Letter 8028: It has come to our attention that you have been conducting yourself in a manner unworthy of the trust we placed in you.

From: Athalaric (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths To: Cunigastus Date: ~527 AD Context: Athalaric rebukes an official for overstepping his authority and orders him to cease oppressing the people under his jurisdiction. It has come to our attention that you have been conducting yourself in a manner unworthy of the trust we placed in you. Power was given to you not for your own enrichment but for the protection of those under your care. When an official uses his position to oppress the very people he was appointed to serve, he betrays not only the king but the very idea of government itself. We therefore order you to cease immediately from the practices that have been reported to us. Restore what you have taken unjustly. Treat the people under your jurisdiction with the fairness and restraint that our laws require. If further complaints reach us, you will find that the punishment for abusing royal trust is far more severe than whatever petty gains you have extracted from the suffering of others. A ruler's agent who becomes a tyrant disgraces the ruler's name, and that is something we will not tolerate.

XXVIII. CUNIGASTO V. I. ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Permovit serenitatem nostram Constanti atque Venerii dolenda conquestio, qua sibi a Tancane iuris proprii agellum, quod Fabricula nominatur, cum suo peculio causantur ablatum, adicientes, ne rerum suarum repetitionibus imminerent, liberis sibi condicionem ultimae servitutis imponi. [2] Atque ideo magnitudo tua, decretis obsecuta praesentibus, praefatum suo iubeat adesse iudicio, ubi omni inter partes veritate discussa iuri consentaneam et amicam vestris moribus proferte iustitiam: quia sicut grave est de suo dominos iure decedere, ita nostris est saeculis inimicum servitutis iugo libera colla deprimere. [3] Momenti iure si competunt, primitus reddantur invasa, ita tamen, ut persona legitima disceptationibus non desistat. cesset violenta praesumptio, ut causa iudicis cognoscatur arbitrio et aut convictos servos cum rebus sibi competentibus possideat aut probatos liberos indemnes atque integros derelinquat. sufficit enim quod ei relaxamus poenam qui facere praesumpsit iniuriam.