Letter 10025: The political situation in the West has resolved itself, at least for the moment, in ways that are better than I...

Some time ago Cyriades, a man of senatorial rank [vir clarissimus], count and professor of engineering [mechanicae professor], presented a rescript of Your Divinity, O lords emperors [a triple imperial address: the reigning Augusti], by which Your Eternity had ordained that he should clear himself of the accusation brought by certain persons, and in turn press his charges against any whom he might tax with fraud. When he had begun to arraign Auxentius, a man of senatorial rank, while the case was still under examination by my predecessor, after the matter came to my own cognizance he was sharply censured by the word of Auxentius, a man of senatorial rank, on the score of the excessive expenditure on a basilica and a bridge; and Cyriades, a man of equal rank, supposed that he ought to be struck back at by a counter-accusation. It therefore seemed expedient that a trustworthy inspection should assess the building work of each man. I assigned the business to men of, as I judge, conscientious character, and, though Cyriades almost refused, I decreed that masters of the builder's craft, whom he reckoned more favorable to his adversary, should be brought in to appraise the work, the charge and administration of the undertakings nonetheless remaining with Auxentius, since Your Eternity had not yet replaced him in his office by a successor. And so, after several days had passed and while the examination of the work was still pending, the staff that had been assigned to Auxentius gave me notice through the official register [per notoriam] that the most distinguished gentleman had deserted the charge of the works he had undertaken, and that at the very onset of summer, the season when the progress of the building could rise, nothing was being advanced; but since a senator's flight did not seem a thing to be believed rashly, I gave warning that he be sought more diligently. For a long time he was nowhere among any people to be found; and when he was ordered to present himself at the sacred court of Your Divinity, he flew off. Meanwhile Cyriades, a man of senatorial rank, count and engineer, seeing that my arrangement had been frustrated by his departure, much troubled lest his adversary contrive something against him in his absence, demanded that I lay before Your Eternity both the report [relatio] of my predecessor, a man of senatorial rank, and the present proceedings. I could not deny him a hearing, desiring by the same channel to be instructed by the command of Your Divinity what use I should make of the assessment of the expenditures which the outlay of each man consumed; since it falls within my office not to be silent about a deficit in the public treasury. The proceedings appended to this letter will furnish their assurance. When these have been read out and have reached the sacred ears of Your Perennity, I beg and beseech that the uncertainty of my mind be furnished with instruction by imperial replies.