The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 45

[Footnote 385: In the next letter the same official is called Severinus.]

[Sidenote: Financial abuses in Suavia.]

'We send you to redress the long-standing grievances of the Possessores of the Province of Suavia, to which we have not yet been able to apply a remedy.

'(1) It appears that some of the chief Possessores are actually making a profit out of the taxes, imposing heavy burdens on their poorer neighbours and not honestly accounting for the receipts to us. See that this is put right, that the land-tax (a.s.sis[386] publicus) is fairly and equitably reimposed according to the ability of each Possessor, and that those who have been oppressing their neighbours heal the wounds which they have made.

[Footnote 386: Ca.s.siodorus uses the rare nominative form 'a.s.sis.']

'(2) See also that a strict account is rendered by all Defensores, Curiales, and Possessores of any receipts on behalf of the public Treasury. If a Possessor can show that he paid his tax (tributarius solidus) for the now expired eighth Indiction (A.D. 514-515), and the money has not reached our Treasury, find out the defaulter and punish his crime.

'(3) Similarly with sums disbursed by one of the clerks of our Treasury[387], for the relief of the Province, which have not reached their destination.

[Footnote 387: 'Tabularius a cubiculo nostro.']

'(4) Men who were formerly Barbarians[388], who have married Roman wives and acquired property in land, are to be compelled to pay their Indictions and other taxes to the public Treasury just like any other Provincials.

[Footnote 388: 'Antiqui Barbari qui Romanis mulieribus elegerint nuptiali foedere sociari, quolibet t.i.tulo praedia quaesiverint, fisc.u.m possessi cespitis persolvere, ac super indict.i.tiis oneribus parere cogantur.']

'(5) Judges are to visit each town (municipium) once in the year, and are not ent.i.tled to claim from such towns more than three days'

maintenance. Our ancestors wished that the circuits of the Judges should be a benefit, not a burden, to the Provincials.

'(6) It is alleged that some of the servants of the Count of the Goths and of the Vice-dominus (?) have levied black-mail on some of the Provincials. Property so taken must be at once restored and the offenders punished.

'(7) Enter all your proceedings under this commission in official registers (polyptycha), both for your own protection and for the sake of future reference, to prevent the recurrence of similar abuses.'

[A long and interesting letter, but with some obscure pa.s.sages.]

15. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE POSSESSORES IN SUAVIA.

[Sidenote: On the same subject.]

'Although our Comitatus is always ready to redress the grievances of our subjects, yet, on account of the length of the journey from your Province hither, we have thought good to send the Ill.u.s.trious and Magnificent Severinus to you to enquire into your complaints on the spot. He is a man fully imbued with our own principles of government, and he has seen how greatly we have at heart the administration of justice. We therefore doubt not that he will soon put right whatever has been done wrong in your Province; and we have published our "oracles" [the previous letter, containing Severinus' patent of appointment], that all may know upon what principles he is to act, and that those who have grievances against the present functionaries may learn their rights.'

16. KING THEODORIC TO ABUNDANTIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

[Sidenote: Formation of a navy.]

'By Divine inspiration we have determined to raise a navy which may both ensure the arrival of the cargoes of public corn and may, if need be, combat the s.h.i.+ps of an enemy. For, that Italy, a country abounding in timber, should not have a navy of her own hath often stricken us with regret.

'Let your Greatness therefore give directions for the construction of 1,000 _dromones_ (swift cutters). Wherever cypresses and pines are found near to the sea-sh.o.r.e, let them be bought at a suitable price.

'Then as to the levy of sailors: any fitting man, if a slave, must be hired of his master, or bought at a reasonable price. If free, he is to receive 5 solidi (3) as donative, and will have his rations during the term of service.

'Even those who were slaves are to be treated in the same way, "since it is a kind of freedom to serve the Ruler of the State[389];" and are to receive, according to their condition, two or three solidi (1 4s.

or 1 16s.) of bounty money[390].

[Footnote 389: 'Quando libertatis genus est servire Rectori.']

[Footnote 390: 'Arrharum nomine.']

'Fishermen, however, are not to be enlisted in this force, since we lose with regret one whose vocation it is to provide us with luxuries; and moreover one kind of training is required for him who has to face the stormy wind, and another for him who need only fish close to sh.o.r.e.'

17. KING THEODORIC TO ABUNDANTIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

[Sidenote: On the same subject.]

'We praise you for your prompt fulfilment of the orders contained in the previous letter. You have built a fleet almost as quickly as ordinary men would sail one. The model of the triremes, revealing the number of the rowers but concealing their faces, was first furnished by the Argonauts. So too the sail, that flying sheet[391] which wafts idle men to their destination quicker than swiftest birds can fly, was first invented by the lorn Isis, when she set off on her wanderings through the world to find her lost son Apochran.

[Footnote 391: 'Linum volatile.']

'Now that we have our fleet, there is no need for the Greek to fasten a quarrel upon us, or for the African [the Vandal] to insult us[392].

With envy they see that we have now stolen from them the secret of their strength.

[Footnote 392: 'Non habet quod n.o.bis Graecus imputet aut Afer insultet.']

'Let all the fleet be a.s.sembled at Ravenna on the next Ides of June.

Let our own Padus send his home-born navy to the sea, his river-nurtured firs to battle with the winds of Ocean.

'But there is one suggestion of yours of great importance, and which must be diligently acted upon, namely the removal of the nets whereby the fishermen at present impede the channels of the following rivers: Mincius, Ollius (Oglio), Anser (Serchio), Arno, Tiber. Let the river lie open for the transit of s.h.i.+ps; let it suffice for the appet.i.te of man to seek for delicacies in the ordinary way, not by rustic artifice to hinder the freedom of the stream.'

18. KING THEODORIC TO UVILIAS [WILLIAS?], VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS AND COUNT OF THE PATRIMONY.

19. KING THEODORIC TO GUDINAND, A SAJO.

20. KING THEODORIC TO AVILF, A SAJO.

[Sidenote: On the same subject.]

These three letters all relate to the same subject as the two preceding ones--the formation of a navy, and the _rendezvous_ of s.h.i.+ps and sailors at Ravenna on the Ides of June.

The Count of the Patrimony is courteously requested to see if there is any timber suitable for the purposes of the navy, growing in the royal estates along the banks of the Po.

The Sajones are ordered in more brusque and peremptory fas.h.i.+on: Gudinand to collect the sailors at Ravenna on the appointed day; and Avilf to collect timber along the banks of the Po, with as little injury to the Possessors as possible (not, however, apparently paying them anything for it), to keep his hands clean from extortion and fraud, and to pull up the stake-nets in the channels of the five rivers mentioned in Letter 17; 'for we all know that men ought to fish with nets, not with hedges, and the opposite practice shows detestable greediness.'

21. KING THEODORIC TO CAPUa.n.u.s, SENATOR.

22. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Capua.n.u.s appointed Rector Decuriarum.]

[On the appointment of Capua.n.u.s to the office of Rector of the Guilds (Rector Decuriarum). The Guilds (Decuriae) of the City of Rome--not to be confounded with the Provincial _Curiae_, members.h.i.+p in which was at this time a burden rather than an advantage--enjoyed several special privileges. We find from the Theodosian Code, Lib. xiv. t.i.t. 1, that there were Decuriae of the _Librarii_, _Fiscales_, _Censuales_. The _Decuria Scribarum_ is perhaps the same as the _Decuria Librariorum_.

I use the word Guilds, which seems best to describe a body of this kind; but it will be seen from their names that these Guilds are not of a commercial character, but are rather concerned with the administration of justice. Some of them must have discharged the duties of attorneys, others of Inland Revenue officers, others acted as clerks to register the proceedings of the Senate, others performed the mere mechanical work of copying, which is now undertaken by a law stationer.