14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO GAUDIOSUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE PROVINCE OF LIGURIA.

[Sidenote: Praises of Como. Relief of its inhabitants.]

'The City of Como[762] is visited by so many travellers that the cultivators of the soil declare that they are quite worn out with requisitions for post-horses[763]. Wherefore we direct that by Royal indulgence they be favoured in this matter[764], that this city, so beautifully situated, do not become a solitude for want of inhabitants.

[Footnote 762: Thus called by Cassiodorus; not Comum.]

[Footnote 763: 'Se possessores paraveredorum assiduitate suggerunt esse fatigatos.']

[Footnote 764: 'Quibus indultu Regali beneficium praecipimus jugiter custodiri.' These words do not make it clear how the inhabitants were relieved by the Royal decree; but it was probably by some gift of money like that which is announced in the next letter.]

'Como, with its precipitous mountains and its vast expanse of lake, seems placed there for the defence of the Province of Liguria; and yet, again, it is so beautiful that one would think it was created for pleasure only. To the south lies a fertile plain with easy roads for the transport of provisions; on the north a lake sixty miles long, abounding in fish, soothing the mind with delicious recreation.

'Rightly is it called Como, because it is adorned (compta) with such gifts. The lake lies in a shell-like valley, with white margins. Above rises a diadem of lofty mountains, their slopes studded with bright villas[765], a girdle of olives below, vineyards above, while a crest of thick chestnut-woods adorns the very summit of the hills. Streams of snowy clearness dash from the hill-sides into the lake. On the eastern side these unite to form the river Addua, so called because it contains the added volume of two streams. It plunges into the lake with such force that it keeps its own colour[766] (dark among the whiter waters) and its own name far along the northern shore[767], a phenomenon often seen with rivers flowing into the ocean, but surely marvellous with one flowing into an inland lake. And so swift is its course as it moves through the alien waves, that you might fancy it a river flowing over the solid plains.

[Footnote 765: 'Praetoriorum luminibus decenter ornata.']

[Footnote 766: So Claudian (De VI Consolata Honorii 196), 'et Addua visu caerulus.']

[Footnote 767: 'Ut nomen retinens et colorem in Septentrionem obesiore alvei ventre generetur.']

'So delightful a region makes men delicate and averse to labour. Therefore the inhabitants deserve especial consideration, and for this reason we wish them to enjoy perpetually the royal bounty.'

15. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE LIGURIANS.

[Announcing the despatch of money to relieve the necessities of the Province, possibly after some incursions of the Franks. This would fit in pretty well with the mention of Astensis Civitas as having suffered the most.]

[Sidenote: Relief of the necessities of Liguria.]

'It is the privilege of a King to increase the happiness of his subjects. Not to postpone your joy by too long a preface, I will come to the point at once, and inform you that our most glorious Lords, taking the necessities of their loyal Liguria into account, have sent 100 lbs. of gold [L4,000] by the hands of A and B, officers of the Royal Bedchamber. You are to say how the money is to be spent, indicating the persons who are in the greatest necessity; but as we are informed that the city of Asti has been more heavily weighted than others, it is our wish that it should be chiefly helped by this disbursement. Now, do you who are tributaries, reflect upon the clemency of your lords, who are inverting the usual order of things, and paying out to you from the Treasury what they are accustomed to receive. Let us know at once how much you think each taxpayer ought to receive, that we may deduct it from his first instalment of land-tax [768].

[Footnote 768: 'Sed ut beneficia Dominorum subtractis exactionum, incommodis augeantur, celerius relatio vestra nos instruat, quid unicuique de hac summa relaxandum esse judicetis, ut tantum de prima illatione faciamus suspendi quantum ad nos notitia directa vulgaverit.' The meaning of Cassiodorus seems quite clear, though it is not easy to understand how far the actual gift of money was supplemented by, or independent of, remission of land-tax.]

'And put up your prayers for your most affectionate Sovereigns, that they may receive back again from Heaven the favour which they are conferring on you.'

16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE LIGURIANS.

[Sidenote: Oppressions practised on the Ligurians to be remedied.]

'In thanking me so earnestly for a recent benefit [probably the present mentioned in the preceding letter] you invited me to further favours, and the implied promise which I then gave you I now fulfil.

'You complain that you are burdened with unjust weights and measures, and I therefore declare that this iniquity shall cease, and that no tax-collector or tithe-collector[769], shall dare to use too long a measure or too heavy a weight [in the collection of the King's revenue].

[Footnote 769: 'Exactores atque susceptores.' For the latter office, see Cod. Theod. xii. 6.]

'Also that their accounts shall be promptly balanced, and that any overcharge that may be detected shall be at once repaid.

'Now then, your minds being freed from anxiety on this score, turn your attention to the supply of the wants of our most flourishing army, and show your zeal for the public good, since we have satisfied you that it is not for private and fraudulent gains that you are to pay your contributions.'

17. ON THE PROMOTIONS IN THE OFFICIAL STAFF OF THE PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, MADE ON CHRISTMAS DAY[770].

[Footnote 770: This letter was probably addressed to the Princeps, the highest person in the whole Officium, as it contains the words 'unus quisque ... tua designatione vulgetur.']

[Sidenote: Promotions in Officium of Praefectus Praetorio.]

'On this day of general rejoicing, when by the kindness of Heaven the way of salvation was opened to all mankind, we wish that the members of our staff should also be glad. For to rejoice, ourselves, when those around us are mourning, is a kind of sacrilege. Hence some philosophers have held that the whole human race is one being, the various members of which are constrained to share one another's feelings of joy or sadness. Therefore let every official in our staff according to his grade[771] get promotion on this day, not only rising himself, but creating a vacancy which enables those below him to rise also.'

[Footnote 771: 'Juxta matriculae seriem.']

[All the Letters from 18 to 35 are documents, for the most part very short ones, relating to these promotions.

For an explanation of the terms used in these letters, and of the whole subject of the staff of the Praetorian Praefect, see chapter iv. of the Introduction.]

In Letter 18, Antianus, who is vacating the office of CORNICULARIUS, receives the rank of Spectabilis, and has a place assigned him among the Tribuni and Notarii, where he may 'adore the presence of his Sovereign[772]'.

[Footnote 772: 'Inter Tribunos et Notarios ad adorandos aspectus properet Principales.']

In Letter 19 the successor of Antianus in the office of CORNICULARIUS receives his appointment.

In Letter 20 the retiring PRIMISCRINIUS also receives the rank of Spectabilis, and takes his place among the Tribuni and Notarii, 'to adore the Purple of Royalty.'

In Letter 21 Andreas is rewarded for his faithful service on the Praetorian staff[773], by being promoted to the office of PRIMISCRINIUS.

[Footnote 773: 'Qui Praetorianis fascibus inculpabiliter noscitur obsecutus.']

In Letter 22 Catellus, who stands next in grade for this promotion[774], obtains the post of SCRINIARIUS ACTORUM.

[Footnote 774: 'Quem matriculae series fecit accedere.']

In Letter 23 Constantinian, to whose virtues Cassiodorus himself bears witness, receives the charge of letters relating to the collection of Land-Tax (CURA EPISTOLARUM CANONICARUM).

In Letter 24 Lucillus is appointed a clerk in the War-Office (SCRINIARIUS CURAE MILITARIS).

In Letter 25 Patricius is appointed chief of the shorthand writers (PRIMICERIUS EXCEPTORUM).

In Letter 26 Justus obtains a place as member of the Sixth Schola (SEXTUS SCHOLARIS[775]).

[Footnote 775: I am unable to suggest any explanation of this title.]

In Letter 27 Joannes, whom we saw in the Sixth Letter of this Book entrusted with the duties of Cancellarius, is rewarded for his faithful discharge of those duties by receiving the place of PRAEROGATIVARIUS[776].

[Footnote 776: I have not found any explanation of this title, which is apparently unknown to the Notitia, to Lydus, and to the Theodosian Code.]

In Letter 28 Cheliodorus[777] is appointed to the place of COMMENTARIENSIS (Magistrates' clerk).

[Footnote 777: Note the corrupt form of the name Heliodorus.]

In Letter 29 Cart(h)erius is promoted to the office of REGERENDARIUS (Secretary of the Post-Office), in the hope that this promotion will render him yet more earnest in the discharge of his Praetorian labours.

In Letter 30 Ursus is appointed PRIMICERIUS DEPUTATORUM, and Beatus (probably the Cancellarius addressed in Letter 10) is made PRIMICERIUS AUGUSTALIUM.

In Letter 31 Urbicus, on vacating the post of PRIMICERIUS SINGULARIORUM (Chief of the King's Messengers), is placed among the Body-guards (Domestici et Protectores), where he may adore the Royal Purple, that, being made illustrious by gazing on the Sovereign, he may rejoice in his liberation from official harassment.

[As the Singularii did not form part of the learned staff (Militia Litterata), their chief on retiring receives a guardsman's place, but still one which gives him access to royalty.]

In Letter 32 Pierius receives the post of PRIMICERIUS SINGULARIORUM which is thus vacated.

[Sidenote: Delegatoria.]

In Letter 33 Cassiodorus, expanding the proverb 'Bis dat qui cito dat,' agrees that the Delegatoria[778] (or Delegatiorius), the letter conferring on the receiver the right to receive the increase of rations due to his promotion, should not be long delayed.

[Footnote 778: We get this sense of Delegatio in Cod. Theod. vii. 4. 35: 'Annonas omnes, quae universis officiis atque Sacri Palatii Ministeriis et Sacris Scriniis ceterisque cunctarum adminiculis dignitatum adsolent delegari.']

In Letter 34 Antianus, the retired Cornicularius of Letter 18, receives a somewhat evasive answer to a petition which apparently affected the rights of those below him in the official hierarchy[779].

[Footnote 779: In this letter occurs a sentence of tantalising obscurity: 'Sola nos Alpha complectitur ubi ea littera non timetur.']

In Letter 35 we have an example of the Delegatoria alluded to in Letter 33. It is concerned with a PRINCEPS, apparently the Princeps of the AGENTES IN REBUS; and, after extolling the zeal and alacrity of those officers, who are constantly intent on enforcing obedience to the Imperial decrees and reverence for the authority of the Praetorian Praefect, he observes that it would be impiety to delay the reward of such labour.

'Therefore let your Experience[780] pay, out of the third instalment of land-tax[781] from such and such a Province, those monies which the wisdom of Antiquity directed should be paid to the Princeps Augustorum[782]. Let this be done at once to those who are chargeable on the accounts of the thirteenth Indiction (Sept. 1, 534—Sept. 1, 535). Let there be no venal delays. Behave to the out-going public servant as you would wish that others should behave to you on your retirement from office. All men should honour the veteran, but especially they who are still toiling in the public service.'

[Footnote 780: It is not clear to whom the letter is addressed.]

[Footnote 781: 'Ex illatione tertia.']

[Footnote 782: The marginal note says: 'i.e. Agentium in Rebus.']

36. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANAT(H)OLIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE PROVINCE OF SAMNIUM.

[Sidenote: The retirement of a Cornicularius on a superannuation allowance justified on astronomical grounds.]

'As all things else come to an end, so it is right that the laborious life of a civil servant should have its appointed term.

'The heavenly bodies have their prescribed time in which to complete their journeyings. Saturn in thirty years wanders over his appointed portion of space. Jupiter in twelve years finishes the survey of his kingdom. Mars, with fiery rapidity, completes his course in eighteen months. The Sun in one year goes through all the signs of the Zodiac. Venus accomplishes her circuit in fifteen months; the rapid Mercury in thirteen months. The Moon, peculiar in her nearer neighbourhood, traverses in thirty days the space which it takes the Sun a year to journey over[783].

[Footnote 783: As might be expected from an observer who did not understand the earth's motion in its orbit, the periods assigned to the inferior planets in this paragraph are all wrong, while those assigned to the superior planets are pretty nearly right.

Periods according to Cassiodorus. True Periods.

Saturn 30 years 29 years 174 days. Jupiter 12 " 11 " 317 " Mars 1 year 182 days 1 year 321 " Venus 1 " 91 " 224 " Mercury 1 " 30 " 88 "]

'All these bodies, which, as philosophers say, shall only perish with the world, have an appointed end to their journeyings. But they complete their course that they may begin it again: the human race serves that it may rest from its ended labours. Therefore, since the Cornicularius in my Court has completed his term of office, you are to pay him without any deduction this 1st September 700 solidi (L420) from the revenues of the Province of Samnium, taking them out of the third instalment of land-tax[784]. He commanded the wings of the army of the Praefect's assistants, from whence he derived his name[785]. When he handed us the inkstand, we wrote, unbribed, those decrees which men would have paid a great price to obtain[786]. We gratified him whom the laws favoured, we frowned on him who had not justice on his side. No litigant had cause to regret his success, since it came to him unbought. You know all this that we are saying to be true, for our business was all transacted in the office, not in the bedchamber. What we did, the whole troop of civil servants knew[787]. We were private persons in our power of harming, Judges in our power of doing good. Our words might be stern, our deeds were kindly. We frowned though mollified; we threatened though intending no evil; and we struck terror that we might not have to strike. You have had in me, as you were wont to say, a most clean-handed Judge: I shall leave behind in you my most uncorrupted witnesses.'

[Footnote 784: 'Per illam Indictionem de Samnii provincia ex illatione tertia sine ambiguitate contrade.']

[Footnote 785: 'Praefuit enim Cornibus Secretarii Praetoriani, unde ei nomen est derivatum.']

[Footnote 786: 'Eo ministrante caliculum scripsimus inempti quod magnis pretiis optabatur impleri.']

[Footnote 787: 'Quod egimus cohortes noverunt.' Observe the military character of the service, 'cohortes.']

37. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS LUCINUS, CANCELLARIUS OF CAMPANIA.

[Sidenote: Payment of retiring Primiscrinius.]

'It was well ordered by Antiquity that the servants of the Public should receive a due reward for their labours; and who of all these are more deserving than the officers of the Praetorian Praefect (Praetoriani). Theirs is the difficult task of waiting on the necessities of the army. They must demand accounts, often minute and intricate, from great officers whom they dare not offend. They must collect the stores of food for the Roman people from the Provincials without giving them cause for complaint[788]. Their acts constitute our true glory; and in the formation of their characters, work, hard work, that stern and anxious pedagogue[789], is better than all literary or philosophic training.

[Footnote 788: 'Eorum est etiam sudoribus applicandum, quod victuales expensae longe quidem positae, sed tamquam in urbe Regia natae [I do not quite understand this antithesis] sine querela Provincialium congregantur.']

[Footnote 789: 'Labores, violenti magistri, solliciti paedagogi, per quos cautior quis efficitur dum incurri pericula formidantur.']

'Such men ought assuredly to receive their stipulated rewards; and therefore we order you to pay regularly so many solidi of the third instalment, from the land-tax of the Province of Campania[790], to such and such a person, who has now just completed his term of service as Primiscrinius.'

[Footnote 790: 'Ex canone provinciae Campaniae tertiae illationis tot solidos solenniter te dare censemus.']

38. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOANNES, CANONICARIUS[791] OF THUSCIA.

[Footnote 791: Tax-collector.]

[Sidenote: Praises of paper.]

'Rightly did Antiquity ordain that a large store of paper should be laid in by our Bureaux (Scrinia), that litigants might receive the decision of the Judge clearly written, without delay, and without avaricious and impudent charges for the paper which bore it[792].

[Footnote 792: Lydus (De Magistratibus iii. 14) makes a similar remark, but says that in his time the copying clerks (Exceptarii, or Exceptores) supplied disgracefully bad paper made of grass, and charged a fee for doing so.]

'A wonderful product in truth is this wherewith ingenious Memphis has supplied all the offices in the world. The plants of Nile arise, a wood without leaves or branches, a harvest of the waters, the fair tresses of the marshes, plants full of emptiness, spongy, thirsty, having all their strength in their outer rind, tall and light, the fairest fruit of a foul inundation.

'Before Paper was discovered, all the sayings of the wise, all the thoughts of the ancients, were in danger of perishing. Who could write fluently or pleasantly on the rough bark of trees, though it is from that practice that we call a book Liber? While the scribe was laboriously cutting his letters on the sordid material, his very thought grew cold: a rude contrivance assuredly, and only fit for the beginnings of the world.

'Then was paper discovered, and therewith was eloquence made possible. Paper, so smooth and so continuous, the snowy entrails of a green herb; paper which can be spread out to such a vast extent, and yet be folded up into such a little space; paper, on whose white expanse the black characters look beautiful; paper which keeps the sweet harvest of the mind, and restores it to the reader whenever he chooses to consult it; paper which is the faithful witness of all human actions, eloquent of the past, a sworn foe to oblivion.

'Therefore for this thirteenth Indiction[793] pay so many solidi from the land-tax of the Tuscan Province to our Bureau, that it may be able to keep in perpetuity a faithful record of all its transactions.'

[Footnote 793: Sept. 1, 534. The reading 'de tertiae decimae Indictionis rationibus' seems required by the sense, instead of 'tertiam de decimae Indictionis rationibus.' It is quite clear that Cassiodorus was not Praetorian Praefect at the tenth Indiction.]

39. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS VITALIAN, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Payment by Province of Bruttii of commuted cattle-tax.]

'The vast numbers of the Roman people in old time are evidenced by the extensive Provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as by the wide circuit of their walls, the massive structure of their amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the enormous multitude of mills, which could only have been made for use, not for ornament.

'It was to feed this population, that mountainous Lucania paid her tribute of swine, that fertile Bruttii furnished her droves of oxen. It was a glorious privilege for them thus to feed the Roman people: yet the length of roads over which the animals had to be driven made the tribute unnecessarily burdensome, since every mile reduced their weight, and the herdsman could not possibly obtain credit at the journey's end for the same number of pounds of flesh which he possessed at its beginning. For this reason the tribute was commuted into a money payment, one which no journeyings can diminish and no toil can wound. The Provinces should understand and respond to this favourable change, and not show themselves more slack than their ancestors were, under far more burdensome conditions. Your Diligence has now collected both these taxes[794] at the appointed periods; and I am glad of it, that my countrymen, who have served alien magistrates with praiseworthy diligence, might not seem negligent under my rule. These Provinces, which I, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather have benefited as private persons, I have endeavoured to help yet more earnestly while I bore the majesty of the fasces, that they who have rejoiced in my exaltation might see that I still retained my love for our common country. Let them pay the tax then, not from fear but from love. I have prevailed on the royal generosity to limit its amount; for whereas it used to be 1,200 solidi [L720] annually, it is henceforward to be 1,000 [L600][795].'

[Footnote 794: 'Ambos titulos.']

[Footnote 795: This sum seems ridiculously small for the Province of Bruttii. Can it be the sum assessed on each district?]

40. AN INDULGENCE [OR AMNESTY TO PRISONERS ON SOME GREAT FESTIVAL OF THE CHURCH, PROBABLY EASTER].

[Sidenote: General Amnesty.]

'All the year we are bound to tread in the path of Justice, but on this day we secure our approach to the Redeemer by the path of Forgiveness. Therefore we forswear punishments of all kinds, we condemn the torture, and thus feel ourselves, in forgiving, to be more truly than ever a Judge.

'Hail to thee, O Clemency[796], patroness of the human race! thou reignest in the heavens and on the earth: and most fitting is it that, at sacred seasons like this, thou shouldest be supreme.

[Footnote 796: 'Indulgentia.']

'Therefore, O Lictor, thou who art allowed to do with impunity the very thing for which other men are punished, put up thy axe; let it be henceforth bright, not bloody. Let the chains which have been so often wet with tears now grow rusty. The prison—that house of Pluto, in which men suffer a living death, from its foul odours, from the sound of groaning which assails their ears, from the long fastings which destroy their taste, from the heavy weights which weary their hands, from the endless darkness which makes their eyes grow dim—let the prison now be filled with emptiness. Never is it so popular as when it is seen to be deserted.

'And you, its denizens, who are thus in a manner transplanted to Heaven from Hell, avoid the evil courses which made you acquainted with its horrors. Even animals shun the things which they have once found harmful. Cattle which have once fallen into a pit seek not again the same road. The bird once snared shuns bird-lime. The pike buries himself in deep sand, that he may escape the drag-net, and when it has scraped his back leaps nimbly into the waves and expresses by his gambols his joy for his deliverance. When the wrasse[797] finds that he is caught in an osier trap, he moves himself slowly backwards till he can leave his tail protruding, that one of his fellows, perceiving his capture, may pull him out from his prison.

[Footnote 797: 'Scarus.']

'So too the Sauri (?), a clever race of fish, named from their speed, when they have swum into a net, tie themselves together into a sort of rope; and then, tugging backwards with all their might, seek to liberate their fellow-prisoners.

'Many facts of the same kind would be discovered on enquiry. But my discourse must return to thee, O Gaoler. Thou wilt be miserable in the general joy, because thou art wont to derive thy gladness from the affliction of many. But as some consolation for thy groans, we leave to thee those prisoners whom the Law, for very pity's sake, cannot set free—the men found guilty of outrageous crimes, whose liberation would make barbarous deeds frequent. Over these thou mayest still exert thy power.'



BOOK XII.

CONTAINING TWENTY-EIGHT LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN HIS OWN NAME AS PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

1. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE VARIOUS CANCELLARII OF THE SEVERAL PROVINCES.

[Sidenote: General instructions to the Cancellarii.]

'It is generally supposed that long attendance at the Courts of Law increases the love of justice. The character of the Judge also is in some degree estimated by that of his officers[798], as that of a philosophical teacher by his disciples. Thus your bad actions might endanger our reputation, while, on the other hand, with no effort on our part, we earn glory from all that you do well. Beware, therefore, lest by any misconduct of yours, which is sure to be exaggerated by popular rumour, you rouse anger in us, who as your Judge will be sure to exact stern recompence for all the wrong you have done to our reputation. Study this rather, that you may receive praise and promotion at our hands, and go forth, with Divine help, on this Indiction, to such and such a Province, adorned with the pomp of the Cancelli, and girt about with a certain proud gravity. Remember the honour of the fasces which are borne before you, of the Praetorian seat whose commands you execute.

[Footnote 798: 'Per milites suos judex intelligitur.']

'Fly Avarice, the Queen of all the vices, who never enters the human heart alone, but always brings a flattering and deceiving train along with her. Show yourself zealous for the public good; do more by reason than by terror. Let your person be a refuge for the oppressed, a defence of the weak, a stronghold for him who is stricken down by any calamity. Never do you more truly discharge the functions of the Cancelli than when you open the prison doors to those who have been unjustly confined.'

2. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES (A.D. 534-535).

[Sidenote: General instructions to the Provincial Governors.]

'God be thanked, the Provincials have attended to all my admonitions, and I have kept all my promises to them. You, as Judges, have admirably copied my own freedom from corruption, and I can only desire that you will go on as you have begun.

'Let the peasant pay cheerfully his share of the public taxes, and I on my part will guarantee him the administration of justice in the courts[799].

[Footnote 799: 'Possessor mihi publicas pecunias libens inferat: ego illi in conventus justitiae tributa persolvam.']

'It was evidently the intention of the legislators that you should be imitators of our dignity, since they have given you almost the same jurisdiction in the Provinces as ourselves.

'What avails the reputation of being a rich man? It confers no glory. But to be known as a just man wins the praise of all. Nothing mean or avaricious is becoming in a Judge. All his faults are made more conspicuous by his elevation. Better were it to be absolutely unknown, than to be marked out for the scorn of all men. Let us keep our own brews clear from shame; then can we rebuke the sins of others. A terrible leveller is iniquity: it makes the Judge himself feel like the culprit who is tried before him. All these considerations, according to my custom, I bring before you in this my yearly address, since it is impossible ever to have too much of a good thing[800].

[Footnote 800:'Haec nos annuo sermone convenit loqui: quia bonarum rerum nulla satietas est.']

'Now, to proceed to business. Do you and your official staff impress upon all the cultivators of the soil the absolute necessity of their paying their land-tax[801] for this thirteenth Indiction[802] at the appointed time. Let there be no pressing them to pay before the time, and no venal connivance at their postponement of payment after the time. What kindness is there in delay? The money must be paid, sooner or later.

[Footnote 801: 'Trina Illatio.']

[Footnote 802: Sept. 1, 534, to Sept. 1, 535.]

'Prepare also a full and faithful statement of the expenditure for every four months[803], and address it to our bureaux[804], that there may be perfect clearness in the public accounts.

[Footnote 803: 'Expensarum fidelem notitiam quaternis mensibus comprehensam.' As the receipts of the Trina Illatio had to be gathered in every four months, the account of Provincial expenditure covered the same period.]

[Footnote 804: 'Ad scrinia nostra dirigere maturabis.']

'In order to help you, we send A and B, members of our official staff, to examine your accounts. See that you come up to the standard of duty here prescribed for you.'

3. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE SAJONES WHO HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO THE CANCELLARII.

[Sidenote: General instructions to the Sajones.]

'There must be fear of the magistrate in the heart of the citizen, else the laws would never be obeyed. But as in medicine various remedies are required by various constitutions, so in the administration of the laws sometimes force and sometimes gentleness has to be used. Wisdom is required to decide which is the best mode of dealing with each particular case.

'Therefore we despatch your Devotion[805] to attend upon A B, Clarissimus Cancellarius. Be terrible to the lawless, but to them alone. Above all things see to the punctual collection of the taxes. Do not study popularity. Attend only to those cases which are entrusted to your care, and work them thoroughly. No greater disgrace can attach to an officer of Court than that a Judge's sentence should be left unexecuted[806]. Do not swagger through the streets exulting in the fact that nobody dares meet you. Brave men are ever gentle in time of peace, and there is no greater lover of justice than he who has seen many battles. When you return to your parents and friends let it not be brawls that you have to boast of, but good conduct. We also shall in that case welcome you back with pleasure, and not leave you long without another commission. And the King too, the lord of all[807], will entrust higher duties to him who returns from the lower with credit and the reward of a good conscience.'

[Footnote 805: 'Devotio tua' was the technical way of addressing the fortis Sajo.]

[Footnote 806: 'In executore illud est pessimum, si judicis relinquat arbitrium.']

[Footnote 807: 'Rerum Dominus.']

4. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CANONICARIUS[808] OF THE VENETIAE.

[Footnote 808: Revenue-officer.]

[Sidenote: Praise of Acinaticium, a red wine of Verona.]

'A well furnished royal table is a credit to the State. A private person may eat only the produce of his own district; but it is the glory of a King to collect at his table the delicacies of all lands. Let the Danube send us her carp, let the anchorago (?) come from the Rhine, let the labour of Sicily furnish the exormiston[809], let the sea of Bruttii send its sweet acerniae (?); in short, let well-flavoured dishes be gathered from all coasts. It becomes a King so to regale himself that he may seem to foreign ambassadors to possess almost everything.

[Footnote 809: 'Perhaps a kind of lamprey' (White and Riddle's Latin-English Dictionary).]

'And therefore, not to neglect home-produce also, as our fertile Italy is especially rich in wines, we must have these also provided for the King's table. Now the report of the Count of the Patrimony informs us that the stock of Acinaticium[810] has fallen very low in the royal cellars. We therefore order you to visit the cultivators of Verona, and offer them a sufficient price for this product of theirs, which they ought to offer without price to their Sovereign.

[Footnote 810: Apparently a kind of raisin wine; from acina, a grape or berry.]

'It is in truth a noble wine and one that Italy may be proud of. Inglorious Greece may doctor her wines with foreign admixtures, or disguise them with perfumes. There is no need of any such process with this liquor. It is purple, as becomes the wine of kings. Sweet and strong[811], it grows more dense in tasting it, so that you might doubt whether it was a liquid food or an edible drink[812].

[Footnote 811: What are we to make of 'Stipsis nescio qua firmitate roboratur?']

[Footnote 812: 'Tactus ejus densitate pinguescit: ut dicas esse aut carneum liquorem aut edibilem potionem.' Questionable praise, according to the ideas of a modern wine-grower.]

'I have a mind to describe the singular mode of manufacturing this wine. The grape cluster, gathered in autumn, is hung up under the roof of the house to dry till December. Thus exuding its insipid humours it becomes much sweeter. Then in December, when everything else is bound by the frost of winter, the chilly blood of these grapes is allowed to flow forth. It is not insultingly trodden down by the feet, nor is any foul admixture suffered to pollute it; its stream of gem-like clearness is drawn forth from it by a noble provocation. It seems to shed tears of joy, and delights the eye by its beauty as much as the palate by its flavour. Collect this wine as speedily as possible, pay a sufficient price for it, and hand it over to the Cartarii who are charged with this business.

'And this point is not to be forgotten, that it is to be served up in goblets of a milky whiteness. Lilies and roses thus unite their charms, and a pleasure is ministered to the eye, far beyond the mere commonplace facts that the wine has a pleasant taste, and that it restores the strength of the drinker.

'We rely on you to provide both the wine and the drinking vessels[813] with all despatch.'

[Footnote 813: We might have expected to find wine-bottles rather than wine-glasses thus requisitioned; but I think the words of Cassiodorus, 'quod lacteo poculo relucescit,' oblige us to adopt the latter translation.]

5. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO VALERIAN, VIR SUBLIMIS.

[Written probably in the autumn or winter of 535, when Belisarius was in Sicily threatening the Southern Provinces of Italy.]

[Sidenote: Measures for relief of Lucania and Bruttii.]

'The ruler's anxiety for the common good of all over whom he is placed, may allowably show itself in an especial manner towards the dwellers in his own home, and that pre-eminently at a time when they need his succour from peril.

'The numerous army which was destined for the defence of the Republic is said to have laid waste the cultivated parts of Lucania and Bruttii, and to have diminished the abundance of those regions by its love of rapine.

'Now since they must take and you must give, and since the cultivator must not be robbed nor the army starved, know that the prices of provisions are fixed by the order of the Lord of the State at a much lower figure than you have been wont to sell at[814].

[Footnote 814: 'Pretia quae antiquus ordo constituit ex jussione rerum Domini cognoscite temperata, ut multo arctius quam vendere solebatis in assem publicum praebita debeant imputari.']

'Be not therefore anxious. You have escaped the hands of the tax-collector. The present instrument takes away from you the liability to tribute. In order that your knowledge may be made more complete, we have thought it better that the amounts of the provisions for which you are held responsible should be expressed in the below-written letters[815], that no one may sell you a benefit which you know to be conferred by the public generosity.

[Footnote 815: 'Sed quo facilius instrueretur vestra notitia, imputationum summas infra scriptis brevibus credidimus exprimendas.' Apparently the ordinary taxes for the two Provinces are remitted, but a certain quantity of provisions has to be furnished to the army, perhaps by each township; and besides this, the commissariat officers have a right of pre-emption at prices considerably below the market rate.]

'Repress, therefore, the unruly movements of the cultivators[816]. While the Gothic army is fighting, let the Roman peasant enjoy in quiet the peace for which he sighs. According to the King's command, admonish the several tenants on the farms, and the better sort of peasants, not to mingle in the barbarism of the strife, lest the danger to public tranquillity be greater than any service they can render in the wars[817]. Let them lay hands to the iron, but only to cultivate their fields; let them grasp the pointed steel, but only to goad their oxen.

[Footnote 816: 'Continete ergo possessorum intemperantes motus.']

[Footnote 817: 'Ex Regia jussione singulos conductores massarum et possessores validos admonete, ut nullam contrahant in concertatione barbariem: ne non tantum festinent bellis prodesse quantum quiete confundere.' Evidently the rustics are dissuaded from taking up arms lest they should use them on the side of Belisarius.]

'Let the Judges be active: let the tribunals echo with their denunciations of crime. Let the robber, the adulterer, the forger, the thief, find that the arm of the State is still strong to punish their crimes. True freedom rejoices when these men are made sad. Here, in this civil battle, is full scope for your energies: attend to this, and enjoy the thought that others are fighting the battle with the foreign foe for you.

'Exercise great care in calculating the rations of the soldiers, that no trickery may succeed in defrauding the soldier of his due.

'The officers of the army are by the rulers of the State placed under my authority, and you are therefore to admonish them if they go wrong, while redressing all their real grievances. They, in their turn, must uphold discipline, which is the most powerful weapon of an army. Rise to the dignity of the occasion, and show that you are able to govern a Province in a disturbed condition of public affairs, since anyone can govern it while all things are quiet.

'The royal household is specially ordered to pay the same obedience to this rescript as all the rest of the Province; and as for my own dependants, I say expressly that, though I wish them well, I ask for no favour for them which I would not grant to all the other inhabitants of the Province.'

6. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE SUBORDINATE GOVERNORS OF THE PRAEFECTURE[818].

[Footnote 818: 'Universis Praefecturae titulos administrantibus.']

[Sidenote: General instructions to subordinate Governors.]

'The exhortations addressed to you by the inborn piety of our Lords ought to suffice; but nevertheless, that we may be doubly assured, we will address to you our threats against all who shall wield their power unrighteously. Cease from avarice, from arrogance, from venality. What will your money avail you when the day of inquisition comes? We shall not be tempted by it. Let it be clearly understood that we shall not sell pardons to unjust Judges, but shall hunt them to their ruin.

'But all you, good and honest rulers, continue to serve the State without fear. No rival will buy your offices over your heads; you are secure in your seats so long as you do well, until the time fixed by our Lords expires. Be earnest, therefore, that my good deeds may be imitated and receive their due meed of praise in your persons.'

7. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE TAX-COLLECTOR OF THE VENETIAN PROVINCE[819].

[Footnote 819: 'Canonicario Venetiarum.']

[Sidenote: Remission of taxes on account of invasion by the Suevi.]

'A good Sovereign will always exert himself to repair fortuitous disasters, and will allow those who have paid their taxes punctually in prosperity, considerable liberty in times of barbaric invasion. On this ground, and on account of the incursions of the Suevi, the King grants for this year, the fifteenth Indiction[820], a discharge of all claims by the Fiscus preferred against A and B. And in all similar cases where you shall be satisfied that the property has really been laid waste by those Barbarians, you are at liberty to remit the taxes for this Indiction. Afterwards you will use all the ordinary methods, in order that you may be able to pay over the stipulated sum to the Royal Treasurer. But meanwhile the poor cultivator has the best of all arguments against paying you, namely, that he has nothing left him wherewith to pay. Thus is his calamity his best voucher for payment[821]; and we do not wish that he who has been already alarmed by the arms of the robber should further tremble at the official robe of the civil servant[822].

[Footnote 820: Sept. 1, 536, to Sept. 1, 537.]

[Footnote 821: 'Validas contra te apochas invenerunt.']

[Footnote 822: 'Chlamydes non pavescant, qui arma timuerunt.']

8. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CONSULARIS OF THE PROVINCE OF LIGURIA.

[Sidenote: Permission to pay taxes direct to Royal Treasury.]

'It is a new and delightful kind of profit to be able to grant the request of a petitioner without feeling any loss oneself. The present suitor, complaining that he is vexed by the exactions of the tax-gatherer on account of certain farms mentioned in the subjoined letter, offers to bring the amount due from them himself to our Treasurers[823]. We are willing to grant this request, on condition that the Fiscus does not suffer thereby; and therefore desire your Respectability to warn all Curiales, Compulsores, and all other persons concerned, to remove for this Indiction every kind of legal process from the before-mentioned properties; the condition of this immunity being that he shall, before the kalends of such and such a month produce the receipts[824] of the Arcarius, showing that he has discharged his debt to the State. Otherwise the debt must be exacted by ordinary process. But it is delightful to us whenever the tax is paid without calling in the aid of the Compulsor. Would that the peasant would always thus freely anticipate the needs of the Treasury!'

[Footnote 823: 'Arcarii.']

[Footnote 824: 'Apochae.']

9. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO PASCHASIUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CORN-DISTRIBUTIONS[825].

[Footnote 825: 'Praefectus Annonae.']

[Sidenote: African claims to succeed to estate of an intestate countryman.]

[To make this letter intelligible we must presuppose a custom, certainly a very extraordinary one, by which on the death of an African without heirs, any other African in Italy was allowed to claim the inheritance. By 'African,' no doubt, we must understand one of the indigenous inhabitants of Africa, perhaps a man of Negro race. The custom certainly cannot have applied to African Provincials of Roman descent. It was perhaps based on some old tribal notions of joint possession and mutual inheritance.]

'It is a work of wondrous kindness to oblige a foreign race with public benefits, and not only to invite blood relations to enjoy the advantages of property, but to permit even strangers to share them. This kind of heirship is independent of the ties of kindred, independent of succession from parents, and requires nothing else save only power to utter the speech of the fatherland.

'This is the privilege which, as the African asserts, was of old bestowed on his race. By virtue thereof they lawfully demand the inheritance of others, and thus obtain a right which the Roman in a similar case could never claim. Nor have they this benefit in their own land; but here they are for this purpose looked upon as all related to one another.

'The whole nation, in what relates to the advantages of succession, is regarded as one family.

'Your Experience is therefore to submit the subject of this man's petition to a diligent examination, and if it shall turn out, as he alleges, that the deceased has left no sons nor other persons who might reasonably claim to succeed him, your official staff is to induct him into the aforesaid property according to the established usage.

'He will thus cease to be a foreigner, and will acquire the status of a native possessor, and therewith the usual liability to pay tribute. He is inferior to other owners only in this one point, that he lacks the power of alienating his property. Let him who has derived so much benefit from our commiseration now relieve others. Fortunate and enviable has turned out his captivity[826], which enables him at one and the same time to enjoy the citizenship of Rome and the privileges of the African.'

[Footnote 826: 'Felix illi contigit et praedicanda captivitas.' A little before, we read, 'Resumat facultatem quam se suspiraverat amississe.' These sentences suggest the idea that the petitioner had been brought over in the train of the lately deceased person as a slave. This a little lessens the difficulty of his being admitted to the inheritance. Compare Gen. xv. 3, where Abraham, before the birth of a son, says, 'And one born in my house' (i.e. a slave) 'is mine heir.']

10. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO DIVERS CANCELLARII IN THE PROVINCES.

[Sidenote: Taxes to be punctually enforced.]

'Arrears of tribute are like bodily diseases, serious and enfeebling when they become chronic. A man who is under a load of debt cannot be called free: he has abandoned the power of controlling his actions to another. Your supposed indulgence to the taxpayer is no real kindness. There comes a time when the whole arrear of debt has to be claimed, and then these venal delays of yours make the demand seem twice as heavy in the eyes of the unfortunate taxpayer. Cease then to trade upon the peasants' losses. Exact the whole amount of taxes for the coming Indiction, and pay them in on the appointed day to the Treasurer[827] of the Province; or else it will be the worse for you, and you will have to return, stripped of all official rank[828], into the Province which you are conscious of having badly administered.

[Footnote 827: 'Arcarius.']

[Footnote 828: 'Degeniatus.']

'I shall not speak again on this subject, but shall, if necessary, extract the sums from you by an irrevocable act of distraint.'

11. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO PETER, VIR CLARISSIMUS, DISTRIBUTOR OF RELISHES[829].

[Footnote 829: 'Erogatori obsoniorum.']

[Sidenote: Distribution of relishes to Roman citizens.]

'The liberality of a good Sovereign must not be discredited by fraud and carelessness in the person charged with its distribution. Even molten gold contracts a stain if not poured into an absolutely clean vessel. How sweet is it to see a stream flowing clear and unpolluted over a snow-white channel! Even so must you see that the gifts of the Sovereign of the State reach the Roman people as pure and as copious as they issue forth from him.

'All fraud is hateful; but fraud exercised upon the people of Romulus is absolutely unbearable. That quiet and easily satisfied people, whose existence you might forget except when they testify their happiness by their shouts; noisy without a thought of sedition; whose only care is to shun poverty without amassing wealth; lowly in fortune but rich in temper—it is a kind of profanation to rob such people as these.

'We therefore entrust to you the task of distributing the relishes[830] to the Roman people from this Indiction. Be true to the citizens, else you will become as an alien unto us. Do not be bribed into allowing anyone to pass as a Latin who was not born in Latium.

[Footnote 830: 'Obsonia.']

'These privileges belong to the Quirites alone: no slave must be admitted to share them. That man sins against the majesty of the Roman people, who defiles the pure river of their blood by thrusting upon them the fellowship of slaves.'

12. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANASTASIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Praise of the cheese and wine of Bruttii.]

'When we were dining, according to our wonted custom, with the Sovereign of the State[831], the conversation happened to turn upon the delicacies of various Provinces, and we praised the wines of Bruttii and the cheese of the district around Mount Sila[832].

[Footnote 831: 'Cum apud rerum Dominum solemni more pranderemus.']

[Footnote 832: 'Silanum.' Mount Sila is a range of hills in Calabria immediately to the north of Squillace, forty miles from north to south, and twenty miles from east to west, and occupying the whole of the projecting portion of the south-east side of Italy between the Gulf of Squillace and the Bay of Taranto. The highest peaks, which are about 5,700 feet high, are covered with snow during half the year. It is said that from the beginning of June till far on into October, 15,000 head of cattle and 150,000 sheep, besides horses and mules, graze in these uplands. (See Gael-Fells: Unter Italien, p. 721.)]

'The cheese, which retains in its pores the milk which has been collected there, recalls by its taste the fragrant herbs upon which the cattle have fed; by its texture it reminds us of the softness of oil, from which it differs in colour by its snowy whiteness. Having been carefully pressed into a wide cask and hardened therein, it retains permanently the beautiful round shape which has thus been given to it[833].

[Footnote 833: From the description of Cassiodorus, it seems to have been a kind of cream cheese.]

'The wine, to which Antiquity gave the name of praise, Palmatiana, must be selected not of a rough but sweet kind[834]. Though last [in geographical position] among the wines of Bruttii, it is by general opinion accounted the best, equal to that of Gaza, similar to the Sabine, moderately thick, strong, brisk, of conspicuous whiteness, distinguished by the fine aroma, of which a pleasant after-taste is perceived by the drinker[835]. It constrains loosened bowels, dries up moist wounds, and refreshes the weary breast.

[Footnote 834: 'Non stipsi asperum sed gratum suavitate perquire.' The same peculiar word, stipsis, which we had in Letter xii. 4. What meaning are we to assign to the word?]

[Footnote 835: 'Magnis odoribus singulare:—quod ita redolet ore ructatum ut merito illi a palma nomen videatur impositum.']

'Let it be your care to provide as speedily as possible a stock of both these products of our country, and send them in ships to the Royal residence. For a temporary supply we have drawn on our own cellars, but we look to you to choose specimens of the genuine quality for the King. We cannot be deceived, who retain the true taste in our patriotic memory; and at your peril will you provide any inferior article to that which our cellars will have supplied[836].'

[Footnote 836: Baronius (Ad Ann. 591) quotes this letter of Cassiodorus to explain an allusion in the life of Pope Gregory the Great, who refused to receive a present of 'Palmatiana' from the Bishop of Messina, and insisted on paying for it.]

13. AN EDICT.

[Sidenote: Frauds committed by the revenue officers on the Churches of Bruttii and Lucania.]

'The generous gifts of Kings ought to be respected by their subjects.

'Long ago the constitutions of the Emperors enriched the holy Churches of Bruttii and Lucania with certain gifts. But since the sacrilegious mind is not afraid of sinning against the Divine reverence, the Canonicarii (officers of the Exchequer) have robbed these ecclesiastical positions of a certain portion of their revenue in the name of the Numerarii of the Praetorian Praefect's staff; but these latter, with righteous indignation, declare that they have received no part of the spoils thus impiously collected in their name.

'Thus have the Canonicarii turned the property of the clergy into a douceur for the laity[837]. Oh, audacity of man! what barriers can be erected against thee? Thou mightest have hoped to escape human observation, but why commit crimes which the Divinity cannot but notice?

[Footnote 837: 'Facientes laicum commodum substantiam clericorum.']

'Therefore we ordain by this edict that anyone who shall hereafter commit this kind of fraud shall lose his own private gains, and shall forfeit his place in the public service[838].

[Footnote 838: 'Edictali programmate definimus, ut qui in hac fuerit ulterius fraude versatus et militia careat et compendium propriae facultatis amittat.' The last clause is perhaps purposely vague. We should have expected to hear something about restitution, but the words will not bear that meaning.]

'Let the poor keep the gifts which God has put it into the heart of Kings to bestow upon them. It is cruel above all other cruelty to wish to become rich by means of the scanty possessions of the mendicant.'

14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANASTASIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Plea for gentle treatment for citizens of Rhegium.]

'The citizens of Rhegium (so called from the Greek word [Greek: rhegnumi], to break, because their island has been broken off from Sicily by the violence of the waves) complain that they are being unfairly harassed by the tax-gatherers. I, as an eyewitness, can confirm the truth of their statement that their territory does not bring forth the produce which is claimed at their hands. It is a rocky and mountainous country, too dry for pasture, though sufficiently undulating for vineyards; bad for grain-crops, though well suited for olives. The shade has to be all provided by the industry of man, who has planted there the tree of Pallas [the olive], which prospers in even the driest soil, because it sends its roots down into the very depths of the earth.

'The corn has to be watered by hand, like pot-herbs in a garden. You seldom see the husbandman bending beneath his load as he returns from the threshing-floor. A few bushels full are all that he can boast of, even in an abundant harvest[839].

[Footnote 839: I do not understand the following sentences: 'In hortis autem rusticorum agmen habetur operosum: quia olus illic omne saporum est marina irroratione respersum. Quod humana industria fieri consuevit, hoc cum nutriretur accepit.' Can they have watered any herbs with salt water?]

'Contrary to the opinion of Virgil [who speaks of the bitter roots of the endive[840]], the fibres of endive are here extremely sweet, and encircled by their twisting leaves are caked together with a certain callous tenderness[841].

[Footnote 840:

'Nec tamen, haec quum sint hominumque boumque labores Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser, Strymoniaeque grues, et amaris intuba fibris Officiunt.'—Georgic i. 118-121.]

[Footnote 841: I must renounce the attempt to translate the rest of the sentence: 'Unde in morem nitri aliquid decerptum frangitur, dum a fecundo cespite segregatur.' There is an alternative reading, vitri for nitri; but I am still unable to understand the author's meaning.]

'In the treasures of the deep that region is certainly rich; for the Upper and Lower Sea meet there. The exormiston[842], a sort of king among fishes, with bristly nostrils and a milky delicacy of flavour, is found in these waters. In stormy weather it is tossed about on the top of the waves, and seems to be too tired or too indolent to seek a refuge in the deeper water[843]. No other fish can be compared to it in sweetness[844].

[Footnote 842: Apparently a kind of lamprey. See the fourth letter of this book.]

[Footnote 843: Perhaps Cassiodorus means to say this makes it more easy of capture, but he does not say so.]

[Footnote 844: The praises of the exormiston are not only foreign to the main subject of the letter, but to a certain extent weaken the writer's argument on behalf of his countrymen; but, as a good Bruttian, he cannot help vaunting the products of his country.]

'These are the products—I speak from my own knowledge—of the Rhegian shore. Therefore you must not seek to levy a tribute of wheat or lard from the inhabitants under the name of "coemptio."

'I may add that they are so troubled by the constant passage of travellers entering Italy or leaving it, that it would have been right to excuse them even if those products had been found there in abundance[845].'

[Footnote 845: The passage to and fro of travellers no doubt brought with it burdensome duties for the inhabitants in connection with the Cursus Publicus. It was therefore a reason for mitigating other taxes.]

15. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO MAXIMUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII[846].

[Footnote 846: This letter, being the description by Cassiodorus of his native place, is translated entire.]

[Sidenote: Praises of the author's birthplace, Scyllacium.]

'Scyllacium, the first city of Bruttii, which Ulysses the destroyer of Troy is believed to have founded, is said to be unreasonably vexed by the exorbitant demands of purveyors[847]. These injuries grieve us all the more on account of our patriotic love for the place.

[Footnote 847: 'Irrationabiliter dicitur praesumentium nimietate vexari.']

'The city of Scyllacium, which is so placed as to look down upon the Hadriatic Gulf, hangs upon the hills like a cluster of grapes: not that it may pride itself upon their difficult ascent, but that it may voluptuously gaze on verdant plains and the blue back of the sea. The city beholds the rising sun from its very cradle, when the day that is about to be born sends forward no heralding Aurora; but as soon as it begins to rise, the quivering brightness displays its torch. It beholds Phoebus in his joy; it is bathed in the brightness of that luminary, so that it might be thought to be itself the native land of the sun, the claims of Rhodes to that honour being outdone.

'It enjoys a translucent air, but withal so temperate that its winters are sunny, and its summers cool; and life passes there without sorrow, since hostile seasons are feared by none. Hence, too, man himself is here freer of soul than elsewhere, for this temperateness of the climate prevails in all things.

'In sooth, a hot fatherland makes its children sharp and fickle, a cold one slow and sly; it is only a temperate climate which composes the characters of men by its own moderation. Hence was it that the ancients pronounced Athens to be the seat of sages, because, enriched with an air of the greatest purity, it prepared with glad liberality the lucid intellects of its sons for the contemplative part of life. Assuredly for the body to imbibe muddy waters is a different thing from sucking in the transparency of a sweet fountain. Even so the vigour of the mind is repressed when it is clogged by a heavy atmosphere. Nature herself hath made us subject to these influences. Clouds make us feel sad; and again a bright sky fills us with joy, because the heavenly substance of the soul delights in everything that is unstained and pure.

'Scyllacium has also an abundant share of the delicacies of the sea, possessing near it those gates of Neptune which we ourselves constructed. At the foot of the Moscian Mount we hollowed out the bowels of the rock, and tastefully[848] introduced therein the eddying waves of Nereus. Here a troop of fishes, sporting in free captivity, refreshes all minds with delight, and charms all eyes with admiration. They run greedily to the hand of man, and before they become his food seek dainties from him. Man feeds his own dainty morsels, and while he has that which can bring them into his power, it often happens that being already replete he lets them all go again.

[Footnote 848: 'Decenter.']

'The spectacle moreover of men engaged in honourable labour is not denied to those who are sitting tranquilly in the city. Plenteous vineyards are beheld in abundance. The fruitful toil of the threshing-floor is seen. The face of the green olive is disclosed. No one need sigh for the pleasures of the country, when it is given him to see them all from the town.

'And inasmuch as it has now no walls, you believe Scyllacium to be a rural city, though you might judge it to be an urban villa; and thus placed between the two worlds of town and country, it is lavishly praised by both.

'This place wayfarers desire frequently to visit, and as they object to the toil of walking, the citizens, called upon to provide them with post-horses, and rations for their servants, have to pay heavily in purse for the pleasantness of their city. Therefore to prevent this, for the future we decide that all charges for providing post-horses and rations shall be debited to the public account. We cut up, root and branch, the system of paying Pulveratica[849] to the Judge; and we decide, according to ancient custom, that rations for three days only shall be given on their arrival to the great Dignitaries of the State, and that any more prolonged delay in their locomotion be provided for by themselves.

[Footnote 849: Dust-money.]

'To relieve your city of its heaviest burdens will be, according to our injunctions, an act of judicial impartiality, not of laxity. Live, by God's help, a mirror of the justice of the age, delighting in the security of all. Some people call the Isles of the Atlantic 'Fortunate:' I would rather give that name to the place where you do now dwell.'

16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO A REVENUE OFFICER[850].

[Footnote 850: 'Canonicario.']

[This interesting letter is one of the few written by Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect which we can date with certainty. It is written apparently at the beginning of the first Indiction, i.e. Sept. 1, 537. Witigis and the Goths have been for nearly six months besieging Rome, and are beginning to be discouraged as to its capture. Cassiodorus is probably at Ravenna, directing the machine of government from that capital.]

[Sidenote: Payment of Trina Illatio.]

'Time, which adapts itself incessantly to the course of human affairs, and reconciles us even to adversity[851], has brought round again the period for collecting the Trina Illatio from the taxpayer. Let the peasant (possessor) pay in your Diocese, for this first Indiction, his instalment of the tax freely, not being urged too soon nor allowed to postpone it too late, so that he may plead that he has been let off from payment[852]. Let none exceed the fair weight, but let him use a just pound: if once the true weight is allowed to be exceeded, there is no limit to extortion[853].

[Footnote 851: 'Dum res nobis etiam asperas captata semper opinione conciliat.' Apparently a veiled allusion to the disasters of the Goths.]

[Footnote 852: 'Nec iterum remissione lentata quisquam se dicat esse praeteritum.']

[Footnote 853: This mention of the just weight of course suits a tax paid in kind, not in money.]

'Let a faithful account of the expenses of collection be rendered every four months to our office[854], that, all error and obscurity being removed, truth may be manifest in the public accounts.

[Footnote 854: 'Expensarum quoque fidelem notitiam per quaternos menses ad scrinia nostra solemniter destinabis.']

'That you may, with God's help, be the better able to fulfil our instructions, I have ordered A and B, servants of our tribunal, who are mindful of their own past responsibilities, to assist you and your staff[855]. Beware therefore, lest you incur the blame of corruptly discharging the taxpayer, or of sluggish idleness in the discharge of your duties, in which case your own fortunes will suffer from your neglect.'

[Footnote 855: 'Illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites, tibi officioque tuo periculorum suorum memores praecipimus imminere.']

17. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOHN, SILIQUATARIUS[856] OF RAVENNA.

[Footnote 856: Collector of the Siliquaticum, or tax of one twenty-fourth on sales. See ii. 30, iii. 35, iv. 19.]

[Sidenote: Defence of Ravenna.]

'In times of peace, by contact with foreigners who swarm in our cities, we learn what will be our best defence in war. Who can tell with what nation we may be next at war? Therefore, to be on the safe side, make such preparations as our future enemies, whosoever they may be, will dislike to hear of. Accordingly you are to order the peasants to dig a series of pits with wide mouths near the mountains of Caprarius and the parts round about the walls[857]; and let such a chasm yawn there that there shall be no possibility of entrance that way.

[Footnote 857: No doubt the walls of Ravenna. I cannot identify the Mons Caprarius. The name Caprera is a common one in Italy.]

'If strangers want to enter the city, why do they not enter it in the right way—by the gates—instead of going skulking about these bye-paths? Henceforth, anyone trying to take any such short cut to our city will probably find that he loses his life in consequence[858].'

[Footnote 858: One may conjecture that this letter was written in 535, when war with the Empire was imminent, but before it was actually declared.]

18. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO CONSTANTIAN, VIR EXPERIENTISSIMUS.

[Sidenote: Repair of Flaminian Way.]

'Great is the reward of those who serve Kings efficiently; as severe is the punishment of those who neglect their duties towards them.

'How delightful is it to journey without obstacles over a well-made road[859], to pass doubtful places without fear, to ascend mountainous steeps by a gentle incline, to have no fear of the planking of a bridge when one crosses it[860], and in short to accomplish one's journey so that everything happens to one's liking!

[Footnote 859: 'Videre judicia diligentia.' I leave this clause untranslated, as I cannot understand it.]

[Footnote 860: 'In pontibus contrabium non tremere.']

'This is the pleasure which you can now prepare for your Sovereign. Therefore, as the Flaminian Way is furrowed by the action of torrents, join the yawning chasms by the broadest of bridges; clear away the rough woods which choke the sides of the highway; procure the stipulated number of post-horses, and see that they have all the points which are required in a good steed; collect the designated quantities of provisions without plundering the peasants. A failure in any one of these particulars will ruin your whole service.

[Sidenote: Supply of delicacies for the King's table.]

'Collect, too, with the utmost diligence the spices which are needed for the King's table. What avails it to have satisfied the army, if the King's own board lack proper care. Let all the Provincials attend to your admonitions: let the cities furnish the stores set forth in the accompanying letters. Then, when they have put the Sovereign in a good humour, they may ask him for benefits to some purpose.

'Think of me as present and as judging of all your deeds. I shall have to bear the blame of your failures at Court; so act rather as to set my mind at rest, to cover me and yourselves with glory, and to entitle me to receive on your behalf the thanks of the whole army.'

[This letter was probably written in the autumn of 535, when Theodahad was preparing to march to Rome. The mention of the delicacies for the royal table suggests that that King, in addition to the other excellencies of his character, was probably an epicure.]

19. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO MAXIMUS, VICARIUS OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Bridge of boats across the Tiber.]

'As all great events in Nature have their heralding signs, so is the approaching visit of the King announced to you even by the concourse of wayfarers to your City. We, however, have to order you to clothe the waves of Tiber with a bridge [of boats]. The boat, thus used, is no longer moved by slowly hauled ropes, as it is wont to be. Fixed itself, it affords a means of transit to others. The joining of its planks gives the desired appearance of solidity; all the terror of the waves is removed by its likeness to the land, and the traveller passing over it unharmed only wishes that the bridge were longer.

'Let a safe bulwark of lattice-work shield the bridge on the right side and on the left. See that you give no cause for misadventure of any kind. You have a noble opportunity of distinguishing yourself in the presence of so many Senators and of the King himself, the rewarder of every well-done work. On the other hand, if you do it badly and put him out of humour, woe be unto you!

'We send A B, a servant of our Praefecture[861], to assist you and your staff and bring us report of the accomplishment of the work; for so heavy is our responsibility in this matter that we dare not leave anything to chance.'

[Footnote 861: 'Illum sedis nostrae militem.']

[The King whose advent to Rome is here announced may be Witigis, after his election in the plains of Regeta (August, 536). But the fact that he is apparently approaching Rome by the northern bank of the Tiber, coupled with the directions in the preceding letter for the repair of the Flaminian Way, makes it more probable that some visit of Theodahad (probably in the year 535), when he would come from Ravenna to Rome, is here in prospect.]

20. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THOMAS AND PETER, VIRI CLARISSIMI AND ARCARII.

[Sidenote: Sacred vessels mortgaged by Pope Agapetus to be restored to the stewards of the Papal See.]

'You will remember, most faithful Sirs, that when the holy Agapetus, Pope of the City of Rome, was sent as ambassador to the Sovereign of the East[862], he received so many pounds of gold from you for the expenses of the journey, for which he gave his bond[863] and deposited some of the Church plate as security[864]. The provident ruler thus lent him money in his necessity, and now, far more gloriously, returns as a free gift those pledges which the Pope might well have thanked him for taking.

[Footnote 862: He was sent by Theodahad; entered Constantinople February 20, 536, and died there 21st April of the same year.]

[Footnote 863: 'Facto pictacio.']

[Footnote 864: 'Vasa sanctorum.' One would think this must refer to the vessels used in celebrating mass; but I do not quite see how the meaning is to be got out of the words.]

'Therefore, in obedience to these instructions of ours, and fortified by the Royal order, do you return without any delay to the stewards[865] of the holy Apostle Peter the vessels of the saints together with the written obligation, that these things may be felt to be profitably restored and speedily granted, that the longed-for means of performing their world-famous ministrations may be replaced in the hands of the Levites. Let that be given back which was their own, since that is justly received back by way of largesse which the Priest had legally mortgaged.

[Footnote 865: 'Actoribus.']

'Herein is the great example of King Alaric surpassed. He, when glutted with the spoil of Rome, having received the vessels of the Apostle Peter from his men, when he heard the story of their seizure, ordered them to be carried back across the sacred threshold, that so the remembrance of the cupidity of their capture might be effaced by the generosity of their restoration.

'But our King, with religious purpose, has restored the vessels which had become his own by the law of mortgage. In recompense for such deeds frequent prayer ought to ascend, and Heaven will surely gladly grant the required return for such good actions[866].'

[Footnote 866: Baronius not unfairly argues that if the Roman See was so poor that the Church plate had to be pawned to provide for the Pope's journey to Constantinople, the wealth of the Pope cannot have largely contributed to that great increase of his influence which marked the early years of the Sixth Century.]

[There are in this letter several extremely obscure sentences as to the generosity of Theodahad. As the Papal journey was undertaken by Theodahad's orders, it was a piece of meanness, quite in keeping with that King's character, to treat the advance of money for the journey as a loan, and to insist on a bond and the deposit of the Church plate as a security for repayment. Cassiodorus evidently feels this; and very probably the restoration of the vessels and the quittance of the debt had been insisted on by him. But the more he despises his master's shabbiness, the more he struggles through a maze of almost nonsensical sentences, to prove that he has committed some very glorious action in lending the money and then forgiving the debt.]

21. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO DEUSDEDIT, A SCRIBE OF RAVENNA.

[Sidenote: Duties of a Scribe.]

'The Scribe's office is the great safeguard of the rights of all men. The evidence of ownership may be destroyed by fire or purloined by dishonest men, but the State by making use of the Scribe's labours is able to make good the loss so sustained. The Scribe is more diligent in other men's business than they are in their own. His muniment-chest is the refuge of all the oppressed, and the repository of the fortunes of all men[867].

[Footnote 867: 'Armarium ipsius fortuna cunctorum est.']

'In testimony of your past integrity, and in the hope that no change will mar this fair picture, we appoint you to this honourable office. Remember that ancient Truth is committed to your keeping, and that it often really rests with you, rather than with the Judge, to decide the disputes of litigants. When your indisputable testimony is given, and when the ancient voice of charters proceeds from your sanctum, Advocates receive it with reverence, and suitors, even evil-intentioned men, are constrained into obedience.

'Banish, therefore, all thoughts of venality from your mind. The worst moth that gets into papers and destroys them is the gold of the dishonest litigant, who bribes the Scribes to make away with evidence which he knows to be hostile. Thus, then, be ready always to produce to suitors genuine old documents; and, on the other hand, transcribe only, do not compose ancient proceedings[868]. Let the copy correspond to the original as the wax to the signet-ring, that as the face is the index of the emotions[869] so your handwriting may not err from the authentic original in anything.

[Footnote 868: 'Translator esto, non conditor antiquorum gestorum.']

[Footnote 869: Compare Cassiodorus' treatise De Anima, chapters x. and xi., in which he enumerates the various points in which the faces of good men and bad men differ from one another.]

'If a claimant succeed in enticing you even once from the paths of honesty, vainly will you in any subsequent case seek to obtain his credence for any document that you may produce; for he will always believe that the trick which has been played once may be played again. Keep to the line of justice, and even his angry exclamations at the impossibility of inducing you to deviate therefrom, will be your highest testimonial. Your whole career is public, and the favour or disgrace which awaits you must be public also.'

22. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE PROVINCIALS OF ISTRIA.

[This letter was written Sept. 1, 537, probably in consequence of the scarcity which the operations of Belisarius were already causing at Ravenna. Apparently the whole taxes levied from a Province at an Indiction were divided into two heads: so much for the central authority, and so much for the Province. Cassiodorus in this and the following letter says in effect: 'All the State's share of the taxes we will take not in money, but in your staple products, corn, wine, and oil. The rest goes as usual to the Province; but owing to the scarcity at Ravenna we shall be glad to buy all that can be spared either by the authorities of the Province or by individuals, whether farmers or merchants.']

'The true way to prevent the requirements of the public revenue from becoming oppressive, is to order each Province to supply those products in which it is naturally most fertile.

[Sidenote: Requisition from Province of Istria.]

'Now I have learned by conversation with travellers that the Province of Istria is this year especially blessed in three of its crops—wine, oil, and corn. Therefore let her give of these products the equivalent of ... solidi, which are due from you in payment of tribute for this first Indiction[870]: while the remainder we leave to that loyal Province for her own regular expenses. But since we require a larger quantity of the above-mentioned products, we send ... solidi from our state chest for the purchase of them, that these necessaries may be collected for us with as little delay as possible. Often when you are desirous to sell you cannot find a purchaser, and suffer loss accordingly. How much better is it to obey the requirements of your Lords than to supply foreigners; and to pay your debts in the fruits of the soil, rather than to wait on the caprices of a buyer!

[Footnote 870: The first Indiction was from September 1, 537, to September 1, 538.]

'We will ourselves out of our love of justice state a fact of which you might otherwise remind us, that we can afford to be liberal in price because we are not burdened by the payment of freights [on account of your nearness to the seat of government]. For what Campania is to Rome, Istria is to Ravenna—a fruitful Province abounding in corn, wine, and oil; so to speak, the cupboard of the capital. I might carry the comparison further, and say that Istria can show her own Baiae in the lagunes with which her shores are indented[871], her own Averni in the pools abounding in oysters and fish. The palaces, strung like pearls along the shores of Istria, show how highly our ancestors appreciated its delights[872]. The beautiful chain of islands with which it is begirt, shelter the sailor from danger and enrich the cultivator. The residence of the Court in this district delights the nobles and enriches the lower orders; and it may be said that all its products find their way to the Royal city. Now let the loyal Province, which has often tendered her services when they were less required, send forward her stores freely.

[Footnote 871: Here follows this sentence: 'Haec loca garismatia plura nutriunt.' Garum seems to have been a sauce something like our anchovy-sauce. Garismatium is evidently a garum-supplying place.]

[Footnote 872: We have a special allusion in Martial (iv. 25) to the villas of Altinum, and he too compares them to those of Baiae.]

'To guard against any misunderstanding of our orders, we send Laurentius, a man of great experience, whose instructions are contained in the annexed letter.

'We will publish a tariff of moderate prices when we next address you, and when we have ascertained what is the yield of the present crops; for we should be deciding quite at random before we have received that information.'

23. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO LAURENTIUS, VIR EXPERIENTISSIMUS[873].

[Footnote 873: Evidently 'the annexed letter' referred to in No. 22.]

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'Anyone can discharge the duties of the Commissariat in a time of abundance. It is a mark of our high appreciation of your experience and efficiency, that we select you for this service in a time of scarcity. We therefore direct you to repair to the Province of Istria, there to collect stores of wine, oil, and corn, equivalent to ... solidi, due from the Province for land-tax[874], and with ... solidi which you have received from our Treasurer to buy these products either from the merchants or from the peasants directly, according to the information prepared for you by the Cashiers[875]. Raise your spirits for this duty, and discharge it in a manner worthy of your past reputation. Make to us a faithful report of the yield of the coming harvest, under these three heads[876], that we may fix a tariff of prices which shall be neither burdensome to the Provincials nor injurious to the public service.'

[Footnote 874: 'Ut in tot solidos vini, olei, vel tritici species de tributario solido debeas procurare.']

[Footnote 875: 'Sicut te a Numerariis instruxit porrecta Notitia.' Note this use of the word 'Notitia,' as illustrating the title of the celebrated document bearing that name.]

[Footnote 876: Corn, wine, and oil.]

24. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE TRIBUNES OF THE MARITIME POPULATION[877].

[Footnote 877: Written shortly after Sept. 1, 537. This is the celebrated letter to which Venetian historians point as evidence of the existence of their city (or at least of the group of settlements out of which their city sprang) in the Sixth Century. We may set side by side with it the words of the Anonymous Geographer of Ravenna (in the Seventh Century), 'In patria vero Venetiae sunt aliquantae insulae, quae hominibus habitantur.'

The address, Tribunis Maritimorum, looks as if there were something like a municipal government established in these islands. Tribunus was at this time generally, but not exclusively, a military title. Compare the Tribunus Fori Suarii and Tribunus Rerum Nitentium of the Notitia (Occidens iv. 10 and iv. 17). But there can be no doubt, from the tone of this letter, that the islanders were subjects of the Ostrogothic King.]

[Sidenote: First historical notice of Venice.]

'We have previously given orders that Istria should send wine and oil, of which there are abundant crops this year, to the Royal residence at Ravenna. Do you, who possess numerous ships on the borders of the Province, show the same devotion in forwarding the stores which they do in supplying them.

'Be therefore active in fulfilling this commission in your own neighbourhood, you who often cross boundless distances. It may be said that [in visiting Ravenna] you are going through your own guest-chambers, you who in your voyages traverse your own home[878]. This is also added to your other advantages, that to you another route is open, marked by perpetual safety and tranquillity. For when by raging winds the sea is closed, a way is opened to you through the most charming river scenery[879]. Your keels fear no rough blasts; they touch the earth with the greatest pleasure, and cannot perish however frequently they may come in contact with it. Beholders from a distance, not seeing the channel of the stream, might fancy them moving through the meadows. Cables have been used to keep them at rest: now drawn by ropes they move, and by a changed order of things men help their ships with their feet. They draw their drawers without labour, and instead of the capricious favour of sails they use the more satisfactory steps of the sailor.

[Footnote 878: An obscure sentence: 'Per hospitia quodammodo vestra discurritis qui per patriam navigatis.' The idea seems to be: 'You have to sail about from one room to another of your own house, and therefore Ravenna will seem like a neighbouring inn.']

[Footnote 879: The next four sentences describe the movement of the ships when towed along the channels of the streams (Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento, &c.) the deposits from which have made the lagunes.]

'It is a pleasure to recall the situation of your dwellings as I myself have seen them. Venetia the praiseworthy[880], formerly full of the dwellings of the nobility, touches on the south Ravenna and the Po, while on the east it enjoys the delightsomeness of the Ionian shore, where the alternating tide now discovers and now conceals the face of the fields by the ebb and flow of its inundation. Here after the manner of water-fowl have you fixed your home. He who was just now on the mainland finds himself on an island, so that you might fancy yourself in the Cyclades[881], from the sudden alterations in the appearance of the shore.

[Footnote 880: 'Venetiae praedicabiles.' An allusion, no doubt, as other commentators have suggested, to the reputed derivation of Venetia from [Greek: Ainetoi], 'the laudable.']

[Footnote 881: Alluding probably to the story of the floating island of Delos.]

'Like them[882] there are seen amid the wide expanse of the waters your scattered homes, not the product of Nature, but cemented by the care of man into a firm foundation[883]. For by a twisted and knotted osier-work the earth there collected is turned into a solid mass, and you oppose without fear to the waves of the sea so fragile a bulwark, since forsooth the mass of waters is unable to sweep away the shallow shore, the deficiency in depth depriving the waves of the necessary power.

[Footnote 882: 'Earum similitudine.' Does Cassiodorus mean 'like the water-fowl,' or 'like the Cyclades?']

[Footnote 883: The reading of Nivellius (followed by Migne), 'Domicilia videntur sparsa, quae Natura non protulit sed hominum cura fundavit,' seems to give a better sense than that of Garet, who omits the 'non.']

'The inhabitants have one notion of plenty, that of gorging themselves with fish. Poverty therefore may associate itself with wealth on equal terms. One kind of food refreshes all; the same sort of dwelling shelters all; no one can envy his neighbour's home; and living in this moderate style they escape that vice [of envy] to which all the rest of the world is liable.

'Your whole attention is concentrated on your salt-works. Instead of driving the plough or wielding the sickle, you roll your cylinders. Thence arises your whole crop, when you find in them that product which you have not manufactured[884]. There it may be said is your subsistence-money coined[885]. Of this art of yours every wave is a bondservant. In the quest for gold a man may be lukewarm: but salt every one desires to find; and deservedly so, since to it every kind of meat owes its savour.

[Footnote 884: 'Inde vobis fructus omnis enascitur, quando in ipsis, et quae non facitis possidetis.']

[Footnote 885: 'Moneta illic quodammodo percutitur victualis.' Some have supposed that these words point to a currency in salt; but I think they are only a Cassiodorian way of saying 'By this craft ye have your wealth.']

'Therefore let your ships, which you have tethered, like so many beasts of burden, to your walls, be repaired with diligent care: so that when the most experienced Laurentius attempts to bring you his instructions, you may hasten forth to greet him. Do not by any hindrance on your part delay the necessary purchases which he has to make; since you, on account of the character of your winds, are able to choose the shortest sea-track[886].'

[Footnote 886: This is the only translation I can suggest of 'quatenus expensas necessarias nulla difficultate tardetis, qui pro qualitate aeris compendium vobis eligere potestis itineris.']

25. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO HIS DEPUTY[887] AMBROSIUS, AN ILLUSTRIS.

[Footnote 887: 'Agenti vices.' See note on xi. 4.]

[This letter appears to have been written in the early autumn of 538, about a year after the three last letters, and also after Letters 27 and 28, which precede it in order of date, though they follow it in this collection. For an account of the terrible famine in Italy, the beginning of which is here described, see Procopius, De Bello Gotthico ii. 20.]