Letter 7032: Every public function should certainly be carried out with faithful action, because everything is vitiated where...
Cassiodorus→Unknown|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
imperial politics
From: Cassiodorus (formula template)
To: [Overseer of the Mint]
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Template for entrusting the mint to a trusted official, with a lecture on the importance of monetary integrity for the entire economy.
Every public function should certainly be carried out with faithful action, because everything is vitiated where purity of conscience is lacking. But the integrity of the mint must be sought above all, where our image is stamped and the general welfare is found. What will be secure if someone sins against our own likeness, and a sacrilegious hand hastens to violate what a subject should revere in his heart? Furthermore, all commerce is dissolved if the metals of everyday exchange are corrupted, since what is offered as debased in transactions must necessarily be rejected. Who would tolerate one person's profit becoming the criminal loss of all, so that a detestable vice might come to have a price?
Let what is brought to the form of our serene image be pure. Royal splendor admits nothing tainted. Let no impure alloy whiten the flame of gold. Let the color of silver smile with the grace of whiteness. Let the redness of bronze remain in its native quality. If injuring one person is considered legally punishable, what punishment does the man deserve who has sinned against so great a multitude?
We also order that the established weight be maintained for the denarii, which were once sold by weight rather than by number -- hence antiquity aptly coined the terms compendium ["weight-gain," i.e. profit] and dispendium ["weight-loss," i.e. loss]. Coinage, named from the hide of cattle [pecunia from pecus], was transferred to metal by the Gauls without any markings. We will not allow it to be made contemptible through foul adulteration or to revert to its ancient worthlessness.
Therefore, you whose integrity of action has been praised to us, we order you to take charge of the mint for a five-year term, starting from the designated indiction. Know that any fraud found there will be sought at your peril. Just as you will face harsh consequences if you fail, so we will not leave unrewarded one we find to have acted blamelessly.
XXXII.
FORMULA QUA MONETA COMMITTITUR.
[1] Omnis quidem utilitas publica fideli debet actione compleri, quia totum vitiosum geritur, ubi conscientiae puritas non habetur: tamen omnino monetae debet integritas quaeri, ubi et vultus noster imprimitur et generalis utilitas invenitur. nam quid erit tutum, si in nostra peccetur effigie, et quam subiectus corde venerari debet, manus sacrilega violare festinet? additur quod venalitas cuncta dissolvitur, si victualia metalla vitiantur, quando necesse est respui quod in mercimoniis corruptum videtur offerri. quis ergo patiatur unius esse commodum dispendia scelesta cunctorum, ut detestabile vitium venire possit ad pretium? [2] Sit mundum quod ad formam nostrae serenitatis adducitur: claritas regia nil admittit infectum. nam si vultus cuiuslibet sincero colore depingitur, multo iustius metallorum puritate principalis gratia custoditur. auri flamma nulla iniuria permixtionis albescat, argenti color gratia candoris arrideat, aeris rubor in nativa qualitate permaneat. nam si unum laedere legibus putatur esse damnandum, quid ille mereri poterit, qui in tanta hominum numerositate peccaverit? [3] Pondus quin etiam constitutum denariis praecipimus debere servari, qui olim penso quam numero vendebantur: unde verborum vocabula competenter ab origine trahens compendium et dispendium pulchre vocitavit antiquitas. pecunia enim a pecudis tergo nominata Gallis auctoribus sine aliquo adhuc signo ad metalla translata est. quam non sinimus faeculenta permixtione fieri contemptibilem, ne iterum in antiquam cognoscatur redire vilitatem. [4] Proinde te, cuius nobis laudata est integritas actionis, ab illa indictione per iuge quinquennium monetae curam habere praecipimus, quam Servius rex in aere primum inpressisse perhibetur: ita ut tuo periculo non dubites quaeri, si quid in illa fraudis potuerit inveniri. nam sicut casus asperos subibis, si quid fortasse deliqueris, ita inremuneratum non derelinquimus, si te egisse inculpabiliter senserimus.
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From:Cassiodorus (formula template)
To:[Overseer of the Mint]
Date:~522 AD
Context:Template for entrusting the mint to a trusted official, with a lecture on the importance of monetary integrity for the entire economy.
Every public function should certainly be carried out with faithful action, because everything is vitiated where purity of conscience is lacking. But the integrity of the mint must be sought above all, where our image is stamped and the general welfare is found. What will be secure if someone sins against our own likeness, and a sacrilegious hand hastens to violate what a subject should revere in his heart? Furthermore, all commerce is dissolved if the metals of everyday exchange are corrupted, since what is offered as debased in transactions must necessarily be rejected. Who would tolerate one person's profit becoming the criminal loss of all, so that a detestable vice might come to have a price?
Let what is brought to the form of our serene image be pure. Royal splendor admits nothing tainted. Let no impure alloy whiten the flame of gold. Let the color of silver smile with the grace of whiteness. Let the redness of bronze remain in its native quality. If injuring one person is considered legally punishable, what punishment does the man deserve who has sinned against so great a multitude?
We also order that the established weight be maintained for the denarii, which were once sold by weight rather than by number -- hence antiquity aptly coined the terms compendium ["weight-gain," i.e. profit] and dispendium ["weight-loss," i.e. loss]. Coinage, named from the hide of cattle [pecunia from pecus], was transferred to metal by the Gauls without any markings. We will not allow it to be made contemptible through foul adulteration or to revert to its ancient worthlessness.
Therefore, you whose integrity of action has been praised to us, we order you to take charge of the mint for a five-year term, starting from the designated indiction. Know that any fraud found there will be sought at your peril. Just as you will face harsh consequences if you fail, so we will not leave unrewarded one we find to have acted blamelessly.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.