Letter 12002: SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PREFECT, TO ALL PROVINCIAL JUDGES

II. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PREFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES. [1] I give thanks to the Divinity, because both the provincials have done what I urged and I have fulfilled everything that I promised. For no one has felt me to be tainted by any venality, nor have I endured tax-payers who were undutiful. We have on both sides something that we ought to cherish in ourselves: they have found affectionate judges, we have gained the most upright heralds. Let us therefore carry through, with God granting it, what we have begun. Let the landholder pay in his public moneys to me willingly: I will discharge to him his tributes in the assembly of justice. [2] And to you it is conveniently repeated, what is felt to have been truly done, since concerning past matters great hope is restored for the future. For you have proved that we compelled no one to give what he ought not to have offered. No one has been afflicted by me with damages, neither public nor private. We caused the terrors of the auditors to be unknown. Nor did we seek out extraordinary levies, we who desired that all things be conducted by the laws. But neither be you, on your part, unlike this. The laws willed the magistrates to be imitators of our dignity, on whom they conferred almost the same jurisdiction throughout the provinces as upon us. [3] Justice, which must be followed, rejects no one: it makes glorious all whom it exalts by participation in itself: that man alone makes himself lesser who has departed from it. Why should we pursue desires of taking? He who is called rich receives no glory: on the contrary, he who is proclaimed just is adorned with every praise. Let us rather desire that which makes us more precious than the wealthy. We receive the fasces, that we may be weighty: we ascend the tribunals, that we may be raised up by the gradations of character. [4] Nothing base, nothing covetous befits judges. For they render their own blemishes conspicuous, if those to whom many look up are made sordid by some reproach. Otherwise it is more expedient not to be seen than to be marked by the mockery of all. Let all of us, therefore, who seek the heights of office, forsake the lowly things of vices. Let there be in us an unconstrained brow, that we may be able to amend the sins of others. Every crime levels those whom it stains, and therefore he who judges ought to be unlike the accused. It is fitting that we say these things in a yearly address, because of good things there is no satiety. I confess the greediness of my longing: I desire to wish myself to be proclaimed together with you. [5] Let us come now to the customary matters: which on that account ought to be received gladly, because they are approved to be the solemn observances. Wherefore, may it be said with good fortune, we direct you and your office, with God's help, to admonish the landholder to pay the tributes of the thirteenth indiction with a devout mind, so that, the regulation of the threefold payment being kept, he may render to the commonwealth the due levy. Let the appointed times of the exactions be observed, yet in such a way that no one may groan at being exacted under the injury of premature compulsion, nor again may a ruinous lavishing of postponements be furnished under base venality. For the deferral of tribute becomes the cause of greater loss, when that is uselessly held in suspense which is avoided by no protractions. [6] You will also hasten to direct to our bureaus a faithful record of the expenditures, comprised within four-month periods, the custom being kept, so that, the fog of all error being wiped away, the clarity of the public accounting may be able to appear. For if you should do otherwise, the damages regard you, which through your neglect are brought upon the public interests. And that you may more easily accomplish, with God assisting, what has been ordained, we direct such-and-such soldiers of our see, in the customary manner, to attend upon you and your office, so that our ordinance may obtain its effect without fault. Beware, therefore, lest you show yourself unequal to our admonitions, because it is too foul a thing that, from him from whom we demand back things praiseworthy, we should rather approve things that must be cut away.

II. UNIVERSIS IUDICIBUS PROVINCIARUM SENATOR PPO. [1] Gratias divinitati refero, quia et provinciales fecerunt quae monui et ego complevi omnia quae promisi. nam nec me sensit quisquam aliqua venalitate pollutum nec ego pertuli tributarios indevotos. habemus utrimque quod in nobis diligere debeamus: illi repererunt affectuosos iudices, nos adquisivimus integerrimos praecones. agamus itaque deo praestante quod coepimus. possessor mihi publicas pecunias libens inferat: ego illi in conventu iustitiae tributa persolvam. [2] Vobis autem commode repetitur, quod veraciter actum esse sentitur, quando de rebus praeteritis spes magna redditur in futuris. probastis enim, quia nullum coegimus dare quod non debuisset offerre. non publicis, non privatis a me quisquam damnis afflictus est. discussorum terrores fecimus ignorari. nec extraordinaria quaesivimus, qui cuncta geri legibus optabamus. sed nec vos sitis in ea parte dissimiles. praesules imitatores esse dignitatis nostrae iura voluerunt, quibus paene eandem quam nobis iurisdictionem per provincias contulerunt. [3] Nullum repudiat sequenda iustitia: omnes clarificat, quos sui participatione sublimat: minorem se ille solus facit, qui ab ipsa discesserit. cur accipiendi vota sectemur? nullam gloriam recipit qui dives vocatur: contra omni laude decoratur qui iustus edicitur. desideremus potius quod nos pretiosiores locupletibus facit. fasces accipimus, ut graves esse debeamus: tribunalia conscendimus, ut morum gradibus evehamur. [4] Nil vile, nil cupidum iudices decet. claras enim suas maculas reddunt, si illi ad quos multi respiciunt aliqua reprehensione sordescunt. alioquin expedit non videri quam cunctorum irrisione signari. omnes ergo, qui gremiorum celsa petimus, vitiorum humilia deseramus. sit in nobis frons libera, ut aliorum possimus emendare peccata. aequat crimen omne quos inquinat et ideo dissimilis ab accusato debet esse qui iudicat. haec nos annuo sermone convenit loqui, quia bonarum rerum nulla satietas est. fateor aviditatem desiderii mei: cupio me vobiscum velle praedicari. [5] Veniamus nunc ad consueta: quae ideo debent suscipi grata, quia probantur esse sollemnia. quapropter, quod feliciter dictum sit, te officiumque tuum cum dei iuvamine possessorem praecipimus ammonere, ut tributa indictionis tertiae decimae devota mente persolvat, quatenus trinae illationis moderamine custodito debitam rei publicae inferat functionem. tempora exactionum statuta serventur, ita tamen, ut nullus sub immaturae compulsionis iniuria se ingemiscat exactum nec iterum sub turpi venalitate indutiarum largitas damnosa praebeatur. dilatio enim tributi maioris fit causa dispendii, quando irrite suspenditur quod nullis protractionibus evitatur. [6] Expensarum quoque fidelem notitiam quaternis mensibus comprehensam consuetudine custodita ad scrinia nostra dirigere maturabis, ut totius erroris detersa caligine publici ratiocinii possit claritas apparere. nam si aliter facias, te damna respiciunt, quae per neglectum tuum publicis utilitatibus ingeruntur. et ut facilius possis deo auxiliante quae sunt statuta perficere, illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites tibi officioque tuo consuetudinarie praecipimus imminere, quatinus ordinatio nostra inculpabiliter sortiatur effectum. cave ergo, ne te imparem praestes nostris ammonitis, quia nimis foedum est ut a quo laudanda reposcimus, resecanda potius approbemus.