Letter 11033: The duty of giving compels a man to act without delay, because one who is prompted by innate generosity is driven...

CassiodorusUnknown|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus|AI-assisted
barbarian invasionimperial politicsproperty economics

33. ON THE GRANTING OF WARRANTS OF ASSIGNMENT [delegatorii: documents authorizing payment].

[1] He who is bound by a custom of bestowing cuts short all delays, because that man is the more compelled toward acts of kindness who is prompted by an inborn benevolence. For it is not fitting that we should be unlike our own deeds, since the abundance of relief ought to grow for the man whose terms of administration are seen to be increased. And therefore our humanity bestows the warrants of assignment upon you from the present moment, so that you may then have the advantages of the reward at the very time when you have also reached the end of your labor. We do not keep you in suspense with anxious delay, nor wear you down with tormenting postponement. Let there be one and the same end of worry and of toil. For who would think it right to defer, if one does not draw back from selling his own benefits?

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

XXXIII.
DE CONCEDENDIS DELEGATORIIS.

[1] Moras intercipit, quem praestandi consuetudo constringit, quia plus ille ad beneficia compellitur, qui innata benivolentia commonetur. neque enim decet, ut nostrorum factorum dissimiles esse debeamus, dum oporteat crescere numerositate remedii, cui administrationis tempora videntur augeri. et ideo de praesenti vobis delegatorios nostra largitur humanitas, ut tunc habeatis commoda praemii, quando estis et sudoris terminum consecuti. non vos anxia mora suspendimus nec cruciabili dilatione fatigamus. unus sit finis sollicitudinis et laboris. nam differendum quis putet, si beneficia sua vendere non retractet?

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern cassiodorus retranslated v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cassiodorus/varia11.shtml

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