From: Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To: The Senate of the City of Rome
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Theoderic rebukes the Senate for tax evasion by wealthy senatorial households, which has shifted the burden onto poorer taxpayers and local officials.
It is well established that the Senate set the standard for how people should live -- everything that brings honor to the Roman name can be traced back to your institutions. You were called "fathers" from the very beginning so that the lives of citizens might be shaped by your example. You established the obligations of the provinces, the rights of private citizens, and taught all your subjects to willingly obey the demands of justice. It would hardly be fitting, then, for resistance to emerge from the very body that should be a model of restraint. Our mercy -- which is deeply committed to maintaining proper order in all things -- has decided to bring this matter to your attention, so that ignorance does not continue to feed wrongdoing among those who should know better.
Reports from provincial judges, forwarded to the distinguished Praetorian Prefect, reveal that the first installment deadline has passed with little or nothing contributed by senatorial households. They report that this shortfall crushes the poor -- the very people who should be protected. What happens is that tax collectors, ignored by the powerful, turn their full force on the weak, so that a loyal taxpayer ends up paying someone else's debt. Worse still, they report that each senator tosses whatever he pleases to the collectors, and all these losses fall on the curiales [municipal administrators responsible for tax collection]. Those we had restored for public service are instead being destroyed by the contempt of the defiant.
Therefore, Senators -- you who owe the same effort to the state as we do -- arrange things fairly: let every senatorial household pay what it has declared, through appointed agents in the provinces, in three installments. Alternatively, if you prefer the arrangement you used to request as a favor, pay everything to the treasury of the vicar's office, so that local officials are not forced to suffer losses pursuing your small contributions through repeated and fruitless demands. It would be an outrage if a man who can barely meet his own obligations is crushed under the weight of someone else's.
This is something we cannot overlook without compromising civic order -- that people are being stripped of their property without even the excuse of war, and that those who rush to serve the state are the ones who suffer most. You should also know that we have published an edict making this known to all provincials, so that anyone weighed down by another's tax burden may freely come forward. Those who seek justice from us will receive it -- we have always known how to offer relief to the exhausted.
XXIIII. SENATUI URBIS ROMAE THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Constat senatum populis vivendi regulam praestitisse: nam quod ornat nomen Romanum, a vobis legitur institutum. ad hoc patres in illo principio nominati, ut quasi filiorum per vos possit vita componi. vos enim devotionem provinciis, vos privatis iura decrevistis et ad omnes iustitiae partes subiectos libenter parere docuistis. et ideo non decet inde signum resultationis exire, unde exemplum potuit moderationis effulgere. quod nostra clementia, cui cordi est rerum omnium tenere mensuram, in vestram notitiam credidit perferendum, ne magis ignorantia nutriatur excessus, sub quorum conscientia error non potest esse perpetuus. [2] Igitur provinciarum iudicum relatione ad magnificum virum praefectum praetorii directa comperimus sic primae transmissionis tempus exemptum, ut nihil aut parum a senatoriis domibus constet illatum: allegantes per hanc difficultatem tenues deprimi, quos decuerat sublevari (fiet enim, ut exactorum nimietas, dum a potentibus contemnitur, in tenues conversa grassetur et ille potius solvat aliena, qui est devotus ad propria), praeterea multo acerbiora iungentes, quod pro sua quisque voluntate aliquid exigentibus dignetur abicere, quae tamen omnia detrimenta curialibus dicuntur infligi, et qui in usus publicos fuerant nostra provisione reparati contumacibus distrahantur iniuriis. [3] Atque ideo, patres conscripti, qui parem nobiscum rei publicae debetis adnisum, sic aequabiliter ordinate, ut quicquid unaquaeque domus senatoria profitetur, destinatis procuratoribus per provincias trina illatione persolvat. [4] Aut certe, quod in locum beneficii solebatis expetere, arcae vicarianae sedis, si id diligitis, universa complete, ne necesse sit curiali per multiplicem et inefficacem conventionis laborem in exiguis vestris illationibus sua potius damna suscipere eveniatque detestabilis casus, ut qui functionem propriam vix poterat sustinere devotus, alienis oneribus prematur infirmus. [5] Quod nos salva civilitate dissimulare non possumus, ut sine acerbitate belli rebus suis exuantur oppressi et illi magis pereant, qui rei publicae parere festinant. hoc etiam nos edictali programmate in cunctorum noveritis provincialium notitiam pertulisse, ut libere prorumpat in publicum, qui se alienae functionis pondere novit oppressum: relaturi a nobis iustitiae fructum, qui fessis novimus donare praesidium.
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From:Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To:The Senate of the City of Rome
Date:~522 AD
Context:Theoderic rebukes the Senate for tax evasion by wealthy senatorial households, which has shifted the burden onto poorer taxpayers and local officials.
It is well established that the Senate set the standard for how people should live -- everything that brings honor to the Roman name can be traced back to your institutions. You were called "fathers" from the very beginning so that the lives of citizens might be shaped by your example. You established the obligations of the provinces, the rights of private citizens, and taught all your subjects to willingly obey the demands of justice. It would hardly be fitting, then, for resistance to emerge from the very body that should be a model of restraint. Our mercy -- which is deeply committed to maintaining proper order in all things -- has decided to bring this matter to your attention, so that ignorance does not continue to feed wrongdoing among those who should know better.
Reports from provincial judges, forwarded to the distinguished Praetorian Prefect, reveal that the first installment deadline has passed with little or nothing contributed by senatorial households. They report that this shortfall crushes the poor -- the very people who should be protected. What happens is that tax collectors, ignored by the powerful, turn their full force on the weak, so that a loyal taxpayer ends up paying someone else's debt. Worse still, they report that each senator tosses whatever he pleases to the collectors, and all these losses fall on the curiales [municipal administrators responsible for tax collection]. Those we had restored for public service are instead being destroyed by the contempt of the defiant.
Therefore, Senators -- you who owe the same effort to the state as we do -- arrange things fairly: let every senatorial household pay what it has declared, through appointed agents in the provinces, in three installments. Alternatively, if you prefer the arrangement you used to request as a favor, pay everything to the treasury of the vicar's office, so that local officials are not forced to suffer losses pursuing your small contributions through repeated and fruitless demands. It would be an outrage if a man who can barely meet his own obligations is crushed under the weight of someone else's.
This is something we cannot overlook without compromising civic order -- that people are being stripped of their property without even the excuse of war, and that those who rush to serve the state are the ones who suffer most. You should also know that we have published an edict making this known to all provincials, so that anyone weighed down by another's tax burden may freely come forward. Those who seek justice from us will receive it -- we have always known how to offer relief to the exhausted.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.