Letter 3049: The devotion that anticipates a good command is welcome and pleasing to us, and it is rightly well-received when...

The devotion that anticipates a good command is welcome and pleasing to us, and it is rightly well-received when people request what we could order. A ruler is fortunate when his subjects love what is expedient, since it spares us the labor of devising what they have already arranged for their own benefit. Having reviewed your petition -- undertaken with civic love for the fortification of your walls -- we grant you full permission. You need fear nothing from this, since you should soon expect rewards of our favor. Your fortification is also our strength: whatever delivers you from uncertainty extends the fame of our defense. As for the stones you report have collapsed from the amphitheater through long decay and now serve no purpose for public beauty except to display ugly ruins -- we grant you permission to use them, but only for public works, so that what lies useless may rise into the face of your walls. Therefore, carry out with confidence whatever caution demands for defense and beauty demands for adornment. Know that what you are doing pleases us as much as the improvement of your city's appearance warrants.

XLVIIII. HONORATIS POSSESSORIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS CATINENSIS CIVITATIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Optabilis nobis est et grata devotio, quae bonam praecesserit iussionem, et merito acceptum redditur, si quid, quod possumus imperare, poscatur. felicitas enim regnantis est famulantes amare quod expedit, quando labor nobis cogitationis aufertur, dum subiecti sibi profutura disponunt. [2] Atque ideo suggestionis vestrae tenore comperto, quam caritate civica in communiendis moenibus suscepistis, absolutam huius rei vobis censemus esse licentiam: nec quicquam de hac re vereamini, unde gratiae nostrae expectare praemia mox debetis. vestra enim munitio nostra est nihilominus fortitudo: et quicquid vos ab incerto eripit, famam nostrae defensionis extendit. [3] Saxa ergo, quae suggeritis de amphitheatro longa vetustate collapsa nec aliquid ornatui publico iam prodesse nisi solas turpes ruinas ostendere, licentiam vobis eorum in usus dumtaxat publicos damus, ut in murorum faciem surgat, quod non potest prodesse, si iaceat. quocirca perficite confidenter, quicquid cautio ad munimen, quicquid ornatus expetit ad decorem, tantum nobis scituri gratum fore quod facitis, quantum exinde gratia vestrae se civitatis extulerit.