From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: [The praetorian staff]
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: Cassiodorus announces the distribution of pay warrants to retiring staff — with a pointed remark about officials who delay payments to extort bribes.
The duty of giving compels a man to act without delay, because one who is prompted by innate generosity is driven all the more to act kindly. It is not fitting that I should be inconsistent with my own principles — for as the length of my administration grows, so should the number of remedies I provide. Therefore, my generosity hereby grants you your pay warrants, so that you may receive the benefits of your reward at the very moment you reach the end of your labors. I do not keep you dangling in anxious suspense, nor exhaust you with agonizing delay. Let the end of worry and the end of toil be one and the same. For who would think it right to delay benefits — unless he has no qualms about selling his favors?
XXXIII.
DE CONCEDENDIS DELEGATORIIS.
[1] Moras intercipit, quem praestandi consuetudo constringit, quia plus ille ad beneficia compellitur, qui innata benivolentia commonetur. neque enim decet, ut nostrorum factorum dissimiles esse debeamus, dum oporteat crescere numerositate remedii, cui administrationis tempora videntur augeri. et ideo de praesenti vobis delegatorios nostra largitur humanitas, ut tunc habeatis commoda praemii, quando estis et sudoris terminum consecuti. non vos anxia mora suspendimus nec cruciabili dilatione fatigamus. unus sit finis sollicitudinis et laboris. nam differendum quis putet, si beneficia sua vendere non retractet?
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From:Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To:[The praetorian staff]
Date:~533-537 AD
Context:Cassiodorus announces the distribution of pay warrants to retiring staff — with a pointed remark about officials who delay payments to extort bribes.
The duty of giving compels a man to act without delay, because one who is prompted by innate generosity is driven all the more to act kindly. It is not fitting that I should be inconsistent with my own principles — for as the length of my administration grows, so should the number of remedies I provide. Therefore, my generosity hereby grants you your pay warrants, so that you may receive the benefits of your reward at the very moment you reach the end of your labors. I do not keep you dangling in anxious suspense, nor exhaust you with agonizing delay. Let the end of worry and the end of toil be one and the same. For who would think it right to delay benefits — unless he has no qualms about selling his favors?
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.