Letter 5070: We cannot bear the stubbornness of our people, who have not paid their outstanding obligations from previous years.

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~396 AD Context: A longer letter complaining about the difficulty of collecting outstanding tax obligations from tenants. We cannot bear the stubbornness of our people, who have not paid their outstanding obligations from previous years. The patience we have shown has been interpreted as weakness, and what began as indulgence threatens to become a precedent. Unpaid taxes are not a gift to the debtor -- they are a burden transferred to others who do pay. I have exhausted the gentle approach and must now turn to firmer measures, though it grieves me to do so. When persuasion fails, compulsion becomes a duty. I write to you because your counsel in such matters has always been practical and because the situation affects us both.

25 Nostrorum duritiam ferre non possumus, qni cum reliqua superiora non exsol- verint, etiam pensionem proximi anni ferre detrectant. idcirco quaeso, nt cum homine meo, quem ad exactionem nostrorum misimus, curam communicare digneris. religiosam operam libenter adripias! grave est enim nos quidem pro agris nostris functionibus pnblicis esse munificos, actores autem locorum ne id quidem velle redhibere, quod 30 sciunt per annos singulos esse solvendum. pareor V^ paginis P 20 in auream V^, in aarea V^ 21 mouerit (m in ras.) P scri- benda V^ neglegentia — describendo om. V» describenda V^ detracta// P 1 m. 27 fort, ad exactionem nominam 29 antores F autem] enim V^ qaidem nellet exhibere Ki, qnem aellent exhibere V^ 30 scinnt pannoA V^ 150 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE LXXXVm (LXXXVI). PV^-^M SYMMACHVS HELPIDIO. Nalluin tempus esse patior a meo offieio feriatum. merito properanti tabellario eursim debita verba commisi^ quibus quaeso, ut referendae vieissitudinis curam capessas, licet malim iam reditu tuo quam scriptorum honore laetari. 5 LXXXVira (LXXXVII) . Pr«.2ir SYMMACHVS HELPIDIO. Non ex officii raritate amicorum religio et cura pendenda est. plerumque enim scribendi cupidis defit occasio, nec taraen amicitiae memoria temporali silentio con- senescit. itaque quod hucusque conticui, voluntati meae non debet adscribi. multa 10 enim studium nostrum fortuita impedimenta frenarunt. sed ubi terapestivam conperi facultatem, contuli in has litteras mei circa te propositi atque amoris indicium, con- pensaturus, quod hactenus silui, frequentia litterarum, si me incentivo quodam mutui sermonis animaveris. vale. LXXXX (LXXXVIII). 15 PV^m SYMMACHVR HELPIDIO. Adtemptatam denuo valetudinem tuam meorum cura suggessit. quare sollicitatns incertis emittere ad te scripta non distuli, quibus ut de te laeta respondeant, praesta- bit divina miseratio. erit igitur muneris tui, ut otio meo securitatem tuae sanitatis adicias. vale. 20 LXXXXI (LXXXVHH). PV^'^F SYMMACHVS HELPIDIO. Et rebus et litteris partes religionis exequeris. nam et hominibns meis admini- cula favoris inpendis, et me sermonis tui honore participas. ago igitur atque habeo gratias, daturus operam, ne ofliciis nostris vicissitudo umquam dissimilis iudicetur. vale. 25 LXXXXII (LXXXX) .