FORMULA OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNTSHIP
[1] While the duties of all dignities are separated from the armed hand, and those who are learned in the exercise of public discipline appear to go about in civilian dress, your dignity alone is adorned with the power of terror, being girded with the weapon of war even in matters of peace. Consider to what a judgment you have been elevated, when we see that the authority of the fasces has been entrusted to others, but it is established that the law itself has extended the sword to you. They gave a bloody thing to a peaceful spirit, so that both the guilty might greatly fear it and the wronged might rejoice in the vengeance they desired. Otherwise the ancients would be blamed if they had not done everything in a moderate way. But since you understand yourself to have been chosen for moderation, do not eagerly seek the easy death of a human being. [2] Let one who is called accused be proved to be one. Know that the remedy of punishment has been given to you for the safety of the many. These weapons are of the law, not of fury. This display was established against the guilty to the end that terror may correct more than punishment destroys. For one need not be compelled by the sword to cut down one who is still tender when words can bend his insolence. This is a civic fear, not a military one, which you will make glorious if it is found to carry no excess. [3] You also have the sword that is nevertheless unstained with blood. Let those be bound in the bonds of chains whom the hostility of minor crimes assails. One who judges concerning life must be slow to decide: a sentence on another matter can be corrected; what has been transacted concerning life does not admit of revision. Let cattle-thieves fear your standards, let robbers dread them, let brigands shudder at them; only innocence may look upon them with joy, believing that the help which the discipline of the laws has sent has come to its aid. Let no one deflect your will with bribes: the sword is despised when gold is accepted; you render yourself unarmed if you abandon a manly spirit through desire. [4] Therefore through the said indiction we grant you the dignity of the countship in the said province, that you may execute what pertains to your title laudably in the manner of a civilian, and presume to do nothing that you could not defend according to the laws as a private person. For right administration is that which is defensible even without authority, so that a judge is then proved to have been just when an enemy can object to him only what the judge himself would prefer. [5] Your hope is not abandoned as a thing scorned, however; for if you preside well over the administration of provinces, the laws with good reason have reckoned that you may hope for very ample honors. Hence what has been of its own accord promised to you by so great an authority already seems almost a debt owed.
I.
FORMULA COMITIVAE PROVINCIAE.
[1] Quamvis omnium dignitatum officia a manu secludantur armata et civilibus vestibus videantur induti qui districtionem publicam docentur operari, tua tantum dignitas a terroribus ornatur, quae gladio bellico rebus etiam pacatis accingitur. vide quo iudicio frueris evectus, quando aliis vigorem fascium videamus esse creditum, tibi autem ab ipsis legibus ferrum constet esse porrectum. rem cruentam dederunt animo pacato, ut et noxii nimium metuerent et laesi de optata ultione gauderent. alioquin culparentur priores, si temperata omnia non fecissent. sed cum te intellegas ad moderamen electum, humanum facile non concupiscas exitium. [2] Reus qui dicitur, et probetur. scito puniendi remedium datum tibi pro salute multorum. arma ista iuris sunt, non furoris. haec ostentatio nimirum est contra noxios instituta, ut plus terror corrigat quam poena consumat. non enim cogitur ferro succidere robustam qui adhuc teneram verbis curvat audaciam. civilis est pavor iste, non bellicus, quem tu sic facies esse gloriosum, si habere non probetur excessum. [3] Habes etiam et ferrum nihilominus incruentum. claudantur nexibus catenarum, quos levium criminum pulsat invidia. cunctator esse debet, qui iudicat de salute: alia sententia potest corrigi, de vita transactum non patitur immutari. signa tua abactores timeant, fures pavescant, latrones perhorreant, innocentia tantum laeta respiciat, dum sibi auxilia venisse credit, quae legum disciplina transmisit. nemo redemptionibus tuum velle deflectat: gladius contemnitur, ubi aurum suscipitur: tu te inermem reddis, si a virili animo cupiditate recesseris. [4] Quocirca per indictionem illam comitivae tibi in illa provincia tribuimus dignitatem, ut ad titulos tuos pertinentia civilitate potius laudabilis exsequaris nec quicquam praesumas facere, nisi quod privatus possis legibus vindicare. ipsa est enim recta amministratio, quae et sine potestate defenditur, ut tunc probetur fuisse iustus, quando ei quae mavult obicere possit inimicus. [5] Nec tamen spes vestra velut fastiditate deseritur: nam si bene provinciarum amministrationibus praesidetis, honores vos amplissimos sperare leges merito censuerunt. unde iam videtur paene debitum, quod vobis a tanta auctoritate ultro noscitur fuisse promissum.
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FORMULA OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNTSHIP
[1] While the duties of all dignities are separated from the armed hand, and those who are learned in the exercise of public discipline appear to go about in civilian dress, your dignity alone is adorned with the power of terror, being girded with the weapon of war even in matters of peace. Consider to what a judgment you have been elevated, when we see that the authority of the fasces has been entrusted to others, but it is established that the law itself has extended the sword to you. They gave a bloody thing to a peaceful spirit, so that both the guilty might greatly fear it and the wronged might rejoice in the vengeance they desired. Otherwise the ancients would be blamed if they had not done everything in a moderate way. But since you understand yourself to have been chosen for moderation, do not eagerly seek the easy death of a human being. [2] Let one who is called accused be proved to be one. Know that the remedy of punishment has been given to you for the safety of the many. These weapons are of the law, not of fury. This display was established against the guilty to the end that terror may correct more than punishment destroys. For one need not be compelled by the sword to cut down one who is still tender when words can bend his insolence. This is a civic fear, not a military one, which you will make glorious if it is found to carry no excess. [3] You also have the sword that is nevertheless unstained with blood. Let those be bound in the bonds of chains whom the hostility of minor crimes assails. One who judges concerning life must be slow to decide: a sentence on another matter can be corrected; what has been transacted concerning life does not admit of revision. Let cattle-thieves fear your standards, let robbers dread them, let brigands shudder at them; only innocence may look upon them with joy, believing that the help which the discipline of the laws has sent has come to its aid. Let no one deflect your will with bribes: the sword is despised when gold is accepted; you render yourself unarmed if you abandon a manly spirit through desire. [4] Therefore through the said indiction we grant you the dignity of the countship in the said province, that you may execute what pertains to your title laudably in the manner of a civilian, and presume to do nothing that you could not defend according to the laws as a private person. For right administration is that which is defensible even without authority, so that a judge is then proved to have been just when an enemy can object to him only what the judge himself would prefer. [5] Your hope is not abandoned as a thing scorned, however; for if you preside well over the administration of provinces, the laws with good reason have reckoned that you may hope for very ample honors. Hence what has been of its own accord promised to you by so great an authority already seems almost a debt owed.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.