Letter 5014: King Theodoric to Severinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious].

King Theodoric to Severinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious]. [This is one of the most detailed administrative letters in the Variae -- a comprehensive reform mandate for the province of Savia (roughly modern Slovenia and northwestern Croatia), dealing with tax fraud, corrupt officials, and the rights of barbarian settlers married to Roman women.] Justice demands that offenders be restrained so that the benefit of peace may reach everyone. For how can fairness be maintained if the resources of ordinary people are not allowed to grow? From repeated complaints by our provincials we have learned that the wealthy landowners of Savia have not only shifted their own tax burden onto the poor, but have even -- through criminal manipulation -- diverted a portion of those taxes into their own pockets, turning a public obligation into private profit. We have long wished to see this corrected through various officials, but the task has been reserved, to your credit, until now -- so that your loyalty may be all the more valued when, after so many who failed, your diligence proves most effective. We therefore command you, with the prudence for which you are known, to examine every landowner with due regard for justice, and to adjust the tax assessment on the following basis: whatever assessment was made under others is to be annulled in its entirety as fraudulent, and the public tax is to be reimposed according to the actual quality of the properties and the population. In this way both justice is achieved and the resources of our provincials are relieved. Those who are proved to have imposed assessments without our authorization, and who shifted the burdens of some onto others at their own discretion, shall face the severity of the law: they must make good all the losses they unjustly inflicted. We also order this inquiry: the accounts between defensores, town councillors, and landowners must be traced, and whatever a landowner can prove he paid above the established tax rate from the recently concluded eighth indiction -- if it was neither deposited in our treasury nor shown by proper accounting to have been spent on necessary provincial expenses -- that unauthorized exaction is to be corrected by all means. Do not consider this matter negligible either: if the tabularius [financial officer] cannot demonstrate that what he received from our treasury was properly spent, the unjust holder must repay it. What could be more absurd than for our generosity, which we intend to benefit everyone, to be swallowed up by the secret profiteering of a few? We are told that provincial judges, town councillors, and defensores are imposing illegal charges on landowners -- both regarding the postal system and other matters. We order you to investigate this and correct it according to law. Ancient barbarians who chose to marry Roman women and who acquired properties under any title whatsoever shall be compelled to pay the tax on the land they hold and to bear their share of supplementary levies. Roman judges, on account of the expenses they impose on provincials -- which are reported to burden the poor -- shall visit each municipality only once per year, and shall receive no more than three days' provisions, as the careful provisions of the law allow. Our ancestors intended that the visits of judges should be a benefit to the provincials, not a burden. The household staff of the Count of the Goths and his stewards are reported to have extorted various things from the provincials through manufactured threats. Once you have brought these matters to examination through your justice, whatever you find to have been wrongfully done on this account you shall set right without delay and according to law. Having thoroughly investigated all these and similar matters pertaining to the public good and the provincials, we wish you to act in all respects in a manner that cannot displease our clemency. Our foresight has further determined that once all facts are carefully and fairly ascertained by you, they shall be entered into the official registers [polyptychi] -- so that the evidence of your faithfulness may be clear, and no seeds of the fraud we wish to abolish may ever be sown again.

XIIII. SEVERINO V. I. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Iustitiae ratio persuadet excedentes reprimere, ut ad cunctos possit quietis suavitas pervenire. nam quemadmodum aequabilitas agitur, si vires mediocrium consurgere non sinantur? provincialium itaque nostrorum saepius querela comperimus possessores idoneos Saviae non solum casarum suarum tributariam functionem in tenuem relisisse fortunam, verum etiam scelerato commercio aliquid exinde suis applicare compendiis, ut functio publica commoditas sit privata. [2] Hoc quidem per plurimos desideravimus corrigi, sed hactenus in tuam laudem videtur potuisse differri, quatenus fides haberetur acceptior, quando post multos neglegentes studium vestrum efficacissime comprobatis. atque ideo prudentia, qua notus es, universum possessorem considerata iustitia te iubemus inspicere et aequalitatem tributi hac ratione moderari, ut quae sub aliis facta est omni redemptione cassata pro pessessionum atque hominum qualitate assis publicus imponatur. sic enim et iustitia perficitur et vires nostrorum provincialium sublevantur. [3] Eos autem, quos sine iussione nostra censum imposuisse constiterit et pro libito suo quorundam onera in alios proiecerunt, legum severitas insequatur, ut omnia illis detrimenta sarciant, quibus incompetenter damna fecerunt. illud quoque praecipimus inquirendum, ut inter defensores, curiales et possessores illatorum ratio vestigetur et quicquid ab octava indictione nuper exempta super tributarium solidum se possessor probaverit intulisse nec nostro aerario constat illatum aut in expensis necessariis, quae in provincia factae sunt, iusta ratione non claruerit erogatum, iniqua praesumptio modis omnibus corrigatur. [4] Hanc quoque partem non aestimes neglegendam, ut si hoc, quod tabularius a cubiculo nostro suscepit, rationabiliter non docetur expensum, ab iniusto retentatore reddatur. quid enim tam absurdum, nisi ut liberalitas nostra, quam universis proficere volumus, nunc a paucis furtivo compendio opprimatur? [5] Iudices quoque provinciae vel curiales atque defensores tam de cursu quam de aliis rebus illicita dicuntur possessoribus irrogare dispendia: quod te perquirere et sub ratione legum emendare censemus. [6] Antiqui barbari, qui Romanis mulieribus elegerunt nuptiali foedere sociari, quolibet titulo praedia quaesiverunt, fiscum possessi cespitis persolvere ac superindicticiis oneribus parere cogantur. [7] Iudex vero Romanus propter expensas provincialium, quae gravare pauperes suggeruntur, per annum in unumquodque municipium semel accedat: cui non amplius quam triduanae praebeantur annonae, sicut legum cauta tribuerunt. maiores enim nostri discursus iudicum non oneri, sed compendio provincialibus esse voluerunt. [8] Domestici comitis Gothorum nec non et vicedomini aliqua dicuntur provincialibus concinnatis terroribus abstulisse: quibus iustitia vestra in examinationem deductis, quicquid super hac parte inique gestum esse cognoverit, amotis dilationibus legaliter ordinabit. [9] His ergo ac talibus, quae ad utilitatem publicam vel provinciales pertinent, sub omni ratione discussis ea te per omnia volumus agere, quae nostrae mansuetudini non debeant displicere. illud sane providentia nostra respexit, ut omnibus a te sollicita atque aequabili indagatione compertis polyptychi iubeantur ascribi: quatenus et testimonia vestrae fidei clareant et nulla posthac, quae abrogari volumus, semina fraudis iterentur.