The Letters of Cassiodorus
The second assigns to Duda the task of enquiring into the alleged
assault and punishing it with the sword[346].
[Footnote 346: The story of this assault is a typical specimen of the
style of Cassiodorus, high-flown yet not really pictorial: 'Ita ut
ictum gladii in se demersum, aliquatenus postium retardaret objectio:
subjecta est vulneri manus, quae ut in totum truncata non caderet,
januarum percussa robora praestiterunt: ubi lassato impetu corusca
ferri acies corporis extrema perstrinxit.']
29. KING THEODORIC TO ARGOLICUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.
[Sidenote: Official tardiness rebuked.]
A sharp rebuke to him for having (if the _suggestio_ of the
Clarissimus Armentarius be correct) so long delayed, it is to be
feared with a corrupt motive, complying with the instructions of the
King to do justice in some case (not described) in which the honour of
the Senate is concerned. As head of the Senate he ought to have been
eager to examine into it, without any prompting from his master.
30. KING THEODORIC TO ALBINUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Workshops may be erected above the Porticus Curba, by the
Roman Forum.]
'Those whom the Republic has honoured should in their turn bring
honour to the City. We are therefore gratified by receiving your
supplication for leave to erect workshops[347] above the Porticus
Curba, which being situated near the Domus Palmata, shuts in the Forum
in comely fashion "in modum areae." We like the plan. The range of
private dwellings will thereby be extended. A look of cheerful newness
will be given to the old walls; and the presence of residents in the
building will tend to preserve it from further decay. You have our
permission and encouragement to proceed, if the proposed erections do
not in any way interfere with public convenience or the beauty of the
City.'
[Footnote 347: Fabricae.]
[The MSS. of Cassiodorus waver between Curbae and Curiae in the above
letter. Jordan ('Topographie der Stadt Rom.' i. 2. 258) inclines to
the opinion that Porticus Curba denotes the Portico of the Secretarium
of the Senate, on the site of the present Church of Sta. Martina. As
the Curia immediately adjoined this building, there is practically but
little difference between the two readings. In either case the
fabricae were to be erected so as to overlook the north-west end of
the Forum. It is admitted that the Domus Palmata was near the Arch of
Septimius Severus.]
31. KING THEODORIC TO AEMILIANUS, VIR VENERABILIS, BISHOP.
[Sidenote: An aqueduct to be promptly finished.]
'Wise men should finish what they have begun, and not incur the
reproach which attends half-done work.
'Let your Holiness therefore promptly complete what by our authority
you so well began in the matter of the aqueduct, and thus most fitly
provide water for your thirsting flock, imitating by labour the
miracle of Moses, who made water gush forth from the flinty rock.'
32. KING THEODORIC TO DUDA THE SAJO.
[Sidenote: The rights of the Crown to the property of the proscribed
man, Tupha, to be asserted with moderation.]
'We are anxious strictly to obey the laws, and to take no advantage
over our subjects in courts of justice. If a man knows that he can get
his own by legal process, even from the Sovereign, he is the less
likely to seek it by the armed hand. The memorandum of Marinus informs
us that the property of Tupha was long ago mortgaged to a certain
Joannes[348]. But since it is quite clear that the property of a
proscribed man belongs to our fiscus, we desire you to summon the
widow of this Joannes and his secretary Januarius, "moderata
executione."
[Footnote 348: 'Marini relatione comperimus res Tuphae apud Joannem
quondam sub emissione chirographi fuisse depositas.']
'If they acknowledge that they have no right to the property let them
at once restore it; but if not, let them come before the _Consularis_
of Campania and establish their right according to course of law.
'But let all be done without loss or prejudice to the rights of
innocent persons. If any such charge be established against you, _you_
will become the offender in our eyes.'
[The description of Tupha as 'proscriptus' makes it probable that we
are dealing with that officer of Odovacar whose double treachery
(489-490) so nearly caused the failure of Theodoric's invasion of
Italy, and who finally fell in battle against his fellow-rebel,
Frederic the Rugian. The only difficulty is the lapse of time since
those events, as this letter was probably written not earlier than
about 511; but that is in some degree met by the word _quondam_ in the
sentence quoted (_n._ 1, p. 250).]
33. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE JEWS OF GENOA.
[Sidenote: Privileges of the Jews confirmed.]
'The true mark of _civilitas_ is the observance of law. It is this
which makes life in communities possible, and which separates man from
the brutes. We therefore gladly accede to your request that all the
privileges which the foresight of antiquity conferred upon the Jewish
customs shall be renewed to you[349], for in truth it is our great
desire that the laws of the ancients shall be kept in force to secure
the reverence due to us[350]. Everything which has been found to
conduce to _civilitas_ should be held fast with enduring devotion.'
[Footnote 349: 'Privilegia debere servari quae Judaicis institutis
legum provida decrevit antiquitas.']
[Footnote 350: 'Quod nos libenter annuimus qui jura veterum ad nostram
cupimus reverentiam custodiri.']
34. KING THEODORIC TO DUDA THE SAJO.
[Sidenote: Buried treasure to be reclaimed for the State.]
'It is the part of true prudence to recall to the uses of commerce
"the talent hidden in the earth." We therefore direct you, by this
"moderata jussio," where you hear of buried treasures to proceed to
the spot with suitable witnesses and reclaim for the public Treasury
either gold or silver, abstaining, however, from actually laying hands
on the ashes of the dead[351]. The dead can do nothing with treasure,
and it is not greedy to take away what the holder of it can never
mourn the loss of.
[Footnote 351: How this was to be done is not quite clear, since it is
plain that this letter is really and chiefly an order for rifling
_sepulchres_ in search of buried treasure.]
'Eacus is said to have discovered the use of gold, and Indus, King of
the Scythians, that of silver. They are extremely useful metals.'
35. KING THEODORIC TO THE REPRESENTATIVES (ACTORES) OF ALBINUS.
[Sidenote: An extravagant minor. Restitutio in integrum.]
'It has been wisely decided by Antiquity that minors cannot make a
binding contract, for they are naturally the prey of every sharper.
You allege that your _patronus_ [Albinus] is under age, that he is
heaping up expenses instead of property, and that his raw boyhood does
not know what is really for his benefit. If this be correct, and be
legally proved, he is entitled to a _restitutio in integrum_' [a suit
commenced through these Actores for the quashing of the contracts
which have been fraudulently made with the minor].
[For the _restitutio in integrum_, see Cod. Theod. ii. 16. 1, and vi.
4. 16. Nothing seems to be expressly said in this letter about the
appointment of a _Curator_.]
36. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT. A.D. 509-510.
[Sidenote: Remission of taxes for Provincials of Cottian Alps.]
'A wise ruler will always lessen the weight of taxation when his
subjects are weighed down by temporary poverty. Therefore let your
Magnificence remit to the Provincials of the Cottian Alps the _as
publicum_ for this year [the third Indiction], in consideration of
their losses by the passage of our army. [The army of Ibbas, on its
march in 408 to fight Clovis, after the fall of the Visigothic
Monarchy.] True, that army went forth with shouts of concord to
_liberate_ Gaul. But so a river bursting forth may irrigate and
fertilise a whole country, and yet destroy the increase of that
particular channel in which its waters run.
'We have earned new subjects by that campaign: we do not wish them to
suffer loss by it. Our own heart whispers to us the request which the
subjects dare not utter to their Prince.'
37. KING THEODORIC TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS WOMAN THEODAGUNDA.
[Sidenote: Theodagunda is admonished to do justice to Renatus.]
Warns Theodagunda [apparently a member of the royal family and
governing some Province; but what place could she hold in the Roman
official hierarchy?], that she must emulate the virtue of her
ancestors and show prompt obedience to the royal commands. 'The
lamentable petition of Renatus states that, after judgment given in
his favour by the King's Court, he is still harassed by the litigation
(not in the way of regular appeal) of Inquilina, who appears to be not
so much desirous of victory as anxious to ruin his adversary.'
[Notwithstanding the form of the name I think Inquilina is male, not
female.]
'You must see that this is put right at once.'
38. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Taxes must be reduced to the figure at which they stood in
the days of Odoacer.]
'The inhabitants of Gravasi (?) and Ponto (?) complain that they have
been overloaded with taxes by the Assessors (discussores) Probus and
Januarius. They have bad land, and say that they really cannot cope
with the taxes imposed upon them [at the last Indiction?]. The former
practice is to be reverted to, and they are not to be called upon to
pay more than they did in the days of Odoacer.' [An evidence that in
one case at least the fiscal yoke of Odoacer was lighter than that of
his successor.]
39. KING THEODORIC TO THEODAHAD, VIR ILLUSTRIS [AND NEPHEW OF THE
KING].
[Sidenote: The encroachments of Theodahad repressed.]
'Avarice, which Holy Writ declares to be "the root of all evil," is a
vulgar vice which you, our kinsman, a man of Amal blood, whose family
is known to be royal, are especially bound to avoid[352].
[Footnote 352: 'Amali sanguinis virum nos decet vulgare desiderium:
quia genus suum conspicit esse purpuratum.']
'The Spectabilis Domitius complains to us that such and such portions
of his property have been seized by you with the strong hand, without
any pretence of establishing a legal claim to them.
'We send the Sajo Duda to you, and order you on his arrival[353],
without any delay, to restore the property which you have taken
possession of, with all the moveables of which you have despoiled it.
[Footnote 353: 'Si momenti tempora suffragantur.' What is the meaning
of this limitation?]
'If you have any claim to make to the lands in question, send a person
fully informed of the facts to our Comitatus, and there let the case
be fairly heard.
'A high-born man should ever act according to well-ordered
_civilitas_. Any neglect of this principle brings upon him odium,
proportioned to the oppression which the man of humbler rank conceives
himself to have suffered at his hands.'
40. KING THEODORIC TO THE REPRESENTATIVES (ACTORES) OF PROBINUS.
[Sidenote: The affair of Agapeta. Basilius, her husband, ordered to
plead.]
Recurs to the case of the Possessio Areciretina, which Agapeta, the
wife of Basilius, had given (or sold) to Probinus, and which Probinus
was commanded to restore. (See Letters ii. 10 and 11.)
The petition, now presented by the representatives of Probinus, puts a
somewhat different face upon the matter, and seems to show that the
sale by Agapeta (notwithstanding her melancholy condition of fatuity
and vice) was a _bona fide_ one, for sufficient consideration.
Her husband Basilius is now ordered to reply to the pleadings of the
opposite party, either at the King's Comitatus, or in some local court