Part 66 (1/2)

'We therefore confer upon you for this Indiction the dignity of Praefect of the City. The eyes of the world are upon you. The Senate, that ill.u.s.trious and critical body, the youngest members of which are called _Patres_, will listen to your words. See that you say nothing which can displease those wise men, whose praise, though hard to win, will be most sweet to your ears. Diligently help the oppressed. Hand on to your posterity the renown which you have received from your ancestors.'

8. KING ATHALARIC TO COUNT OSUIN (OR OSUM), VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS[588].

[Footnote 588: Cf. iii. 26 and iv. 9. In the former letter he is called Osun.]

[Sidenote: Osuin made Governor of Dalmatia and Savia.]

'We reward our faithful servants with high honours, hoping thereby to quicken the slothful into emulation, when they ask themselves why, under such an impartial rule, they too do not receive promotion.

'We therefore again entrust to your Ill.u.s.trious Greatness the Provinces of Dalmatia and S(u)avia. We need not hold up to you the examples of others. You have only to imitate yourself, and to confer now again in your old age the same blessings on those Provinces which, as a younger man, you bestowed on them under our grandfather.'

9. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS (IN DALMATIA AND SAVIA).

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'We send back to you the Ill.u.s.trious Count Osuin, whose valour and justice you already know, to ward off from you the fear of foreign nations, and to keep you from unjust demands. With him comes the Ill.u.s.trious Severinus[589], that with one heart and one mind, like the various reeds of an organ, they may utter their praiseworthy precepts.

[Footnote 589: We are not told in what capacity Severinus came.

Probably it was on account of Osuin's age that Severinus was a.s.sociated with him.]

[Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum.]

'As an act of grace on the commencement of our reign, we direct the Count of the Patrimony to remit to you all the super-a.s.sessment (augmentum) which was fixed for your Province at the fourth Indiction[590].

[Footnote 590: 'Per quartam Indictionem quod a n.o.bis augmenti nomine quaerebatur ill.u.s.trem virum Comitem Patrimonii nostri nunc jussimus removere.' As the fourth Indiction began Sept. 525, in the lifetime of Theodoric, it is clear that that date belongs to the imposition, not to the removal of the 'augmentum.']

'We also grant that when the aforesaid person [Severinus] returns to our presence, you may send suitable men with him to inform us of your financial position, that we may, by readjustment of the taxes, lighten your load if it be still too heavy. Nothing consolidates the Republic so much as the uninjured powers of the taxpayer.'

10. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS OF THE CITY OF SYRACUSE.

[Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum to Syracusans.]

'Lately we announced to you our accession: now we wish to confer upon you a benefit in the matter of taxes. For we look on that only as our revenue which the cultivator pays cheerfully. Our grandfather, considering the great increase in wealth and population which his long and peaceful reign had brought with it, thought it prudent to increase the taxes to be paid by the Province of Sicily[591]. He was quite right in doing this, but he thereby prepared for us, his young successor, an opportunity of conferring an unexpected favour, for we hereby remit to you all the augmentum which was a.s.sessed upon you at the fourth Indiction. And not only so, but all that you have already paid under this head for the fifth Indiction (526-7) we direct the tax-collectors to carry to your credit on account[592].

[Footnote 591: 'Avus noster de suis beneficiis magna praesumens (quia longa quies et culturam agris praest.i.tit et populos ampliavit) intra Siciliam provinciam sub consueta prudentiae suae moderatione censum statuit subflagitari ut vobis cresceret devotio, quibus se facultas extenderat.']

[Footnote 592: This most be the meaning of 'quicquid a discursoribus novi census per quintam Indictionem probatur affixum, ad vestram eos fecimus deferre not.i.tiam.']

'Besides this, if anyone have to complain of oppression on the part of the Governors of the Province, let him seek at once a remedy from our Piety. Often did our grandfather of glorious memory grieve over the slowness of the Governors to obey their letters of recall, feeling sure that they were lingering in the Provinces neither for his good nor yours.

'We however, with G.o.d's help, shall go on in the good work which we have begun. You have a Prince who, the older he grows, the more will love you. We send to you our Sajo Quidila, who will convey to you our orders on this matter.'

11. KING ATHALARIC TO GILDIAS, VIR SPECTABILIS, COUNT OF SYRACUSE.

12. KING ATHALARIC TO VICTOR AND WITIGISCLUS (OR WIGISICLA), VIRI SPECTABILES, CENSITORES[593] OF SICILY.

[Footnote 593: Tax-collectors. The word is unknown to the Not.i.tia, but Censuales occurs once in it (Not. Occ. iv.).]