Part 44 (1/2)
(Quoted in the notes to Ennodius in Migne's Patrologia.)]
The past career of the younger brother, Honoratus, who has been advocate at Spoleto, and has had to contend with the corrupt tendencies of Provincial judges, full of their little importance, and removed from the wholesome control which the opinion of the Senate exercised upon them at Rome, is then sketched; and the hope is expressed that, in the words of the Virgilian quotation[380], this bough upon the family tree will be found as goodly as that which it has untimely lost.
[Footnote 380: 'Primo avulso non deficit alter' (Aen. vi. 143).]
[Sidenote: Duties of the Quaestors.h.i.+p.]
The letter to the Senate has an interesting pa.s.sage on the duties and responsibilities of the Quaestor.
'It is only men whom we consider to be of the highest learning that we raise to the dignity of the Quaestors.h.i.+p, such men as are fitted to be interpreters of the laws and sharers of our counsels. This is an honour which neither riches nor high birth by itself can procure, only learning joined with prudence. In granting all other dignities we confer favours, but from the holder of this we ever receive them. He is favoured to have a share in our anxieties; he enters in by the door of our thoughts; he is intimately acquainted with the breast in which the cares of the whole State are weighed. Think what judgment you ought to form of a man who is partaker of such a confidence. From him we require skill in the laws; to him flow together all the prayers of all suitors, and (a thing more precious than any treasure) to him is committed our own reputation for _civilitas_. Under a just Quaestor the mind of an innocent man is at rest: only the wicked become anxious as to the success of their evil designs; and thus the bad lose their hope of plunder, while more earnestness is shown in the practice of virtue. It is his to safeguard the just rights of all men: temperate in expenditure, lavish in his zeal for justice, incapable of deception, prompt in succour. He serves that Sovereign mind before which all bow: through his lips must he speak who has not an equal in the land.'
5. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO MANNILA.
[Sidenote: Abuses of the Cursus Publicus.]
Repeats the injunctions given in Letter iv. 47 against improper use of the public post-horses, and overloading of the extra horses. The fines imposed are the same as in that letter [with the addition of a fine of two ounces of gold (about 6 10s.) for overloading]; the examples from Natural History are similar. 'The very bird when weighted with a load flies slowly. s.h.i.+ps though they cannot feel their toils, yet move tardily when they are filled with cargo. What can the poor quadruped do when pressed by too great burden? It succ.u.mbs.'
But apparently this rule against overloading is not to apply to Praepositi (Provincial Governors?), since 'reverenda antiquitas' has given them special rights over the _Cursus Publicus_.
6. KING THEODORIC TO STABULARIUS, COMITIACUS[381].
[Footnote 381: Officer of the Court. See vi. 13.]
7. KING THEODORIC TO JOANNES, VIR CLARISSIMUS, ARCARIUS [TREASURER].
[Sidenote: Default in payments to Treasury made by Thomas. His property a.s.signed to his son-in-law Joannes.]
'The _Vir Honestus_, Thomas, has long been a defaulter (reliquator) in respect of the Indictions payable for certain farms which he has held under the King's house in Apulia[382], and this default has now reached the sum of 10,000 solidi (6,000). Repeatedly summoned to pay, he always procrastinates, and we can get no satisfaction out of him.
The pet.i.tion of Joannes, who is son-in-law to Thomas, informs us that he is willing to pay the 10,000 solidi due, if we will make over to him the said farms, and all the property of his father-in-law. This we therefore now do, reserving to Thomas the right to pay the debt at any time before the next Kalends of September, and thus to redeem his property. Failing such payment, the property is to pa.s.s finally into the hands of Joannes, on his paying the 10,000 solidi to the Ill.u.s.trious Count of the Patrimony [possibly Stabularius].
[Footnote 382: 'Thomatem domus nostrae certa praedia suscep.i.s.se sed eum male administrando suscepta usque ad decem millia solidorum de Indictionibus illa atque illa reliquatorem publicis rationibus ext.i.tisse.' It is not quite clear whether the debt is due as what we should call rent or as land-tax. Perhaps the debt had acc.u.mulated under both heads.]
'It may be some little consolation to Thomas to reflect that after all it is his son-in-law who enters into possession of his goods.'
[Dahn ('Konige der Germanen' iii. 277) remarks on this letter: 'But even the well-meaning Theodoric takes steps in the interests of substantial justice which from a juristic point of view it would be hard to justify.... Evidently here the King, in his consideration of what was practically just, has decided according to caprice, not according to right; for the Fiscus could strictly only be repaid its debt out of the property of the defaulter, and hold the Arcarius (Joannes) responsible for the balance' (for which Dahn thinks he had already made himself liable). I do not quite agree with this view. It seems to me that Thomas was hopelessly bankrupt (the debt was 10,000 solidi, not 1,000, as stated by Dahn), and the Fiscus virtually sells the bankrupt's estate to his son-in-law, for him to make of it what he can.]
8. KING THEODORIC TO ANASTASIUS THE CONSULAR.
[Sidenote: Transport of marble from Faenza to Ravenna.]
'We rely upon your Sublimity's zeal and prudence to see that the required blocks of marble are forwarded from Faventia (Faenza) to Ravenna, without any extortion from private individuals; so that, on the one hand, our desire for the adornment of that city may be gratified, and on the other, there may be no cause for complaint on the part of our subjects.'
9. KING THEODORIC TO THE POSSESSORES OF FELTRIA.
[Sidenote: New city to be built in district of Trient.]