From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: All Provincial Judges
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: Cassiodorus, now writing in his own name as Praetorian Prefect, issues a tax collection order — but turns it into a treatise on why fair taxation is in everyone's interest.
What is demanded through annual obligation is most justly required, since what is paid under general law is contributed, in a sense, with a kind of joy. A tax payment is what makes a subject called "generous" — and the payer takes on the title of "one who offers," because he recognizes he owes what is assessed. How fine it is to stand confidently in the forum, to have no fear of the public authority, and to be counted among the dutiful — spared the shame of being compelled.
For everything done under compulsion is dishonorable. The man driven to pay taxes through threats of loss does not enjoy the grace of a willing contributor. By contrast, how worthy of a free person it is to owe nothing to the tax collectors! The only pleasant estate for its owner is one where the arrival of the assessor is not feared. Rightly, then, a receipt of payment is called "security" — for it protects not only one's peace of mind but one's property.
Therefore — and may this be spoken under a good omen — for the twelfth indiction [tax year], throughout the diocese under your jurisdiction, I order you and your staff, maintaining the customary moderation, to remind landowners that they must complete their obligation in three installments at the appointed times. Let that corrupt practice of granting paid delays cease — delays sought not for taxpayers' benefit but through the scheming of fraud. Those who claim to lighten such burdens only impose a different, more abominable weight of profiteering.
Let such detestable and disgraceful trickery be far from our times. Let the landowner pay nothing beyond what is owed to the public treasury — for those who try to defraud anyone under our authority are actually working against their own interests. Therefore, just as I refuse to allow fiscal burdens to be increased by any pretext, so I order the prescribed payments to be completed at their set times, God willing — so that the landowners' loyal compliance may be known to their rulers with the greatest approval, and the tangled confusion of late payments may be removed from our accounts. Submit your itemized reports to our office at each appointed period, in the customary manner, as both ancient law and the present authority of my command direct you — lest, if you think any of this may be neglected, you bring the danger squarely upon yourself.
However, to ensure the more diligent execution of these most just directives, I have assigned [names], men proven by prior merit, to oversee you and your staff — so that nothing may be harmed by negligence where doubled vigilance is applied. Act accordingly, if you wish your careers to advance. Let dishonest profits be entirely foreign to you. You make landowners compliant when you do not burden them with fraudulent impositions. Advancement comes from fairness, not from rapacity. Unjust presumption always lives in fear — for what does a man think he gains when he loses a good conscience? How can anyone prosper if he is proven to have lost his integrity?
Do not imagine that what pertains to a good conscience goes unrewarded. Those who serve well will find me, where I can, their helper. I promise to reward the man I learn has conducted himself with any degree of honor. So act in a way that praise, rather than complaints, reaches me about you. Seek no greater profit than having nothing for sale. Pursue only those gains that a man can offer gladly and a soldier can receive securely as his due. I wish to be your advocate, not your censor. Beware, then, of provoking the hostility of one who wishes to be your benefactor — for the man who is moved to anger against his own inclination always strikes harder.
VII.
UNIVERSIS IUDICIBUS PROVINCIARUM SENATOR PPO.
[1] Iustissime quaeritur quod annua devotione praestatur, quando sub quodam gaudio constat inferri, quod solvitur lege generali. stipendium namque est, quod subiectum facit munificum dici et offerentis nomen accipit, qui se quod penditur debere cognoscit. quam lautum est intrepidum foro assistere, publicum non timere et inter devotos laudabilem collocari, qui pudorem non sinitur habere compulsi. [2] Inhonorum est enim omne quod cogitur nec offerentis habet gratiam, qui damnis suis perducitur ad tributa: contra quam libero dignum est compulsoribus nil debere! ille solus delectabilis ager est domino, in quo supervenire non timetur exactor. merito ergo testimonium solutionis securitas dicitur, de qua non solum animus, sed substantia communitur. [3] Et ideo, quod feliciter dictum sit, indictione duodecima per dioecesin dicationis tuae sollemni moderamine custodito possessorem te officiumque tuum praecipimus ammonere, ut trina illatione devotus constitutis temporibus suam compleat functionem, ita ut cesset venalis illa dilatio, quae non ad tributariorum compendia, sed fraudis ambitu cognoscitur exquisita. nam qui se huiusmodi onera sublevare dicunt, aliud magis pondus abominabilis nundinationis imponunt. [4] Absit a nostris temporibus detestabilis et fugienda versutia. possessor nihil aliud, nisi quod publico debetur, exolvat: nam sua damna potius agunt, qui sub nobis aliqua fraudare contendunt. quapropter sicut fiscalia onera nulla occasione volumus aggravari, ita constitutis temporibus praefinitas illationes praecipimus deo iuvante compleri, quatenus et possessorum devotio gratissima dominis innotescat et tarditatis involuta confusio nostris rationibus auferatur. unde singulis quibusque temporibus sollemni more factos breves ad scrinia nostra transmittite, sicut te et prisca legum et nostrae iussionis praesens commonere videtur auctoritas, ne, si aliquid horum aestimaveris neglegendum, tu tibi absolute facias esse periculum. [5] Verumtamen ut iustissimarum praeceptionum diligentior procuretur effectus, illum atque illum praecedentibus meritis comprobatos tibi officioque tuo iussimus imminere, ut nihil possit nocere neglegentia, ubi adhibetur sollicitudo geminata. unde continenter agite, si provectum vestrum magis desideratis extendere. impia lucra sint a vobis omnimodis aliena: vos possessorem devotum redditis, si fraudulentis non gravetur incommodis. de aequitate potius quam de rapacitate proficitur. semper metuit iniusta praesumptio: quid enim adquiri putatur, ubi bona conscientia perditur? aut in qua parte possit homo proficere, si innocentiam probatus fuerit amisisse? [6] Nolite sine praemio credere, quae videntur ad bonam conscientiam pertinere. habebunt nos bene agentes, in quo possumus, adiutores. remuneratorem enim illi me esse promitto, quem se aliqua honestate tractasse cognovero. agite ergo: laudes ad me potius vestri perveniant quam querellae. maius commodum non quaeratis, quam si nihil venditis. illa tantum sequenda sunt lucra, quae potest laetus offerre et miles sollemniter securus accipere. non censor, sed laudator vester esse desidero. cavete ergo, ne reddatur infestus qui vobis cupit esse beneficus: nam gravius semper irascitur, qui contra propositum commovetur.
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From:Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To:All Provincial Judges
Date:~533-537 AD
Context:Cassiodorus, now writing in his own name as Praetorian Prefect, issues a tax collection order — but turns it into a treatise on why fair taxation is in everyone's interest.
What is demanded through annual obligation is most justly required, since what is paid under general law is contributed, in a sense, with a kind of joy. A tax payment is what makes a subject called "generous" — and the payer takes on the title of "one who offers," because he recognizes he owes what is assessed. How fine it is to stand confidently in the forum, to have no fear of the public authority, and to be counted among the dutiful — spared the shame of being compelled.
For everything done under compulsion is dishonorable. The man driven to pay taxes through threats of loss does not enjoy the grace of a willing contributor. By contrast, how worthy of a free person it is to owe nothing to the tax collectors! The only pleasant estate for its owner is one where the arrival of the assessor is not feared. Rightly, then, a receipt of payment is called "security" — for it protects not only one's peace of mind but one's property.
Therefore — and may this be spoken under a good omen — for the twelfth indiction [tax year], throughout the diocese under your jurisdiction, I order you and your staff, maintaining the customary moderation, to remind landowners that they must complete their obligation in three installments at the appointed times. Let that corrupt practice of granting paid delays cease — delays sought not for taxpayers' benefit but through the scheming of fraud. Those who claim to lighten such burdens only impose a different, more abominable weight of profiteering.
Let such detestable and disgraceful trickery be far from our times. Let the landowner pay nothing beyond what is owed to the public treasury — for those who try to defraud anyone under our authority are actually working against their own interests. Therefore, just as I refuse to allow fiscal burdens to be increased by any pretext, so I order the prescribed payments to be completed at their set times, God willing — so that the landowners' loyal compliance may be known to their rulers with the greatest approval, and the tangled confusion of late payments may be removed from our accounts. Submit your itemized reports to our office at each appointed period, in the customary manner, as both ancient law and the present authority of my command direct you — lest, if you think any of this may be neglected, you bring the danger squarely upon yourself.
However, to ensure the more diligent execution of these most just directives, I have assigned [names], men proven by prior merit, to oversee you and your staff — so that nothing may be harmed by negligence where doubled vigilance is applied. Act accordingly, if you wish your careers to advance. Let dishonest profits be entirely foreign to you. You make landowners compliant when you do not burden them with fraudulent impositions. Advancement comes from fairness, not from rapacity. Unjust presumption always lives in fear — for what does a man think he gains when he loses a good conscience? How can anyone prosper if he is proven to have lost his integrity?
Do not imagine that what pertains to a good conscience goes unrewarded. Those who serve well will find me, where I can, their helper. I promise to reward the man I learn has conducted himself with any degree of honor. So act in a way that praise, rather than complaints, reaches me about you. Seek no greater profit than having nothing for sale. Pursue only those gains that a man can offer gladly and a soldier can receive securely as his due. I wish to be your advocate, not your censor. Beware, then, of provoking the hostility of one who wishes to be your benefactor — for the man who is moved to anger against his own inclination always strikes harder.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.