Letter 9003: King Athalaric to Bergantinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Count of the Patrimony.

King Athalaric to Bergantinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Count of the Patrimony. [Athalaric was the young Ostrogothic king (r. 526-534), grandson of Theodoric the Great. The Count of the Patrimony managed royal estates.] If constant labor rightly produces diverse rewards, and if gold and silver are obtained through ordinary exchange, why should we not diligently seek those very things for which we seemed to be asking for others? Let rich Italy bring us golden harvests. Every kind of wealth is gained where gleaming metal is found. Why should the earth be wearied with multiple forms of cultivation, if the riches themselves can be found directly within it? Nature, with industry's help, grants us grain as a matter of course. Wine pours forth everywhere. But metal is rarely revealed -- precisely so that it may be sought with greater effort. Therefore, we command Your Magnitude to dispatch an inspector to the Rusticiana estate -- our royal property in the province of Bruttium [modern Calabria]. If, as the specialist Theodorus asserts, the land there is rich in these resources, then proper workshops should be established and the depths of the mountains explored. Let human ingenuity enter the hidden places of the earth, and let nature's riches be sought out as if in her own treasury. By cleverly turning over underground vaults, men imitate the mole, digging passages where none existed before. Ambition leaves nothing hidden, not even where the ground can scarcely hold its own weight. Men enter profound darkness. They live cut off from the sky, exiled from the sun. While they seek profit beneath the earth, they sometimes leave behind the joys of daylight. The road itself sometimes becomes their ruin, and those who carved their own paths with laboring hands cannot secure a way back. But those whose skill is more cautious have a happier life. They enter poor and come out rich. They seize wealth without theft and enjoy their treasured finds without envy. They alone among all men seem to acquire riches without any marketplace transaction. As soon as they are restored to the light above, they separate the fine particles from the mother earth using water that distinguishes heavy from light, then place the material in vessels and bake it in a great furnace until it melts into useful liquid. They purge the streams of fire-born metal with such heat that its beauty is finally revealed -- beauty that the earth's depths had hidden to keep it from being coveted. Nature is conquered when industry improves her. The metal grows more beautiful as it burns, more valuable as it is refined, gaining in worth exactly as it gains in purity. Its origin is noble, but it receives its full power of color from flame, so that you would believe it born from that very fire whose likeness adorns it. Flame gives gold its splendid red, but grants silver its brightest white -- so it is marvelous that one substance can produce what suits such different things. Accordingly, whatever pertains to practicing this art, let your administration see it accomplished -- so that the land of Bruttium may discover within itself the tribute it can offer, a land that already luxuriates in abundant crops. It is fitting that among so many blessings, those things considered most precious should not be absent. Why should that which can be an honest source of profit lie unused? Gold, after all, is sinful to seek through war, dangerous to seek across the seas, disgraceful to seek through fraud -- but from its own natural home, it is justice itself. The profits are honorable when no one is harmed, and what is rightly gained when it has belonged to no previous owner is truly well acquired. The griffins [mythical guardians of gold] are always said to dig up gold and delight in the sight of this metal -- and since they have no ambition for profit, they are not said to be inflamed by the vice of greed. This is because every action is judged by the quality of its intention, and what is done without wanton desire is not blameworthy. Let the gains therefore be continuous through diligent work. Let them fear no envy. What is called a craft is freed from blame.

III. BERGANTINO V. I. COMITI PATRIMONII ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Si labor omnis assiduus adeo diversos exigit fructus, ut aurum argentumque solita commutatione mercetur, cur non ipsa diligenter exquirimus, propter quae alia poscere videbamur? Italia dives inferat nobis et aureos fructus. omnis proventus adquiritur, ubi metallum fulvidum reperitur. nam quid necesse est terram multiplici fecunditate lassari, si ipsa magis pretia in ea potuerint inveniri? frumenta nobis usualiter natura industria suffragante concedit: passim se vina profundunt: metallum raro proditur, ut studiosius expetatur. [2] Quapropter ad massam iuris nostri Rusticianam in Bruttiorum provincia constitutam magnitudinem tuam iubemus chartarium destinare et si, ut ab artifice harum rerum Theodoro dicitur, memoratis rebus terra fecunda est, officinis sollemniter institutis montium viscera perquirantur: intretur beneficio artis in penetrale telluris et velut in thesauris suis natura locuples inquiratur. cameris enim ingeniosa praesumptione revolutis, talpinum animal imitantes, itinera fodiunt quae nullis ante patuerunt. sic ambitio nil relinquit absconditum nec ubi interdum sustinere possit extremum. [3] Intrant homines caligines profundas, vivunt sine superis, exulant a sole et, dum sub terris compendia quaerunt, nonnunquam lucis gaudia derelinquunt. est illis aliquando ruina via sua et reditus procurare nequeunt, qui pedibus suis semitas operosis manibus effecerunt. sed quibus cautior ars, vita felicior est, intrant egentes, exeunt opulenti: sine furto divitias rapiunt, optatis thesauris sine invidia perfruuntur et soli sunt hominum qui absque ulla nundinatione pretia videantur adquirere. mox enim ut supernae luci fuerint restituti, minuta quaeque graviora discernentibus aquis a genetrice terra separant ac fictilibus recondita vasta fornace decoquunt, donec solvantur utiliter in liquorem, rivosque de flamma venientes tanto igne depurgant, quousque pulchritudinem sui prodant, quam terrena viscera, ne cuperentur, absconderant. [4] Vincitur natura, dum eam meliorat industria. pulchrior est dum arserit, potior dum decoxerit, quia tantum crescit ad pretia, quanta fuerit sinceritate mundata. origo quidem nobilis, sed de flamma suscipit vim coloris, ut magis credas inde nasci, cuius similitudine videtur ornari. sed cum auro tribuat splendidum ruborem, argento confert albissimam lucem, ut mirum sit unam substantiam tradere, quod rebus dissimilibus possit aptari. proinde quicquid ad exercendam huius artis peritiam pertinere cognoscitis, ordinatio vestra perficiat, ut et terra Bruttiorum ex se tributum quod dare possit inveniat, quae fructibus copiosa luxuriat. decet enim ut inter tanta bona nec illa desint quae putantur esse praecipua. cur enim iaceat sine usu, quod honestum potest esse compendium? [5] Aurum si quidem per bella quaerere nefas est, per maria periculum, per falsitates opprobrium, in sua vero natura iustitia. honesta sunt lucra per quae nemo laeditur et bene adquiritur quod a nullis adhuc dominis abrogatur. grypes aurum iugiter leguntur effodere atque huius metalli inspectione gaudere: quibus quoniam non est ambitus lucri, cupiditatis crimine non dicuntur accendi, scilicet, quia omnis actus in qualitate propositi est et non est vituperandum quod nulla fuerit voluntate lascivum. sint ergo sedula operatione continui quaestus, invidiam non pavescant: quod ars dicitur, a crimine liberatur.