The Letters of Cassiodorus
[Sidenote: Remission of taxes on account of invasion by the Suevi.]
'A good Sovereign will always exert himself to repair fortuitous
disasters, and will allow those who have paid their taxes punctually
in prosperity, considerable liberty in times of barbaric invasion. On
this ground, and on account of the incursions of the Suevi, the King
grants for this year, the fifteenth Indiction[820], a discharge of all
claims by the Fiscus preferred against A and B. And in all similar
cases where you shall be satisfied that the property has really been
laid waste by those Barbarians, you are at liberty to remit the taxes
for this Indiction. Afterwards you will use all the ordinary methods,
in order that you may be able to pay over the stipulated sum to the
Royal Treasurer. But meanwhile the poor cultivator has the best of all
arguments against paying you, namely, that he has nothing left him
wherewith to pay. Thus is his calamity his best voucher for
payment[821]; and we do not wish that he who has been already alarmed
by the arms of the robber should further tremble at the official robe
of the civil servant[822].
[Footnote 820: Sept. 1, 536, to Sept. 1, 537.]
[Footnote 821: 'Validas contra te apochas invenerunt.']
[Footnote 822: 'Chlamydes non pavescant, qui arma timuerunt.']
8. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CONSULARIS OF THE PROVINCE OF
LIGURIA.
[Sidenote: Permission to pay taxes direct to Royal Treasury.]
'It is a new and delightful kind of profit to be able to grant the
request of a petitioner without feeling any loss oneself. The present
suitor, complaining that he is vexed by the exactions of the
tax-gatherer on account of certain farms mentioned in the subjoined
letter, offers to bring the amount due from them himself to our
Treasurers[823]. We are willing to grant this request, on condition
that the Fiscus does not suffer thereby; and therefore desire your
Respectability to warn all _Curiales_, _Compulsores_, and all other
persons concerned, to remove for this Indiction every kind of legal
process from the before-mentioned properties; the condition of this
immunity being that he shall, before the kalends of such and such a
month produce the receipts[824] of the _Arcarius_, showing that he has
discharged his debt to the State. Otherwise the debt must be exacted
by ordinary process. But it is delightful to us whenever the tax is
paid without calling in the aid of the _Compulsor_. Would that the
peasant would always thus freely anticipate the needs of the
Treasury!'
[Footnote 823: 'Arcarii.']
[Footnote 824: 'Apochae.']
9. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO PASCHASIUS, PRAEFECT OF THE
CORN-DISTRIBUTIONS[825].
[Footnote 825: 'Praefectus Annonae.']
[Sidenote: African claims to succeed to estate of an intestate
countryman.]
[To make this letter intelligible we must presuppose a custom,
certainly a very extraordinary one, by which on the death of an
African without heirs, any other African in Italy was allowed to claim
the inheritance. By 'African,' no doubt, we must understand one of the
indigenous inhabitants of Africa, perhaps a man of Negro race. The
custom certainly cannot have applied to African Provincials of Roman
descent. It was perhaps based on some old tribal notions of joint
possession and mutual inheritance.]
'It is a work of wondrous kindness to oblige a foreign race with
public benefits, and not only to invite blood relations to enjoy the
advantages of property, but to permit even strangers to share them.
This kind of heirship is independent of the ties of kindred,
independent of succession from parents, and requires nothing else
save only power to utter the speech of the fatherland.
'This is the privilege which, as the African asserts, was of old
bestowed on his race. By virtue thereof they lawfully demand the
inheritance of others, and thus obtain a right which the Roman in a
similar case could never claim. Nor have they this benefit in their
own land; but here they are for this purpose looked upon as all
related to one another.
'The whole nation, in what relates to the advantages of succession, is
regarded as one family.
'Your Experience is therefore to submit the subject of this man's
petition to a diligent examination, and if it shall turn out, as he
alleges, that the deceased has left no sons nor other persons who
might reasonably claim to succeed him, your official staff is to
induct him into the aforesaid property according to the established
usage.
'He will thus cease to be a foreigner, and will acquire the status of
a native possessor, and therewith the usual liability to pay tribute.
He is inferior to other owners only in this one point, that he lacks
the power of alienating his property. Let him who has derived so much
benefit from our commiseration now relieve others. Fortunate and
enviable has turned out his captivity[826], which enables him at one
and the same time to enjoy the citizenship of Rome and the privileges
of the African.'
[Footnote 826: 'Felix illi contigit et praedicanda captivitas.' A
little before, we read, 'Resumat facultatem quam se suspiraverat
amississe.' These sentences suggest the idea that the petitioner had
been brought over in the train of the lately deceased person as a
slave. This a little lessens the difficulty of his being admitted to
the inheritance. Compare Gen. xv. 3, where Abraham, before the birth
of a son, says, 'And one born in my house' (i.e. a slave) 'is mine
heir.']
10. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO DIVERS CANCELLARII IN THE
PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: Taxes to be punctually enforced.]
'Arrears of tribute are like bodily diseases, serious and enfeebling
when they become chronic. A man who is under a load of debt cannot be
called free: he has abandoned the power of controlling his actions to
another. Your supposed indulgence to the taxpayer is no real kindness.
There comes a time when the whole arrear of debt has to be claimed,
and then these venal delays of yours make the demand seem twice as
heavy in the eyes of the unfortunate taxpayer. Cease then to trade
upon the peasants' losses. Exact the whole amount of taxes for the
coming Indiction, and pay them in on the appointed day to the
Treasurer[827] of the Province; or else it will be the worse for you,
and you will have to return, stripped of all official rank[828], into
the Province which you are conscious of having badly administered.
[Footnote 827: 'Arcarius.']
[Footnote 828: 'Degeniatus.']
'I shall not _speak_ again on this subject, but shall, if necessary,
extract the sums from you by an irrevocable act of distraint.'
11. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO PETER, VIR CLARISSIMUS,
DISTRIBUTOR OF RELISHES[829].
[Footnote 829: 'Erogatori obsoniorum.']
[Sidenote: Distribution of relishes to Roman citizens.]
'The liberality of a good Sovereign must not be discredited by fraud
and carelessness in the person charged with its distribution. Even
molten gold contracts a stain if not poured into an absolutely clean
vessel. How sweet is it to see a stream flowing clear and unpolluted
over a snow-white channel! Even so must you see that the gifts of the
Sovereign of the State reach the Roman people as pure and as copious
as they issue forth from him.
'All fraud is hateful; but fraud exercised upon the people of Romulus
is absolutely unbearable. That quiet and easily satisfied people,
whose existence you might forget except when they testify their
happiness by their shouts; noisy without a thought of sedition; whose
only care is to shun poverty without amassing wealth; lowly in fortune
but rich in temper--it is a kind of profanation to rob such people as
these.
'We therefore entrust to you the task of distributing the
relishes[830] to the Roman people from this Indiction. Be true to the
citizens, else you will become as an alien unto us. Do not be bribed
into allowing anyone to pass as a Latin who was not born in Latium.
[Footnote 830: 'Obsonia.']
'These privileges belong to the Quirites alone: no slave must be
admitted to share them. That man sins against the majesty of the Roman
people, who defiles the pure river of their blood by thrusting upon
them the fellowship of slaves.'
12. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANASTASIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF
LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.
[Sidenote: Praise of the cheese and wine of Bruttii.]
'When we were dining, according to our wonted custom, with the
Sovereign of the State[831], the conversation happened to turn upon
the delicacies of various Provinces, and we praised the wines of
Bruttii and the cheese of the district around Mount Sila[832].
[Footnote 831: 'Cum apud rerum Dominum solemni more pranderemus.']
[Footnote 832: 'Silanum.' Mount Sila is a range of hills in Calabria
immediately to the north of Squillace, forty miles from north to
south, and twenty miles from east to west, and occupying the whole of
the projecting portion of the south-east side of Italy between the
Gulf of Squillace and the Bay of Taranto. The highest peaks, which are
about 5,700 feet high, are covered with snow during half the year. It
is said that from the beginning of June till far on into October,
15,000 head of cattle and 150,000 sheep, besides horses and mules,
graze in these uplands. (See Gael-Fells: Unter Italien, p. 721.)]
'The _cheese_, which retains in its pores the milk which has been
collected there, recalls by its taste the fragrant herbs upon which
the cattle have fed; by its texture it reminds us of the softness of
oil, from which it differs in colour by its snowy whiteness. Having
been carefully pressed into a wide cask and hardened therein, it
retains permanently the beautiful round shape which has thus been
given to it[833].
[Footnote 833: From the description of Cassiodorus, it seems to have
been a kind of cream cheese.]
'The _wine_, to which Antiquity gave the name of praise, Palmatiana,
must be selected not of a rough but sweet kind[834]. Though last [in
geographical position] among the wines of Bruttii, it is by general
opinion accounted the best, equal to that of Gaza, similar to the
Sabine, moderately thick, strong, brisk, of conspicuous whiteness,
distinguished by the fine aroma, of which a pleasant after-taste is
perceived by the drinker[835]. It constrains loosened bowels, dries up
moist wounds, and refreshes the weary breast.
[Footnote 834: 'Non stipsi asperum sed gratum suavitate perquire.' The
same peculiar word, _stipsis_, which we had in Letter xii. 4. What
meaning are we to assign to the word?]
[Footnote 835: 'Magnis odoribus singulare:--quod ita redolet ore
ructatum ut merito illi a palma nomen videatur impositum.']
'Let it be your care to provide as speedily as possible a stock of
both these products of our country, and send them in ships to the
Royal residence. For a temporary supply we have drawn on our own
cellars, but we look to you to choose specimens of the genuine quality
for the King. We cannot be deceived, who retain the true taste in our
patriotic memory; and at your peril will you provide any inferior
article to that which our cellars will have supplied[836].'
[Footnote 836: Baronius (Ad Ann. 591) quotes this letter of
Cassiodorus to explain an allusion in the life of Pope Gregory the
Great, who refused to receive a present of 'Palmatiana' from the
Bishop of Messina, and insisted on paying for it.]
13. AN EDICT.
[Sidenote: Frauds committed by the revenue officers on the Churches of
Bruttii and Lucania.]
'The generous gifts of Kings ought to be respected by their subjects.
'Long ago the constitutions of the Emperors enriched the holy
Churches of Bruttii and Lucania with certain gifts. But since the
sacrilegious mind is not afraid of sinning against the Divine
reverence, the Canonicarii (officers of the Exchequer) have robbed