The Letters of Cassiodorus
merely filter through your mind, like water through a pipe, but let it
sink down into your heart, and, safely stored up there, let it
influence the actions of your life.'
7. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: Duties of the Collectors of Taxes.]
'It is an excellent thing that the yearly taxes should be regularly
paid. What confidence does the consciousness of this give to the
taxpayer, who can march boldly through the Forum, feeling that he owes
nothing to anybody and need not fear the face of any official! One can
only enjoy an estate if one has no fear of the process-server making
his appearance upon it.
'Therefore, in the Diocese of your Excellency[742], we desire you and
your staff at the beginning of this twelfth Indiction[743], with all
proper gentleness, to impress upon the cultivator of the soil that he
must pay his land-tax[744] and end those long arrears, which were
introduced not for the assistance of the taxpayer, but for the corrupt
profit of the tax-collector. For the officials who in this way
professed to relieve the burdens of the people, really imposed upon
them a heavier and more hateful weight in the shape of douceurs[745]
to themselves.
[Footnote 742: 'Dicationis tuae.' A peculiar and untranslatable form
of respect.]
[Footnote 743: September 1, 533.]
[Footnote 744: 'Trina illatio' (See Var. ii. 24). So called because it
was collected three times in the year. See Dahn, Koenige der Germanen
iii. 140; and Sartorius, Regierung der Ostg. 200. The latter seems
however to confuse it with the 'tertiae,' from which Dahn very
properly distinguishes it.]
[Footnote 745: 'Nundinationes.']
'Let then this hateful swindling be henceforth banished. Let the
cultivator pay nothing more than his lawful debt to the Treasury, and
let him pay it at the appointed time, thus removing the confusion in
which the slowness of collection has involved our accounts.
'Make up, therefore, the abstracts of accounts[746] at the stated
times, and forward them to the proper bureaux[747], according to old
law and the authority of this present edict; and if you neglect any of
these injunctions, know that you do so at your peril. To quicken your
diligence we have appointed A and B, persons of tried merit in the
past, to supervise the proceedings of yourself and your staff, that
this double check may prevent the possibility of negligence.
[Footnote 746: 'Breves.']
[Footnote 747: 'Scrinia.']
'Act then with justice if you wish to receive further promotion. Only
those gains are to be sought for which the cultivator gladly offers
and which the public servant can securely accept. If you take bribes
you will be miserable ever after, through fear of discovery; but if
you act uprightly, you will have in me a willing spectator and
rewarder of your merits. I am most anxious to be your friend; do not
force me against my will to become your enemy.'
8. EDICT PUBLISHED THROUGH THE PROVINCES BY SENATOR, PRAETORIAN
PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Edict announcing Cassiodorus' principles of
administration.]
'The custom of the ancients was for a new ruler to promulgate a new
set of laws to his subjects, but now it is sufficient praise to a
conscientious ruler that he adheres to the legislation of Antiquity.
'Do you all study to perform good actions, and shrink from deeds of
lawlessness and sedition, and you will have nothing to fear from your
Governors. I know that some fear, however irrational, is felt in the
presence of the Judge; but as far as my purpose can avail, with the
help of God and the rulers of the State[748], I can promise you that
all things shall be done with justice and moderation.
[Footnote 748: 'Juvante Deo, rerumque Dominis regnantibus.']
'Venality, that greatest stain upon a Judge's character, will be
unknown in me; for I should think scorn to sell the words that go out
of my lips, like clothes in the market-place.
'In exercising the right of pre-emption we shall be solely guided by
the wants of the State, buying nothing at a forced price in order to
sell it again[749].
[Footnote 749: 'Sperari a vobis aliquid sola specierum indigentia
faciet, non malitiosa venalitas ... nec ad taxationem trahimus quae
necessaria non habentur.']
'Be cheerful and of good courage, therefore, with reference to the new
administration. No soldier or civil servant shall harass you for his
own pleasure. No tax-collector shall load you with burdens of his own
imposition. We are determined to keep not only our own hands clean,
but also those of our officials. Otherwise, vainly does a good Judge
guard himself from receiving money, if he leaves to the many under him
licence to receive it on their own account. But we, both by precept
and example, show that we aim at the public good, not at private and
fraudulent gains.
'We know what prayers you put up for us, how anxiously you watched for
our elevation, and we are determined that you shall not be
disappointed. Our Praetorium, which no base action has ever denied,
shall be open to all. No servile throng shall lord it over you. You
shall come straight to us, making your requests known to us through no
hired interpreter, and none shall leave our presence poorer than he
entered it. With God's help we trust we shall so act as to conform to
the instructions which we have received from our Sovereign[750]; and
we trust that you, by your loyalty, will enable us to be rather the
Father of our Provinces than their Judge. You have patiently obeyed
governors who fleeced you; how much more ought you to obey one who, as
you know, loves you mightily! Pay the regular fees to the officials
who are labouring in your midst; for there is no such excuse for
high-handed oppression as the fact that a man is not receiving his
covenanted salary. Obey the rule of reason, and you will not have to
fear the armed man's wrath.
[Footnote 750: 'Quemadmodum a rerum Dominis mandata suscepimus.']
'We wish that you should enjoy the privileges conceded to you by
former rulers without any encroachment by violent men.
'And now be of good heart; I pledge myself for your righteous
government. Had I been present with you face to face, ye could not
have seen my mind; but ye can read it in this letter, which is the
mirror of my heart, the true image of my will, and ye can see that it
desires only your prosperity.'
9. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: Exhortation to the Judges to govern in conformity with the
Edict.]
'Knowing that past suffering makes men anxious and timid as to the
future, we have put forth an edict [the preceding document] in order
to reassure the minds of the Provincials, and to deliver them from the
torment of ever-present fear.
'Therefore we call upon your Excellency[751] to cause this edict to be
exposed in all the places which are most resorted to. Thus let the
love and devotion of all classes be excited towards our happy
Sovereigns[752], that as our thoughts towards the people are entirely
thoughts of goodwill, so their dispositions towards the rulers who
govern them in righteousness may be only loyal[753].
[Footnote 751: 'Dicatio tua.']
[Footnote 752: 'Circa Dominos felices.']
[Footnote 753: 'Ita se et illi devotos debent _pie regnantibus_
exhibere.' Compare again Claudian's words:
'Nunquam libertas gratior exstat,
Quam sum _rege pio_.']
'It now rests with you, by your just government of the Provincials, to
carry our promises into effect.
'Remember that the official staff standing by, is a witness of the
acts of every one of you; and so comport yourselves, that both they
and all others may see that you in your own conduct obey the laws
which you administer.
'Be more anxious to remedy the poverty of the Provincials than to
inflict punishment upon them. So act that when you are giving an
account of your stewardship your year of office may be felt to have
been all too short[754]. If you have acted justly, and earned the
goodwill of your Provincials, you will have no need of gifts to stave
off accusations.
[Footnote 754: 'Sic agite ut cum justitia probata quaeritur, annus
vester brevis esse videatur.']
'We do not appoint any spies upon your actions, and we pray you so to
act that this most humiliating expedient may not be necessary.
'If you meet with any who pertinaciously set themselves up against the
authority of your _fasces_, send us at once a messenger with your
report; or, if you cannot spare such an one, send the report alone, as
you have authority to use the public postal-service[755]. Thus all
excuse for remissness on your part is taken away, since you can either
wield your power or explain to us the hindrances which beset you.'
[Footnote 755: 'Quando et evectiones publicas accepistis et nobis
gratum sit audire de talibus.']
10. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO BEATUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS AND
CANCELLARIUS.
[Sidenote: Davus is invalided to the Mons Lactarius.]
'Our lord the King[756] (whose prayer it is that he may ever rejoice
in the welfare of all his subjects), when he reflected upon the
impaired health of his servant Davus[757], ordered him to seek to the
healing properties of the Mons Lactarius[758], for the cure which
medical aid seemed powerless to bestow. A frequent cough resounded
from his panting chest, his limbs were becoming emaciated, and the
food which he took seemed to have lost all power to nourish his frame.
Persons in this state can neither feed nor endure to fast, and their
bodies seem like leaky casks, from which all strength must soon
dribble away.
[Footnote 756: 'Rerum Domini clementia.']
[Footnote 757: Or David, according to some MSS.]
[Footnote 758: This is no doubt the mountain on whose skirts was
fought the decisive battle between Narses and Teias in 553, now known
as Monte Lettere. It is a spur of the range reaching from Sorrento to
Salerno, which attains its highest elevation in Monte San Angelo
(4,690 feet high). It rises opposite to Mount Vesuvius on the
south-east, the ruins of Pompeii and the valley of the Sarno (formerly
the Draco) lying between the two.]
[Sidenote: The milk-cure, a remedy for consumption.]
'As an antidote to this cruel malady Heaven has given us the Mons
Lactarius, where the salubrious air working together with the fatness
of the soil has produced a herbage of extraordinary sweetness. The
cows which are fed on this herbage give a milk which seems to be the
only remedy for consumptive patients who have been quite given over by
their physicians. As sleep refreshes the weary limbs of toil, so does
this milk fill up the wasted limbs and restore the vanished strength.
Strange is it to see the herds feeding on this abundant pasture. They
look as if it did not profit them at all. Thin and scraggy, as they
wander through the thickets they look like the patients who seek their
aid; yet their milk is so thick that it sticks to the milker's
fingers.
'Do you therefore supply the invalid when he arrives, with the
appointed rations and pecuniary allowance, that he may be suitably
maintained in that place while he is recreating his exhausted energies
with the food of infancy.
'And, oh! all ye who are suffering under the like grievous malady,
lift up your hearts. There is hope for you. By no bitter antidote, but
by a delicious draught, you shall imbibe life--life, in itself the
sweetest of all things.'
11. EDICT CONCERNING PRICES TO BE MAINTAINED AT RAVENNA.
[Sidenote: Prices at Ravenna.]
'The price at which provisions are sold ought to follow, in a
reasonable way, the circumstances of the times, that there may be
neither cheapness in a dear season, nor dearness in a cheap one, and
that the grumblings of both buyers and sellers may be avoided, by