Letter 4037: King Theodoric to Theodagunda, Illustrious Lady.

37. KING THEODERIC TO THEODAGUNDA, A LADY OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK. [1] It befits your prudence to extend a watchful care over the affairs of your dependents, since by your ordering those things ought to be done which can display a royal presence. For thus we believe, that, mindful of your birth, you cast off from yourself everything corrupt and are able to love those things alone which you know that we too love. The examples of your forefathers might perhaps be blotted out, were the deeds of a long lineage less often recalled; sons who resemble their fathers, however, soon follow after the praises of their fathers. [2] And so Renatus has complained to us by a tearful petition that, with you assigning the judges, he obtained a judgment against a woman called Inquilina after long intervals of time, and that, worn out by his vigils and losses, he at last looked to your justice; and yet that the wicked false accusation of the litigant does not cease, while with revived suits she pursues the slender means of the suppliant, so that she seems to have sought not so much the desire of winning as the ruin of her adversary. [3] Wherefore, if you recognize that the matters were adjudged by your command, and it is not established that the adversary appealed lawfully, cause the business, finished by law, to remain in its firm standing, lest the long dispute of the litigants should not so much increase their patrimonies as overturn them, and what is done for the pursuit of gain should appear to be a cause of loss.

XXXVII. THEODAGUNDAE ILLUSTRI FEMINAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Decet prudentiae vestrae curam subiectorum negotiis adhibere custodiam, quia vobis ordinantibus illa fieri debent quae regiam possunt demonstrare praesentiam. sic enim credimus, quia memor natalium tuorum a te abicias omne vitiosum et illa sola diligere possis, quae et nos amare cognoscis. proavorum forsitan oblitterentur exempla, si longi generis minus facta recolantur: similes autem filii patrum praeconia mox sequuntur. [2] Renatus itaque flebili nobis aditione conquestus est vobis delegantibus cognitores iudicatum se contra Inquilinam nomine post longa temporis intervalla meruisse et excubiis damnisque confecto vestram tandem prospexisse iustitiam: nec tamen litigatoris improbam cessare calumniam, dum redivivis litibus tenuitatem insequitur supplicantis, ut non tam vincendi votum quam adversarii videatur quaesisse detrimentum. [3] Quapropter si vobis iubentibus iudicata cognoscitis nec constat adversarium provocasse legaliter, finitum iure negotium in sua manere facite firmitate, ne longa quaestio litigantium non tam augeat patrimonia, sed evertat et quod fit ambitu lucri, causa videatur esse dispendii.