Part 27 (1/2)
22. KING THEODORIC TO FESTUS, VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Ecdicius to be buried by his sons.]
'The sons of Ecdicius, whom at first we had ordered to reside in the city, are to be allowed to return to their own country in order to bury their father. That grief is insatiable which feels that it has been debarred from rendering the last offices to the dead. Think at what risk of his life Priam implored the raging Achilles to give him back the body of his son.'
[Apparently the sons of Ecdicius, not Ecdicius himself, had fallen into disgrace with Theodoric, or incurred some suspicion of disloyalty, which led to the rigorous order for their detention in Rome. See Dahn iii. 279-280.]
23. KING THEODORIC TO AMPELIUS, DESPOTIUS, AND THEODULUS, SENATORS.
[Sidenote: Protection for owners of potteries.]
'It befits the discipline of our time that those who are serving the public interests shall not be loaded with superfluous burdens. Labour therefore diligently at the potteries (figulinae) which our Royal authority has conceded to you. Protection is hereby promised against the wiles of wicked men.' [What was the nature of the artifices to which they were exposed is not very clear.]
24. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Arrears of taxation due from Senators.]
'We hear with sorrow, by the report of the Provincial Judges, that you the Fathers of the State, who ought to set an example to your sons (the ordinary citizens), have been so remiss in the payment of taxes that on this first collection[259] nothing, or next to nothing, has been brought in from any Senatorial house. Thus a crus.h.i.+ng weight has fallen on the lower orders (_tenues_, _curiales_), who have had to make good your deficiencies and have been distraught by the violence of the tax-gatherers.
[Footnote 259: 'Primae transmissionis tempus.']
'Now then, oh Conscript Fathers, who owe as much duty to the Republic as we do, pay the taxes for which each one of you is liable, to the Procurators appointed in each Province, by three instalments (trina illatione). Or, if you prefer to do so--and it used to be accounted a privilege--pay all at once into the chest of the Vicarius. And let this following edict be published, that all the Provincials may know that they are not to be imposed upon and that they are invited to state their grievances[260].'
[Footnote 260: See Dahn, 'Konige der Germanen' iii. 153 and 112, n.
5.]
25. AN EDICT OF KING THEODORIC.
[Referred to in the preceding letter.]
[Sidenote: Evasion of taxes by the rich.]
The King detests the oppression of the unfortunate, and encourages them to make their complaints to him. He has heard that the powerful houses are failing to pay their share of the taxes, and that a larger sum in consequence is being exacted from the _tenues_[261].
[Footnote 261: Here follows a sentence which I am unable to translate: 'Superbia deinde conductorum canonicos solidos non ordine traditos, sed sub iniquo pondere imminentibus fuisse projectos nec universam siliquam quam reddere consueverant solemniter intulisse.' I think the meaning is, that the stewards of the Senators (conductores) arrogantly refused to allow the money paid to the tax-collectors (canonici solidi) to be tested, as in ordinary course it should have been, to see if it was of full weight. The 'imminentes' are, I think, the tax-collectors. I cannot at all understand the clause about 'universam siliquam.']
To 'amputate' such wickedness for the future, the letter last preceding has been addressed to the Senate; and the 'Possessores sive curiales' are now invited to state their grievances fully and frankly, or else ever after hold their peace and cultivate a habit of patience.
26. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Regulations for corn-traffic of Southern Italy.]
A difficult letter about the corn-merchants of Apulia and Calabria.
1. The corn which they have collected by public sale is not to be demanded over again from them under the t.i.tle of 'interpretium'
[difference of price].