The Letters of Cassiodorus
these ecclesiastical positions of a certain portion of their revenue
in the name of the Numerarii of the Praetorian Praefect's staff; but
these latter, with righteous indignation, declare that they have
received no part of the spoils thus impiously collected in their name.
'Thus have the Canonicarii turned the property of the clergy into a
_douceur_ for the laity[837]. Oh, audacity of man! what barriers can
be erected against thee? Thou mightest have hoped to escape human
observation, but why commit crimes which the Divinity cannot but
notice?
[Footnote 837: 'Facientes laicum commodum substantiam clericorum.']
'Therefore we ordain by this edict that anyone who shall hereafter
commit this kind of fraud shall lose his own private gains, and shall
forfeit his place in the public service[838].
[Footnote 838: 'Edictali programmate definimus, ut qui in hac fuerit
ulterius fraude versatus et militia careat et compendium propriae
facultatis amittat.' The last clause is perhaps purposely vague. We
should have expected to hear something about restitution, but the
words will not bear that meaning.]
'Let the poor keep the gifts which God has put it into the heart of
Kings to bestow upon them. It is cruel above all other cruelty to wish
to become rich by means of the scanty possessions of the mendicant.'
14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANASTASIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF
LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.
[Sidenote: Plea for gentle treatment for citizens of Rhegium.]
'The citizens of Rhegium (so called from the Greek word [Greek:
rhegnumi], to break, because their island has been broken off from
Sicily by the violence of the waves) complain that they are being
unfairly harassed by the tax-gatherers. I, as an eyewitness, can
confirm the truth of their statement that their territory does not
bring forth the produce which is claimed at their hands. It is a rocky
and mountainous country, too dry for pasture, though sufficiently
undulating for vineyards; bad for grain-crops, though well suited for
olives. The shade has to be all provided by the industry of man, who
has planted there the tree of Pallas [the olive], which prospers in
even the driest soil, because it sends its roots down into the very
depths of the earth.
'The corn has to be watered by hand, like pot-herbs in a garden. You
seldom see the husbandman bending beneath his load as he returns from
the threshing-floor. A few bushels full are all that he can boast of,
even in an abundant harvest[839].
[Footnote 839: I do not understand the following sentences: 'In hortis
autem rusticorum agmen habetur operosum: quia olus illic omne saporum
est marina irroratione respersum. Quod humana industria fieri
consuevit, hoc cum nutriretur accepit.' Can they have watered any
herbs with salt water?]
'Contrary to the opinion of Virgil [who speaks of the bitter roots of
the endive[840]], the fibres of endive are here extremely sweet, and
encircled by their twisting leaves are caked together with a certain
callous tenderness[841].
[Footnote 840:
'Nec tamen, haec quum sint hominumque boumque labores
Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser,
Strymoniaeque grues, et _amaris intuba fibris_
Officiunt.'--Georgic i. 118-121.]
[Footnote 841: I must renounce the attempt to translate the rest of
the sentence: 'Unde in morem nitri aliquid decerptum frangitur, dum a
fecundo cespite segregatur.' There is an alternative reading, _vitri_
for _nitri_; but I am still unable to understand the author's
meaning.]
'In the treasures of the deep that region is certainly rich; for the
Upper and Lower Sea meet there. The _exormiston_[842], a sort of king
among fishes, with bristly nostrils and a milky delicacy of flavour,
is found in these waters. In stormy weather it is tossed about on the
top of the waves, and seems to be too tired or too indolent to seek a
refuge in the deeper water[843]. No other fish can be compared to it
in sweetness[844].
[Footnote 842: Apparently a kind of lamprey. See the fourth letter of
this book.]
[Footnote 843: Perhaps Cassiodorus means to say this makes it more
easy of capture, but he does not say so.]
[Footnote 844: The praises of the exormiston are not only foreign to
the main subject of the letter, but to a certain extent weaken the
writer's argument on behalf of his countrymen; but, as a good
Bruttian, he cannot help vaunting the products of his country.]
'These are the products--I speak from my own knowledge--of the Rhegian
shore. Therefore you must not seek to levy a tribute of wheat or lard
from the inhabitants under the name of "coemptio."
'I may add that they are so troubled by the constant passage of
travellers entering Italy or leaving it, that it would have been right
to excuse them even if those products had been found there in
abundance[845].'
[Footnote 845: The passage to and fro of travellers no doubt brought
with it burdensome duties for the inhabitants in connection with the
_Cursus Publicus_. It was therefore a reason for mitigating other
taxes.]
15. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO MAXIMUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS,
CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII[846].
[Footnote 846: This letter, being the description by Cassiodorus of
his native place, is translated entire.]
[Sidenote: Praises of the author's birthplace, Scyllacium.]
'Scyllacium, the first city of Bruttii, which Ulysses the destroyer of
Troy is believed to have founded, is said to be unreasonably vexed by
the exorbitant demands of purveyors[847]. These injuries grieve us all
the more on account of our patriotic love for the place.
[Footnote 847: 'Irrationabiliter dicitur praesumentium nimietate
vexari.']
'The city of Scyllacium, which is so placed as to look down upon the
Hadriatic Gulf, hangs upon the hills like a cluster of grapes: not
that it may pride itself upon their difficult ascent, but that it may
voluptuously gaze on verdant plains and the blue back of the sea. The
city beholds the rising sun from its very cradle, when the day that is
about to be born sends forward no heralding Aurora; but as soon as it
begins to rise, the quivering brightness displays its torch. It
beholds Phoebus in his joy; it is bathed in the brightness of that
luminary, so that it might be thought to be itself the native land of
the sun, the claims of Rhodes to that honour being outdone.
'It enjoys a translucent air, but withal so temperate that its winters
are sunny, and its summers cool; and life passes there without sorrow,
since hostile seasons are feared by none. Hence, too, man himself is
here freer of soul than elsewhere, for this temperateness of the
climate prevails in all things.
'In sooth, a hot fatherland makes its children sharp and fickle, a
cold one slow and sly; it is only a temperate climate which composes
the characters of men by its own moderation. Hence was it that the
ancients pronounced Athens to be the seat of sages, because, enriched
with an air of the greatest purity, it prepared with glad liberality
the lucid intellects of its sons for the contemplative part of life.
Assuredly for the body to imbibe muddy waters is a different thing
from sucking in the transparency of a sweet fountain. Even so the
vigour of the mind is repressed when it is clogged by a heavy
atmosphere. Nature herself hath made us subject to these influences.
Clouds make us feel sad; and again a bright sky fills us with joy,
because the heavenly substance of the soul delights in everything that
is unstained and pure.
'Scyllacium has also an abundant share of the delicacies of the sea,
possessing near it those gates of Neptune which we ourselves
constructed. At the foot of the Moscian Mount we hollowed out the
bowels of the rock, and tastefully[848] introduced therein the eddying
waves of Nereus. Here a troop of fishes, sporting in free captivity,
refreshes all minds with delight, and charms all eyes with admiration.
They run greedily to the hand of man, and before they become his food
seek dainties from him. Man feeds his own dainty morsels, and while he
has that which can bring them into his power, it often happens that
being already replete he lets them all go again.
[Footnote 848: 'Decenter.']
'The spectacle moreover of men engaged in honourable labour is not
denied to those who are sitting tranquilly in the city. Plenteous
vineyards are beheld in abundance. The fruitful toil of the
threshing-floor is seen. The face of the green olive is disclosed. No
one need sigh for the pleasures of the country, when it is given him
to see them all from the town.
'And inasmuch as it has now no walls, you believe Scyllacium to be a
rural city, though you might judge it to be an urban villa; and thus
placed between the two worlds of town and country, it is lavishly
praised by both.
'This place wayfarers desire frequently to visit, and as they object
to the toil of walking, the citizens, called upon to provide them with
post-horses, and rations for their servants, have to pay heavily in
purse for the pleasantness of their city. Therefore to prevent this,
for the future we decide that all charges for providing post-horses
and rations shall be debited to the public account. We cut up, root
and branch, the system of paying _Pulveratica_[849] to the Judge; and
we decide, according to ancient custom, that rations for three days
only shall be given on their arrival to the great Dignitaries of the
State, and that any more prolonged delay in their locomotion be
provided for by themselves.
[Footnote 849: Dust-money.]
'To relieve your city of its heaviest burdens will be, according to
our injunctions, an act of judicial impartiality, not of laxity. Live,
by God's help, a mirror of the justice of the age, delighting in the
security of all. Some people call the Isles of the Atlantic
'Fortunate:' I would rather give that name to the place where you do
now dwell.'
16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO A REVENUE OFFICER[850].
[Footnote 850: 'Canonicario.']
[This interesting letter is one of the few written by Cassiodorus as
Praetorian Praefect which we can date with certainty. It is written
apparently at the beginning of the first Indiction, i.e. Sept. 1, 537.
Witigis and the Goths have been for nearly six months besieging Rome,
and are beginning to be discouraged as to its capture. Cassiodorus is
probably at Ravenna, directing the machine of government from that
capital.]
[Sidenote: Payment of Trina Illatio.]
'Time, which adapts itself incessantly to the course of human affairs,
and reconciles us even to adversity[851], has brought round again the
period for collecting the _Trina Illatio_ from the taxpayer. Let the
peasant (_possessor_) pay in your Diocese, for this first Indiction,
his instalment of the tax freely, not being urged too soon nor allowed
to postpone it too late, so that he may plead that he has been let off
from payment[852]. Let none exceed the fair weight, but let him use a
just pound: if once the true weight is allowed to be exceeded, there
is no limit to extortion[853].
[Footnote 851: 'Dum res nobis etiam asperas captata semper opinione
conciliat.' Apparently a veiled allusion to the disasters of the
Goths.]
[Footnote 852: 'Nec iterum remissione lentata quisquam se dicat esse
praeteritum.']
[Footnote 853: This mention of the just weight of course suits a tax
paid in kind, not in money.]
'Let a faithful account of the expenses of collection be rendered
every four months to our office[854], that, all error and obscurity
being removed, truth may be manifest in the public accounts.
[Footnote 854: 'Expensarum quoque fidelem notitiam per quaternos
menses ad scrinia nostra solemniter destinabis.']
'That you may, with God's help, be the better able to fulfil our