Letter 3015: When justice is violated, the injury is ours, because we rightly take upon ourselves offenses against things we hold...

XV. KING THEODERIC TO THEODAHAD, MAN OF SPECTABLE RANK. [1] Indeed, when justice is harmed, the injury is our own, for we rightly take upon ourselves as our concern the violations of those things which we love. For this reason we do not permit that to go above all unpunished which is established to have been committed in contempt of our command. For what presumption, deserving of punishment, would not make bold, if it should despise the reverence owed to a sacred command? And therefore that man, whom we some time ago decreed should appear before the tribunal of the illustrious man Sona, but who by his inveterate cunning withdrew himself, we now commit to your examination to be heard, so that you may put an end to a quarrel that has been protracted by punishable contrivance. Therefore bestow your care upon the hearing, so that your reputation for justice may grow, since for the relief of those who plead, the uncertainties of disputes are entrusted to you.

XV. THEODAHADO V. S. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Iniuvia quidem nostra est laesa iustitia, quia violationes earum rerum merito ad nos trahimus quas amamus. unde illud maxime inultum esse non patimur, quod in contemptum nostrae iussionis constat admissum. quae enim praesumptio plectenda non audeat, si sacrae iussionis reverenda contemnat? ideoque illum, quem dudum ad viri illustris Sonae iudicium decrevimus convenire isque se inveterata calliditate subitraxit, examini vestro committimus audiendum, ut finem detis iurgio plectibili machinatione dilatato. praestate itaque audientiae curam, ut iustitiae vobis crescat opinio, quando pro remedio causantium committuntur vobis ambigua iurgiorum.