Letter 12008: It seems a novel kind of bargain when those who ask gain something and those who provide suffer no loss.

From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect To: The Consular Governor of the Province of Liguria Date: ~533-537 AD Context: Cassiodorus approves a landowner's request to pay taxes directly to the treasury rather than through local collectors — to avoid extortion by middlemen. It seems a novel kind of bargain when those who ask gain something and those who provide suffer no loss. One party receives in such a way that nothing is lost by the other. It is a gift without expense, a concession without diminution — it bears the name of generosity while never leaving the owner's legal rights. The petitioner reports that the tax assessment on his properties in the said province — enumerated in the attached schedule — is being exacted with outrageous severity, and he desires to pay his obligation directly to our treasury without any diminution of public revenue. Since I am known to study no one's loss, provided the treasury receives what it is owed through reasonable settlement, I gladly approve — for to delay good requests is the same as perpetrating injustice. Therefore, Your Spectability, having notified the local councilmen, collectors, and all those you know to have an interest, shall from the stated indiction onward remove the collection process from the designated properties under this condition: if by the specified date the full amount owed has not been paid to the treasurer, then the customary collection shall proceed within the province. But if the petitioner proves through the treasurer's receipts that his commitment has been fulfilled, the designated properties shall be freed from all harassment by collectors. For we should prefer what is offered willingly and without any suspicion of loss. A collection made without the pressure of an enforcer is most welcome to me — doing voluntarily what could barely be accomplished under compulsion. If only every landowner would come forward unprompted: he would spare us the necessity of delays and spare himself the losses that come from failing to pay on time. The man who puts off making his regular payments is the one who makes the enforcer necessary.

VIII. CONSULARI PROVINCIAE LIGURIAE SENATOR PPO. [1] Novum genus videtur esse compendii postulantes adquirere et praestantes nulla damna sentire. nam sic accipitur ab uno, ut perire non possit ab altero: donatur sine dispendio: ceditur sine imminutione et nomen habet munificentiae quod iura domini nescit exire. [2] Quapropter ille casarum suarum fiscum in illa provincia constitutarum, quas brevis subter conscriptus eloquitur, exactorum suggerit enormitate vexari, desiderans sine aliqua imminutione publicae utilitatis inferre se debere nostris arcariis debitam functionem. quod nos, qui nullorum damnis studere cognoscimur, dummodo fisco competentia rationabili satisfactione solvantur, libenter annuimus, quia hoc est bona desideria suspendere quod illicita perpetrare. [3] Qua de re spectabilitas tua commonitis curialibus vel compulsoribus nec non et his, quorum interesse cognoscit, ab illa indictione praedictis casis exactionem facies sub hac condicione removeri, ut, si intra illas kalendas summa quae competit non fuerit arcario persoluta, intra provinciam sollemnis exactio peragatur, minus ne, si fidem suae promissionis arcariorum apochis probaverit esse completam, ab omni inquietudine compulsorum designata praedia liberentur, quia illa magis debent eligi, quae sine suspicione damni libenti animo probantur offerri. grata enim nobis est sine instantia compulsoris exactio et hoc devotum facere, quod vix poterat coactus implere. atque utinam possessor ultroneus et nobis necessitatem morarum tolleret et sibi damna competentibus illationibus abrogaret! ipse enim imminentem necessarium facit, qui sollemnia praebere distulerit.