King Theodoric to Mannila, Saio [a Gothic royal agent/enforcement officer].
[The cursus publicus was the Roman imperial postal and transport system, using relay horses (veredi) along the major roads. Abuse of the system -- unauthorized use of post-horses or overloading packhorses -- was a constant problem.]
It is commendable to double the guard over a service known to be essential to the needs of the state. Through the postal system, both the usefulness of embassies and the swift execution of our commands are accomplished. It provides the means by which court officials carry out their various orders. It enriches our treasury through regular remittances. Nearly everything that happens in the state is completed through the postal service. What is always useful to the public welfare must therefore always be kept ready, so that what was devised for speed does not instead impose an absurd delay upon those who are in a hurry.
Accordingly, wherever the Praetorian Prefect and the Master of Offices have stationed relay personnel for the public good, we command you to punish the outrageous presumption of those who overstep their authority with the following severity: whether a Goth or a Roman, anyone who presumes to use a post-horse without authorization from us or from the competent officials shall be compelled by you to pay one hundred solidi immediately for each horse used. We decree the same penalty for those who presume to requisition post-horses beyond the number specified in their travel warrants.
We further command that packhorses are not to be loaded with more than one hundred pounds. It is utterly absurd that an animal from which speed is demanded should be crushed under heavy burdens. Even a bird grows sluggish when weighed down. Ships that feel no strain when light are harder to move when overloaded. What can a horse do when it collapses under excessive weight? Anyone found carrying more than the specified limit shall be fined two ounces of gold.
This sum, once collected, shall -- as already established by earlier edicts -- be paid through the office of the Master of Offices for the benefit of the postal service. It is only fair that a man should be forced to sell the goods with which he wrongfully burdened a public horse. Let the man who refused to travel light by choice be stripped of his excess baggage by force. Furthermore, we remind you not to encroach upon the privileges of the station-masters or to diminish by any usurpation the authority that venerable tradition has sanctioned for them. We wish you to reinforce the guard, not to dismantle the safeguards of ancient custom.
V.
MANNILAE SAIONI THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Laudabile est in illa parte geminare custodiam, quam constat rei publicae necessitatibus exquisitam. per hanc enim et legationum utilitas et ordinationum nostrarum celeritas explicatur: hoc etiam aulicis potestatibus per varias iussiones ministrat effectum: hoc crebris illationibus nostrum ditat aerarium, ut paene quicquid in re publica geritur, cursuali ministerio compleatur. decet proinde semper esse paratum, quod utilitatibus publicis probatur accommodum, ne, quod ad celeritatem repertum est, incongruam potius festinantibus inferat tarditatem. [2] Atque ideo praefecti praetorio et magistri officiorum ubi pro publica utilitate delegerint ordinatione locatos, excedentium improbam praesumptionem tali te praecipimus districtione resecare, ut, sive Gothus sit aut Romanus qui sine nostra vel eorum quorum interest evectione veredum praesumit attingere, per unum equum centum statim solidos a te cogatur exsolvere. et de illis quoque pari severitate censemus, qui supra evectionum numerum cursuales equos usurpare praesumunt. [3] Parhippis quin etiam non ultra quam centum libras iubemus imponi. nimis enim absurdum est, ut a quo celeritas exigitur magnis ponderibus opprimatur. avis ipsa onere gravata pigrescit. carinae quae laborem non sentiunt repletae gravius moventur. quid quadrupes facere possit, qui pressus nimietate succumbit? si quis autem a modulo definito amplius fuerit habere repertus, duarum unciarum auri damno feriatur. [4] Quam summam protinus exactam, sicut iam anterioribus edictis constitutum est, per officium magisteriae dignitatis cursui proficere debere censemus. iustum est enim ut cogatur illa vendere, unde publicum equum male noscitur onerasse: sit nuditatibus expeditus qui voluntate noluit esse celerrimus. praeterea commonemus, ut praepositorum commoda non praesumas nec quicquid eos potestatis habere reverenda sanxit antiquitas, aliqua usurpatione degenies. nos enim per te geminare volumus custodiam, non antiquae consuetudinis removere cautelam.
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King Theodoric to Mannila, Saio [a Gothic royal agent/enforcement officer].
[The cursus publicus was the Roman imperial postal and transport system, using relay horses (veredi) along the major roads. Abuse of the system -- unauthorized use of post-horses or overloading packhorses -- was a constant problem.]
It is commendable to double the guard over a service known to be essential to the needs of the state. Through the postal system, both the usefulness of embassies and the swift execution of our commands are accomplished. It provides the means by which court officials carry out their various orders. It enriches our treasury through regular remittances. Nearly everything that happens in the state is completed through the postal service. What is always useful to the public welfare must therefore always be kept ready, so that what was devised for speed does not instead impose an absurd delay upon those who are in a hurry.
Accordingly, wherever the Praetorian Prefect and the Master of Offices have stationed relay personnel for the public good, we command you to punish the outrageous presumption of those who overstep their authority with the following severity: whether a Goth or a Roman, anyone who presumes to use a post-horse without authorization from us or from the competent officials shall be compelled by you to pay one hundred solidi immediately for each horse used. We decree the same penalty for those who presume to requisition post-horses beyond the number specified in their travel warrants.
We further command that packhorses are not to be loaded with more than one hundred pounds. It is utterly absurd that an animal from which speed is demanded should be crushed under heavy burdens. Even a bird grows sluggish when weighed down. Ships that feel no strain when light are harder to move when overloaded. What can a horse do when it collapses under excessive weight? Anyone found carrying more than the specified limit shall be fined two ounces of gold.
This sum, once collected, shall -- as already established by earlier edicts -- be paid through the office of the Master of Offices for the benefit of the postal service. It is only fair that a man should be forced to sell the goods with which he wrongfully burdened a public horse. Let the man who refused to travel light by choice be stripped of his excess baggage by force. Furthermore, we remind you not to encroach upon the privileges of the station-masters or to diminish by any usurpation the authority that venerable tradition has sanctioned for them. We wish you to reinforce the guard, not to dismantle the safeguards of ancient custom.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.