Letter 4036: King Theodoric to Faustus, Praetorian Prefect.

XXXVI. King Theoderic to Faustus, Praetorian Prefect. [1] It is the mark of a most provident ruler to relax the burden of tribute for those who are gravely diminished, so that, restored to their efforts anew, those who had collapsed under the bitterness of their losses may be revived for the discharge of their public obligations. For if the burden is not lightened for the exhausted, by necessity a man is seen to lie prostrate. It is better, indeed, to disregard present losses than, for the sake of a trifling gain, not to possess lasting benefits. [2] And therefore let your illustrious magnificence understand that we have remitted the public tax for the third indiction to the provincials of the Cottian Alps, whom our army, passing through after the manner of a river, oppressed even as it watered them. For although it burst forth, with roaring assembly, for the general security, yet in passing it laid waste the cultivated fields of those people. For a river always scrapes away its own channel, and although, gently overflowing, it makes fertile the neighboring lands, yet it renders barren that very place into which, once gathered, it has flowed. [3] Whence it was necessary to extend a saving right hand to those cast down by the devastation of their towns, lest, ungrateful, they say that they alone have perished for the defense of all: rather let them be mingled with rejoicing, who furnished the road of Italy to its defenders. For tribute ought not to be exacted in sorrow from those through whom I have happily acquired my tributaries. Let our mind speak on their behalf what a subject cannot impute to his king: we have purchased the prosperity of the Goths at our own expense; we provided the necessities, so that the enemy might be vanquished without our being harmed.

XXXVI. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Providentissimi principis est graviter imminutis relinquere tributariam functionem, ut redivivis studiis ad implenda sollemnia recreentur qui pressi damnorum acerbitate defecerant. nam si fessis minime relevetur onus, necessitate cernitur iacere prostratus. melius est enim praesentia damna contemnere quam exiguo quaestu perpetua commoda non habere. [2] Atque ideo illustris magnificentia tua provincialibus Alpium Cottiarum assem publicum per tertiam indictionem nos relaxasse cognoscat, quos transiens noster exercitus more fluminis, dum irrigavit, oppressit. nam licet pro generali securitate frementi adunatione proruperit, praeteriens tamen istorum culta vastavit. radit enim semper fluvius alveum suum et licet molliter egrediens vicina fecundet, illud tamen reddit sterile, quo collectus influxerit. [3] Unde necesse fuit civica vastatione deiectis porrigere dexteram salutarem, ne ingrati dicant se perisse solos pro defensione cunctorum: misceantur potius laetitiae, qui viam Italiae defensoribus praestiterunt. tributa enim non debent tristes exigi, per quos tributarios feliciter adquisivi. dicat pro illis noster animus, quod regi non potest imputare subiectus. emimus nostro dispendio prosperitatem Gothorum: nos necessaria praebuimus, ut hostis vinceretur illaesus.