Letter 9012: VARIAE, BOOK 9, LETTER 12

12. King Athalaric to Victor and Witigisclus, Most Eminent Men. [1] Your slowness in the presence of our grandfather, the lord of glorious memory, deservedly made you suspect, men whom he believed must be admonished even by repeated orders, that, the burden upon the provincials being at last set aside, you ought to hasten to his court of justice; and now too it has greatly increased the suspicion that you were unwilling to present yourselves even at the beginning of our reign, a thing which a clear conscience could have wished for. [2] And therefore by the present authority we decree that, if you have exacted anything beyond the tributary solidus from the provincials during the fourth indiction, you shall return it to them without any reduction, since we do not wish them to feel any loss from the aforesaid indiction over and above the old assessment. [3] We have believed this also must be added -- since out of love for clemency we are unwilling to discover faults, lest under compulsion we should rather cut away what, justice being preserved, we cannot overlook -- namely, that, if you have injured anyone by a perverse zeal, you should rather correct it by your own judgment, because to correct one's own offenses is the same as not to have committed them. [4] And lest perhaps you should believe that what has been done lies hidden by reason of the difficulty of the distance, we have given the Sicilians the confidence to follow up the matter. See now whether you can bear those complaining voices which our own authority has invited. We have therefore admonished those whom it befits to be dutiful: he now appears to be accused by his own fault, who was unwilling to be set right of his own free will.

XII. VICTORI ET VVITIGISCLO VV. SS. ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Tarditas vestra apud gloriosae memoriae domnum avum nostrum merito vos fecit esse suspectos, quos etiam secundis praeceptionibus credidit ammonendos, ut relicto tandem provincialium gravamine ad eius deberetis iustitiam festinare: et nunc quoque suspicionis maxime fecit augmentum, ut nec ad initia nostra voluissetis occurrere, quod libera conscientia potuisset optare. [2] Et ideo praesenti auctoritate censemus, ut, si quid super tributarium solidum per quartam indictionem a provincialibus exegistis, sine aliqua eis inminutione reddatis, quia supra veterem censum nulla indictionis praedictae eos volumus damna sentire. [3] Hoc etiam addendum esse credidimus ‚ quando amore clementiae errores nolumus invenire, ne coacti potius resecemus quod salva iustitia dissimulare non possumus ‚ ut, si aliquem studio laesistis pravo, vestro magis emendetis arbitrio, quia hoc est propria delicta corrigere quod et non facere. [4] Et ne forsitan credatis longinquitatis difficultate latere quae gesta sunt, Siculis fiduciam vos dedimus subsequendi. videte nunc, si voces possitis ferre querulas, quas etiam nostra invitavit auctoritas. ammonuimus igitur quos pios decet: iam suo vitio videtur accusari, qui spontanea noluit voluntate recorrigi.