Letter 1007: KING THEODERIC TO FELIX, A MAN OF DISTINCTION.

VII. KING THEODERIC TO FELIX, A MAN OF DISTINCTION. [1] Through the petition of Venantius, the guardian of Plutianus, we have learned that you have been engaging in conduct most unbecoming: that you have been afflicting with the loss of his property the very person you ought to have been supporting at your own expense. The bond of kinship should have been demonstrated by the help you gave, not by the injury you inflicted. What appearance does it present, to act toward those joined by blood in a way that would be proven criminal even among strangers? [2] We therefore decree by the present order that whatever you know yourself to have — by the prodigal will of Neotherius — less truly purchased than filched, you shall restore without any delay to our soldier for reincorporation into his estate. Otherwise you will compel us to vindicate the matter according to law, we who for the present appear to have tempered everything with clemency. For we do not permit what we gave to the parents under our auspices to perish for the orphan. It is an extremely grave thing for what was conferred by princely munificence to be taken away by fraud. [3] As for the remaining properties that you are said to have divided on behalf of your wife's share — trampling the path of justice, if indeed it can be called a division when it is known to have been conducted at the discretion of a single party — hasten to present yourself at our court, so that we may settle between you what accords with justice. For it is wrong that from a single estate, where the succession rightfully belongs in equal portions, some should abound in plenty while others groan under the burden of poverty.

VII. FELICI V. C. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Venantii tutoris Plutiani aditione cognovimus in ea te, qua non decuerat, actione versatum, ut eum, quem sumptu proprio iuvare debuisses, dispendio proprietatis affligeres. affinitatem quippe tuam solacia debuerant impensa testari. quale ergo videtur sanguine coniunctis, quod criminosum probaretur extraneis? [2] Atque ideo praesenti iussione censemus, ut, quicquid a Neoterio prodiga voluntate lascivo te non tam comparasse quam subripuisse cognoscis, incorporanda militi nostro sine aliqua dilatione restituas, ne nos huius modi factum cogas legibus vindicare, qui nunc videmur omnia mansuetudine temperasse. perire enim pupillo non patimur quod parentibus sub nostra laude dederamus. gravissimum est enim per calumniam subtrahi, quod collatum est munificentia principali. [3] Reliqua vero, quae pro iugalis tuae assereris portione contempto iustitiae tramito divisisse—si tamen appellanda divisio est, quam sub unius celebratam constat arbitrio ñ, ad nostrum comitatum festinus occurre, ut inter vos ea quae iustitiae conveniunt ordinemus. iniquum est enim, ut de una substantia, quibus competit aequa successio, alii abundanter affluant, alii paupertatis incommodis ingemiscant.