From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: Paschasius, Prefect of the Grain Supply
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: A ruling on the inheritance rights of African refugees in Italy — revealing the presence of a displaced community from Vandal North Africa living under special legal privileges in Gothic Italy.
It is an act of mercy to bind a foreign people to the state through public benefits — and to extend to newcomers, not just to blood relations, the advantages of settled life. For these people, inheritance exists without blood kin, succession without family ties; the sole proof of kinship is to speak one's ancestral language. The African [from Vandal-occupied North Africa] seeks these benefits as though they had been granted to his people long ago: a gift without a named recipient, a generosity beyond any individual — because it was first bestowed on the entire people, so that afterward the names of petitioners could be attached.
This is why they claim by a kind of right the estates of strangers [other Africans who die without heirs in Italy] — and what seems to belong only to them, a Roman cannot obtain in similar cases. They did not have such a benefit in their homeland, but here they are all treated as relatives: the entire nation, insofar as this right of succession goes, is a single family.
Therefore, let Your Experience examine this petitioner's claims with careful scrutiny. If the person he reports as having departed this life truly left no children, and no one else is found to have a legitimate claim, let your office carry out the introduction of the petitioner to the said property in the customary manner — so that the ancient compassion of past rulers may be renewed through the benefits of our present lords. Let the petitioner have the power to pray on behalf of those under whom he recognizes he has gained his dearest wish. Let him resume the property he had sighed at losing. He can no longer call himself a foreigner, since he is acquiring the farmland he desired. Let him have a dignity equal to other landowners, and let him, now restored, begin paying the taxes that he used to beg from others' hands.
Let him rejoice at being brought to the point where he gives what only a man of means can produce — inferior to other owners only in this one respect: that he cannot alienate what he has been empowered to possess. But I believe even this restriction was devised with great fairness — so that the man who takes the place of an heir may preserve his estate, by paternal right, for future strangers [other African refugees]. Nourished by compassion, let him now nourish others. His was a fortunate and praiseworthy captivity — to enjoy Roman citizenship and to be able to share in the privileges of the Africans.
VIIII.
PASCHASIO PRAEFECTO ANNONAE SENATOR PPO.
[1] Pietate plenum est peregrinam gentem publicis beneficiis obligare et non tantum consanguineos ad substantiae lucra permittere quantum ipsos quoque advenas invitare: hereditas quae est sine proximis, absque parentela successio solaque fides generis est patrios sonare sermones. Afer enim sic expetit beneficia, ut sibi olim doceat fuisse concessa: donum sine accipientis nomine, praeter personam largitas, quia primum collatum est genti, ut postea petentium vocabulum potuisset affigi. [2] Hinc est quod iure quodam postulant hereditates alienas et illis tantum videtur competere, quod Romanus non potest in causis similibus optinere. beneficium tale non habuerunt in patria sua, sed hic omnes sub hac condicione parentes sunt: universa natio, quantum ad successionis beneficium, una familia est. [3] Quocirca experientia tua preces illius diligenti examinatione discutiat et si re vera ille, quem suggerit de hac luce transisse, filios non reliquit nec ab alio constat rationabiliter possideri, introductionem memoratae rei officium vestrum celebrato ex more, quatinus antiqua pietas regnantum praesentium reparet beneficia dominorum et possit pro illis supplicare, sub quibus se magis intellegit votiva meruisse. resumat facultatem, quam se suspiraverat amisisse. peregrinum se ultra dicere non potuit, qui optata rura conquirit. habeat possessorum similem dignitatem et iam tributa reparatus inferat, qui opem ab alienis manibus expetebat. [4] Gaudeat se ad hoc perductum, ut daret quod utique nisi habenti non probatur emergere, ceteris dominis in hac tantum sorte deterior, quoniam alienare nequit quod possidere praevaluit. sed et hoc quoque magna credimus aequitate repertum, ut qui loco succedit pignoris, substantiam suam affectu patris iure servet extraneis. miseratione pastus nunc pascat et alios: felix illi contigit et praedicanda captivitas Romana civitate perfrui et Afrorum privilegiis potuisse misceri.
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From:Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To:Paschasius, Prefect of the Grain Supply
Date:~533-537 AD
Context:A ruling on the inheritance rights of African refugees in Italy — revealing the presence of a displaced community from Vandal North Africa living under special legal privileges in Gothic Italy.
It is an act of mercy to bind a foreign people to the state through public benefits — and to extend to newcomers, not just to blood relations, the advantages of settled life. For these people, inheritance exists without blood kin, succession without family ties; the sole proof of kinship is to speak one's ancestral language. The African [from Vandal-occupied North Africa] seeks these benefits as though they had been granted to his people long ago: a gift without a named recipient, a generosity beyond any individual — because it was first bestowed on the entire people, so that afterward the names of petitioners could be attached.
This is why they claim by a kind of right the estates of strangers [other Africans who die without heirs in Italy] — and what seems to belong only to them, a Roman cannot obtain in similar cases. They did not have such a benefit in their homeland, but here they are all treated as relatives: the entire nation, insofar as this right of succession goes, is a single family.
Therefore, let Your Experience examine this petitioner's claims with careful scrutiny. If the person he reports as having departed this life truly left no children, and no one else is found to have a legitimate claim, let your office carry out the introduction of the petitioner to the said property in the customary manner — so that the ancient compassion of past rulers may be renewed through the benefits of our present lords. Let the petitioner have the power to pray on behalf of those under whom he recognizes he has gained his dearest wish. Let him resume the property he had sighed at losing. He can no longer call himself a foreigner, since he is acquiring the farmland he desired. Let him have a dignity equal to other landowners, and let him, now restored, begin paying the taxes that he used to beg from others' hands.
Let him rejoice at being brought to the point where he gives what only a man of means can produce — inferior to other owners only in this one respect: that he cannot alienate what he has been empowered to possess. But I believe even this restriction was devised with great fairness — so that the man who takes the place of an heir may preserve his estate, by paternal right, for future strangers [other African refugees]. Nourished by compassion, let him now nourish others. His was a fortunate and praiseworthy captivity — to enjoy Roman citizenship and to be able to share in the privileges of the Africans.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.