Letter 5007: King Theodoric to John, Vir Clarissimus [Most Distinguished], Treasurer.
Cassiodorus→John|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
property economics
King Theodoric to John, Vir Clarissimus [Most Distinguished], Treasurer.
It is right to honor the wishes of those who prefer to protect the public revenues, and we do not allow men who have kept us free from loss to worry about losses of their own.
From your report, we have learned that in a certain indiction you entrusted properties of our patrimony in the province of Apulia -- namely, such-and-such estates -- to the respectable Thomates under a lease arrangement, but that through bad management of what he received, he has become a debtor to the public accounts in the amount of ten thousand solidi across certain indictions. Despite frequent warnings from our officials, he has with detestable cunning refused to pay what he owes. And to prevent any future claim from arising against you, you testify that you are willing to pay the full amount owed to the public treasury on the following condition: that the properties of the said debtor be handed over to you as a pledge.
We therefore confirm your reasonably conceived request by the present order. First: you shall fear no claim on behalf of the public treasury on this account. Second: we hereby assign to you, under the stated condition, all the property that the debtor Thomates currently holds or held at the time he first became liable to our accounts -- property which we had already ordered seized and posted with public notices in our name.
We relax only this much, out of humanity: he shall have until the first of September to pay the amount owed. If he fails by that date, and you have paid the money owed to our Illustrious Count of the Patrimony, then his entire estate, as stated, shall be applied to your benefit. We do not think this should be painful to the one who loses it, since he knows that what he forfeits is gained by you, his own son-in-law -- for what you might have obtained by right of succession, you now possess on the terms of a purchaser.
VII.
IOHANNI V. C. ARCARIO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Decet eorum vota in ratum reddere, qui malunt utilitates publicas continere: nec patimur de damno proprio esse sollicitos, qui nos a dispendiis fecere securos. tua igitur suggestione comperimus per illam indictionem patrimonii nostri praedia in Apulia provincia constituta, id est illud atque illud, honesto viro Thomati libellario titulo commisisse, sed eum male amministrando suscepta usque ad decem milia solidorum de indictionibus illa atque illa reliquatorem publicis rationibus extitisse: qui a proceribus nostris frequenter ammonitus debita reddere detestabili calliditate neglexit. et ne tibi aliqua in posterum quaestio nasceretur, publicis utilitatibus debitam quantitatem sub hac ratione satisfacere te velle testaris, si tibi praedia supradicti debitoris loco pignoris contradantur. [2] Hinc est, quod desiderium tuum iusta ratione conceptum praesenti iussione firmamus: primum, ut nullam ex hac re nomine publico metuas quaestionem: deinde sub hac condicione tibi universam substantiam, quam vel nunc tenet vel primo tempore possidebat, cum nostris rationibus obnoxius esse iam coeperat, Thomatis debitoris addicimus, quam pridem nostro nomine fixis titulis fecimus vindicari: [3] hoc tantum humanitatis intuitu relaxantes, ut usque ad kal. Sept. spatium habeat reddendi debitam quantitatem: minus ne cum ad supradictum diem tu pecuniam viro illustri comiti patrimonii nostri, quae debetur, intuleris facultas eius universa, sicut diximus, tuis compendiis applicetur. quod triste non credimus esse perdenti, quando nec ex toto videtur amittere, quod te generum suum cognoscit adquirere: nam quod poteras adipisci iure successionis, condicione a te possidetur emptoris.
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King Theodoric to John, Vir Clarissimus [Most Distinguished], Treasurer.
It is right to honor the wishes of those who prefer to protect the public revenues, and we do not allow men who have kept us free from loss to worry about losses of their own.
From your report, we have learned that in a certain indiction you entrusted properties of our patrimony in the province of Apulia -- namely, such-and-such estates -- to the respectable Thomates under a lease arrangement, but that through bad management of what he received, he has become a debtor to the public accounts in the amount of ten thousand solidi across certain indictions. Despite frequent warnings from our officials, he has with detestable cunning refused to pay what he owes. And to prevent any future claim from arising against you, you testify that you are willing to pay the full amount owed to the public treasury on the following condition: that the properties of the said debtor be handed over to you as a pledge.
We therefore confirm your reasonably conceived request by the present order. First: you shall fear no claim on behalf of the public treasury on this account. Second: we hereby assign to you, under the stated condition, all the property that the debtor Thomates currently holds or held at the time he first became liable to our accounts -- property which we had already ordered seized and posted with public notices in our name.
We relax only this much, out of humanity: he shall have until the first of September to pay the amount owed. If he fails by that date, and you have paid the money owed to our Illustrious Count of the Patrimony, then his entire estate, as stated, shall be applied to your benefit. We do not think this should be painful to the one who loses it, since he knows that what he forfeits is gained by you, his own son-in-law -- for what you might have obtained by right of succession, you now possess on the terms of a purchaser.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.