EDICT OF KING ATHALARIC
[1] Whoever desires the stability of the state and the general heights of order must be vigilant over everything, for there is no health in the body that the limbs are unable to share. The whole fabric is shaken by the injury of a single part, and the power of interconnection is such that you would believe one wound felt everywhere when any part begins to suffer. The state, after all, is not the concern of a single city, but the foreseen guardianship of the whole kingdom: therefore, if anything in it is diminished, the loss is felt at the source. For one who loses something is bound to have less. And so the watchful care of the various cities keeps us on our guard, lest unchecked disorders be allowed to burden the palace the longer. A tree that you see flourishing, that you observe rejoicing in its verdure, is nourished by the underground sap of its fertility, giving back at the surface what it holds in the root. The human face is likewise adorned with great cheerfulness when the inner organs suffer no injurious damage. Thus a kingdom is rightly called most sound when it has been diminished nowhere. This is possible when unbridled license is driven out on every side and the malicious mind is given no opportunity to sin under the cover of a detestable freedom. The city councillors — to whom careful solicitude gave their very name — are said to be battered by the most grievous harassment, so that whatever is assigned to them for the sake of honor seems rather to have been brought to their injury. What an abominable crime, what an intolerable evil! The very moment that should profit them through service to the state is when they seem to lose their freedom along with their fortunes. [2] Therefore by this edict we decree: if anyone shall have acted either to injure or to impoverish a city councillor, or shall have presumed to impose anything upon him beyond what has been commanded by us or by the court officials in whose jurisdiction it lies, he shall be struck either by a fine of ten pounds of gold — which shall also benefit the man who suffered such treatment — or, if his resources are insufficient for this punishment, he shall be lacerated with blows, and repay in bodily pain what he cannot compensate in money. This, however, subject to the condition that whatever has been assigned for public usefulness shall be carried out with conscientious diligence, since they owe the more who are not permitted by us to bear the iniquities of others. [3] Let no one seize the property of councillors — from which the middling orders are chiefly ambushed — through illicit purchase, since no contract can be called valid unless it arises from the law. Against the harassment of royal agents and soldiers, let them be protected by the assistance of the judges. Our authority will also vindicate them against the governors themselves, since the one to whom assistance has been delegated and who is found instead to cause harm must be punished all the more severely. [4] Lift your heads, you who have been brought low; raise your spirits, you who have been burdened by the weight of your afflictions; make every effort to recover what you know you have lost through another's fault. Every citizen's own city is his commonwealth. Administer justice in your cities with a will that is united in agreement. Let your orders live on terms of equality. Do not burden those of middling rank, lest those more powerful rightly be able to oppress you in turn. This is the penalty for sin: that each man may receive back what he arrogantly inflicted on another. Live justly; live with self-restraint — for one rarely dares to wrong those in whom no fault can be found. [5] Cranes have learned to practice the moral discipline of concord: among them no one seeks precedence, for there is no corrupt ambition among them. They keep watch in turn, they guard themselves with a mutual caution, and even their feeding is shared. Thus no honor is taken from any, since everything is maintained in common. Even their flight is arranged in reciprocal equality: the last becomes first, and she who has held the lead does not refuse to fall back. United in a kind of fellowship, they serve one another without kings, obey without dominion, serve without fear. They are free through voluntary service and are strengthened by mutual love. Writers on natural history, observing their ways, record that there exists among these birds a certain polity, since they have been found to live with the devotion of citizens. [6] If you imitate them, you will exclude all charges of wickedness from your midst. For you, who receive the benefits of right order, have through the laws authority over your fellow citizens. Antiquity did not grant you the council chamber in vain, nor call you the lesser Senate as an empty title, styling you also the sinews and vital organs of the cities. What power, what honor is there that you do not hold in that title? For one who is compared to the Senate is excluded from no dignity of splendor.
II.
EDICTUM. ATHALARICUS REX.
[1] Qui rei publicae statum et generale cupit stare fastigium, ad universa debet esse sollicitus, quia non est salus in corpore, nisi quam et membra potuerint optinere. iniuria unius loci compago tota concutitur et tanta convenientiae vis est, ut unum vulnus ubique credas accipi, quando illa coeperit condolere. res publica siquidem non est unius civitatis cura, sed totius regni provisa custodia: quapropter si quid ex ipsa minuitur, in origine dispendia sentiuntur. minus enim habere necesse est, cui aliquid perit. et ideo diversarum civitatum pervigil nos cura sollicitat, ne permissa longius mala possint gravare palatia. arbor enim, quam florere vides, quam summa conspicis viriditate laetari, subterraneo suco fecunditatis animatur, reddens in superficiem quod continet in radice. hominum quoque vultus magna hilaritate decoratur, si visceribus sanis gravamen nullius sentiat laesionis. sic regnum iure dicitur integerrimum, si nusquam fuerit inminutum. hoc fieri potest, cum undique summovetur effrenata licentia nec datur ausus menti malignae sub abominabili libertate peccare. curiales, quibus a provida sollicitudine nomen est, gravissima dicuntur infestatione quassari, ut quicquid eis honoris causa delegatur, ad iniuriam potius videatur esse perductum. o nefarium scelus, importabile malum! quando debuit rei publicae serviendo proficere, tunc libertatem suam cum fortunis videtur amittere. [2] Quocirca edictali programmate definimus, ut si quis versatus fuerit aut in iniuria aut in dispendio curialis vel aliquid ei, praeterquam iussum fuerit a nobis vel ab aulicis quorum interest potestatibus, imponere fortasse praesumpserit, aut decem librarum auri dispendio feriatur, ipsi qui aliquid tale pertulit nihilominus profuturarum, aut, si facultas vindictae non sufficit, per fustuaria supplicia laceretur, et reddat debitum poenis, quod non potuit compensare pecuniis, ita tamen, ut, quae pro publica utilitate fuerint delegata, ingenua sollicitudine compleantur, quando plus incipiunt debere, quos alienas iniquitates non permittimus sustinere. [3] Praedia curialium, unde maxime mediocribus parantur insidiae, nullus illicita emptione pervadat, quia contractus dici non potest, nisi qui de legibus venit. circa saionum et militantum molestias iudicum protegantur auxilio. ab ipsis quoque moderatoribus eos nostra vindicabit auctoritas, quando gravius plectendus est, si ille, cui delegatur auxilium, probetur inferre detrimentum. [4] Erigite colla, depressi: sublevate animos, malorum sarcinis ingravati: date studium recuperare quae vos male cognoscitis amisisse. unicuique civi urbs sua res publica est. administrate civitatum sub consentanea voluntate iustitiam. ordines vestri aequabiliter vivant. nolite gravare mediocres, ne vos merito possint opprimere potiores. poena ista peccati est, ut unusquisque in se recipere possit quod in alterum protervus exercuit. vivite iuste, vivite continenter, quia vix audet quisquam in illos excedere, quibus culpas non potest invenire. [5] Grues moralem noverunt exercere concordiam, inter quas nullus primatus quaeritur, quia iniquitatis ambitus non habetur. vigilant vicissim, communi se cautela custodiunt, ipse pastus alternus est. sic honor nullis adimitur, dum omnia sub communione servantur. his etiam volatus vicaria aequalitate disponitur: ultima fit prima et quae primatum tenuit, esse posterior non recusat. sic quadam communione sociatae sibi sine regibus obsequuntur, sine dominatu parent, sine terrore famulantur. voluntarie serviendo liberae sunt et invicem se diligendo muniuntur. quarum morem scriptores rerum naturalium contuentes politiam quandam inter ipsas esse commemorant, quas civico affectu vivere cognoverunt. [6] Has si vos imitemini, omnes a vobis pravitatum calumnias excludetis. nam vos, qui recti vota recipitis, habetis per leges potestatem in civibus vestris. non enim in cassum vobis curiam concessit antiquitas, non inaniter appellavit minorem senatum, nervos quoque vocitans ac viscera civitatum. quid in ista appellatione non habeatis vel potentiae vel honoris? nam qui senatui comparatur, a nullo genio claritatis excluditur.
◆
EDICT OF KING ATHALARIC
[1] Whoever desires the stability of the state and the general heights of order must be vigilant over everything, for there is no health in the body that the limbs are unable to share. The whole fabric is shaken by the injury of a single part, and the power of interconnection is such that you would believe one wound felt everywhere when any part begins to suffer. The state, after all, is not the concern of a single city, but the foreseen guardianship of the whole kingdom: therefore, if anything in it is diminished, the loss is felt at the source. For one who loses something is bound to have less. And so the watchful care of the various cities keeps us on our guard, lest unchecked disorders be allowed to burden the palace the longer. A tree that you see flourishing, that you observe rejoicing in its verdure, is nourished by the underground sap of its fertility, giving back at the surface what it holds in the root. The human face is likewise adorned with great cheerfulness when the inner organs suffer no injurious damage. Thus a kingdom is rightly called most sound when it has been diminished nowhere. This is possible when unbridled license is driven out on every side and the malicious mind is given no opportunity to sin under the cover of a detestable freedom. The city councillors — to whom careful solicitude gave their very name — are said to be battered by the most grievous harassment, so that whatever is assigned to them for the sake of honor seems rather to have been brought to their injury. What an abominable crime, what an intolerable evil! The very moment that should profit them through service to the state is when they seem to lose their freedom along with their fortunes. [2] Therefore by this edict we decree: if anyone shall have acted either to injure or to impoverish a city councillor, or shall have presumed to impose anything upon him beyond what has been commanded by us or by the court officials in whose jurisdiction it lies, he shall be struck either by a fine of ten pounds of gold — which shall also benefit the man who suffered such treatment — or, if his resources are insufficient for this punishment, he shall be lacerated with blows, and repay in bodily pain what he cannot compensate in money. This, however, subject to the condition that whatever has been assigned for public usefulness shall be carried out with conscientious diligence, since they owe the more who are not permitted by us to bear the iniquities of others. [3] Let no one seize the property of councillors — from which the middling orders are chiefly ambushed — through illicit purchase, since no contract can be called valid unless it arises from the law. Against the harassment of royal agents and soldiers, let them be protected by the assistance of the judges. Our authority will also vindicate them against the governors themselves, since the one to whom assistance has been delegated and who is found instead to cause harm must be punished all the more severely. [4] Lift your heads, you who have been brought low; raise your spirits, you who have been burdened by the weight of your afflictions; make every effort to recover what you know you have lost through another's fault. Every citizen's own city is his commonwealth. Administer justice in your cities with a will that is united in agreement. Let your orders live on terms of equality. Do not burden those of middling rank, lest those more powerful rightly be able to oppress you in turn. This is the penalty for sin: that each man may receive back what he arrogantly inflicted on another. Live justly; live with self-restraint — for one rarely dares to wrong those in whom no fault can be found. [5] Cranes have learned to practice the moral discipline of concord: among them no one seeks precedence, for there is no corrupt ambition among them. They keep watch in turn, they guard themselves with a mutual caution, and even their feeding is shared. Thus no honor is taken from any, since everything is maintained in common. Even their flight is arranged in reciprocal equality: the last becomes first, and she who has held the lead does not refuse to fall back. United in a kind of fellowship, they serve one another without kings, obey without dominion, serve without fear. They are free through voluntary service and are strengthened by mutual love. Writers on natural history, observing their ways, record that there exists among these birds a certain polity, since they have been found to live with the devotion of citizens. [6] If you imitate them, you will exclude all charges of wickedness from your midst. For you, who receive the benefits of right order, have through the laws authority over your fellow citizens. Antiquity did not grant you the council chamber in vain, nor call you the lesser Senate as an empty title, styling you also the sinews and vital organs of the cities. What power, what honor is there that you do not hold in that title? For one who is compared to the Senate is excluded from no dignity of splendor.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.