Letter 12010: Arrears in public accounts should be compared to an illness — they weigh you down and debilitate, unless they are...

From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect To: The Various Chancellors of the Provinces Date: ~533-537 AD Context: A sharp warning to provincial officials about collecting overdue taxes — Cassiodorus exposes the racket of deliberate delays used to extort bribes. Arrears in public accounts should be compared to an illness — they weigh you down and debilitate, unless they are swiftly resolved. Being in debt is a form of guilt; a man found to be in arrears cannot truly be called free. The wise man compels himself; the less cautious is the one who must be pressured by others. For what has a year's worth of tolerant collection accomplished? The sum of the coming indiction is demanded on top of the current balance. By being lenient, you are not lenient at all. By supposedly easing the burden, you double it — and while you pursue mercenary delays, you duplicate the weight of taxation. Abandon at last this cruel mercy, these benefits soaked in total loathing. The man who advances while flattering strikes harder — and the one who harms under the guise of indulgence is the one who has delayed collecting taxes at their proper times. Stop profiting from the losses of landowners. Everything you took through unjust delays, the debtors, once pressed, pay back through hardship. After this warning, do not expect to be admonished again with mere words — expect to be compelled by relentless enforcement. Therefore, if by the stated date you have not either delivered in person or dispatched the full amount owed to our treasurer — with accounts settled from the provinces in the customary manner — you shall be degraded in your province and swiftly repay what you are known to have wrongfully delayed. It is utterly unjust for public funds to lie idle under your negligence while the treasurer must constantly spend borrowed money on public needs.

X. DIVERSIS CANCELLARIIS PROVINCIARUM SENATOR PPO. [1] Rationum publicarum reliquiae infaustae sunt aegritudini comparandae, quae gravant, debilitant, nisi sub celeritate discedant. reatus quidam est esse sub debito nec liber potest veraciter dici, qui probatur obnoxius reperiri. prudens se ipse compellit: minus cautus est, qui urgetur ab altero. nam quid egit totius anni suscepta compulsio? summa futurae indictionis et quantitas exigatur. [2] Parcendo non parcitis: exonerando praegravatis et dum venales moras quaeritis, tributi onera duplicatis. relinquite tandem crudelem misericordiam, beneficia tota detestatione fellita. gravius percutit qui blandiendo grassatur et sub indulgentia laedit, qui consuetis temporibus exigere tributa distulerit. et ideo desinite aliquando possessorum damna mercari, quia totum constricti per incommoda redditis quod iniquis dilationibus abstulistis. post ista enim non vos credatis verbis iterum commoneri, sed inremissibili exactione compelli. [3] Quapropter si ad illum diem arcario nostro, quae de provinciis sollemniter postulantur, dispunctis rationibus non aut per te intuleris aut destinaveris quantitatem, degeniatus in provincia velociter reddis quae te male distulisse cognoscis, quia nimis iniquum est, ut assis publicus sub tua neglegentia iaceat et arcarius mutuatam pecuniam publicis utilitatibus incessanter expendat.