of the private estates, where, not tottering through the weakness of inexperience, did he err even innocently by the fault of novelty, but with the footstep of abstinence made firm he lived by imitating example. He who soon afterward, having received the honor of the sacred largesses, grew in the praise of his conduct as much as he had advanced in dignity. Why should we recount the discipline restored to the provinces, the monuments of justice instilled into every kind of men?

He lived with such self-restraint that he both established equity by his admonitions and taught it by his example. For an innocent judge is an easy persuader to the right, since under his praiseworthy manner of life one is ashamed not to hold to upright morals. For who would dread to commit a crime when he sees, in the seat of the judge's own bosom, an accomplice in it? In vain does the greedy man put on the mask of feigned severity, when he dissuades others from the pursuit of money; in vain does the unjust man decree that the laws must be obeyed. He has no genius for fair distribution to whom a free conscience does not supply authority, since excesses are then held in dread when they are believed to be displeasing to the judges. And so, trained in these schools under his earlier service, he has come to our palace adorned with well-earned praises.

For you remember—and the memory of recent events still serves you—with what moderation he conducted himself when placed at the summit of the praetorian office, and how, raised to that height, he thence looked down all the more upon the vices that attend prosperity. For he was not, as is the custom with most, puffed up by the favour of fortune so as to mount upon the lofty buskin of great power; but, tempering all things with equity, he did not render our favour toward him a source of hatred. He made men desire greater things for him, while he kept great things within the bounds of modesty. For this is the most welcome fruit of a tested conscience: that, although he could have attained the highest honours, he is nevertheless judged by all to deserve still more. He joined our advantage well with the joys of all, generous to the treasury and gracious to those who paid justly.

The commonwealth then perceived, from that Romulean assembly, a man of innocence, who, though he made himself glorious by his self-restraint, yet conferred a still greater benefit in this: that he left to those who came after the example of good conduct. For he is ashamed to sin who seems able to succeed men that are praised. And so he was, as you know, to be revered by the soldiers, gentle to the provincials, eager to give, disdainful of receiving, a hater of crime, a lover of equity. This was not difficult for him to preserve, since he had resolved to abstain from the property of others. For it is the mark of an unconquered spirit to cherish the advantage of one's reputation and rather to hate the gains of lawsuits. But let those marvel at these things in him by right who never knew the most noble character of his father and grandfather.

For fame celebrates the Cassiodori who went before him. Although this name may seem to be borne by others also, yet it is acknowledged to be the proper possession of his family. An ancient line, a praised lineage, illustrious among men of the toga, eminent among brave men, since they flourished both in the strength of their limbs and in the tallness of their stature. For his father held praiseworthily, under the prince Valentinian, the dignity of tribune and notary of the household troops—an honour that was then given to distinguished men, since to the imperial council such men are chosen as in whom no fault of reproach can be found. But, as kindred spirits are ever wont to choose one another, he was joined in great affection to the patrician Aëtius for the help of the commonwealth;

him the lord of affairs then followed in every part of his counsel, on account of his wisdom and his glorious labours for the commonwealth. He was therefore sent, not without effect, on the office of an embassy to Attila, mighty in arms, together with Carpilio, the son of the aforesaid man. Undaunted, he beheld the empire that men feared; relying on truth, he despised those terrible and threatening looks, nor did he hesitate to confront in dispute the man who, carried away by I know not what fury, seemed to be seeking the dominion of the world. He found the king proud, but left him appeased, and overthrew his slanderous allegations with such truth that the king wished to seek the goodwill of one with whom it was to his advantage not to keep peace, rich kingdom though he was.

His steadfastness raised up the fearful parties, nor were those thought unwarlike who seemed to be armed by such envoys. He brought back the peace that had been despaired of. What his embassy accomplished may be understood from this, that it was received as gladly as it had seemed to be longed for. Soon he offered the honour of the office of count, soon the gifts of revenues, as a fair arbiter. But he, rather most rich in his native moderation, while accepting the dignity, sought in place of reward the leisure of the most delightful regions of Bruttium. The prince could not deny him the repose he desired, who had rendered the prince secure from a savage foe: he let him depart from his service with sadness, knowing that he had been necessary to himself.

For his grandfather Cassiodorus, girt with illustrious honour which could not be denied to his stock, freed Bruttium and Sicily from the incursion of the Vandals by the defence of arms, so that he deservedly held the primacy in those provinces which he defended from so savage and sudden a foe. The commonwealth therefore owed to his virtues that Geiseric did not invade those provinces lying so near—Geiseric, whom Rome afterwards endured in his ferocity. These men flourished also in the regions of the East with the praise of their kindred. For Heliodorus, who in that commonwealth held the prefecture most excellently for twice nine years before our own eyes, was proved to be joined to their kindred.

A lineage illustrious in both worlds, which, fittingly adapted to the twin senates, shone as if endowed with two eyes of the purest brightness. For to what further point does any nobility extend itself than this, which has merited to be illustrious in both worlds? He too lived in the province with the honour of a judge and the security of a private man: more potent than all those others in nobility, he drew the affections of all to himself, so that those who could not be made subject by right of liberty seemed rather to be sweetly bound by continual benefits. Indeed he gloried in so great an abundance of his patrimony that, among his other goods, he surpassed princes in herds of horses, and by giving them away he often did not incur envy.

Hence it is that our candidate always arms the armies of the Goths, and, being the better for his good upbringing, preserves with hereditary liberality what he received from his forefathers. Our dignity has therefore run through these things in order, so that each one may understand that even the praises of his own forebears can be renewed in our presence by him who has chosen to live by distinguished principles. And therefore, conscript fathers, since the honour of good men is to your advantage, and your assent attends our judgement, let the advancement of him be received under a prosperous omen, who has made the favour of all men lie open to himself. For it is rather a recompense than a reward, that those who have cultivated you by praiseworthy conduct should rejoice in reciprocal favour. It is not fitting that disputes once concluded should be dragged out without end.

For what peace will be granted to the contentious, if they do not even acquiesce in lawful sentences? For there is one harbour built amid the storms of men, which, if men pass it by with their fervid willfulness, they will ever wander amid the surging quarrels. And therefore we declare to your worthiness by the present oracles that, if the matter stands thus—that what is supplicated for by the present parties, and the controversy over the Mazenian estate, was decided by fixed laws in the judgement of the count Annas, and is proved to be suspended by no appeal—the things that were decreed should be observed. For just as we are unwilling to deny judgement to the oppressed, so we do not lend assent to unreasonable complaints. For he ought to be compelled to be quiet who by his own fault refuses to be peaceable.

For the physician skilled in healing frequently saves the unwilling patient, since in grave afflictions the right will is lacking, but rather that is craved which is felt by the judge of health to be able to do harm. Care that looks to the increase of the commonwealth befits a prince, and it is truly worthy of a king to adorn his palaces with buildings. For far be it that we should yield in adornment to the ancients, we who are not unequal to them in the blessedness of our age.

Wherefore, having undertaken in the city of Ravenna the ample work of the basilica of Hercules—to whose name antiquity fittingly attributed whatever it founded in any hall of praiseworthy admiration—we most studiously entrust to your greatness that, according to the brief list appended below, you direct to us from the city the most skilled workers in marble, who may join together the excellently divided pieces, so that, bound together with the veins matching and playing into one another, they may praiseworthily counterfeit a natural appearance. Let that come from art which may surpass nature: let the varicoloured incrustations of marble be woven with the most pleasing variety of pictures, since that is ever held precious which has been sought out for the sake of beauty. You shall furnish for these the expenses and the transport: lest the command burden any one of us, which we wish to look to the advantage of each individual.

From the petition of Venantius, guardian of Plutianus, we have learned that you have engaged in an action which was not seemly toward him—so that you afflicted with the loss of his property the very one whom you ought to have aided at your own expense. Indeed, your kinship should have been attested by lavished comforts. What sort of thing, then, does it seem toward those joined by blood, which would be deemed criminal even toward strangers? And therefore by the present injunction we decree that, whatever you know yourself to have not so much purchased as filched from the prodigal and wanton will of Neoterius, you restore without any delay, to be incorporated into the estate of our ward, lest you compel us to avenge by the laws a deed of this kind—we who now seem to have tempered all things with mildness. For we do not permit to perish for the orphan what we had given to his parents to our own praise.

For it is a most grievous thing that what was bestowed by princely munificence should be taken away by calumny. But as for the rest, which you assert you divided as your wife's portion in contempt of the path of justice—if indeed it is to be called a division, which is acknowledged to have been carried out at the arbitrary will of one party alone—hasten to come to our court, that we may order between you those things which accord with justice. For it is unjust that, out of one substance, where an equal succession is due, some should overflow with abundance while others groan under the discomforts of poverty. It is in our heart to protect all in common, but most of all those whom we know to have been wronged.

For thus the balance of equity will be preserved, if we bestow aid upon the weaker and set the fear of us against the insolent on behalf of the little ones. A lesser fortune seeks out the prince, since those rush into our reproach from whom the public prayers are withdrawn. And so by the tearful representation of Venantius, guardian of Plutianus, we have learned that Neoterius, his brother, forgetful of the affection of brotherhood, has torn apart the goods of the little one with a hostile fury. This has moved us by reason of the harshness done to his affairs, lest our liberality—which we wish to stand as a kind of title of piety—should seem to have been usurped by unlawful presumptions.

And since there is no doubt that in the recovery of a minor's property the losses arising from delay are above all to be removed, therefore let your devotion, confirmed by our injunction, if there is nothing that can reasonably be objected by the party impeached, cause the demanded property to be restored without delay to the aforesaid guardian. Or if there is anything which the claim of the retainer urges on his own behalf, then, a legal undertaking being first given, let him make haste to come to our court, so that, the allegations being heard, we may judge according to the custom of our equity. The condition of subjects is safe where men live under the equity of those who reign; nor is it fitting to be drawn along by uncertain rumour by him who ought to establish things that are not to be altered.

Indeed we gather the trustworthiness of matters from reason, which is never hidden from those who desire it, if it be sought out by its own traces. And therefore, what we trust to be most pleasing to your blessedness, we declare by the present tenor that the bishop of the city of Augusta, accused by false charges of betraying his country and now restored by you to his former honour, shall have all the right of the episcopate which he had. For nothing in such an honour is to be presumed with rash thinking, where, if credit is given to one's purpose, a man is excused from excesses even by his silence. Therefore manifest crimes scarcely find credence in such men; and whatever is said out of envy is not reckoned to be truth. For we wish to strike his assailants with the lawful penalty;

but since they too were discharging the office of clergy, we have transmitted all matters to be ordered by the judgement of your holiness, whose part it is both to impose probity by such morals and to maintain ecclesiastical discipline. Although general justice ought to be dispensed to all peoples—which thus obtains the dignity of its name, if with even-handed moderation it runs through both the more powerful and the humble—yet those more confidently seek it who do not withdraw from the service of the palace. For something is freely granted by princely munificence to the idle; but to one who faithfully renders obedience, custom is rendered as a kind of debt.

The Domestics of the section of horse and foot, who seem to keep continual watch over our court, have, by a supplication gathered together to us—a thing that is wont to arise from great griefs—complained that, from that paymaster of the prefects, they receive for their customary emoluments solidi not of full weight, and that in their number they sustain grievous losses. Wherefore let your prudence, instructed by readings in the science, cast out this wicked falsification from the fellowship of truth, lest it be alluring to anyone to subtract something from that integrity. For this thing which is called arithmetic stands amid the ambiguities of the world by a most certain reckoning, which we know to be equal with the heavenly things:

an evident order, a beautiful arrangement, a simple cognition, an immovable knowledge, which both contains things above and guards things below. For what is there that either has no measure or exceeds weight? It embraces all things, governs all things, and all things take their beauty from this, that they are known to exist under its measure. It is a delight to inspect how the number ten, after the manner of heaven, both revolves upon itself and is found never to fail. By a new condition it grows by returning through itself, the same reckoning being ever added to itself; and, though the number ten seems not to be exceeded, out of small things it prevails to embrace greater.

This, often repeated with the fingers of the hands now bent and now raised, is always rendered extended; and the further the calculation is led back to its beginning, the more, beyond doubt, it is increased. By a numerable quantity are bounded the sand of the sea, the drops of the rains, the shining stars. For to its own Author every creature is under number, and whatever comes into existence cannot be removed from such a condition. And since it delights us to speak of the more hidden things of this discipline with those who know, the coins themselves, although by their most common use they seem to be of little worth, deserve that one observe with how great a reckoning they were assembled by the ancients.

They willed that six thousand denarii make a solidus, namely that the moulded roundness of the radiant metal, like a golden sun, might fittingly enclose the age of the world. And the number six, which learned antiquity not without cause defines as perfect, they marked with the name of the ounce, which is the first degree of measure; and reckoning it twelvefold by the likeness of the months, they gathered it into the fullness of the pound for the course of the year. O the inventions of the wise! O the foresights of our forefathers! It is an exquisite thing which both distinguished what was necessary for human use and figuratively contained so many secrets of nature. Deservedly therefore is it called a pound (libra), which has been weighed out with so great a consideration of things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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