Cassiodorus→Saturninus And Umbisus|c. 522 AD|cassiodorus
barbarian invasionproperty economics
XIX. KING THEODERIC TO SATURNINUS AND UMBISUS, MEN OF DISTINCTION.
[1] We wish to preserve the lawful revenue of the treasury, because our clemency is seen to be content with its own resources. Just as we desire to burden no one, so we ought not to lose what is owed to us. We rightly shun want, which tempts to excess -- for poverty in a ruler is a pernicious thing. Moderation is everywhere to be praised. For why should either blameworthy negligence allow one's own resources to drain away, or shameful greed scrape at the property of others? [2] We therefore command you by the present order that, upon receiving the petition of the town councillors of the city of Adria, you compel any of the Goths who refuse to meet their fiscal obligations to pay their fair share -- so that the less wealthy are not forced to pay out of their own resources what is known to be improperly withheld by those who are well able to pay. This condition shall be observed: that if anyone, through the vice of obstinacy, chooses to delay our commands, let him pay with a penalty what he ought to have offered even without compulsion -- so that insolence indecently raised by a defiant spirit may not go unpunished in a just reign.
XVIIII. SATURNINO ET VMBISVO VV. SS. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Fisci volumus legale custodire compendium, quia nostra clementia rebus propriis videtur esse contenta, et sicut nullum gravare cupimus, ita nobis debita perdere non debemus. indigentiam iuste fugimus, quae suadet excessus, dum perniciosa res est in imperante tenuitas. modus ubique laudandus est. nam cur aut vituperabilis neglegentia in propriis defluat aut aliena cupiditas turpis abradat? [2] Et ideo praesenti vobis iussione praecipimus, ut Adrianae civitatis curialium insinuatione suscepta, quicumque Gothorum fiscum detrectat implere, eum ad aequitatem redhibitionis artetis, ne tenuis de proprio cogatur exsolvere, quod constat idoneos indebite detinere: hac scilicet ratione servata, ut si quis contumaciae vitio maluerit nostra iussa tardare, cum multa reddat quod debuit etiam non compulsus offerre, quatenus protervo spiritu indecenter erecta inpunita iustis saeculis non relinquatur audacia.
◆
XIX. KING THEODERIC TO SATURNINUS AND UMBISUS, MEN OF DISTINCTION.
[1] We wish to preserve the lawful revenue of the treasury, because our clemency is seen to be content with its own resources. Just as we desire to burden no one, so we ought not to lose what is owed to us. We rightly shun want, which tempts to excess -- for poverty in a ruler is a pernicious thing. Moderation is everywhere to be praised. For why should either blameworthy negligence allow one's own resources to drain away, or shameful greed scrape at the property of others? [2] We therefore command you by the present order that, upon receiving the petition of the town councillors of the city of Adria, you compel any of the Goths who refuse to meet their fiscal obligations to pay their fair share -- so that the less wealthy are not forced to pay out of their own resources what is known to be improperly withheld by those who are well able to pay. This condition shall be observed: that if anyone, through the vice of obstinacy, chooses to delay our commands, let him pay with a penalty what he ought to have offered even without compulsion -- so that insolence indecently raised by a defiant spirit may not go unpunished in a just reign.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.