Desiring to join you to our kindred, we associate to you, by a propitious divinity, a granddaughter as a dear pledge, so that you who descend from royal stock may now shine even more widely with the brightness of Amal blood. We send to you the ornament of a courtly house, an increase to your race, the solace of faithful counsel, the most delightful sweetness of wedlock—one who may both rightly fill the lordship together with you and order your nation by a better discipline. Happy Thuringia shall have what Italy has nurtured: a woman learned in letters, schooled in morals, comely not only in birth but as much in feminine dignity, so that your fatherland may shine no less by her manners than by its own triumphs.
Wherefore, greeting you with fitting grace, we make known that, upon the coming of your envoys, we have received the appointed prices for a thing indeed beyond price—yet after the manner of the nations—namely horses clad in a silvery colour, such as befitted nuptial horses. Their breasts and legs are gracefully adorned with fleshy rounds; their ribs spread out to a certain breadth; their belly is drawn together in shortness; their head renders the likeness of a stag, imitating the swiftness whose resemblance they seem to bear. These are gentle beneath their great plumpness, exceedingly swift for so great a bulk, pleasant to behold, and more welcome in use: for they advance softly, nor do they weary their riders with mad haste:
in them one reposes rather than labours, and, composed by a delightful moderation, they know how to endure with continual agility. But this most noble herd, and the docile beasts and the other choice things which you have sent, you know to be surpassed, since he overcomes all by right who adorns the glory of royal power. We too, indeed, have appointed what the princely order demanded: but we have rendered nothing greater than that we have united you with the comeliness of so great a woman. May the divine powers attend your wedlock, so that, as the cause of affection has joined us, so too may parental grace bind our posterity. That a son can be made through arms is established to be a great proclamation among the nations, since none is worthy to be adopted save he who deserves to be acknowledged most valiant.
In offspring we are frequently deceived; but those whom judgements have begotten know not how to be cowardly. For these have favour not from nature but from merits alone, since strangers are bound by a bond of the soul, and so great is the force in this act that they would sooner wish to die than that anything harsh should seem to be inflicted upon their fathers. And therefore, after the manner of the nations and by the condition of manhood, we beget you a son by the present gift, that you may fittingly be born through arms, you who are recognized to be warlike. We give you indeed horses, swords, shields, and the remaining instruments of war: but what are in every way stronger, we bestow upon you our judgements. For you shall be believed greatest among the nations, you who are approved by the verdict of Theoderic. Take up, therefore, arms that will profit both me and you.
He asks devotion from you who rather disposes himself to defend you: prove your spirit, and you will have no need of submission. Such a one adopts you, of whose nation you should rather be feared. For the supports of the Goths, by God's help, are known to the Heruli. We have given you arms: but the nations long ago furnished one another with pledges of valour. Greeting you accordingly with fitting grace, we entrust the rest, in our native tongue, through such-and-such, our envoys, who may both plainly expound to you our letters and add what is to be said for the confirming of grace. To the adornment of the palace we believe it pertains to choose persons fit for dignities, since from the renown of those who serve grows the fame of their lords.
For it befits a prince to advance such men, that as often as he has deigned to look upon his nobleman, so often may he recognize that he has had right judgements. For he ought to be conspicuous in morals who is given to be imitated. It is easy for anyone to live for himself: but it befits the chosen man to live for the many. Take up, therefore, in the third indiction, the dignity of the illustrious comitiva of our patrimony, which royal authority bestows on you not undeservedly. For long since you, having received in our administrations a twofold obligation, were both a sharer of counsel and used to complete what was arranged with praiseworthy assumption. You have often undertaken the office of an arduous embassy:
you withstood kings as no unequal advocate, compelled to show our justice even to those who could scarcely perceive reason by reason of their raw obstinacy. The royal authority, inflamed with contentions, did not frighten you; rather you subdued audacity to truth, and, obedient to our ordinances, you struck the barbarians in their own conscience. Why should we recount your zeal, diligent in long night-labour, and the blameless obedience of your continual toil? You used, under the office of recording, the genius of an eloquent man: he himself, your delighted auditor, applauded, while you made better what you began to recite. Your delivery delighted our judgement, since you refreshed the mind of those dictating as much as the care of those pondering could weary itself.
There was also in you another part of a praiseworthy life: that you kept our secrets shut by the probity of your morals, privy to many things, yet not, though you knew more, puffed up. By grace you pleased your colleagues, by humility your superiors. Thus the one mind of all was made on your behalf, associated out of great diversity. You shall surely pluck the most pleasing fruit of a proven training, since your advancement was able so to make all glad that all should judge their own desires to have prospered in you. Guard, therefore, this lovable and most illustrious constancy of virtues, and, upheld by the authority of our house, seek favour so much the more zealously as you perceive that you have found a place open to benefits.
Stretch on, therefore, by good deeds, your successes toward yet greater things, knowing that our favour is always increased in him who desires to be found worthy of the height he has attained. Glorious indeed it is for us, conscript fathers, to bestow honours far and wide, but more praiseworthy to grant fitting rewards to the well-deserving. For whatever we grant to such men, we bestow rather for the general good. For one who is tenacious of the right profits all by his advancement, nor is room left for injury, when the rule of discipline reaches good men.
With this illustrious desire, therefore, we have raised the illustrious man Senarius to the dignity of the comitiva of the patrimony—one who, by the brightness of his soul, shrinks from the obscurities of venality, who does not rejoice in calumny, nor, upheld by the authority of the patrimony, make for himself gain out of fear of us, but who can hold an equitable justice with the rest, whence he sees to it that those who serve us are pleasing. That these things shall come to pass concerning him, the trustworthiness of past times makes us promise.
For in the very flower of his youth he entered our palace, mature in merits, and—what wearies even robust ages—deceived by no error of novelty, turned to the will of the one commanding, he rendered the effect of good commands; now worthy of conferences, now most apt for the recording of replies, frequently also chosen for the honour of an embassy, whose manifold merit rendered his office among us undefined. For he ought not to be called a man of one place from whom many things are seen to be fulfilled. But these things humility commended the more, which is as renowned as it is rare. For it is a new thing to keep modesty under a prince's love, since joys always disquiet minds: for moderation is rarely imposed upon glad circumstances, which is found rather in sorrowful ones.
But amid these astonishing merits, he also shines forth with a like brightness of origin, so that you would hesitate in which part he is richer, since he possesses each more abundantly. They have therefore, distributed singly, their proclamation; joined, a marvel. Wherefore, conscript fathers, let hoary Liberty rise up for these youths entering. Nothing is withdrawn from your dignity, when the novelty of those coming is honourably invited. Public parents, named from clemency, let a twofold reasoning of kindness invite you: let the beginner earn grace, the advanced man favour. It befits none to receive our commands grudgingly, which are known rather to extol the advantages of the devoted.
In the Gallican region, then, we have learned of a dearth of victuals, toward which trade always hastens, prompt, so that things bought at a narrower price may be sold off more largely. Thus it comes about that both the sellers are satisfied and our provision relieves those others. And therefore let your devotion recognize, by the present authority, that all the shippers of Campania, Lucania, or Tuscany ought to commit themselves to suitable sureties, so that, setting out for Gaul only with provisions of food-stuffs, they shall have licence to sell off as may be agreed between buyer and seller. It is a great advantage to bargain with the needy: since hunger is wont to despise everything, that it may be able to fill its own necessity.
For when he is in service to his own ambition, he who sells when entreated seems almost to give. To go with wares to the well-fed is a struggle: but he sets a price at his own discretion who can bring victuals to the fasting. We gladly embrace the reasonable petitions of suppliants, who even unasked devise just things. For what is more worthy that we should turn over by assiduous deliberation day and night, than that our commonwealth, just as arms protect it, inviolate equity should guard? Accordingly the respectable Valerianus, residing in the city of Syracuse, has supplicated to return to his own household-gods—he who for the sake of studies brought his children to the city of Rome.
Whom let your illustrious Magnificence, restraining by our command, cause to abide in the aforesaid city: nor let it be permitted them to depart before, unless our address should pronounce it. For thus both the advancement of studies is acquired for them, and the reverence of our command is guarded. Let him not, then, think imposed upon him what ought to have been a thing to be wished. Let Rome be ungrateful to none—Rome that cannot be called foreign—that fruitful mother of eloquence, that most spacious temple of all the virtues. Let it plainly be perceived, what is manifest: he is not believed to be without grace, to whom so great a dwelling-place is granted. The purpose of our piety is to relieve the fortunes of those imperilled unjustly, since what is established to be imposed by another's force, we cannot draw into a fault.
For it is unjust that what is not governed by his own will should be reckoned to a man's vice; and that it should be imputed to one in peril, from which one is rarely granted to escape. And therefore let your Sublimity recognize that the escorts of the grain, who had been dispatched from Sicily to Gaul, have appealed to us with a tearful approach—how, having advanced their undertaken cargo into the deep, it was overtaken by adverse winds: where, the framework of the timbers giving way, the force of the waves swallowed up everything, and nothing remained to the wretched men out of the excess of the waters except their tears alone. Whence let your illustrious Sublimity, admonished by the present authority, cause the measure of wheat which they shall have proven to have perished under this lot to be reckoned to the aforesaid escorts without any delay.
For it is a kind of cruelty to wish to rage beyond shipwreck and to drive to losses those to whom the vast elements are proven to have yielded a destitute life. It ought not to seem grievous, what is assessed by our ordinance, since we know how to estimate what it behooves you to fulfil. By us, indeed, you can reasonably be guarded, you who have profited unburdened. Accordingly we decree to your devotion by the present authority that, a suitable price being received, you shall convey timbers from your places to Alfuanum without any delay, so that both our ordinance may obtain its effect and, the wages being received, you too may not seem to sustain loss.
It is a profession of innocence to have chosen our presence, where no room is given to violence and the vices of avarice are not to be feared. Maurentius and Paula, stripped of their father's protection, testify that they are exposed to the injuries of many; for their youth seems open to every harm, since they may easily be crept upon, being young people left without support. And therefore they deserve our protection, since the cunning of wicked men does not refrain from them. Accordingly, let Your Sublimity, taking note of the tenor of the present command concerning the aforesaid young persons, know that, if any quarrelsome party should choose to harass them, they are to be directed to our court, where innocence may find a refuge and slanderers may find a strict tribunal of law.
It is shameful, amid public laws, to grant licence to private hatreds; nor should the rash heat of men's passions be allowed to take vengeance at its own discretion. For what delights an angry man is exceedingly unjust. Those who rage do not perceive what is just, because while in their agitation they vent their fury for revenge, they do not seek moderation in their affairs. Hence the sacred reverence for the laws was devised, so that nothing should be done by one's own hand, nothing by private impulse. For what difference will there be between the confusion of war and tranquil peace, if disputes are ended by force? We have therefore learned, from the representation of the provincials of Campania and Samnium, that some, neglecting the discipline of the times, have turned to the practice of distraining pledges, and, as though by an edict published among the common folk, the licence of vices has grown.
To these they joined far more bitter practices: that some are dragged to pay the debts of others, and that the only cause deemed plausible is if the person can in any way be linked by neighbourhood to the debtor. O the wicked error of such a persuasion! Causes are divided even among brothers: a son, if he is not the heir, is freed from his father's obligations; a wife is not held to her husband's debts except through the bonds of succession; and yet audacity drags strangers to payment, when the laws release even close kindred. Up to now, perhaps the ignorance of our authorities has allowed this to be done; now it is necessary that the matter find a remedy from the laws, since it has been able to come to our notice.
Accordingly, the contents of this edict having been made known, let Your Excellency cause it to come to the notice of all, so that whoever, by zeal for distraint, has perhaps seized what he ought rather to have sought by due process, shall by the voice of the law lose his claim; nor shall it be lawful for anyone of his own accord to carry off a pledge, unless perhaps one duly pledged to him. But if anyone should choose to distrain one person for another, which is unspeakable, let him restore double to the one against whom he used force, since crimes restrain losses the more, and only those think of losses who have suffered the ruin of their honour. But whoever is excused from this restitution by the base plea of poverty, let him be punished, according to the quality of the offence committed, with the penalty of the cudgel. For we do not suffer to go unpunished what we are unwilling to have permitted.
There is sure hope of a remedy in having referred the prayers of suppliants to the judgement of a prudent man, so that by the benefit of an ordinance the uncertainty of confusion may be abolished. Accordingly, let Your Greatness, to whose ordering the province seems to be subject, examine the case between the landholders of Volia and the curials with diligent scrutiny, so that, the justice you have laid open being applied, the quarrel between them may be put to rest. For it is not fitting that, after your hearing, a matter should be dragged out which ought to have been heard by you after other judges. It is our purpose that the provinces subject to us, by God's help, we should, just as we defend them with arms, so also order with laws; for observed justice ever increases rulers, and as much as one lives by a worthy institution, so much is added even to the highest advancements.
Arcotamia, therefore, an illustrious lady, mournfully lamenting the calamity of her grandson, deplored it with such a complaint—since a grandmother's care for her own is ever more tender—asserting that Aetheria, her daughter-in-law, having set aside love for her husband, had joined herself to a certain Liberius by the bond of marriage, and that, since she desires to appear more adorned in a new wedlock, she has striven to overthrow the resources of her former husband, alleging that she is enriched with the spoils of her children, by whom they ought rather to have been gathered together.
And therefore we, who are accustomed to refer the desires of petitioners to the provisions of the imperial sanctions, so that we neither reject the appeal of suppliants nor condemn the adversary's case by credulous facility, commit this cause to the judgement of Your Sublimity to be heard according to the laws; so that, every incivility being removed, in the presence of the most holy Gospels, together with three men of honour whom the consent of the parties shall choose—men able to have knowledge of the laws—you may set forth whatever the form of ancient law established between them, the discipline of our times being taken into account; for it is not fitting that those should do anything by force who have merited to come under our governance.
Rewards ought not to be lacking to those who labour, so that both an entrance to good hope may be opened and the just complaint of those who toil may be closed by fair compensation. And therefore know that our providence, which surveys all parts of the commonwealth under heavenly favour, has ordained that to Colosseus, an illustrious man dispatched to Sirmian Pannonia for his labours and merits, provisions be furnished according to ancient custom, so that, while what is needful is prepared for the said man, no room may be left for unjust presumptions. For a hungry army cannot keep discipline, since the soldier always lays hold of what is wanting. Let him have something to buy with, lest he be forced to think of what he may seize.
Restrained need does not love excess, nor can that be commanded of the many which the very few cannot keep. It is a great kind of sin to burden one man with the debts of others, so that he who can be exacted upon does not deserve to be heard. Let each man look to his own losses, and let him pay the tribute who is known to have the profit of the possession. And therefore by present authority we delegate to you that the Goths residing throughout Picenum and both Tuscanies be compelled, under your pressing, to discharge the dues they owe. For at the very beginnings the excess must be checked, lest base imitation, like a foul scabies, gradually lay hold of the rest.
If anyone therefore, puffed up with a boorish spirit, casts off our commands, you shall claim his dwellings, by affixed notices, for the resources of our treasury; so that he who justly refused to pay small things may reasonably be seen to have lost the greatest. For who ought to be more promptly devoted to the treasury than those who receive the advantages of the donative, since they receive more from our humanity than is rendered by the right of pay? For if the matter of our liberality be considered, it is rather we who pay voluntary tributes, since we relieve the fortunes of all. From the representation of the illustrious and magnificent Count of the Patrimony we have learned that twenty-one of the appointed number of fast-galley oarsmen have been removed by the misfortune of death.
Wherefore know that our providence, whose property it is to recover by counsel what is taken away by chance, has determined this: that you hasten without any hesitation to approve the aforesaid oarsmen—such, however, as can be found fit for this work. For the toilsome labour of rowers seeks men strong in spirit and in strength, so that with confidence of mind they may be able to meet the billowy storms. For what is more daring than to enter that faithless and most vast sea in a small vessel, which only the presumption of desperation makes one struggle through? Wherefore it befits you to apply this caution to our commands, that you make no complaint about feeble men being gathered, since you know that we have sought the most robust.
For the sake of the public benefit, which our mind ever regards, we judged some time ago that the illustrious man Count Arigern, almost your own fellow citizen, should be dispatched to the Gauls, so that by the maturity of his counsel the hearts of the wavering might be strengthened. For prudent governors ought to take charge of an anxious novelty, so that, in whatever manner the order of life has been shaped, so the established devotion may run its course. These matters having been arranged according to our wishes, he has both brought back the glory of civility, diligently displaying what he learned among you, and has carried home the insignia of wars. Him, longed for as we suppose, we have restored to your assembly, so that he who has pleased you over a long age may now become more welcome, since added good qualities commend him.
Wherefore let the Roman order restore itself to the discipline of the aforesaid man, and let what is enjoined for love of quiet be fulfilled with devoted minds; so that both licence may be taken away from excesses and—what we most desire—vengeance may find no place. If any fault also has arisen during his absence, correct it among yourselves with consideration of justice, as it befits your nobility to act, to whom uprightness is ever pleasing; since you should know that we have especially enjoined this, that an error which has not at all been amended by its own authors should be cut away by the strictness of the laws.
Let obedience therefore be rendered, conscript fathers, to a man already proven over many seasons, whose praiseworthy ways must needs be followed, who has hitherto conducted himself under the praise of you all, and in so great a throng has met with no one's adverse judgements. A matter settled by an ancient king, which nevertheless is agreed to have been reasonably decreed, we wish to waver under no ambiguity, since what is commended by a sound enactment ought to stand firm. For why should we shake former arrangements where there is nothing that we ought to correct?
And therefore by present authority we command you that the possessions of the church of Narbonne, according to the precepts of Alaric of exalted memory, being held seized by whatsoever invaders, you cause to be restored by consideration of equity; since we do not wish unlawful presumptions to be engaged in to the church's loss, while it befits our times to settle what is disordered. Be altogether watchful against such things, so that you who are renowned in war may also be rendered excellent in civility. Thus too you strengthen your arms, with God's help, if you strive to preserve justice for the lowly. For you cannot excuse yourself by pleading that you were unable to resist the wicked, since all willingly yield to you, whom they have known to be glorious in the contest of wars.
A coward perhaps can command nothing to the bold: no one rules over the presumptuous more than he whom his own deeds commend. It is the custom of our clemency to commit matters to be handled to those of proven fidelity, so that when we delegate judges endowed with mature deliberation, fraudulent deception may find no place. For some time ago it came to us, by the representation of many, that Laurentius the presbyter, having dug up ashes, searched out deadly riches among the corpses of men and inflicted extortion upon the dead—he who ought to preach quiet things to the living. He is reported not to have kept hands consecrated to pious dedications free from so cruel a defilement:
he is said to have sought gold with an accursed passion—he who ought rather to have given his substance to the needy, or what he had gathered under equity. We command you to investigate this with diligent examination, so that, if you perceive the allegations to accord with the truth, you may confine the man's ambition only to this end, that he may not be able to suppress what it was not lawful for him to find. For the crime which we leave unpunished out of respect for the priestly honour, we believe must be avenged with a greater weight. It befits princely providence to refresh the weary, so that the gentleness of its commands may mitigate the harshness of misfortunes. For no hardship is felt if a granted prosperity shows raised up again what is acknowledged to have been crushed by adversity.
For we command that the payment of the siliquaticum, which provident antiquity appointed for all things put up for sale, be not given at the present time on grain, wine, and oil, so that this remission of payment may furnish abundance to the provinces, and that the weary may breathe again somewhat by the healthfulness of the present decree. For who would not be incited to sell more generously, from whom the customary expenses are withdrawn? Let the ship coming to our ports not be afraid, so that there may be a sure refuge for sailors, if the hands of the exactors do not assail them—men whom losses often afflict more than shipwrecks are wont to strip. Let this perhaps be borne in time of quiet; but now, while we desire to provide for the provincials, let us meanwhile take thought also for the owners of merchandise.
If we desire to find a place for benefits, so that we may raise up the titles of our piety, how much more do we wish the benefits of others to be defended intact—we who desire of our own accord to bestow our own—especially when this too is laid up to the account of our conscience, that it is granted from the treasury under ancient solemnity! Accordingly, from the supplication of the venerable man, Bishop Constantius, we have learned that one yoke of land belonging to his most holy church, conferred by the piety of former princes, is now held back by the violent usurpation of certain persons.
But since we wish no one to profit from his frauds, especially when he is engaged with a detestable mind in the loss of the poor, by present authority we decree that those things which of old were assigned by the humanity of princes the aforesaid church should receive without any diminution, the penalty remaining also against the invader, who is proven to have violated both the gifts of the ancients and the church's advantages. Although we believe that your efficiency presses on with what is enjoined and studiously turns aside from what you have known to displease us, nevertheless our admonition does not desert one who is solicitous, so that you may be rendered more instructed, when you receive the matters defined in the brief written below. Accordingly, our ordinance ought to seem ungrateful to none, since the necessity of the time excuses the burdens of the command.
Be therefore solicitous about what is enjoined, since, although vigilance must always be applied, it is most useful in time of necessity. You will obey then, being admonished, so that you may be able to deal with the provincials in such a way as you see us willing to grant to them, so that, secure of our favour, you may obtain whatever, being solicitous, you have scorned to gain from base zeal. It is an intolerable excess that aims at injury to the supreme Majesty and, forgetful of piety, pursues the cruelties of error. For what place of pardon will he hope for, who has despised the reverend Author? Let the profane rite now depart from our midst: let the penal murmur of souls fall silent. It is not permitted to engage in magic arts in Christian times.
Accordingly, from the report of Your Greatness we have learned that Basilius and Praetextatus, long since polluted by the contagion of the sinister art, have been brought to accusation in your examination by the intention of certain persons. Concerning which matter you assert that you await our sentence, so that what the authority of our piety enjoins may be done with greater confidence. But we, who know not how to disagree with the laws, and to whose heart it is to hold moderate justice in all things, by present authority decree that you weigh this cause by a lawful examination together with five senators—that is, the magnificent and patrician men Symmachus, Decius, Volusianus, and Caelianus, as well as the illustrious man Maximianus.