Letter 5048: The quadragesima [a 2.

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~388 AD Context: Symmachus protests the levying of the quadragesima tax on senators who are sponsoring public games. The quadragesima [a 2.5% import duty] is being wrongly demanded from senators who are candidates sponsoring games. This imposition is both illegal and unjust. The senators are already bearing enormous expenses for the public entertainment, and to tax the very animals and materials they import for the games is to punish generosity. I urge you to intervene on behalf of the senatorial order. The principle at stake is important: public-spirited citizens should be rewarded, not penalized, for their service to the people.

Quadragesimae portorium [sive vectigal] non recte poscitur a senatoribus candi- 25 datis, quia nostri ordinis functiones onerari geminis incommodis non oportet. hoc tibi etiam pro Cynegio dudum missis litteris indicavi. nunc filii mei Pompeiani cla- rissimi et optimi iuvenis par necessitas depoposcit. ut repeterem postulatum. quaeso igitur, ut humanitatem, quae inter virtutes tuas prima est, nostri ordinis editoribus (tignanter inpertias et ursorum transvectionem cupiditati mancipum subtrahas. perve- 30 niet beneficii istius gratia et ad senatum, qui levatur incommodis, et ad populum, cuius voluptatibus praestatur immunitas. singrafls V 3 m, M 6 pigit P l m, strofls (Hs ^ m. in raa,) P, stroflt V adparatio PF, ap- paratio M 8 pro se iuris] PF, pro se et iuris F, pro se et uirea M criminosis nerborum bia V LXVI (LXmi) a. 396—397.