Letter 10023: I write to you from a Rome that is, in the literal sense, less Roman than the Rome I grew up in; the changes are...

One consolation, my Lords Emperors [the address "ddd. imppp." = domini imperatores, i.e. the joint emperors Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius], the outcome has granted to my injuries: that Hesperius [Decimus Hilarianus Hesperius, a high official], a man of senatorial rank and illustrious, and one ever devoted to Your Clemency, was sent to Rome for the sake of the public welfare. For if I did not have him as a witness of the insults I have endured, who would doubt that the prefecture which at Rome is superior to the rest [the Urban Prefecture] had done some turbulent thing by abuse of its power? Since he is always a friend to the truth and cherishes the good name of these good times, he will not, if your Eternity grants the opportunity, keep silent about this contempt of the laws and of the age. I, for my part, will recount as I can a few things out of many, going back a little to the causes which, as I judge, stirred up these intrigues against me. When, in keeping with the diligence that ought to be present in all judges, an accounting was demanded of the public silver which the registrars of the census-officers [the censuales, officials handling tax registers] had contributed as their public service, among other frauds it was discovered that certain men, although discharged from their obligations, had not paid the expense owed to the state, and that, in order that this deceit might be covered up, an equal sum was charged against the census-officers under false entries out of another's silver, as much as the two of them ought to have contributed. When the most distinguished men [the clarissimi viri] had of their own accord repaid this without the addition of any penalty, I consulted the senate after the ancient custom, as to what the authority of the Fathers might advise in a matter of common concern. After several opinions had been delivered, the assent of the revered order approved my action. A few days later, when a man of senatorial rank and praiseworthy, the Vicar, had come to Rome, a man of senatorial rank, an advocate of my court, Celsus, his associate, who flocked to him, willingly came forward to give an account of an unlawful deed, because he said he had been afraid lest he be suborned at the instigation of the office-staff. You expect, I believe, most august princes, that the prefect, secure both of your judgment and of his own innocence, is said to have decreed something severe: I confess it, and I do not regret it, I tempered my disposition, while I hope for a sure vindication from you. I determined that Felix should be handed over to sureties who were not known to Fulgentius. What milder, what more lenient course could have been decided? Then he goes forth as though about to comply; but when the chief of the office-staff had gone to his house once and again, and could not bend the man's obstinate defiance, he brought back an empty bond, by which he [Fulgentius] had by a pledge deferred the surrender of Felix to the next day. He keeps at his house a witness whom he knew was to be heard concerning himself; this injury too I take up with patience. Blame me, as you wish, as it is fitting: I knew that the case of the judges is the better, which is reserved to the masters of affairs [i.e. to you, the emperors]. We await that on the next day he should be restored, equipped as the office-staff requires; but he, at the next day's dawn, as the records will show, contrary to the good faith of the recognizance, is carried off to be handed over to the vicarial power. When the chief of the office-staff learned this, he hurried out accompanied by a few men; he holds back Felix in a crowded place of the city, yet does not snatch him away; thus Fulgentius, who pretends he was beaten, resisted the laws with a stronger hand. Meanwhile Felix is carried off by soldiers of the vicarial power, and the chief of my office-staff is heard [tried] beneath the gaze of the Roman populace. I shall see what your Perpetuity ought to judge concerning this deed; I shall keep to the order of events. Under the examination of another investigating judge, the litigant confesses that nothing was charged upon him by my attendants against Fulgentius. Hence by his order he is conducted by the chiefs of both office-staffs to the common secretariat, to which I had gathered all the leading men for the purpose of making the offering [oblatio]; for nothing had been found that could implicate the prefecture. Then Fulgentius, struck by the consciousness of his own deed, complains that he had been beaten; but presently this part was cleared up by the reply of the same Felix and of the most devoted man, the chief of staff. And yet I did not deny a hearing to his complaints; with the most distinguished and respectable man, the Vicar, taken into partnership of the inquiry, if he wished, he [Fulgentius] promised to give the names of plebeian witnesses to be set down, in order, I believe, that through delay either my grievance, short of satisfaction, might soften, or he himself might again contrive other intrigues. He, as the matter shows, from the consciousness of the suborned man by whom a petition was presented to the vicarial power, having had the proceedings drawn up privately before that same man, dared to demand that his attendants, whom on account of the litigant's departure he [the Vicar?] had ordered to be detained in the custody of prison, should not be subjected to injury. After this, having seized the use of the public post and disregarding the court, conscious of his bold deed he flew off, in order to forestall the prefecture's just complaints, ignorant, as the matter is, that the parents of the human race [i.e. you, the emperors] are moved more by justice than by ill-will. That these things were thus done, and are disguised by no artifice, the attached documentation will testify. In which your Eternity will find that the prefecture, which you conferred upon me by an untainted judgment, has not striven for so much as the vindication of public discipline, though every injury was given way to which all good men presume ought to be vindicated for the vigor of the age. For this hope and confidence broke the authority of the power entrusted to me, so that the authors of my honor may defend with just severity the insult both to the public dignity and to their own judgment. Subscribed on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Aelianus.

Vnum levamen iniuriis meis tribuit eventus , ddd. imppp. , ut Romam publicae utilitatis gratia v. c. et inlustris cleraentiaeque vestrae semper dicatus comes Hesperius mitteretur; nam si eum testem contumeliarum , quas pertuli, non haberem, qois dubitaret, eam praefecturam , quae Romae est superior ceteris, turbidum aliquid pro potestate fecisseV is, quoniam semper amicus est veritati et famam bonomm temporum colit, si dederit aeteraitas vestra copiam, contemptum legum ac saeculi non silebit: ego, ut potero, de multis pauca narrabo repetitis paululum causis, quae mihi, ut arbitror, has insidias excitamnt. cum pro diligentia, quae debet omnibus inesse iudicibus, argenti publici ratio quaereretur, quod censualium editores munemm contulerunt, inter ceteras fraudes repertum est, quosdam functionibus absolutos sumptum debitum rei publicae non dedisse et, ut fallacia ista tegeretur, ex alieno argento tantundem censualibus falsis titulis inputat^/m, quantum duo conferre debuerant. hoc cum clarissimi viri sponte sine adiectione dispendii reddidissent, senatum prisco more consului, quid in communi causa patmm innueret auctoritas. dictis aliquot sententiis factum meum reverendi ordinis probavit adsensio. interiectis diebns cum Romam v. c. et laudabilis vicarius commeasset, v. c. causidicus fori mei Celsus, socius eius, qui TMr convolavit facti inliciti volens praestare rationem , quod sibi metnm fuisse dicebat , ne officii subornaretur inpulsu. expectatis , credo , aagustissimi principes , ut praefectns et iudicii vestri securus et innocentiae suae, aliqnid severum censuisse dicatur: fateor, neque paenitet, animum temperavi, dum certam de vobis spero vindictam. statui , ut Felix vadibus , qui Fulgentio non essent cogniti , traderetur. quid mitius decemi, quid remissius potuit? tunc ille tamquam cessurus egreditur; sed cum ad eius aedes semel atque iterum princeps ofGcii commeasset et obstinatam hominis contnmaciam non posset inflectere, inanem syngrapham reportavit, qua redhibitionem Felicis in alterum diem sponsione distulerat. tenet domi testem, quem de se noverat audiendum; etiam huius iniuriae adsumo patientiam. culpate, ut vultis, ut dignum lo est: scivi meliorem esse iudicum causam, quae rerum dominis reservatur. expectamus, ut altero die quami;/* instructus officio redderetur; at ille crastina luce, ut gesta monstrabunt, adversum cautionis fidem vicariae potestati tradendus abducitur. hoc ubi princeps officii conperit, paucis comitatns excurrit; retinet Felicem celebri urbis loco nec tamen eripit; ita Fulgentius, qui se simulat verberatum, manu va- i5 lidiore Icgibus repugnavit. interea Felix a militibns vicariae potestatis abducitur, et fcum princeps officii mei sub conspectu Romanae plebis auditur. videro, quid de hoc facto perennitas vestra debeat iudicare; ego ordinem tenebo gestorum. fatetur sub alterins cognitoris examine litigator, nihil sibi ab apparitoribus meis adversum Fulgentium esse mandatum. hinc iussu eius ad commune secretarinm , quo faciendae oblationis gratia summates qnosque conduxeram, a principibus officii utriusque perducitur; nihil enim rcpertum fnerat, quod praefecturam posset involvere. tunc Fulgentius facti sui conscientia percitus, caesum se esse conqueritur; sed mox eiusdem Felicis ac devotissimi viri principis responsione pars ista pnrgata est. et tamen qnerellae eius andientiam non negavi, clarissimo et spectabili viro vicario in societatem cognitionis, si vellet, adscito stuere nomina testium plebeiomm danda promisit, credo, ut per moram vel meus dolor praeter satisfactionem mitesceret vel ipse rnrsus alias moliretur insidias. qui, ut res indicat, conscientia hominis snbomati, a quo vicariae potestati libellus oblatus est, domestice confectis apud eundem actis ausus est postulare, ne apparitores eius, quos ob discessum litigatoris custodia carceris so iusserat adtineri, iniuriae subiacerent. post haec usurpato cursu publico neglectoqne iudicio audacis facti conscius evolavit, ut praefecturae iustas querimonias praeveniret, ignarus, ut res est, parentes generis humani magis iustitia quam invidia commoveri. haec ita esse gesta nec ulla arte fucari, instmctio subiecta testabitur. in qua repperiet aeternitas vestra, praefecturam , quam in me puro iudicio contulistis, nihil saltem ad vindictam publicae disciplinae esse molitam, cnm omnibus iniuriis cederetnr, quas boni quique praesumunt pro vigore saeculi vindicandas. haec enim spes et fiducia ius creditae mihi potestatis infregit, nt anctores honoris mei et publicae dig- TMr nitatis et iudicii sui contumeliam iusta severitate defendant. ss. iiu. kl. Aug. Aeliano ocab.