We perceived the revenues increased, you knew of no added tributes. Thus each thing was accomplished to our admiration, that both the fisc grew and private interest suffered no losses. It delights us to relate how in the assignment of the thirds of the Goths and Romans he joined both estates and minds. For whereas men are wont to collide over neighbourhood, to these the community of estates seems to have furnished a cause of concord: for so it came about that both nations, while they live in common, came together to one will. Behold a deed new and altogether praiseworthy: the goodwill of the lords was joined by the division of the soil; friendships among the peoples grew through losses, and a defender was acquired by a portion of land, so that the security of property might be kept whole.
One law and an equable discipline embraces them. For it is necessary that a sweet affection should grow among those who continually keep the appointed bounds. The Roman commonwealth therefore owes its tranquillity also to the said Liberius, who handed down zeal of charity to nations so renowned. Weigh, conscript fathers, whether we ought to leave this offspring unrewarded, whose author we remember to have done so many excellent things. May the heavenly powers favour our dispositions, so that, just as we invite virtues by benefits conferred, so we may approve that honoured consciences have grown by their merits. We wish our munificence to stand harmful to none, lest what is bestowed upon one be applied to the losses of another.
And therefore by the present authority know that, on account of the lot which by our liberality we have conferred upon the presbyter Butila, no one ought to pay the levy of the fiscal account, but in that contribution—as much as the solidi comprise—you should know yourselves to be relieved from the contributions of the thirds. Nor do we wish anything to be imposed by anyone, which by our humanity we have remitted to another, lest—which is impious to say—the gift of one well-deserving become the loss of an innocent. The reverend authority of the ancient laws dictates that a curial by birth can in no way deviate from the duties of his origin, nor be drawn into another office of the commonwealth, who has been overtaken by such a lot of birth.
But if the laws have even forbidden them to pass over to honours, how contrary does it seem that a curial of the commonwealth should, with liberty basely lost, be in servitude, and that he whom antiquity called the lesser senate should have come down to the lowest condition? Let your reverence therefore know that the municipal citizens of Sarsina have asserted that your church wishes irrationally to defend their colleagues for itself. Whence let your prudence, in keeping with its purpose of integrity, the truth having been examined, discuss what comes into complaint, and, if the desires of the petitioners subsist in truth, permit them to return to their own curia for the fulfilling of their duties.
But if indeed you believe that your clergy has something reasonably in their favour in this, by all means send to our court a well-instructed person, who ought to oppose the intentions of the adversaries. But if you are in doubt about the nature of the matter, it befits priestly institutions that you yourself should rather recognize justice before the controversy, than withdraw vanquished from judgement. For one ought not to be publicly overcome whom it befits to be found a lover of equity. We detest indeed all crimes by right, and a clement hearing execrates everything that is iniquitous, but most of all those things which, polluted by the shedding of human blood, have incited our censure against themselves.
For who could bear that in domestic protections there should be a place for perils, and that there should be found the end of sweet life, whence the aid of defence ought to have been born? And therefore by the present command we charge that you cut down, by the strictness of the laws, the household slaves who, slaughtering their master Stephanus by a punishable crime, also cast away the unburied reverence due to his funeral, so that those who are provoked by the worst examples may be restrained by the punishments seen. Alas the grief! Piety is found in birds, which is forsaken by the human condition.
The vulture itself, whose life is another's carcass, a body of such great size, is proved hostile not to the small birds, but rather strikes with its wings the hawk that pursues the life of the feathered birds, tears it with its beak, and with all its weight strives to come to the aid of those in peril: and men cannot spare him whose kind they recognize themselves to be. He does not wish to destroy that on which he might feed: the slaves preferred to kill him who, surviving, had been wont to nourish them. Let him then become the food of the pious vulture, who could cruelly desire the death of his shepherd. Let him rather be received in such a tomb, who rendered his master unburied.
It befits all to expend gladly what they see can regard the public advantages, since it is necessary that the members feel that which is felt by the head of the body. And therefore by the present command we decree that, as many transport barges as you can find in the city of Ravenna, you bring laden with the fiscal grain all the way to us, so that the public sustenance, relieved by such provision, may not have to endure the necessity of want. Let Ravenna render the abundance to Liguria, which it was wont to receive from her. For that which sustains our presence ought to find the comforts of many. For our court draws crowds of attendants, and, while there is a running together for the bestowing of benefits, a supply of necessaries is demanded for the peoples.
It is too grievous that the industrious man should be defrauded of the fruit of his labour, and that he to whom a reward ought to be conferred for his diligence should suffer an unjust loss, especially in that matter which looks to our liberality: where nothing ought to be permitted to negligence, lest we seem to have sanctioned things less profitable. Some time ago, indeed, our liberality had granted to Spes and Domitius, men of distinction, places in the Spoletine territory uselessly occupied by muddy waters, where a vast depth of waters had absorbed the earthly grace into uses that would profit none. The land lay shipwrecked, confounded by a marshy torpor, and, cast about under a twofold loss, it had neither merited the pure liquids of the waters, nor lost the adornment of earthly solidity.
This we, to whom it is at heart to change all things for the better, granted to the aforesaid on such a condition, that if by their effort or labour the foul slime should be dried up, the freed fields should profit themselves. But, as much as the petition lodged by the agents of Spes declares, by the fault of Domitius, a man of distinction—who, unmindful of the command, tenaciously spares his expenses—the labour of the workers was recalled to its beginning, when already on the face of the soil the dried softness was little by little hardening, and an unaccustomed sun was scorching the earth long concealed by the devouring depths. Which we shall by no means suffer to be neglected, that things well begun be destroyed by envious sloth.
Accordingly let your devotion approach the aforesaid Domitius with moderate execution, so that either he as a diligent operator may press on with the begun work, or, if he should believe this to be too costly for himself, let him cede his own portion to the suppliants. For it behoves that, if he himself cannot accomplish what is required, he should permit a partner in the benefit to fulfil the glory of our times. It is just that royal piety should lend itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, since they the more deserve to be raised up whom the adversities of their lot have pressed down.
And therefore by the present authority we declare to your magnificence, that you should order the sons of Ecdicius, whom we first decreed to reside in the city, to return to their homeland with the body of their father—a return indeed longed for, but by a bitter chance—lest, their desires being denied, the wound be doubled to the afflicted, and—which is impious to say—lest we, who always wipe away the clouds of sorrows with our serenity, should now seem to deny pious tears to the wretched. For insatiable indeed is the weeping which is not permitted to be present at the burying of bodies, since he ever judges himself guilty who does not render due rites to the ashes. At what price did Priam ransom Hector to be buried? He entreated the raging man, he supplicated the armed one, and chose rather to expose his own life, that he might not deny what was owed to the corpse.
And since in these relationships the duties of devotion are mutual, it is unjust that a son should not freely render to his parent that which it cost the father great resources to accomplish. XXIII. It befits the discipline of our age that those who serve the public welfare should not be burdened with superfluous loads. Nor is it fitting that any man's envy should harm what has been ordained by our decrees. Therefore, since the potteries have been granted to you by royal authority, devote your labour to them diligently, and do not fear that you can be transferred to other functions, from which we scarcely believe that your present duties can be disentangled. Therefore the wicked presumption of dishonest men against you shall cease, and our authority removes any effect achieved by hidden frauds. For in vain does he hate against whom the prince's clemency has set itself.
It is well known that the Senate has furnished the peoples with a rule of life; for what adorns the Roman name is read to have been established by you. To this end were the senators in that beginning named 'Fathers', that through you the life of the citizens might be ordered as that of sons. For you decreed loyalty for the provinces, you decreed rights for private persons, and you taught all subjects gladly to obey in every department of justice. And therefore it is not fitting that a sign of resistance should issue from that quarter whence the example of moderation could shine forth. This our clemency, whose concern it is to maintain measure in all things, has thought right to bring to your notice, lest excess be nourished by ignorance, since under those whose consciences are aware of it, error cannot be perpetual.
Therefore, from a report of the provincial judges directed to the magnificent man, the praetorian prefect, we have learned that the period of the first remittance has so elapsed that nothing, or next to nothing, is established to have been paid in by senatorial households; they allege that through this difficulty the humble are oppressed, who ought rather to have been relieved (for it happens that the excess of the tax-collectors, while it is scorned by the powerful, turns upon the humble and rages, and he rather pays another's dues who is loyal in paying his own); moreover, adding things far more bitter, namely, that each man, at his own pleasure, deigns to throw off something onto those who exact it — yet all these damages are said to be inflicted upon the curials, and the things which by our provision had been restored to public use are torn apart by the wrongs of contumacious men.
And therefore, conscript fathers, you who owe an effort equal to ours on behalf of the commonwealth, so arrange matters with fairness that whatever each senatorial household declares, it may pay to the appointed procurators throughout the provinces in three instalments. Or else — that which you used to seek as a favour — fill up the entire chest of the vicarial seat, if you prefer this, lest it be necessary for the curial, through the manifold and ineffective labour of dunning, to bear his own losses amid your scanty payments, and that detestable case arise, that he who as a loyal man could scarcely sustain his own obligation should, in his weakness, be crushed by another's burdens.
This we cannot, while preserving civil order, pretend not to see: that without the bitterness of war the oppressed should be stripped of their possessions, and that those should perish the more who hasten to obey the commonwealth. This too you shall know that we have brought, by an edictal proclamation, to the notice of all the provincials, that he may freely break forth into public who knows himself oppressed by the weight of another's obligation: they shall carry off from us the fruit of justice, who know how to grant protection to the weary. Although the voice of grief is querulous, and the diminished cannot contain themselves, and a wounded mind feeds on outcry, nevertheless a freer speech is brought forth which is loosened by our authority.
For we detest that the wretched be oppressed; we are moved even by the evils of those who do not complain, and what the silence of the sufferer conceals reaches us the more swiftly — and rightly, since the injuries of all concern us, inasmuch as we believe that to perish for our devotion which we feel through the losses of the lowly. Lately, therefore, from the report of the provincial judges, we have learned that certain houses of the powerful do not fulfil their functions in due order. Hence it comes about that, while a means is sought to procure the amount of the levy, a larger sum is exacted from the humble. Then we learned that, through the arrogance of the contractors, the canonical solidi were not handed over in due order, but were cast forth under an unjust weight upon the overseers, and that they did not pay in the whole 'siliqua' which they were accustomed to render, with due solemnity.
Hence it came about that the curials, for whom we wish provision to be made, being compelled by the pressure of the overseers, felt grievous losses; and — if it is right to say so — when they were pressed with another's debts under savage compellers, they were even deprived by the loss of their own possessions. That this crime may be cut away, we have sent instructions also to the most reverend Senate, and now by an edictal proclamation we determine that whoever among the landholders or curials feels himself burdened in another's reckoning of taxes should hasten to come before the audience of our serenity, knowing that the former excesses have utterly displeased us, when he shall see beneficial things succeed them. The judgement of a just prince has thus been laid open to you, although it is always made plain by many tokens.
Now either draw a veil of patience over your grief in silence, or open the path of your voice under justice. Henceforth the sum of this counsel shall rest with you, to whom it falls to choose what you perceive to be expedient for you. We take no delight in unjust gains, nor do those things reach the heart of our devotion which are abandoned by the grace of honesty. For indeed the commonwealth is always increased by the right of equity, and when it is cherished with temperance, beneficial things swiftly succeed. And therefore, moved by the supplication of the merchants of Apulia and Calabria, we have thought it right to instruct your illustrious magnificence that, as for the grain which is purchased for the public by the aforesaid merchants, no sum of solidi should again be exacted from them under the name of 'interpretium' (commission).
For if you do not need the purchased commodity as necessary for public expenditure, let the measured quantity received by your office be sold off in good faith: the fiscal account shall bear the outcome of the matter, which seems unjustly to have imposed what it rejects. For it is too unjust that he should suffer loss who carried out another's command. Determining by the same condition also concerning the 'sextarius' which the merchant of that province appears to bring in, let no one presumptuously dare to exact the condemned prices. And, that we may more strongly beat back excesses, we impose a penalty of thirty pounds of gold upon the prefects of your seat, if anyone, by rash daring, attempts to come against these most salutary ordinances.
But the official staff shall know that it is to be smitten with the loss of ten pounds of gold, if it presumes to carry out the prohibited orders. In that matter also our clemency extends itself toward the weary, that if the merchant pays the assessment of this title to the 'siliquatarius' (collector of the siliqua tax), he may also exercise a monopoly. But if the siliquatarius judges that this title is to be abrogated for the merchants, let him exact no payment from them, since it is quite absurd that he should be afflicted with losses who has no advantage from the transaction. Finally, in the gold-treasuries let the ancient order be preserved, and let that function regard only those whom the authority of antiquity has willed to serve under this title.
Therefore see that our benefits toward the merchants, who are proved necessary to your titles, are guarded in every way, lest the class of men which lives by profits be brought to ruin by losses. Just as, having been entreated, we desire to give a just consent, so we do not love that frauds be committed against the laws through our benefits, especially in that matter in which we believe the reverence due to the Divine is concerned. Let not the haughty seem to insult, who are destitute of the grace of the Godhead. Therefore we decree, by our present authority, that you may place a covering only upon the old walls of your synagogue, granting licence to your petitions only so far as the imperial constitutions have permitted.
Nor let it be lawful to add any ornament, or to extend yourselves in enlarging the building. And you shall know that you do not at all escape the severity of the old sanction, if you do not abstain from unlawful things. But in covering or propping up the walls themselves we give licence only so far, if the thirty-years' prescription cannot stand against you. Why do you desire things which you ought rather to shun? We grant indeed the permission, but we laudably disapprove the wish of those who err: we cannot command religion, since no one is forced to believe against his will. A recompense of rewards is to be granted to praiseworthy labours, for that service is held reproachful which passes by unrewarded. The palm marks out the athlete as victor before the peoples; the civic crown bears witness to the toils of war.
The horses too await their own rewards, and so great is the force of justice that not even to those is the price of their labour given too tardily who could not feel that it was withheld. If this is so, it is fitting to render this to a man, who is known to have given satisfaction through honourable services. For through so many slippery falls of public functions you have held fast the firm footprint of proven service; and — what rarely befalls a man in office — the change of judges never altered their affection toward you. Nor was there anyone envious of another's judgement against you, since you were rendered acceptable even to the ordinances of your predecessors. Indeed you deserved to please all, since you always guard things worthy of love: silence in secret matters, efficacy in your actions, diligence in the labour of observance.
And — that good of self-restraint which the frequent vices of men have made rare — though you furnished services to many, you sold your labour to none. You stained the title of 'princeps' (chief of office) with no defilement, preserving the dignity of the name by the exercise of virtue. Hence it is that the honour of the 'spectabilis' rank, which just antiquity assigned to those who had wiped off the sweat of service, we confer upon you by our present authority, so that you may now understand, free from care, that the watches of your toil are at last ended by the recompense of a countship of the first order. And because a bare dignity does not vouch for the favour of the prince, nor can that be called a benefit which is felt with no advantage, the privileges too which the imperial constitutions of former princes willed to be granted to your 'schola' (corps) we bestow with like munificence.
Nor ought you to fear anything in these matters, which perhaps are attempted by some novel usurpation. The ancient law has fortified you against all loss and against base burdens. But although we pay you worthy things in present recompense, yet we promise you the greatest hope for your future wishes. And since those benefits are narrow which do not also promise something concerning the future, the providence of the prince shall be at hand, so that those whom we believe worthy of our favour we may also heap with greater honour.
But since it is not fitting that a royal favour be hidden, see that the gift you have obtained comes to the notice of the provincial judge, so that the hearts of all may know your 'spectabilis' rank adorned by our testimony, and that for you, as one who has fulfilled the duty of service, a fitting honour may be preserved to the praise of our times. Although we wish that none should bear any grievance whom our devotion seems to protect — since the leisured tranquillity of subjects is the glory of him who reigns — yet we especially desire that the churches be kept free from all injury, for, while equitable treatment is afforded them, the mercy of the Godhead is acquired.
And therefore, moved by the petition of the most blessed man Eustorgius, bishop of the holy Church of Milan, we admonish you by the present address, that you take care to afford protection — while preserving civil order — to the estates and men of this church situated within Sicily, and that you suffer them to be oppressed contrary to right by no man of any nation whatsoever, since it is fitting that they be relieved out of regard for the Godhead: yet on this condition, that they do not defer to answer in public and private causes which are reasonably brought against them, because, just as we do not wish them to be unduly burdened by anyone, so we do not allow them to be found exempt from the path of justice.
A personal exemption does not prejudice public law, since although a prince may be beneficent, yet the royal munificence cannot be confined within the rules of an established statute. Let light anger be restrained by the gravest institutions; let impatient ambition be reined in by law; clemency has no law, nor ought it under narrow bounds to follow as something benign that which it befits to be praised without end. The defenders of the most sacred Church of Milan therefore desire that, for the expenditures on behalf of the poor, which are poured out with an accumulation of cost, one merchant of their own city ought to be assigned to them, who, having discharged the office of purchasing-agent and being exempt from the burdens of trade, may be bound to fulfil what he undertakes.
For they remind us that we granted this also to the Church of Ravenna, moved by a reasonable allegation, and they entreat that this example of devotion be transferred to their own advantage as well. And therefore your illustrious and most exalted magnificence — while preserving in the case of the other merchants the public advantage which is wont to be paid in by the whole body — shall assign to them one merchant, whom they shall appear to have chosen for themselves, who may so exercise the commerce of trade that he pays nothing of the monopoly-tax, nor of the siliquaticum, nor of the gold-tax, and bears no burden whatever from the trading permitted to him. For why should we delay to grant that from which we can suffer no loss? Those who have given their name to service ought to sweat for the public welfare.
For what is a man to do, if he be wanting in the service he has professed, so that he neither finds private advantages nor gains the glory of diligence? And therefore our authority has commanded the Count of the Sacred Largesses that you ought to be stationed at the place of Hostilia, so that, restored by the kindness of the treasury, you may make your courier-runs with the post-horses along the channel of the Po in the accustomed manner, so that, the labour being divided, the public horses may be relieved, since your course is not worn down which is carried out along watery ways. For it does not befall you to limp from excessive toil, you who walk with your hands. Your vehicle feels no injury and suffers no failure, which is borne rather by the running wave.
Pleasing to us, conscript fathers, is the devotion bestowed upon public affairs, since, while we approve the praiseworthy spirits of the citizens, we find an occasion for just benefits. For what is so worthy of a senator as that he should expend his affection on public matters, that he may be able to profit the fatherland to which he was born? The magnificent man and patrician Decius, therefore, bound by a glorious love toward the commonwealth, has of his own accord requested, with a marvellous vow, that which could scarcely have been imposed under the counsel of our power.
He has promised to swallow up the Decennovian marsh, which ravages the neighbouring lands like an enemy, by laying open the mouth of trenches — that notorious wasteland of the age, which, through the long-standing licence, a certain marshy sea has settled upon, and, overflowing with a hostile flood upon cultivated places, has confounded the comeliness of the land alike with a sylvan dread. Nourishing nothing useful, the soil has been despoiled of its fruits beneath the water, after it began to be subject to the marshes. And therefore we marvel at a man of ancient confidence, that what public valour long shunned, a private hand has undertaken. He has promised, then, that he will set about this bold labour with a praiseworthy completion, so that, the ruinous gulf perishing, the things which had been lost should not perish any further.
Hence he requests the commands of our serenity on this matter, that by public authority he may undertake this outstanding work, which will profit all travellers. But we, conscript fathers, who have it at heart to aid a good desire with appointed helps, by the present decrees give our assent, that you direct two men from your body to the very places of the Decennovian, by whose judgement, as great a space as the marshy inundation has occupied with its stagnant incursions, may be noted down with fixed boundaries set, so that, when the promised work shall have come to completion, the land restored to its liberator may yield profit, and that no one may presume to lay hold of anything thence which for so long it could not vindicate from the invading waters.
It is a principle of justice that prosperity of commands should follow a praiseworthy desire, and that what is undertaken with good will should also be fulfilled by royal exhortations. To you, therefore, requesting just desires, we grant by present authority that, the pools and marshes of the Decennovian being dried up, you may possess free of fiscal claim the lands recalled to dry ground, and that you need fear no rendering of cultivation-dues for the freed property, which we release under the testimony of the general public. Hence too we have sent instructions to the most ample Senate, that, the bounds being now defined, that which has been vindicated from the foul gulfs may pass handsomely into your ownership.
For it is fair that each man's labour should profit himself, and that, just as in spending he comes to know its inconveniences, so when the matter is completed he should obtain its increases. This too, we who ever keep vigilant in zeal for the commonwealth have regarded: that if anyone chooses to undertake this labour in joined partnership with you, an estimate of the work being made, he may have spaces of his own right in proportion to the part he undertakes, so that neither may you alone be overburdened with immense loads, and that what is undertaken with the help of a partnership may be carried out more spiritedly. Thus it shall come about that troublesome envy, which is the enemy of the greatest matters, may be wanting. Therefore press on diligently with your glorious desires, lest it be a heavy thing for your reputation to have grown faint in the efforts you have assumed.
Behold indeed the mouths and eyes of all turned toward you: look to the suspended judgements of our serenity, awaiting the accomplishment of the work undertaken. Hasten with as great a spirit as you are able, that you may be judged worthy to have emerged from so great a matter, you who even now are praised by the admiration of all. XXXIIII. We rejoice that our judgements have flourished in you: we are glad that a worthy guardian has stood forth for the Roman citadels, who, with a generous spirit, did not suffer a friend to veil a secret with frauds, lest either offences should make you accomplices, or security should rather incite you to greater things.