Part 85 (1/2)
16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO A REVENUE OFFICER[850].
[Footnote 850: 'Canonicario.']
[This interesting letter is one of the few written by Ca.s.siodorus 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. Ca.s.siodorus 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 n.o.bis 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 not.i.tiam per quaternos menses ad scrinia nostra solemniter destinabis.']
'That you may, with G.o.d's help, be the better able to fulfil our instructions, I have ordered A and B, servants of our tribunal, who are mindful of their own past responsibilities, to a.s.sist you and your staff[855]. Beware therefore, lest you incur the blame of corruptly discharging the taxpayer, or of sluggish idleness in the discharge of your duties, in which case your own fortunes will suffer from your neglect.'
[Footnote 855: 'Illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites, tibi officioque tuo periculorum suorum memores praecipimus imminere.']
17. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOHN, SILIQUATARIUS[856] OF RAVENNA.
[Footnote 856: Collector of the Siliquatic.u.m, or tax of one twenty-fourth on sales. See ii. 30, iii. 35, iv. 19.]
[Sidenote: Defence of Ravenna.]
'In times of peace, by contact with foreigners who swarm in our cities, we learn what will be our best defence in war. Who can tell with what nation we may be next at war? Therefore, to be on the safe side, make such preparations as our future enemies, whosoever they may be, will dislike to hear of. Accordingly you are to order the peasants to dig a series of pits with wide mouths near the mountains of Caprarius and the parts round about the walls[857]; and let such a chasm yawn there that there shall be no possibility of entrance that way.
[Footnote 857: No doubt the walls of Ravenna. I cannot identify the Mons Caprarius. The name Caprera is a common one in Italy.]
'If strangers want to enter the city, why do they not enter it in the right way--by the gates--instead of going skulking about these bye-paths? Henceforth, anyone trying to take any such short cut to our city will probably find that he loses his life in consequence[858].'
[Footnote 858: One may conjecture that this letter was written in 535, when war with the Empire was imminent, but before it was actually declared.]
18. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO CONSTANTIAN, VIR EXPERIENTISSIMUS.
[Sidenote: Repair of Flaminian Way.]
'Great is the reward of those who serve Kings efficiently; as severe is the punishment of those who neglect their duties towards them.
'How delightful is it to journey without obstacles over a well-made road[859], to pa.s.s doubtful places without fear, to ascend mountainous steeps by a gentle incline, to have no fear of the planking of a bridge when one crosses it[860], and in short to accomplish one's journey so that everything happens to one's liking!
[Footnote 859: 'Videre judicia diligentia.' I leave this clause untranslated, as I cannot understand it.]