Letter 7022: We have no doubt you are most grateful when reminded to fulfill the duties you have undertaken, because what is...
Cassiodorus→Treasury clerks dispatched for bina et terna collection (formula)|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
imperial politicsproperty economics
From: Cassiodorus, on behalf of the King
To: Treasury clerks dispatched for bina et terna collection (formula)
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Instructions to treasury clerks being sent to a province to assist with tax collection.
We have no doubt you are most grateful when reminded to fulfill the duties you have undertaken, because what is truly burdensome is for a soldier to live in idleness when his earnings come from service and his honor from a royal assignment. A man left to ignoble torpor is as good as one who has unbuckled his belt. Therefore, we order you to proceed to the named province for the current tax year, so that together with the judge and his staff, by the Kalends of March [March 1], the amounts owed from the bina et terna taxes...
XXII.
FORMULA COMMONITORII ILLI ET ILLI SCRINIARIIS DE BINIS ET TERNIS.
[1] Non dubitamus esse gratissimum, quando quis commonetur officium implere susceptum, quia illud est potius grave, si miles vivat otiose, cui quaestus est actio sua, honor principalis iniunctio. similis enim discincto habetur, qui ignobili torpori relinquitur. quapropter per indictionem illam ad illam vos provinciam iubemus accedere: ut cum iudice vel eius officio intra diem kal. Martiarum quae de binis et ternis quantitas sollemniter postulatur, ad comitis sacrarum scrinia, postposita dilatione, dirigatis, sic tamen, ut nec aerarium nostrum aliquid minus a consuetudine percipiat nec possessor supra modum professionis exsolvat. et non dubitetis commonitionis nostrae periculum sustinere, si quid actum contra priscum ordinem potuerimus agnoscere.
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From:Cassiodorus, on behalf of the King
To:Treasury clerks dispatched for bina et terna collection (formula)
Date:~522 AD
Context:Instructions to treasury clerks being sent to a province to assist with tax collection.
We have no doubt you are most grateful when reminded to fulfill the duties you have undertaken, because what is truly burdensome is for a soldier to live in idleness when his earnings come from service and his honor from a royal assignment. A man left to ignoble torpor is as good as one who has unbuckled his belt. Therefore, we order you to proceed to the named province for the current tax year, so that together with the judge and his staff, by the Kalends of March [March 1], the amounts owed from the bina et terna taxes...
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.