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

King Theoderic to Felix, a Most Distinguished Man. [1] Through the application of Venantius, guardian of Plutianus, we have learned that you have engaged in an action in which it was not fitting for you to be involved: that you have afflicted with loss of property the very one whom you ought to have aided at your own expense. For your kinship with him ought to have been attested by the comforts you bestowed. What, then, does it seem to be in those joined by blood, which would be proved criminal in strangers? [2] And therefore by the present command we decree that whatever you know yourself not so much to have acquired as to have purloined from Neoterius, in his prodigal and wanton inclination, you shall restore without any delay, to be incorporated into the estate of our ward, lest you compel us to punish a deed of this kind by the laws — we who now appear to have tempered everything with clemency. For we do not allow to perish for the ward that which we had granted to his parents to our own praise. For it is a most grievous thing that what was conferred by princely munificence should be withdrawn through false accusation. [3] As for the remainder, which you allege you have divided on behalf of your wife's portion, in contempt of the path of justice — if indeed it ought to be called a division, which is established to have been carried out at the will of one party alone — hasten to come to our court, so that we may order between you those things which accord with justice. For it is unjust that, out of a single estate to which an equal succession belongs, some should overflow in abundance while others groan under the hardships 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.