VARIAE, BOOK 6, LETTER 8
From: The Royal Chancery (Cassiodorus), on behalf of the King
To: [Appointee to the office of Count of the Private Estates]
Date: ~523-527 AD
Context: The official appointment letter for the Count of the Private Estates, tracing its evolution from managing imperial slaves to handling free citizens' legal cases.
[1] The Count of the Private Estates, as the very name suggests, was originally charged with managing the personal property of former emperors through the oversight of accountants. Because the office could not properly exercise judicial authority among people of the lowest legal condition, it wisely took on additional responsibilities — so that this Roman dignity would not appear to deal only with slaves, but could occupy itself more profitably with the affairs of free citizens, once it had properly shed the cases of rural dependents.
[2] What use were public courts among slaves who had no legal standing? No advocate appeared, no parties brought formal suits. The courtroom was disordered chaos, and it was called a "tribunal" only by abuse of the term, since no citations of legal authorities were offered by the parties. Now the office deals with the cases of free men and is truly recognized as a proper court, since it has the power to adjudicate the fortunes of freeborn citizens.
[3] First, guardianship against abominable lusts and criminal appetites has been decreed to you, as a kind of public parent — so that no one should defile himself through shameful unions, failing to show reverence to those close by blood. Public gravity has properly distinguished the sanctity of kinship from what we may permit as bodily license, since what is owed to the nature of family proximity is something very different. Against such offenders, you are chosen as a singular and upright investigator, so that in pursuing such outrages, you earn the praise that comes from chastity.
[4] The sacred repose of the dead has also been entrusted to your conscience by equitable law: that no one should strip the marble from tombs, that no one should presume in irreligious recklessness to steal the columns that adorn them, that no one should uncover through criminal searching the ashes of others — whether consumed by the passage of time or by devouring fire — and that a body which has once left behind the troubles of this world should not again suffer human treachery. Even if corpses do not feel theft, anyone who is shown to have robbed the dead is proven utterly devoid of all natural feeling. Consider what has been entrusted to you: the chastity of the living and the security of the dead.
[5] You also have no small amount of revenue from perpetual tax rights across the provinces. You dispatch auditors, you notify landowners, and you share considerable jurisdiction with other judges. You do not allow unclaimed estates to lie vacant. What a usurper might seize, you ensure our treasury obtains through just revenues. You give the relatives of the deceased legal priority over us, because in this situation the ruler's claim comes last. But we prefer not to acquire such things, as long as there are rightful heirs to possess what was left behind.
[6] Money held in deposit that has lost its rightful owners through the long passage of time is, through your investigation, applied to our treasury. We who allow everyone to keep their own property may rightly expect others to hand over what belongs to no one. After all, whoever has not lost what is his own suffers no real loss from surrendering what he merely happened to find.
[7] Therefore — and may it serve happy auspices — for the current indiction, we honor you with the office of Count of the Private Estates, which the law has declared equal in rank to the prefecture. For it too is a palatine power...
VIII.
FORMULA COMITIVAE PRIVATARUM.
[1] Comitiva privatarum, sicut nominis ipsius sentitur insonare vocabulum, per rationalium curam quondam principum privatam fertur gubernasse substantiam. et quia iudicis fastigium exercere non poterat inter homines extremis condicionibus inclinatos, alios quoque titulos provida deliberatione suscepit, ne dignitas Latialis causam tantum modo videretur habere cum famulis, sed actibus urbanis tunc se felicius occupavit, postquam agrestium causas decenter amisit. [2] Quid enim prius facerent inter servos iura publica, qui personam legibus non habebant? non ibi advocatus aderat, non se partes sollemni actione pulsabant; erat secretarium impolita seditione confusum et appellabatur abusive iudicium, ubi non allegabantur a partibus dicta prudentium. utitur nunc dignitas liberorum causis et legitimus praesul veraciter habetur, quando de ingenuorum fortunis disceptare posse sentitur. [3] Primum tibi contra nefarias libidines et humani generis improbos appetitus quasi parenti publico decreta custodia est, ne quis se probrosa commixtione pollueret, dum vicino sanguini reverentiam non haberet. gravitas enim publica proximitatis sanctitatem et coniunctionis gratiam habita aestimatione discrevit, quia longe aliud debetur proximitatis naturae quam corporali possumus indulgere licentiae. contra hos eligeris unicus et continens inquisitor, ut, dum talia probra persequeris, consequaris praeconia castitatis. [4] Defunctorum quin etiam sacram quietem aequabilia iura tuae conscientiae commiserunt, ne quis vestita marmoribus sepulcra nudaret, ne quis columnarum decorem inreligiosa temeritate praesumeret, ne quis cineres alienos aut longinquitate temporis aut voraci flamma consumptos scelerata perscrutatione detegeret, ne corpus, quod semel reliquerat molestias mundanas, humanas iterum pateretur insidias. nam etsi cadavera furta non sentiunt, ab omni pietate alienus esse dinoscitur, qui aliquid mortuis abrogasse monstratur. vide quae tibi commissa sunt: castitas viventium et securitas mortuorum. [5] Habes quoque per provincias de perpetuario iure tributorum non minimam quantitatem. canonicarios dirigis, possessores ammones, et cum aliis iudicibus non modica iura partiris. caduca bona non sinis esse vacantia. ita quod usurpator potuit invadere, tu fiscum nostrum facis iustis compendiis optinere. proximos defunctorum nobis legaliter anteponis, quia in hoc casu principis persona post omnes est, sed hinc optamus non adquirere, dummodo sint qui relicta debeant possidere. [6] Repositivae quoque pecuniae, quae longa vetustate competentes dominos amiserunt, inquisitione tua nostris applicantur aerariis, ut qui sua cunctos patimur possidere, aliena nobis debeant libenter offerre. sine damno siquidem inventa perdit, qui propria non amittit. [7] Proinde, quod felicibus applicetur auspiciis, per indictionem illam comitivae privatarum te honore decoramus, quam leges praefectis quoque parem esse decreverunt: est enim et ipsa aulica potestas palatio nostro iure reverenda, quam tu facies ultra terminos suos crescere, si susceptam continenter egeris dignitatem.
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VARIAE, BOOK 6, LETTER 8
From: The Royal Chancery (Cassiodorus), on behalf of the King To: [Appointee to the office of Count of the Private Estates] Date: ~523-527 AD Context: The official appointment letter for the Count of the Private Estates, tracing its evolution from managing imperial slaves to handling free citizens' legal cases.
[1] The Count of the Private Estates, as the very name suggests, was originally charged with managing the personal property of former emperors through the oversight of accountants. Because the office could not properly exercise judicial authority among people of the lowest legal condition, it wisely took on additional responsibilities — so that this Roman dignity would not appear to deal only with slaves, but could occupy itself more profitably with the affairs of free citizens, once it had properly shed the cases of rural dependents.
[2] What use were public courts among slaves who had no legal standing? No advocate appeared, no parties brought formal suits. The courtroom was disordered chaos, and it was called a "tribunal" only by abuse of the term, since no citations of legal authorities were offered by the parties. Now the office deals with the cases of free men and is truly recognized as a proper court, since it has the power to adjudicate the fortunes of freeborn citizens.
[3] First, guardianship against abominable lusts and criminal appetites has been decreed to you, as a kind of public parent — so that no one should defile himself through shameful unions, failing to show reverence to those close by blood. Public gravity has properly distinguished the sanctity of kinship from what we may permit as bodily license, since what is owed to the nature of family proximity is something very different. Against such offenders, you are chosen as a singular and upright investigator, so that in pursuing such outrages, you earn the praise that comes from chastity.
[4] The sacred repose of the dead has also been entrusted to your conscience by equitable law: that no one should strip the marble from tombs, that no one should presume in irreligious recklessness to steal the columns that adorn them, that no one should uncover through criminal searching the ashes of others — whether consumed by the passage of time or by devouring fire — and that a body which has once left behind the troubles of this world should not again suffer human treachery. Even if corpses do not feel theft, anyone who is shown to have robbed the dead is proven utterly devoid of all natural feeling. Consider what has been entrusted to you: the chastity of the living and the security of the dead.
[5] You also have no small amount of revenue from perpetual tax rights across the provinces. You dispatch auditors, you notify landowners, and you share considerable jurisdiction with other judges. You do not allow unclaimed estates to lie vacant. What a usurper might seize, you ensure our treasury obtains through just revenues. You give the relatives of the deceased legal priority over us, because in this situation the ruler's claim comes last. But we prefer not to acquire such things, as long as there are rightful heirs to possess what was left behind.
[6] Money held in deposit that has lost its rightful owners through the long passage of time is, through your investigation, applied to our treasury. We who allow everyone to keep their own property may rightly expect others to hand over what belongs to no one. After all, whoever has not lost what is his own suffers no real loss from surrendering what he merely happened to find.
[7] Therefore — and may it serve happy auspices — for the current indiction, we honor you with the office of Count of the Private Estates, which the law has declared equal in rank to the prefecture. For it too is a palatine power...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.