Letter 5031: VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 31

31. KING THEODERIC TO DECORATUS, A DEVOTED MAN. [1] Thomas, a most distinguished man, complains that within the provinces of Apulia and Calabria certain persons owe a very great sum of money on account of the siliquaticum [a tax levied on sales] for the indictions of the eighth, ninth, eleventh, first, second, and fifteenth years, which he recalls pertained to his own contract of collection. And because the public benefit ought not to be deferred by prolonged mockery, therefore let your devotion, receiving the present decrees, in person approach Marcus the presbyter, Andreas and Simeonius, and the rest whom the brief schedule attached below sets forth, with civility preserved toward all, so that, if it is established that they are debtors to the treasury not through false accusation but truly and manifestly, they shall pay in full the sum which is reasonably demanded, without any diminution. [2] For it must be provided that the temper of contumacious persons should not appear to bring any loss to the public accounts. But those who recognize that less has been charged against them than is due, let them, under your pressure, come before the competent tribunal, so that what accords with equity, the pleading of both parties having been examined, may be fulfilled with the laws kept safe.

XXXI. DECORATO VIRO DEVOTO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Thomas vir clarissimus intra Apuliam Calabriamque provincias de siliquatici titulo indictionum octavae nonae undecimae primae secundae et quintae decimae, quas ad conductionem suam pertinuisse commemorat, nonnullos maximam pecuniae quantitatem debere conqueritur. et quia utilitatem publicam diuturna non convenit ludificatione differri, ideoque devotio tua praesentia decreta suscipiens Marcum presbyterum, Andream et Simeonium vel reliquos, quos brevis subter adnexus eloquitur, servata in omnibus civilitate conveniat, ut, si eos non per calumniam, sed manifestos re vera fisco constiterit esse debitores, summam, quae rationabiliter postulatur, sine aliqua imminutione persolvant. [2] Providendum est enim, ne spiritus contumacium personarum publicis rationibus aliquod videatur afferre dispendium. qui vero minus intentata cognoscunt, ad iudicium competens te imminente conveniant, ut quod aequitati congruit, utrarumque partium allegatione recognita salvis legibus impleatur.