Letter 3018: Those who chose our clemency deserve good things, so that we may prove through their advancement that their decision...

XVIII. KING THEODERIC TO GEMELLUS, MAN OF SPECTABLE RANK [a holder of the senatorial dignity of spectabilis]. [1] Those deserve good things who are seen to have chosen our clemency, so that by their own advancement we may show that we judged them truly. But if it is fitting that such men be provided for out of the public bounty, how much more is it right that they should possess as their own that which is proved to be the common gift of justice? [2] And so the spectable Magnus, having condemned his association with the enemy and called to mind the place of his birth, has returned home to the Roman empire; through his absence it is said to have come about that his property might have perished. And therefore by the present command we ordain that, both in lands and in slaves, whether urban or rural, or whatever belonging to him in any manner whatsoever he can prove to have now been lost, he is to recover it without any delay, retaining by our authority every right of ownership which he possessed; nor do we wish him to endure any legal dispute concerning the things belonging to him by ancient possession, since it is part of our purpose to grant him even new things.

XVIII. GEMELLO V. S. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Merentur bona, qui nostram visi sunt elegisse clementiam, ut eos veraciter iudicasse per augmenta propria possimus ostendere. quod si talibus viris publica decet prospici largitate, quanto magis eos sua dignum est possidere, quod commune munus probatur esse iustitiae? [2] Spectabilis itaque Magnus, hostium conversatione damnata quod natus est reminiscens, ad Romanum repatriavit imperium: cuius absentia contigisse dicitur ut eius potuisset perire substantia. atque ideo praesenti iussione sancimus, quatenus tam in agris quam mancipiis urbanis aut rusticis, vel quicquid sibi competens quolibet modo nunc amissum potuerit comprobare, sine aliqua recuperet tarditate, retinens ex nostra auctoritate dominii ius omne quod habuit: nec quaestionem eum de rebus sibi antiqua possessione competentibus volumus sustinere, cui propositi nostri est etiam nova praestare.