Letter 12028: There are times when a ruler must speak not to individuals but to all his people at once, and this is such a time.

XXVIII. EDICT. [1] Who does not know that divine providence wishes to withdraw certain things from our use, so that it may put the human spirit to the test? For if it should happen that no one was in want at all, generosity would accordingly have no place. Scarcity has been granted to the provinces for the praise of our king: the fields have been made barren, so that the bounty of our lord might be recognized. The most welcome gift would be less so, had not the hardship come first. Rejoice, provinces, and rather render thanks for your misfortunes, since you have proof of so great a spirit in your prince that he yields to no adversities. Behold the marvelous devotion that everywhere fights against our hardships! [2] For when the savagery of the heathen of the earlier time had roused itself, and your Aemilia and Liguria - as it is necessary for you to remember - were being shaken by the incursion of the Burgundians and were waging a furtive war from the neighborhood, suddenly the fame of the present rule shone forth like the rising of the sun. The enemy groaned that he had been conquered by his own presumption, when he recognized that the man whom he had found to be peerless under the name of soldier was the ruler of the renowned nation. How often did the Burgundian wish not to go out from his own borders, lest he should fight against our prince as his adversary - whose presence, though relieved he escaped it, yet, cast down, he met his good fortune? [3] For as soon as the Goths applied themselves to the zeal for war with their inborn courage, in so favorable a contest was the band of rebels cut down, as though it had happened that on the one side stood men unarmed, on the other men in arms: by the fairness of divine judgment, so that the plunderer should fall on those very plains which he had presumed to lay waste. Exult, province adorned with the corpses of your adversaries: laugh at the heap of funerals, which is known to have been brought about by the destruction of the enemy. Now Liguria is better cultivated, to which, when the fruit of the crop was denied, a harvest of the enemy came forth: for although your tributes could be received less fully, you happily presented the triumphs born within you. [4] To these is added the recently routed encroachment of the Alamanni, which in its very first attempts is proven to have been so crushed that it joined at once its arrival and its end, as though purged by the salutary cutting of the steel, to the end that both the excess of those presuming wrongly might be punished and the destruction of the subjects might not altogether run rampant. I could indeed enumerate for you how great a throng of enemies has fallen in other places: but, after the manner of the human spirit, as you hasten toward your own happy affairs, you desire us to say only that which you feel pertains especially to you. [5] Let us return, therefore, to the sweet beginning: he who defends you from the calamity of war does not allow you to endure the dangers of want either; for he who struck down the enemy of the province also commanded famine to depart. O contest to be proclaimed throughout the whole world! Against fierce indigence the humanity of the glorious prince fights, whose camps in truth are barns crammed full, which, had he wished to close them, then the unbearable foe would have entered; but because he rather opened them, he soon put the raging adversary to flight. [6] I do not know which wars of our prince the world should rather admire: yet I shall say what I feel. It is customary for brave men to have waged battles successfully, but it is established that to have conquered scarcity is beyond human valor. But seeing that to these so great and such goods no vows of the suppliants could be adequate, he has further endured to relax even half the assessment of the fiscal reckoning, lest he should make those sorrowful in any part for whom he had provided so many fortunate things. [7] We read that Joseph, against deadly famine, gave indeed the license to buy wheat, but set such a price that the man eager for his relief would rather sell himself in order to purchase sustenance. What was it, I ask, then to live for the wretched, from whom the bitter relief seemed to take away their liberty: where the freed man groaned no less than the captive could weep! I believe the holy man was constrained by this necessity, that he might both satisfy a greedy prince and come to the aid of an imperiled people. With the leave of so great a father may I say it: how much more excellent it is to sell grain with liberty kept safe, and on account of indigence to lighten the tributes! [8] This selling is established to be free of charge, since he both granted you the source from which you might buy and imposed a price to delight you. The public bounty therefore sells twenty-five measures, while the landholder cannot find them at ten. Humanity has changed the order of the world's affairs: we are bidden to sell cheaply, when the hungry man is ready to purchase more dearly. O new outcome of proclamation! Trade comes forth out of an inclination toward loss, and it is the seller's wish rather to lose, so that the man seeking gain may be obliged to find it. Such dealings, truly, befit a king to conduct: it is fitting that devotion carry on such a market, that it then consent the less to receive, when the buyer is impelled to offer the most. [9] It is pleasing to relate what manner of affection the ruler has toward you, since he both first granted as much as he believed would suffice and now again has doubled what was requested. It would have been a thing to make you bashful to hope for anything after gifts, when his humanity was still reserving itself for the prince's benefactions: he did not despise things unheard, since he himself bore witness to things seen. Happy that calamity which first finds a pitying witness, so that afterward it might not have a stern judge. Rejoice therefore, O Ligurian, now accustomed to the good: prosperous things have come into your use: for you have surpassed with great prosperity the Egyptians compared with you: you escape the times of necessity and you do not lose the rewards of liberty: nay, at that very time you are rendered secure from the enemy, when you are known also to have been freed from the peril of famine. [10] Still the aforesaid example adorns you: still there is a respect in which it is surpassed. For we read that Joseph returned to his brothers only the hidden prices in their sacks. What wonder, if, with nature compelling, he was seen to have shown himself more humane to his own kin? But this prince has sold liberally to all, has remitted the due assessment, and he has bestowed more generally upon the tributaries than the other was seen to have granted to his brothers alone. Let things lavished be told briefly: from this let the whole community learn its blessings, since our ages are compared not to kings, but to prophets. But lest we detain any longer those eager for the royal benefits, know that our precepts have flowed forth to those whom it concerns, so that, according to the tenor of the command, the princely munificence may reach you. Cassiodorus

XXVIII. EDICTUM. [1] Quis nesciat providentiam divinam usibus nostris aliqua velle subducere, ut humanum possit animum comprobare? nam si nullum penitus indigere contingeret, locum proinde largitas non haberet. data est provinciis in regis nostri laudem penuria: steriles facti sunt agri, ut ubertas domini possit agnosci. minus esset acceptissimum donum, nisi praecessisset incommodum. gaudete, provinciae, malisque vestris potius gratiam referte, quando talem probatis animum principis, ut nullis cedat adversis. en pietas mirabilis, quae ubique nostris repugnat incommodis. [2] Nam cum se feritas gentilis prioris temporis animasset, Aemilia et Liguria vestra, sicut vos retinere necesse est, Burgundionum incursione quateretur gereretque bellum de vicinitate furtivum, subito praesentis imperii tamquam solis ortus fama radiavit. expugnatum se hostis sua praesumptione congemuit, quando illum cognovit nominatae gentis esse rectorem, quem sub militis nomine probaverat singularem. quotiens se optavit de suis finibus non exire Burgundio, ne principe nostro pugnaret adverso, cuius licet praesentiam relevatus evaserit, felicitatem tamen praecipitatus incurrit? [3] Nam mox ut Gothi ad belli studium genuina se fortitudine contulerunt, ita prospera concertatione caesa est rebellium manus, quasi inde nudos, hinc stare contigisset armatos: divini aequitate iudicii, ut in ipsis campis praedo corrueret, quos vastare praesumpsit. exulta, adversariorum cadaveribus ornata provincia: acervum ride funerum, quem inimicorum exitio constat effectum. nunc melius culta Liguria, cui negato fructu segetis messis provenit hostilis: nam etsi tributa tua minus potuerunt accipi, triumphos in te natos feliciter optulisti. [4] His additur Alamannorum nuper fugata subreptio, quae in primis conatibus suis sic probatur oppressa, ut simul adventum suum iunxisset et exitum quasi salutaris ferri execatione purgata, quatenus et male praesumentium vindicaretur excessus et subiectorum non omnino grassaretur interitus. possem quidem vobis dinumerare, quanta in aliis locis hostium turba ceciderit: sed more humani animi ad vestra felicia festinantes illud nos tantum dicere cupitis, quod ad vos specialiter pertinere sentitis. [5] Redeamus ergo ad suave principium, quando qui vos defendit a belli clade, nec inopiae patitur pericula sustinere: nam qui perculit hostem provinciae, et famem iussit exire. o certamen toto orbe praedicandum! contra indigentiam saevam gloriosi principis pugnat humanitas, cuius vere castra sunt horrea referta, quae si claudere voluisset, tunc importabilis intrasset inimica, sed quia magis aperuit, saevientem adversariam mox fugavit. [6] Nescio quae principis nostri bella mundus potius ammiretur: ego tamen dicam quod sentio. in usum est viris fortibus feliciter egisse pugnas, sed supra humanam virtutem esse constat vicisse penuriam. verum cum his tantis ac talibus bonis nulla potuissent supplicum vota sufficere, adhuc et dimidiam relaxare pertulit fiscalis calculi functionem, ne tristes in aliqua parte faceret, quibus tot felicia praestitisset. [7] Ioseph legimus contra famem funestam emendi quidem tritici dedisse licentiam, sed tale posuisse pretium, ut suae subventionis avidus se potius venderet alimonia mercaturus. quale fuit, rogo, tunc miseris vivere, quibus acerba subventio libertatem suam videbatur adimere: ubi non minus ingemuit liberatus quam potuit flere captivus! credo virum sanctum hac necessitate constrictum, ut et avaro principi satisfaceret et periclitanti populo subveniret. pace tanti patris dixerim: quanto praestantius est libertate salva frumenta vendere et propter indigentiam tributa laxare! [8] Gratis constat ista venalitas, quando et unde ematis cessit et pretium quod vos oblectet imposuit. vendit itaque largitas publica vicenos quinos modios, dum possessor invenire non possit ad denos. ordinem rerum saeculi mutavit humanitas: nos iubemur vile distrahere, cum esuriens paratus sit carius comparare. o novum praedicationis eventum! affectu damni negotiatio provenit et votum est vendenti magis perdere, ut quaestum comparans debeat invenire. talia profecto regem decet tractare commercia: talem convenit nundinationem exercere pietatem, ut tunc minus adquiescat accipere, quando emptor plurima praecipitatur offerre. [9] Libet referre, qualis in vobis sit dominantis affectus, quia et primo cessit quantum sufficere credidit et nunc iterum postulata geminavit. verecundum vobis erat aliquid sperare post dona, cum se adhuc ad beneficia principis reservaret humanitas: non audita despexit, quando ipse visa testatus est. felix illa calamitas, quae prius miserantem reperit testem, ut post districtum iudicem non haberet. gaude igitur, assuete iam bono Ligur: in usu tuo secunda venerunt: nam collatos tibi Aegyptios magna prosperitate vicisti: evadis tempora necessitatis et libertatis praemia non amittis: immo illo tempore securus es ab hoste redditus, quando et de famis periculo cognosceris esse liberatus. [10] Adhuc te praedictum ornat exemplum: adhuc est in qua parte superetur. legitur enim Ioseph fratribus suis tantum saccis occulta pretia reddidisse. quid mirum, si natura compellente proximis suis humanior visus est extitisse? hic autem cunctis large vendidit, functionem debitam reliquit et plus iste generaliter contulit tributariis quam ille solis visus est praestitisse germanis. breviter dicantur effusa: hinc bona sua discat universitas, quando non regibus comparantur nostra saecula, sed prophetis. sed ne diutius beneficiorum regalium cupidos occupemus, praecepta nostra ad eos quorum interest manasse cognoscite, ut secundum tenorem iussionis ad vos perveniat munificentia principalis. Cassiodorus