Letter 12022: Public expenditures, which fluctuate with the changing circumstances of the times, can be stabilized if the...

22. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PREFECT, TO THE PROVINCIALS OF HISTRIA. [1] Public expenditures, wavering through the diverse changeableness of the times, will be able to keep themselves in check by this method: if the wholesomeness of our commands follows the yield of each region. For administration is easy there where the produce has been more abundant. For if there is demanded what a famished barrenness has refused, then both the province is harmed and the desired result is not obtained. By the testimony of travelers, therefore, we have learned that the province of Histria, named with praise for three excellent products, teeming by divine gift with wine, oil, and wheat, rejoices in the present year in its fruitfulness. And therefore let the aforesaid commodities, given over for so many solidi in fulfillment of your tribute, be reckoned to you from the present first indiction; the remainder, however, on account of the customary expenses, we leave to the devoted province. [2] But since the things we have mentioned must be sought by us in a larger sum, we have also transmitted so many solidi from our own treasury, so that the necessary goods may be gathered most abundantly without loss to you. For frequently, while you are pressed to sell to strangers, you are accustomed to suffer losses, especially at that time when the foreign buyer has been taken away from you and it is rare to receive gold, when you find that merchants are not present. But how much better it is to obey one's lords than to provide for distant parties, and to pay debts with one's produce than to endure the disdain of buyers! [3] Out of love of justice we also disclose what you might have been able to suggest to us, namely that we ought not to harm you in the price, since we are not burdened by the furnishing of freight charges. For there is a region near to us, situated above the gulf of the Ionian Sea, filled with olives, adorned with crops, abounding in vines, where, as though from three teats bestowed with excellent abundance, every kind of produce has flowed forth with desirable fruitfulness. This region is not undeservedly called the Campania of Ravenna, the storehouse pantry of the royal city, a most delightful and pleasant retreat. Extending into the north, it enjoys an admirable mildness of climate. [4] It has too what I might not absurdly call its own Baiae [a famed resort], where the billowing sea, entering the hollows of the land, settles into a fair appearance through the levelness of a pool. These places nourish many fish-sauce factories [garismatia, makers of garum] and glory in their abundance of fish. There is more than one Avernus there. Numerous Neptunian fishponds are to be seen, in which, even when industry leaves off, oysters are born everywhere unbidden. Thus neither effort in raising them nor uncertainty in catching them is found among these delicacies. [5] You would think the mansions, shining far and wide, were arranged in the likeness of pearls, so that from this it may appear what the judgments of the men of old were in that province, which is established to have been adorned with such great structures. There is added also to that shore a most beautiful row of islands, which, arranged with pleasing usefulness, both protects ships from dangers and enriches the cultivators with great abundance. It plainly refreshes the comitatensian sentinels [the court guards], it adorns the dominion of Italy, it feeds the leading men with delicacies, and the middling sort with expenditures of victuals; and what is born there is almost entirely possessed in the royal city. Let the province now more willingly provide its resources of its own accord, in devotion: let it obey the more abundantly now that it is hoped for, since it acted most graciously when it was scarcely asked. [6] But lest any uncertainty should arise concerning our commands, we have dispatched Laurentius, a most experienced man, proven to us by great labors in the commonwealth, with the present authority, so that, according to the schedules attached below, he may without delay carry out what he knows has been enjoined upon him for the public expenditures. Now see to the things that have been commanded. For you make a devoted soldier when you willingly receive the command. [7] As for the prices, we shall declare moderate ones to you on the following occasion, when the bearer of this letter, by a report sent to us, has informed us of the measure of the produce. For nothing can be justly fixed in price unless the supply of the thing can be clearly investigated. For he is an unfair judge who issues a verdict to no purpose, and he is shown to be badly conscious to himself who is about to speak without due deliberation.

XXII. PROVINCIALIBUS HISTRIAE SENATOR PPO. [1] Expensae publicae diversa temporum varietate titubantes hac ratione se poterunt continere, si proventum locorum sequatur salubritas iussionum. illic enim facilis est procuratio, ubi fuerit fructus uberior. nam si indicatur quod sterilitas ieiuna denegavit, tunc et provincia laeditur et effectus optabilis non habetur. commeantium igitur attestatione didicimus Histriam provinciam a tribus egregiis fructibus sub laude nominatam, divino munere gravidam vini, olei vel tritici, praesenti anno fecunditate gratulari. et ideo memoratae species in tot solidos datae pro tributaria functione vobis de praesenti prima indictione reputentur: reliqua vero propter sollemnes expensas relinquimus devotae provinciae. [2] Sed quoniam nobis in maiore summa sunt quaerenda quae diximus, tot solidos etiam de arca nostra transmisimus, ut res necessariae sine vestro dispendio uberrime debeant congregari. frequenter enim, dum extraneis urgemini vendere, soletis damna sentire, eo praesertim tempore, cum vobis peregrinus emptor ereptus est et rarum est aurum capere, quando mercatores cognoscitis non adesse. quanto vero melius est parere dominis quam praestare longinquis et debita fructibus solvere quam ementum fastidia sustinere! [3] Prodimus etiam amore iustitiae quod nobis suggerere poteratis, quia in pretio laedere non debemus, unde naulorum praebitionibus non gravamur. est enim proxima nobis regio supra sinum maris Ionii constituta, olivis referta, segetibus ornata, vite copiosa, ubi quasi tribus uberibus egregia ubertate largatis omnis fructus optabili fecunditate profluxit. quae non immerito dicitur Ravennae Campania, urbis regiae cella penaria, voluptuosa nimis et deliciosa digressio. fruitur in septentrione progressa caeli admiranda temperie. [4] Habet et quasdam, non absurde dixerim, Baias suas, ubi undosum mare terrenas concavitates ingrediens in faciem decoram stagni aequalitate deponitur. haec loca et garismatia plura nutriunt et piscium ubertate gloriantur. Avernus ibi non unus est. numerosae conspiciuntur piscinae Neptuniae, quibus etiam cessante industria passim ostrea nascuntur iniussa. sic nec studium in nutriendis nec dubietas in capiendis probatur esse deliciis. [5] Praetoria longe lateque lucentia in margaritarum speciem putes esse disposita, ut hinc appareat, qualia fuerint illius provinciae maiorum iudicia, quam tantis fabricis constat ornatam. additur etiam illi litori ordo pulcherrimus insularum, qui amabili utilitate dispositus et a periculis vindicat naves, et ditat magna ubertate cultores. reficit plane comitatenses excubias, Italiae ornat imperium, primates deliciis, mediocres victualium pascit expensis et quod illic nascitur, paene totum in urbe regia possidetur. praestet nunc copias suas sponte magis devota provincia: amplius pareat, dum speratur, quando gratissime faciebat, dum minime quaereretur. [6] Sed ne aliqua iussionibus nostris dubietas nasceretur, Laurentium virum experientissimum et magnis nobis in re publica laboribus comprobatum cum praesenti auctoritate direximus, ut secundum breves subter annexos incunctanter expediat quod sibi pro expensis publicis iniunctum esse cognoscit. nunc procurate quae iussa sunt. vos enim facitis devotum militem, cum libenter suscipitis iussionem. [7] Pretia vero vobis moderata sequenti occasione declaramus, cum nobis praesentium gerulus nativitatis modum missa relatione suggesserit. taxari enim aliquid non potest iuste, nisi copia rei evidenter potuerit indagari. inaequalis est quippe arbiter, qui sententiam mittit in cassum, et male sibi probatur conscius, qui est indeliberata dicturus.