Letter 5039: VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 39

39. King Theoderic to Ampelius, Most Distinguished Man, and to Liuvirit, Most Eminent Man. [1] It is fitting that the provinces subject to our kingdom, with God's help, be ordered by laws and good morals, since that life is truly the life of human beings which is contained within the order of law. For it is the way of beasts to live according to chance: they, while they are carried along by the lust to plunder, succumb to unforeseen rashness. The skilled farmer, in short, clears his field of thorny brambles, since it is the cultivator's praise if the rural soil is made pleasant with the sweetest fruits. Thus the most pleasant peace of the people and the tranquil arrangement of the regions is shown to be the public proclamation of those who reign. [2] And so from the complaint of many we have learned that in the province of Spain, which is the greatest crime among mortals, the lives of men are subject to ruin through roving presumption and on the occasion of trivial causes, and that many undergo death. Thus through an evil peace, as if in sport, they fall in such numbers as could scarcely have fallen under the necessity of wars. Furthermore, the provincials are reported to be made subject to fortune not by the public registers, as is the custom, but by the arbitrary will of the collectors. This is a kind of manifest plunder: to give according to the will of him who, for his own advantage, hastens to exact still more. [3] Desiring to come to the aid of this matter with royal foresight, we have decided that your Sublimity should be appointed throughout the whole of Spain in the place of a gift, so that under the novelty of your administration nothing may be permitted to inveterate custom. But, after the manner of physicians who apply speedy remedies to the more violent diseases, let the beginning of our cure be made there, where the greater danger is known to be. [4] We command the crime of homicide to be cut off by the authority of the laws; but the more severe the penalty is, the more inquiry ought to be made into the matter, lest, through love of vengeance, the innocent should appear to undergo the perils of their lives. Therefore let only the guilty perish in the correction of many, since this too is a kind of piety: to restrain the infancy of crime, lest it grow strong by increments. [5] Those who exact the public assessment, moreover, are said to oppress the patrimonies of the landholders through the burdens of weights, so that it seems to be not so much a collection as a plundering. But, in order that every occasion of fraud may be abolished, we command that all public dues be paid in to the standard of our chamber, which has been given to you at present. For what is so wicked as that the presumptuous should be permitted to sin even in the very quality of the balance, so that what is properly granted to justice should be known to be corrupted through frauds? [6] As for the lessees of the royal house, of whatever nation they may be sprung, we decree, the truth having been examined to clarity, that they should pay only as much as our estates shall be established to assess. And lest his labor should seem to anyone unrewarded, we wish allowances to be established for them by your equity according to the quality of the property leased. For they are to be called not our lands, but theirs, if the measure of the payment should turn out according to the will of the lessee. [7] As for the levy on overseas goods, then, where no small fraud is reported to be done to the public interests, we command you attentively to investigate and to define the fixed amount according to the quality of their means, since against frauds it is a useful remedy to know what they bring in. [8] The mint-workers, moreover, who it is agreed were specially devised for public use, we have learned have passed over into the private profit of individuals. Let this presumption be removed, and let them be applied to the public functions according to the quality of their means. [9] The levy on the customs-toll, too, allow to be confounded by no usurpation, but, imposing the measure most useful to affairs which it ought to furnish, recall the license of trading to an equitable principle, lest the ambitious enormity of the exactors should extend itself into the boundless. [10] Furthermore, the conduct of Laetus, whose conscience is assailed by the greatest ill-will, we judge should be examined with our accustomed equity, so that neither may fraud be concealed by cunning machinations, nor may innocence be burdened by false accusations. [11] But whomever you find to have been engaged in thieving actions, let them, by your estimation, restore the money they have suppressed according to the quantity of their fortunes. But if it should be established that these things have been scattered through others, let those too be held no less liable who, knowing it, allowed themselves to be mixed up in such an action: for they have stood forth as accomplices of the crime who did not disclose the deeds of the plunderer. [12] The fixed tenor of the allowances which our humanity bestows on various persons is reported to the provincials to be an intolerable cause of losses, since it is exacted both in kind and the price of it is shamelessly demanded. These are the proofs of detestable greed: to sell off for themselves the goods due to them, and then straightway to return to the shamelessness of exacting. This seems exceedingly improper, exceedingly absurd, that they should both pass over our ordinances and appear to have afflicted the substance of the taxpayers, who ought to be cherished. Let them therefore be content with the prescribed measure, whether stationed in that place, or no less dispatched from here: let them have the freedom to seek only one of the two, provided that by a doubled exaction they do not burden the fortunes of others. [13] The license of the exactors, too, is said to be such that more is extorted from the provincials than is established to be paid in to our chamber. This matter, having been examined with diligent scrutiny, we decree that you recall the public functions to that measure which it is established were paid in the times of Alaric and Euric. [14] We have learned, then, from the complaint of the provincials, that those who have post-horses assigned to them exact the conveyance-services of the extra relay-horses. Permit no one whatever to presume this, since through most shameful gains both the landholder is worn down and the speed of travelers is impeded. [15] The class of overseers also, which they complain was devised for a ruinous protection, we wish to be removed root and branch, both from private possession and from public, since that is no defense which is furnished to the unwilling: what is endured by the reluctant is suspect. For that is in truth a benefit, if it is received without murmuring. Therefore we decree that the services which were superfluously rendered to the Goths stationed in the city be removed. For it is not fitting to seek menial service from the freeborn, whom we have sent to fight for liberty.

XXXVIIII. AMPELIO V. I. ET LIVVIRIT V. S. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Decet provincias regno nostro deo auxiliante subiectas legibus et bonis moribus ordinari, quia illa vita vere hominum est, quae iuris ordine continetur. nam beluarum ritus est sub casu vivere: quae dum rapiendi ambitu feruntur, inprovisa temeritate succumbunt. agrum suum denique a dumosis sentibus doctus purgat agricola, quia laus excolentis est, si agreste solum dulcissimis fructibus amoenetur. sic quies suavissima populi et dispositio tranquilla regionum praeconium probatur esse regnantum. [2] Multorum itaque querela comperimus in provincia Hispaniae, quod summum inter mortales crimen est, vitas hominum vaga praesumptione populari et levium occasione causarum subire multos interitum. sic mala pace quasi ludo corruunt, quanti vix potuissent cadere sub necessitate bellorum. dehinc non polyptychis publicis, ut moris est, sed arbitrio compulsorum suggeruntur provincialium subiacere fortunae. quod genus evidentis est praedae pro illius voluntate dare, qui ad suum commodum amplius festinat exigere. [3] Cui rei nos regali providentia succurrere cupientes sublimitatem vestram per universam Hispaniam loco muneris credidimus destinandam, ut sub ordinationis vestrae novitate inveteratae possit consuetudini nil licere. verum ut more medicorum saevioribus morbis accelerata remedia tribuamus, inde curationis nostrae fiat initium, ubi maius noscitur esse periculum. [4] Homicidii scelus legum iubemus auctoritate resecari: sed quantum vehementior poena est, tanto eius rei debet inquisitio plus haberi, ne amore vindictae innocentes videantur vitae pericula sustinere. pereant itaque soli nocentes in correctione multorum, quando et hoc pietatis genus est coercere infantiam criminis, ne iuvenescat augmentis. [5] Exigentes vero assem publicum per gravamina ponderum premere dicuntur patrimonia possessorum, ut non tam exactio quam praeda esse videatur. sed ut totius fraudis abrogetur occasio, ad libram cubiculi nostri, quae vobis in praesenti data est, universas functiones publicas iubemus inferri. quid enim tam nefarium quam praesumptoribus liceat in ipsa etiam trutinae qualitate peccare, ut quod est iustitiae proprie datum, hoc per fraudes noscatur esse corruptum? [6] Conductores domus regiae, quacumque gente sint editi, ad liquidum veritate discussa tantum decernimus solvere, quantum nostra praedia constiterit pensitare. et ne cuiquam labor suus videatur ingratus, solaria eis pro qualitate locatae rei vestra volumus aequitate constitui. non enim nostra, sed illorum rura dicenda sunt, si pro voluntate conducentis modus eveniat pensionis. [7] Transmarinorum igitur canonem, ubi non parva fraus fieri utilitatibus publicis intimatur, vos attonite iubemus exquirere atque statutum numerum pro virium qualitate definire, quia contra fraudes utile remedium est nosse quod inferant. [8] Monetarios autem, quos specialiter in usum publicum constat inventos, in privatorum didicimus transisse compendium. qua praesumptione sublata pro virium qualitate functionibus publicis applicentur. [9] Telonei quinetiam canonem nulla faciatis usurpatione confundi, sed modum rebus utillimum, quem praestare debeat, imponentes commerciandi licentiam aequabili ratione revocate, ne se tendat in vagum ambitiosa enormitas exigentium. [10] Actus praeterea Laeti, cuius conscientia summa pulsatur invidia, sub consueta nobis censemus aequitate perquiri, ut nec fraus astutis machinationibus occulatur nec innocentia falsis criminationibus ingravetur. [11] Quoscumque vero in furtivis actionibus reperitis fuisse versatos, pro fortunarum quantitate suppressam reddant vestra aestimatione pecuniam. quod si haec per alios dispersa esse constiterit, et illi nihilominus teneantur obnoxii qui scientes passi sunt in tali actione misceri: complices enim extiterunt criminis, qui non detexerunt facta raptoris. [12] Praebendarum tenor adscriptus, quem nostra diversis largitur humanitas, provincialibus suggeritur intolerabilis causa esse damnorum, quando et in species exigitur et impudenter eius pretium postulatur. detestabilis cupiditatis sunt ista documenta competentia sibi distrahere et ad exigendi impudentiam mox redire. quod nimis improbum, nimis videtur absurdum, ut et nostra constituta praetereant et tributariorum, qui fovendi sunt, videantur afflixisse substantiam. sint igitur praefixo modo contenti, sive ibidem positi, sive hinc nihilominus destinati: habeant liberum unum tantum de duobus expetere, dummodo geminata exactione fortunae alienas non debeant ingravare. [13] Exactorum quoque licentia amplius fertur a provincialibus extorqueri, quam nostro cubiculo constat inferri. quod diligenti examinatione discussum ad hunc vos modum functiones publicas revocare decernimus, quem Alarici atque Eurici temporibus constat illatas. [14] Paraveredorum itaque subvectiones exigere eos, qui habent veredos adscriptos, provincialium querela comperimus. quod nullum penitus sinatis praesumere, quando per turpissimos quaestus et possessor atteritur et commeantium celeritas impeditur. [15] Vilicorum quoque genus, quod ad damnosam tuitionem queruntur inventum, tam de privata possessione quam publica funditus volumus amoveri, quia non est defensio, quae praestatur invitis: suspectum est quod patiuntur nolentes. nam hoc est re vera beneficium, si sine murmure feratur acceptum. servitia igitur quae Gothis in civitate positis superflue praestabantur, docernimus amoveri. non enim decet ab ingenuis famulatum quaerere, quos misimus pro libertate pugnare.