Letter 3041: Any burden becomes tolerable when it is distributed fairly, because a shared load is certain not to crush those...
Any burden becomes tolerable when it is distributed fairly, because a shared load is certain not to crush those under it -- when the total includes everyone, only a small part falls to each. The grain supply that our providence has sent from Italy for military expenses must be transported from the granaries of Marseille to the garrisons stationed beyond the Durance River, so that the exhausted province is not further burdened by this obligation. Therefore, we order that the effort of transporting the said supply be shared by all, so that what is undertaken by the community's effort can be accomplished quickly.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XLI. GEMELLO V. S. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Tolerabile fit omne quod aequabili ordinatione disponitur, quia divisum onus sub communione subiectos certum est non gravare: pars enim extrema ad unumquemque redit, cum summa universos incluserit. [2] Tritici itaque speciem, quam ob exercituales expensas nostra providentia de Italia destinavit, ne fatigata provincia huius praebitione laederetur, ad castella supra Druentiam constituta de Massiliensibus horreis constat esse portandam. [3] Quapropter iubemus ut studium devehendi supradictae speciei commune subeatur, quatenus celeriter possit fieri, quod universitatis studio videtur assumi.
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