Letter 4045: King Theodoric to the Counts, Defensores [city advocates], and Town Councillors of the City of Ticinum [modern Pavia].

King Theodoric to the Counts, Defensores [city advocates], and Town Councillors of the City of Ticinum [modern Pavia]. [The Heruli were a Germanic people who had been settled as foederati (allied troops) within the Ostrogothic kingdom.] We have ordered the Herulian petitioners to come, with God's help, to our court in accordance with our instructions. They are to be provided with a ship for their transport, so that in our land they need not continue to suffer the hardship they knew in their own province. Upon receiving this order, prepare for them without delay both the use of a ship as far as the city of Ravenna and provisions for five days. See to it that they lack nothing they need -- so that they may recognize, from the abundance they find here, that they have left behind a land of want, and that this foreign soil is more bountiful than their homeland.

XLV. COMITIBUS DEFENSORIBUS ET CURIALIBUS TICINENSIS CIVITATIS THEODERICUS REX. [1] Ad comitatum supplices Erulos auctore deo nostris venire iussimus constitutis, quibus navis est praebenda subvectio, ne in patria nostra adhuc provinciae suae laborare videantur inopia. itaque praesenti iussione commoniti et navis eis usum usque ad Ravennatem urbem et annonas dierum quinque sine aliqua dilatione praeparate nec aliquid eis necessarium deesse faciatis, quatenus provinciam se deseruisse ieiunam de copiae inventione cognoscant sitque illis uberior peregrina terra quam patria.