Letter 9005: King Athalaric to Bishops and Local Notables.

King Athalaric to Bishops and Local Notables. [This letter addresses a food crisis caused by grain speculation -- private citizens buying up millet early and hoarding it to sell at inflated prices during a shortage.] From the complaints of landowners in your territory, we have learned that certain of their fellow citizens are inflicting an abominable cruelty beyond what the current hardship requires. They purchased a supply of millet [panicium, a staple grain] at the first opportunity and stored it away in their own holdings, waiting for prices to rise to levels ruinous for ordinary people -- so that they might impose a hateful destitution on those who have stored less, since men in danger of starvation will offer whatever price they can to those they know can strip them bare. In a time of scarcity, there is no bargaining over price, since a desperate man will agree to anything rather than face the consequences of delay. We therefore condemn these schemes and have dispatched the bearers of this letter with the following instructions: wherever stores of grain can be found, whether in warehouses or other locations, each owner shall retain only as much as he knows he can use for himself and his household. The remainder he shall sell to those in need -- in the presence, of course, of these agents who have been sent for this very purpose -- at a moderate price, no more than what the seller originally paid from his own provincials. The buyer should not be excessively burdened, and the seller should still receive some return on his outlay. Carry out these orders willingly, for you owe one another mutual consideration in this matter. Do not let the pursuit of excessive profit lead you -- God forbid -- to wish something criminal upon yourselves. Let no one complain about being compelled to sell, but understand that freedom is not to be sought in wrongdoing. It is the mark of a good character not to rush toward excess. Let the seller, then, sell at a fair rate. If he agrees, he earns his own praise. If he resists, the credit becomes ours -- for it is the virtue of the one who commands when justice is imposed on the unwilling.

V. EPISCOPIS ET HONORATIS ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Possessorum territorii vestri querella comperimus supra temporis necessitatem quorundam civium suorum execrabilem sustinere saevitiam, dum primo tempore panicii speciem coemptam in propriam recondidere substantiam spectantes caritatem mediocribus gravem, ut parcius reponentibus detestabilem inferant nuditatem, quando homines in famis periculo constituti rogantes offerunt quos se spoliare posse cognoscunt. in necessitate siquidem penuriae pretii nulla contentio est, dum patitur quis induci, ne possit aliqua tarditate percelli. [2] Haec igitur vota damnantes praesentes direximus portitores, ut sive in gradu sive in aliis locis frumentorum condita potuerint invenire, tantum sibi unusquisque dominus vel familiae suae retineat, quantum se expendere posse cognoscit, reliquum periclitantibus vendat, praesentibus scilicet harum gerulis, qui ad eam rem destinati esse noscuntur, moderata tamen pretii quantitate, qua eum constiterit a suis provincialibus comparasse, ut nec nimium gravetur qui emit et aliquo compendio foveatur ille qui distrahit. [3] Quapropter libentibus animis implete quae iussa sunt, quia vobis debetis invicem in hac parte consulere, ne, dum caritatem nimiam quaeritis, scelestum vobis aliquid potius, quod absit, optetis. ne quis ergo venditionem sibi inpositam conqueratur, sciat libertatem in crimine non requiri, sed illud boni ingenii magis esse, si non festinet excedere. vendat itaque sub iusta ratione qui distrahit. si consentit, operatur laudem suam: si discrepat, nostrum facit esse praeconium, quando bonum est iubentis, si iustitia imponatur invitis.