From: Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To: [Revenue officials — canonicaria, a standard tax-collection directive]
Date: ~533-537 AD
Context: A routine annual tax assessment order — the standard administrative machinery that kept the post-Roman state functioning.
The season reminds us that it perpetually accommodates human affairs, reconciling even harsh realities through the seizing of the right moment — so that we may renew our attention to fiscal collections with annual regularity, since the order of the state is seen to rest on this very institution. And rightly so, since what is provided for the benefit of all deserves to be welcomed. These things should be valued, for they are what makes the state most secure — renewed by the return of revenue, it is sustained in the firmest strength of its foundations.
Therefore, while devotion displayed at any time is commendable, it becomes more acceptable when it is most needed. Let the landowners contribute payments that will benefit their own security. A debt that cannot be avoided should always be offered with a willing mind, so that what is paid without compulsion becomes a kind of gift.
Accordingly — and may this be spoken under a favorable omen — for the first indiction, within your diocese, I order you to notify the landowners that the faithful taxpayer must discharge his assessment in three installments. Let no one groan that he has been pressed through premature collection, nor let anyone claim he has been passed over through excessive leniency. Let no one exceed the standard of fair weighing; let the scale be perfectly just — for there will be no limit to plunder if it is permitted to exceed the proper weights.
Send faithful accounts of expenditures to our office every four months in the customary manner, so that with the obscurity of all error swept away, truth may shine in the public records. To help you more easily accomplish what has been decreed, with God's help, I order our soldiers [names] to oversee you and your staff, mindful of the consequences to themselves — so that what you know has been ordered may be carried out blamelessly. Beware that neither the guilt of corrupt profiteering nor the fault of sluggish idleness should fall upon you, and that what you neglect to execute may bring ruin to your own fortunes.
XVI.
CANONICARIA.
[1] Tempus ammonet humanis rebus indesinenter accommodum, dum res nobis etiam asperas captata semper opportunitate conciliat, ut illationum fiscalium curam annua festivitate reparemus, quando rei publicae ordo tali consistere cernitur instituto. et merito votivum, quod pro cunctorum utilitate praestatur. diligenda sunt ista, unde res publica videtur esse firmissima, quae dum redeunte censu reficitur, status sui firmissimo robore continetur. [2] Quapropter magna est quolibet tempore monstrata devotio, sed tunc acceptior redditur, quando necessaria plus habetur. praebeant igitur possessores stipendia suae gratiae profutura. debitum siquidem quod non potest evitari, prona debet mente semper offerri, ut fiat beneficium, quod sine compulsione constat illatum. [3] Atque ideo, quod feliciter dictum sit, per indictionem primam in dioecesi tua possessorem te praecipimus ammonere, ut trina illatione servata assem tributarium devotus exsolvat, quatinus nec aliquis se sub immatura compulsione ingemiscat exactum nec iterum remissione protelata quisquam se dicat esse praeteritum. nullus quantitatem iustae ponderationis excedat sitque libra iustissima: modus non erit rapiendi, si pondera fas sit excedi. [4] Expensarum quoque fidelem notitiam per quaternos menses ad scrinia nostra sollemniter destinabis, ut totius erroris obscuritate detersa rationibus publicis veritas elucescat. sed quo facilius possis iuvante deo quae sunt statuta complere, illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites tibi officioque tuo periculorum suorum memores praecipimus imminere, quatinus quod agnoscis iussum, inculpabiliter sortiatur effectum. cave ergo ne te aut improbae redemptionis aut torpentis desidiae culpa respiciat et quod expedire neglexeris, tuis inferat damna fortunis.
◆
From:Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect
To:[Revenue officials — canonicaria, a standard tax-collection directive]
Date:~533-537 AD
Context:A routine annual tax assessment order — the standard administrative machinery that kept the post-Roman state functioning.
The season reminds us that it perpetually accommodates human affairs, reconciling even harsh realities through the seizing of the right moment — so that we may renew our attention to fiscal collections with annual regularity, since the order of the state is seen to rest on this very institution. And rightly so, since what is provided for the benefit of all deserves to be welcomed. These things should be valued, for they are what makes the state most secure — renewed by the return of revenue, it is sustained in the firmest strength of its foundations.
Therefore, while devotion displayed at any time is commendable, it becomes more acceptable when it is most needed. Let the landowners contribute payments that will benefit their own security. A debt that cannot be avoided should always be offered with a willing mind, so that what is paid without compulsion becomes a kind of gift.
Accordingly — and may this be spoken under a favorable omen — for the first indiction, within your diocese, I order you to notify the landowners that the faithful taxpayer must discharge his assessment in three installments. Let no one groan that he has been pressed through premature collection, nor let anyone claim he has been passed over through excessive leniency. Let no one exceed the standard of fair weighing; let the scale be perfectly just — for there will be no limit to plunder if it is permitted to exceed the proper weights.
Send faithful accounts of expenditures to our office every four months in the customary manner, so that with the obscurity of all error swept away, truth may shine in the public records. To help you more easily accomplish what has been decreed, with God's help, I order our soldiers [names] to oversee you and your staff, mindful of the consequences to themselves — so that what you know has been ordered may be carried out blamelessly. Beware that neither the guilt of corrupt profiteering nor the fault of sluggish idleness should fall upon you, and that what you neglect to execute may bring ruin to your own fortunes.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.