Letter 4014: King Theodoric to Gesila, Saio [royal agent/enforcer].

King Theodoric to Gesila, Saio [royal agent/enforcer]. [A saio was a Gothic royal officer sent to carry out specific orders -- something between a bailiff and a special envoy.] It is a grave form of sin to burden one person with another's debts, so that the man who ought to be held liable cannot even get a hearing. Let each man's losses be his own concern, and let the man who holds the land pay the tax that goes with it. By this present authority, we assign you the task of compelling the Goths residing in Picenum and both Tuscanies [Tuscia Annonaria in the north and Tuscia Suburbicaria around Rome] to pay the public levies they owe. Excess must be stamped out at the very start, before a shameful example spreads like an ugly disease to everyone else. Therefore, if anyone spurns our orders with rustic defiance, you shall post public notices on his property and confiscate it for our treasury -- so that the man who would not justly pay a small amount may be seen to have reasonably lost everything. For who should be more prompt in paying the treasury than those who receive the benefits of our generosity, when they take more from our liberality than military pay alone would provide? If we consider the matter honestly, it is we who pay voluntary tribute by relieving everyone's burdens.

XIIII. GESILAE SAIONI THEODERICUS REX. [1] Magni peccati genus est alienis debitis alterum praegravare, ut qui potest exigi non mereatur audiri. sua quemque damna respiciant et is solvat tributum, qui possessionis noscitur habere compendium. atque ideo praesenti tibi auctoritate delegamus, ut Gothi per Picenum sive Tuscias utrasque residentes te imminente cogantur exsolvere debitas functiones. [2] In ipsis enim initiis comprimendus excessus est, ne foeda imitatio quasi turpis scabies paulatim reliquos comprehendat. si quis ergo iussa nostra agresti spiritu resupinatus abiecerit, casas eius appositis titulis fisci nostri viribus vindicabis, ut qui iuste noluit parva solvere, rationabiliter videatur maxima perdidisse. qui enim debent ad fiscum celerius esse devoti, nisi qui capiunt commoda donativi, quando amplius de nostra humanitate recipiunt quam stipendii iure praestetur? nam si liberalitatis nostrae causa tractetur, nos potius voluntaria tributa solvimus, qui fortunas omnium sublevamus.