The Letters of Cassiodorus
22. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE PROVINCIALS OF ISTRIA.
[This letter was written Sept. 1, 537, probably in consequence of the
scarcity which the operations of Belisarius were already causing at
Ravenna. Apparently the whole taxes levied from a Province at an
Indiction were divided into two heads: so much for the central
authority, and so much for the Province. Cassiodorus in this and the
following letter says in effect: 'All the State's share of the taxes
we will take not in money, but in your staple products, corn, wine,
and oil. The rest goes as usual to the Province; but owing to the
scarcity at Ravenna we shall be glad to buy all that can be spared
either by the authorities of the Province or by individuals, whether
farmers or merchants.']
'The true way to prevent the requirements of the public revenue from
becoming oppressive, is to order each Province to supply those
products in which it is naturally most fertile.
[Sidenote: Requisition from Province of Istria.]
'Now I have learned by conversation with travellers that the Province
of Istria is this year especially blessed in three of its crops--wine,
oil, and corn. Therefore let her give of these products the equivalent
of ... solidi, which are due from you in payment of tribute for this
first Indiction[870]: while the remainder we leave to that loyal
Province for her own regular expenses. But since we require a larger
quantity of the above-mentioned products, we send ... solidi from our
state chest for the purchase of them, that these necessaries may be
collected for us with as little delay as possible. Often when you are
desirous to sell you cannot find a purchaser, and suffer loss
accordingly. How much better is it to obey the requirements of your
Lords than to supply foreigners; and to pay your debts in the fruits
of the soil, rather than to wait on the caprices of a buyer!
[Footnote 870: The first Indiction was from September 1, 537, to
September 1, 538.]
'We will ourselves out of our love of justice state a fact of which
you might otherwise remind us, that we can afford to be liberal in
price because we are not burdened by the payment of freights [on
account of your nearness to the seat of government]. For what Campania
is to Rome, Istria is to Ravenna--a fruitful Province abounding in
corn, wine, and oil; so to speak, the cupboard of the capital. I might
carry the comparison further, and say that Istria can show her own
Baiae in the lagunes with which her shores are indented[871], her own
Averni in the pools abounding in oysters and fish. The palaces, strung
like pearls along the shores of Istria, show how highly our ancestors
appreciated its delights[872]. The beautiful chain of islands with
which it is begirt, shelter the sailor from danger and enrich the
cultivator. The residence of the Court in this district delights the
nobles and enriches the lower orders; and it may be said that all its
products find their way to the Royal city. Now let the loyal Province,
which has often tendered her services when they were less required,
send forward her stores freely.
[Footnote 871: Here follows this sentence: 'Haec loca garismatia plura
nutriunt.' Garum seems to have been a sauce something like our
anchovy-sauce. Garismatium is evidently a garum-supplying place.]
[Footnote 872: We have a special allusion in Martial (iv. 25) to the
villas of Altinum, and he too compares them to those of Baiae.]
'To guard against any misunderstanding of our orders, we send
Laurentius, a man of great experience, whose instructions are
contained in the annexed letter.
'We will publish a tariff of moderate prices when we next address you,
and when we have ascertained what is the yield of the present crops;
for we should be deciding quite at random before we have received that
information.'
23. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO LAURENTIUS, VIR
EXPERIENTISSIMUS[873].
[Footnote 873: Evidently 'the annexed letter' referred to in No. 22.]
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'Anyone can discharge the duties of the Commissariat in a time of
abundance. It is a mark of our high appreciation of your experience
and efficiency, that we select you for this service in a time of
scarcity. We therefore direct you to repair to the Province of Istria,
there to collect stores of wine, oil, and corn, equivalent to ...
solidi, due from the Province for land-tax[874], and with ... solidi
which you have received from our Treasurer to buy these products
either from the merchants or from the peasants directly, according to
the information prepared for you by the Cashiers[875]. Raise your
spirits for this duty, and discharge it in a manner worthy of your
past reputation. Make to us a faithful report of the yield of the
coming harvest, under these three heads[876], that we may fix a tariff
of prices which shall be neither burdensome to the Provincials nor
injurious to the public service.'
[Footnote 874: 'Ut in tot solidos vini, olei, vel tritici species de
tributario solido debeas procurare.']
[Footnote 875: 'Sicut te a Numerariis instruxit porrecta Notitia.'
Note this use of the word 'Notitia,' as illustrating the title of the
celebrated document bearing that name.]
[Footnote 876: Corn, wine, and oil.]
24. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE TRIBUNES OF THE MARITIME
POPULATION[877].
[Footnote 877: Written shortly after Sept. 1, 537. This is the
celebrated letter to which Venetian historians point as evidence of
the existence of their city (or at least of the group of settlements
out of which their city sprang) in the Sixth Century. We may set side
by side with it the words of the Anonymous Geographer of Ravenna (in
the Seventh Century), 'In patria vero Venetiae sunt aliquantae
insulae, quae hominibus habitantur.'
The address, _Tribunis Maritimorum_, looks as if there were something
like a municipal government established in these islands. Tribunus was
at this time generally, but not exclusively, a military title. Compare
the Tribunus Fori Suarii and Tribunus Rerum Nitentium of the Notitia
(Occidens iv. 10 and iv. 17). But there can be no doubt, from the tone
of this letter, that the islanders were subjects of the Ostrogothic
King.]
[Sidenote: First historical notice of Venice.]
'We have previously given orders that Istria should send wine and oil,
of which there are abundant crops this year, to the Royal residence
at Ravenna. Do you, who possess numerous ships on the borders of the
Province, show the same devotion in forwarding the stores which they
do in supplying them.
'Be therefore active in fulfilling this commission in your own
neighbourhood, you who often cross boundless distances. It may be said
that [in visiting Ravenna] you are going through your own
guest-chambers, you who in your voyages traverse your own home[878].
This is also added to your other advantages, that to you another route
is open, marked by perpetual safety and tranquillity. For when by
raging winds the sea is closed, a way is opened to you through the
most charming river scenery[879]. Your keels fear no rough blasts;
they touch the earth with the greatest pleasure, and cannot perish
however frequently they may come in contact with it. Beholders from a
distance, not seeing the channel of the stream, might fancy them
moving through the meadows. Cables have been used to keep them at
rest: now drawn by ropes they move, and by a changed order of things
men help their ships with their feet. They draw their drawers without
labour, and instead of the capricious favour of sails they use the
more satisfactory steps of the sailor.
[Footnote 878: An obscure sentence: 'Per hospitia quodammodo vestra
discurritis qui per patriam navigatis.' The idea seems to be: 'You
have to sail about from one room to another of your own house, and
therefore Ravenna will seem like a neighbouring inn.']
[Footnote 879: The next four sentences describe the movement of the
ships when towed along the channels of the streams (Brenta, Piave,
Tagliamento, &c.) the deposits from which have made the lagunes.]
'It is a pleasure to recall the situation of your dwellings as I
myself have seen them. Venetia the praiseworthy[880], formerly full of
the dwellings of the nobility, touches on the south Ravenna and the
Po, while on the east it enjoys the delightsomeness of the Ionian
shore, where the alternating tide now discovers and now conceals the
face of the fields by the ebb and flow of its inundation. Here after
the manner of water-fowl have you fixed your home. He who was just now
on the mainland finds himself on an island, so that you might fancy
yourself in the Cyclades[881], from the sudden alterations in the
appearance of the shore.
[Footnote 880: 'Venetiae praedicabiles.' An allusion, no doubt, as
other commentators have suggested, to the reputed derivation of
Venetia from [Greek: Ainetoi], 'the laudable.']
[Footnote 881: Alluding probably to the story of the floating island
of Delos.]
'Like them[882] there are seen amid the wide expanse of the waters
your scattered homes, not the product of Nature, but cemented by the
care of man into a firm foundation[883]. For by a twisted and knotted
osier-work the earth there collected is turned into a solid mass, and
you oppose without fear to the waves of the sea so fragile a bulwark,
since forsooth the mass of waters is unable to sweep away the shallow
shore, the deficiency in depth depriving the waves of the necessary
power.
[Footnote 882: 'Earum similitudine.' Does Cassiodorus mean 'like the
water-fowl,' or 'like the Cyclades?']
[Footnote 883: The reading of Nivellius (followed by Migne),
'Domicilia videntur sparsa, quae Natura non protulit sed hominum cura
fundavit,' seems to give a better sense than that of Garet, who omits
the 'non.']
'The inhabitants have one notion of plenty, that of gorging themselves
with fish. Poverty therefore may associate itself with wealth on equal
terms. One kind of food refreshes all; the same sort of dwelling
shelters all; no one can envy his neighbour's home; and living in this
moderate style they escape that vice [of envy] to which all the rest
of the world is liable.
'Your whole attention is concentrated on your salt-works. Instead of
driving the plough or wielding the sickle, you roll your cylinders.
Thence arises your whole crop, when you find in them that product
which you have not manufactured[884]. There it may be said is your
subsistence-money coined[885]. Of this art of yours every wave is a
bondservant. In the quest for gold a man may be lukewarm: but salt
every one desires to find; and deservedly so, since to it every kind
of meat owes its savour.
[Footnote 884: 'Inde vobis fructus omnis enascitur, quando in ipsis,
et quae non facitis possidetis.']
[Footnote 885: 'Moneta illic quodammodo percutitur victualis.' Some
have supposed that these words point to a currency in salt; but I
think they are only a Cassiodorian way of saying 'By this craft ye
have your wealth.']
'Therefore let your ships, which you have tethered, like so many
beasts of burden, to your walls, be repaired with diligent care: so
that when the most experienced Laurentius attempts to bring you his
instructions, you may hasten forth to greet him. Do not by any
hindrance on your part delay the necessary purchases which he has to
make; since you, on account of the character of your winds, are able
to choose the shortest sea-track[886].'
[Footnote 886: This is the only translation I can suggest of 'quatenus
expensas necessarias nulla difficultate tardetis, qui pro qualitate
aeris compendium vobis eligere potestis itineris.']
25. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO HIS DEPUTY[887] AMBROSIUS, AN
ILLUSTRIS.
[Footnote 887: 'Agenti vices.' See note on xi. 4.]