Letter 5029: VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 29

29. KING THEODERIC TO NEUDIS, A MAN OF THE HIGHEST RANK [vir illustris]. [1] The petition poured out by Anduit did indeed move us, but the loss of the adornment of his sight rendered the man more pitiable still, since a calamity that is seen must necessarily move us more than one that is merely heard. For he, surviving in perpetual night, hastened to our remedies by the benefit of borrowed sight, so that the one he could not see he might at least perceive through the sweetness of our clemency. For he cries out that upon Gudila, or Oppa, a condition of servitude unknown to his lineage is being imposed, although in earlier days he had followed our army under freedom. [2] We have been astonished that such a man should be dragged into servitude who ought rather to have been driven away from his true master. It is a novel grasping after gain to seek out such a one whom you might shudder at and call a slave, to whom you ought, in consideration of divine matters, to render service. For he adds that calumnies of this kind had been set aside, after examination, by Count Pitzia, a man of celebrated reputation, but that now, oppressed by the weight of his own infirmity, he cannot vindicate himself by his own hand-that hand which is proved to stand as a patroness to the strong. [3] But we, whose particular office it is to preserve impartial justice among equals and unequals alike, decree by the present command that, if in the judgment of the aforesaid late Pitzia he proved himself freeborn, you are to remove the calumniators forthwith: nor let those dare any longer to make sport of the necessities of others who, once convicted, ought to have condemned their own wishes.

XXVIIII. NEUDI V. I. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Movit nos quidem Anduit fusa precatio, sed magis miserabiliorem reddidit virum luminis sui ademptus ornatus, quia necesse est ut amplius permoveat visa quam audita calamitas. is enim perpetua nocte superstes ad remedia nostra mutuati luminis beneficio festinavit, ut quem videre non poterat, saltem clementiae suavitate sentiret. clamat enim sibi Gudila vel Oppane incognitam suo generi condicionem servitutis imponi, cum pridem sub libertate nostros fuerit secutus exercitus. [2] Mirati sumus talem in famulatum trahi, qui a vero domino debuisset expelli. novus ambitus talem quaerere, quem possis horrere servumque dicere, cui debeas divina consideratione servire. adiciens enim huiusmodi calumnias Pitziae comitis celebratae opinionis viri sibi examinatione summotas, nunc autem infirmitatis suae mole compressum manu vindicare non posse, quae patrona fortibus probatur assistere. [3] Sed nos, quorum est proprium inter pares se dispares aequabilem iustitiam custodire, praesenti iussione decernimus, ut, si in iudicio supra memorati quondam Pitziae se probavit ingenuum, calumniantes protinus amovete: nec audeant ulterius necessitatibus alienis illudere, quos semel convictos decuerat sua vota damnare.