Letter 12026: We have chosen you for this task because you combine energy with good judgment -- a rare combination and one that...

XXVI. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PREFECT, TO PAULUS, MAN OF ENERGY. [1] Frequently the public welfare is preserved by a profitable act of mercy, since it gains the more by what it has remitted through the intercession of good men. And so the venerable man Augustinus, illustrious in life and in name, coming to us, has declared to the Venetians [the people of Venetia] in a tearful plea their necessities, asserting that neither wine, nor wheat, nor any kind of millet had been produced among them, affirming that the fortunes of the provincials had come to such want that they cannot endure the perils to life unless the royal mercy provides for them with its accustomed humanity. This seemed to us cruel: to demand something from petitioners and to hope for that which the province is known to lack. For he exacts only tears from such people who imposes what is not to be found. [2] And therefore, moved by the plea of so great a man, the wine and wheat which we had caused you to collect for the equipping of the army from the cities of Concordia, Aquileia, and Forum Iulii, we remit by the present authority, providing thence only the meat, as the schedule given to you contains. For from here, when it shall be necessary, we will dispatch a sufficient supply of wheat. [3] And since we have learned that wine has been produced abundantly in Histria, from there demand as much as was expected from the aforesaid cities, just as it is found in the market of goods for sale, so that they themselves may not be harmed, since just prices are preserved for them. Wherefore do not believe that the present indulgence is to be assessed at any venal price, so that, while the remedy shall be free of charge, it may nonetheless be able to be glorious. For know that you can be subjected to a grave punishment, if what has been forbidden to be given should appear to have been received by you.

XXVI. PAULO VIRO STRENUO SENATOR PPO. [1] Frequenter utilitas publica compendiosa pietate servatur, quando illud magis adquirit, quod bonorum intercessione remiserit. veniens itaque vir venerabilis Augustinus vita clarus et nomine Venetum nobis necessitates flebili allegatione declaravit, non vini, non tritici, non panici species apud ipsos fuisse procreatas, asserens ad tantam penuriam provincialium pervenisse fortunas, ut vitae pericula sustinere non possint, nisi eis pietas regalis solita humanitate prospexerit. quod nobis crudele visum est aliquid a petentibus postulare et illud sperare, quod provincia cognoscitur indigere. a talibus enim solas lacrimas exigit qui quod non invenitur imponit. [2] Et ideo tanti viri allegatione permoti vinum et triticum, quod vos in apparatum exercitus ex Concordiense, Aquileiense et Foroiuliense civitatibus colligere feceramus, praesenti auctoritate remittimus, carnes tantum, sicut brevis vobis datus continet, exinde providentes. hinc enim, cum necesse fuerit, sufficientem tritici speciem destinamus. [3] Et quoniam in Histria vinum abunde natum esse comperimus, exinde, quantum de supra dictis civitatibus speratum est, postulate, sicut in foro rerum venalium reperitur, quatenus nec ipsi laedi possint, cum eis pretia iusta servantur. quapropter praesentem indulgentiam nulla credatis venalitate taxandam, ut, dum fuerit remedium gratuitum, possit existere nihilominus gloriosum. noveritis enim gravi vos subici posse vindictae, si quod interdictum est dari, a vobis videatur acceptum.