Letter 11016: It is my duty to energetically raise up those whom royal compassion has resolved to relieve — for where the lords'...

16. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to the Ligurians. [1] It is fitting that we eagerly raise up those whom the royal devotion has resolved to relieve; for those upon whom the clemency of our masters has willed to descend, it is proper that they too bestow upon their subjects something of their own dignity. Recently you rendered thanks to me because I had conferred upon you the hope of good things as though it were already some accomplished benefit. You invited me to acts of kindness, since you received what was promised with great rejoicing. We have discharged the vow of a judge who was under obligation. The things that were foretold are now proved to be fulfilled. [2] We shall therefore begin with the balance-scale, because where it is right to direct one's conscience, from there the judge's discourse ought to take its start. Hence it is that you report yourselves to be burdened in the matter of weights and measures. And therefore our care will provide that no man's injustice may henceforth be able to harass you on that account, since we judge it a grave crime either for measures to exceed their proper limit or for the balance to lack the justice of a perfectly fair weight. [3] The soldiers of our seat, and likewise the collectors and the receivers, by whom you have sighed that grievous losses were inflicted upon you, we have ordered to be summoned by our commands, so that, once the accounts have been brought to a clear reckoning, if any fraud can be discovered, they may pay it back without any delay: for we declare this to be hostile to our times, that one man should rejoice in another's misfortune. [4] Now turn your prayers toward the equipping of our most flourishing army, providing everything without complaint or any delay. For you effectively bind me to all kindly things, if you gladly complete what has been commanded. Let him obey with gladness whom the cause of the common good invites. Those losses alone ought to grieve us which seem to have been imposed through eager greed. For as to what is commanded for the necessity of affairs, the mind of the prudent is not burdened thereby.

XVI. LIGURIBUS SENATOR PPO. [1] Studiose nos oportet erigere, quos statuit regalis pietas sublevare: nam quibus dominorum clementia voluit descendere, convenit his etiam subiectos de propria dignitate praestare. nuper mihi gratias retulistis, quod spem vobis bonorum quam fructum aliquem contulissem. invitastis me ad beneficia quia magna suscepistis gratulatione promissa. absolvimus votum iudicis obligati. quae fuerunt praedicta, nunc probantur impleta. [2] Initium igitur a libra faciemus, quia ubi conscientiam fas est intendere, inde debet sermo iudicis inchoare. hinc est, quod in ponderibus atque mensuris vos suggeritis ingravatos. et ideo nostra cura providebit, ut nullius vos ulterius ex ea parte vexare possit iniquitas, quia grave scelus esse iudicamus aut mensuras modum excedere aut libram aequissimi ponderis iustitiam non habere. [3] Milites etiam sedis nostrae nec non exactores atque susceptores, a quibus gravia vobis inferri dispendia suspirastis, praeceptis nostris fecimus conveniri, ut deductis ad liquidum ratiociniis si quid fraudis potuerit inveniri, sine aliqua dilatione persolvant: quia hoc nostris temporibus profitemur inimicum, ut alter alterius laetetur incommodo. [4] Nunc ad apparatum florentissimi exercitus vota convertite, universa sine querella vel tarditate aliqua procurantes. efficaciter enim me ad omnia benigna constringitis, si gratanter quae sunt iussa completis. laetus oboediat, quem causa generalitatis invitat. illa sola dolere debent dispendia, quae studio videntur cupiditatis imposita. nam quod pro rerum necessitate praecipitur, inde prudentum animus non gravatur.