Cassiodorus→Honorati, landowners, defenders, and curials of city of Tridentum (Trento)|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus|AI-assisted
property economics
9. King Theoderic to the landholders, defenders, and councillors residing at Estunae.
[1] It is indeed our purpose to construct new things, but still more to preserve the old, since we can win no less praise from things discovered than from things kept safe. Accordingly we desire to raise up modern works without the diminishing of those of former times, for whatever comes by another's loss is not held acceptable to our sense of justice. [2] And so we have learned that in your township there lie unused columns and stones torn down by the spite of age; and since to preserve things lying about unbecomingly profits nothing, they ought rather to rise again to a restored adornment than to display grief out of the memory of preceding ages. [3] And therefore by the present authority we decree that, if the report of those who petition us is truthful and nothing is now found suited to public ornament, you are to hand over by every means the aforesaid slabs or columns to be conveyed to the city of Ravenna: so that, the fallen masonry being restored, a face once effaced may again be rendered by most beautiful art, and the things that had been darkened by neglect may recover the quality of their ancient brightness.
VIIII. POSSESSORIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS ESTUNIS CONSISTENTIBUS THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Propositi quidem nostri est nova construere, sed amplius vetusta servare, quia non minorem laudem de inventis quam de rebus possumus adquirere custoditis. proinde moderna sine priorum imminutione desideramus erigere: quicquid enim per alienum venit incommodum, nostrae iustitiae non probatur acceptum. [2] In municipio itaque vestro sine usu iacere comperimus columnas et lapides vetustatis invidia demolitos: et quia indecore iacentia servare nil proficit, ad ornatum debent surgere redivivum quam dolorem monstrare ex memoria praecedentium saeculorum. [3] Atque ideo praesenti auctoritate decernimus, ut, si vera fides est suggerentium nec aliquid publico nunc ornatui probatur accommodum, supra memoratas platonias vel columnas ad Ravennatem civitatem contradat modis omnibus devehendas: ut conlapsis metallis oblitterata facies reddatur iterum de arte pulcherrima et quae situ fuerant obscura, antiqui nitoris possint recipere qualitatem.
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9. King Theoderic to the landholders, defenders, and councillors residing at Estunae.
[1] It is indeed our purpose to construct new things, but still more to preserve the old, since we can win no less praise from things discovered than from things kept safe. Accordingly we desire to raise up modern works without the diminishing of those of former times, for whatever comes by another's loss is not held acceptable to our sense of justice. [2] And so we have learned that in your township there lie unused columns and stones torn down by the spite of age; and since to preserve things lying about unbecomingly profits nothing, they ought rather to rise again to a restored adornment than to display grief out of the memory of preceding ages. [3] And therefore by the present authority we decree that, if the report of those who petition us is truthful and nothing is now found suited to public ornament, you are to hand over by every means the aforesaid slabs or columns to be conveyed to the city of Ravenna: so that, the fallen masonry being restored, a face once effaced may again be rendered by most beautiful art, and the things that had been darkened by neglect may recover the quality of their ancient brightness.
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
VIIII. POSSESSORIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS ESTUNIS CONSISTENTIBUS THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Propositi quidem nostri est nova construere, sed amplius vetusta servare, quia non minorem laudem de inventis quam de rebus possumus adquirere custoditis. proinde moderna sine priorum imminutione desideramus erigere: quicquid enim per alienum venit incommodum, nostrae iustitiae non probatur acceptum. [2] In municipio itaque vestro sine usu iacere comperimus columnas et lapides vetustatis invidia demolitos: et quia indecore iacentia servare nil proficit, ad ornatum debent surgere redivivum quam dolorem monstrare ex memoria praecedentium saeculorum. [3] Atque ideo praesenti auctoritate decernimus, ut, si vera fides est suggerentium nec aliquid publico nunc ornatui probatur accommodum, supra memoratas platonias vel columnas ad Ravennatem civitatem contradat modis omnibus devehendas: ut conlapsis metallis oblitterata facies reddatur iterum de arte pulcherrima et quae situ fuerant obscura, antiqui nitoris possint recipere qualitatem.