Letter 6008: VARIAE, BOOK 6, LETTER 8

VIII. FORMULA FOR THE OFFICE OF COUNT OF THE PRIVATE ESTATES [comes rerum privatarum, the imperial official in charge of the crown's private property]. [1] The Count of the Private Estates, just as the very designation of the name is felt to sound, is reported to have once governed the private property of the emperors through the care of the financial accountants [rationales]. And because it could not exercise the high station of a judge among men bent down by the lowest conditions, it took up, by provident deliberation, other titles as well, lest the Latial dignity should seem to have its business only with household slaves; rather, it occupied itself thereafter more happily with urban affairs, after it had decently let go of the cases of rustics. [2] For what, in the first place, would the public laws accomplish among slaves, who had no legal standing before the laws? No advocate was present there, the parties did not contend with one another in solemn proceeding; the council-chamber was a thing confounded by unpolished disorder, and it was called a court only by misuse, where the sayings of the prudent jurists were not cited by the parties. Now the dignity employs itself with the cases of free men, and is truly held to be a lawful presiding officer, since it is felt to be able to adjudicate concerning the fortunes of the freeborn. [3] First, against wicked lusts and the depraved appetites of the human race, the guardianship has been decreed to you as though to a public parent, that no one should defile himself by a shameful union, while showing no reverence for kindred blood. For the public gravity has distinguished, by careful estimation, the sanctity of nearness and the grace of union, because something far different is owed to the nature of kinship than what we are able to allow to bodily license. Against these you are chosen as a sole and self-restrained inquisitor, so that, while you prosecute such disgraces, you may attain the praises of chastity. [4] Moreover, the equitable laws have committed to your conscience even the sacred repose of the dead, that no one should strip the tombs that are clad in marbles, that no one should presume upon the ornament of the columns with irreligious rashness, that no one should, by a criminal searching, uncover the ashes of others that have been consumed either by length of time or by the devouring flame, lest the body, which had once left behind the troubles of the world, should again suffer human plots. For although corpses do not feel thefts, he is recognized to be a stranger to all piety who is shown to have taken anything away from the dead. See what things have been entrusted to you: the chastity of the living and the security of the dead. [5] You have also, throughout the provinces, no slight quantity from the perpetual right of tributes. You direct the collectors of the canon [canonicarii, tax-collectors], you warn the landholders, and with other judges you share no small jurisdictions. You do not allow lapsed property [caduca bona, ownerless or escheated goods] to remain vacant. Thus what a usurper was able to seize, you cause our treasury to obtain by just gains. You lawfully prefer to us the next of kin of the deceased, because in this case the person of the prince is after all others; but from this source we desire not to acquire, provided there be those who ought to possess what was left behind. [6] The deposited monies, too, which through long age have lost their proper owners, are applied to our treasuries by your inquiry, so that we, who suffer all men to possess their own, should have others' property willingly offered to us. For indeed he loses without loss what is found, who does not forfeit his own. [7] Accordingly, that it may be applied under happy auspices, by the indiction of such a year [the regnal/fiscal year named in the actual appointment] we adorn you with the honor of the Count of the Private Estates, which the laws have decreed to be equal even to the prefects; for it too is a courtly power, to be revered by our palace by right, which you will cause to grow beyond its bounds, if you administer with self-restraint the dignity you have undertaken.

VIII. FORMULA COMITIVAE PRIVATARUM. [1] Comitiva privatarum, sicut nominis ipsius sentitur insonare vocabulum, per rationalium curam quondam principum privatam fertur gubernasse substantiam. et quia iudicis fastigium exercere non poterat inter homines extremis condicionibus inclinatos, alios quoque titulos provida deliberatione suscepit, ne dignitas Latialis causam tantum modo videretur habere cum famulis, sed actibus urbanis tunc se felicius occupavit, postquam agrestium causas decenter amisit. [2] Quid enim prius facerent inter servos iura publica, qui personam legibus non habebant? non ibi advocatus aderat, non se partes sollemni actione pulsabant; erat secretarium impolita seditione confusum et appellabatur abusive iudicium, ubi non allegabantur a partibus dicta prudentium. utitur nunc dignitas liberorum causis et legitimus praesul veraciter habetur, quando de ingenuorum fortunis disceptare posse sentitur. [3] Primum tibi contra nefarias libidines et humani generis improbos appetitus quasi parenti publico decreta custodia est, ne quis se probrosa commixtione pollueret, dum vicino sanguini reverentiam non haberet. gravitas enim publica proximitatis sanctitatem et coniunctionis gratiam habita aestimatione discrevit, quia longe aliud debetur proximitatis naturae quam corporali possumus indulgere licentiae. contra hos eligeris unicus et continens inquisitor, ut, dum talia probra persequeris, consequaris praeconia castitatis. [4] Defunctorum quin etiam sacram quietem aequabilia iura tuae conscientiae commiserunt, ne quis vestita marmoribus sepulcra nudaret, ne quis columnarum decorem inreligiosa temeritate praesumeret, ne quis cineres alienos aut longinquitate temporis aut voraci flamma consumptos scelerata perscrutatione detegeret, ne corpus, quod semel reliquerat molestias mundanas, humanas iterum pateretur insidias. nam etsi cadavera furta non sentiunt, ab omni pietate alienus esse dinoscitur, qui aliquid mortuis abrogasse monstratur. vide quae tibi commissa sunt: castitas viventium et securitas mortuorum. [5] Habes quoque per provincias de perpetuario iure tributorum non minimam quantitatem. canonicarios dirigis, possessores ammones, et cum aliis iudicibus non modica iura partiris. caduca bona non sinis esse vacantia. ita quod usurpator potuit invadere, tu fiscum nostrum facis iustis compendiis optinere. proximos defunctorum nobis legaliter anteponis, quia in hoc casu principis persona post omnes est, sed hinc optamus non adquirere, dummodo sint qui relicta debeant possidere. [6] Repositivae quoque pecuniae, quae longa vetustate competentes dominos amiserunt, inquisitione tua nostris applicantur aerariis, ut qui sua cunctos patimur possidere, aliena nobis debeant libenter offerre. sine damno siquidem inventa perdit, qui propria non amittit. [7] Proinde, quod felicibus applicetur auspiciis, per indictionem illam comitivae privatarum te honore decoramus, quam leges praefectis quoque parem esse decreverunt: est enim et ipsa aulica potestas palatio nostro iure reverenda, quam tu facies ultra terminos suos crescere, si susceptam continenter egeris dignitatem.