'A well furnished royal table is a credit to the State. A private person may eat only the produce of his own district; but it is the glory of a King to collect at his table the delicacies of all lands. Let the Danube send us her carp, let the anchorago (?) come from the Rhine, let the labour of Sicily furnish the exormiston[809], let the sea of Bruttii send its sweet acerniae (?); in short, let well-flavoured dishes be gathered from all coasts. It becomes a King so to regale himself that he may seem to foreign ambassadors to possess almost everything.
'And therefore, not to neglect home-produce also, as our fertile Italy is especially rich in wines, we must have these also provided for the King's table. Now the report of the Count of the Patrimony informs us that the stock of Acinaticium[810] has fallen very low in the royal cellars. We therefore order you to visit the cultivators of Verona, and offer them a sufficient price for this product of theirs, which they ought to offer without price to their Sovereign.
'It is in truth a noble wine and one that Italy may be proud of. Inglorious Greece may doctor her wines with foreign admixtures, or disguise them with perfumes. There is no need of any such process with this liquor. It is purple, as becomes the wine of kings. Sweet and strong[811], it grows more dense in tasting it, so that you might doubt whether it was a liquid food or an edible drink[812].
'I have a mind to describe the singular mode of manufacturing this wine. The grape cluster, gathered in autumn, is hung up under the roof of the house to dry till December. Thus exuding its insipid humours it becomes much sweeter. Then in December, when everything else is bound by the frost of winter, the chilly blood of these grapes is allowed to flow forth. It is not insultingly trodden down by the feet, nor is any foul admixture suffered to pollute it; its stream of gem-like clearness is drawn forth from it by a noble provocation. It seems to shed tears of joy, and delights the eye by its beauty as much as the palate by its flavour. Collect this wine as speedily as possible, pay a sufficient price for it, and hand it over to the Cartarii who are charged with this business.
'And this point is not to be forgotten, that it is to be served up in goblets of a milky whiteness. Lilies and roses thus unite their charms, and a pleasure is ministered to the eye, far beyond the mere commonplace facts that the wine has a pleasant taste, and that it restores the strength of the drinker.
'We rely on you to provide both the wine and the drinking vessels[813] with all despatch.'
[Written probably in the autumn or winter of 535, when Belisarius was in Sicily threatening the Southern Provinces of Italy.]
'The ruler's anxiety for the common good of all over whom he is placed, may allowably show itself in an especial manner towards the dwellers in his own home, and that pre-eminently at a time when they need his succour from peril.
'The numerous army which was destined for the defence of the Republic is said to have laid waste the cultivated parts of Lucania and Bruttii, and to have diminished the abundance of those regions by its love of rapine.
'Now since they must take and you must give, and since the cultivator must not be robbed nor the army starved, know that the prices of provisions are fixed by the order of the Lord of the State at a much lower figure than you have been wont to sell at[814].
'Be not therefore anxious. You have escaped the hands of the tax-collector. The present instrument takes away from you the liability to tribute. In order that your knowledge may be made more complete, we have thought it better that the amounts of the provisions for which you are held responsible should be expressed in the below-written letters[815], that no one may sell you a benefit which you know to be conferred by the public generosity.
'Repress, therefore, the unruly movements of the cultivators[816]. While the Gothic army is fighting, let the Roman peasant enjoy in quiet the peace for which he sighs. According to the King's command, admonish the several tenants on the farms, and the better sort of peasants, not to mingle in the barbarism of the strife, lest the danger to public tranquillity be greater than any service they can render in the wars[817]. Let them lay hands to the iron, but only to cultivate their fields; let them grasp the pointed steel, but only to goad their oxen.
'Let the Judges be active: let the tribunals echo with their denunciations of crime. Let the robber, the adulterer, the forger, the thief, find that the arm of the State is still strong to punish their crimes. True freedom rejoices when these men are made sad. Here, in this civil battle, is full scope for your energies: attend to this, and enjoy the thought that others are fighting the battle with the foreign foe for you.
'Exercise great care in calculating the rations of the soldiers, that no trickery may succeed in defrauding the soldier of his due.
'The officers of the army are by the rulers of the State placed under my authority, and you are therefore to admonish them if they go wrong, while redressing all their real grievances. They, in their turn, must uphold discipline, which is the most powerful weapon of an army. Rise to the dignity of the occasion, and show that you are able to govern a Province in a disturbed condition of public affairs, since anyone can govern it while all things are quiet.
'The royal household is specially ordered to pay the same obedience to this rescript as all the rest of the Province; and as for my own dependants, I say expressly that, though I wish them well, I ask for no favour for them which I would not grant to all the other inhabitants of the Province.'
'The exhortations addressed to you by the inborn piety of our Lords ought to suffice; but nevertheless, that we may be doubly assured, we will address to you our threats against all who shall wield their power unrighteously. Cease from avarice, from arrogance, from venality. What will your money avail you when the day of inquisition comes? We shall not be tempted by it. Let it be clearly understood that we shall not sell pardons to unjust Judges, but shall hunt them to their ruin.
'But all you, good and honest rulers, continue to serve the State without fear. No rival will buy your offices over your heads; you are secure in your seats so long as you do well, until the time fixed by our Lords expires. Be earnest, therefore, that my good deeds may be imitated and receive their due meed of praise in your persons.'
'A good Sovereign will always exert himself to repair fortuitous disasters, and will allow those who have paid their taxes punctually in prosperity, considerable liberty in times of barbaric invasion. On this ground, and on account of the incursions of the Suevi, the King grants for this year, the fifteenth Indiction[820], a discharge of all claims by the Fiscus preferred against A and B. And in all similar cases where you shall be satisfied that the property has really been laid waste by those Barbarians, you are at liberty to remit the taxes for this Indiction. Afterwards you will use all the ordinary methods, in order that you may be able to pay over the stipulated sum to the Royal Treasurer. But meanwhile the poor cultivator has the best of all arguments against paying you, namely, that he has nothing left him wherewith to pay. Thus is his calamity his best voucher for payment[821]; and we do not wish that he who has been already alarmed by the arms of the robber should further tremble at the official robe of the civil servant[822].
'It is a new and delightful kind of profit to be able to grant the request of a petitioner without feeling any loss oneself. The present suitor, complaining that he is vexed by the exactions of the tax-gatherer on account of certain farms mentioned in the subjoined letter, offers to bring the amount due from them himself to our Treasurers[823]. We are willing to grant this request, on condition that the Fiscus does not suffer thereby; and therefore desire your Respectability to warn all Curiales, Compulsores, and all other persons concerned, to remove for this Indiction every kind of legal process from the before-mentioned properties; the condition of this immunity being that he shall, before the kalends of such and such a month produce the receipts[824] of the Arcarius, showing that he has discharged his debt to the State. Otherwise the debt must be exacted by ordinary process. But it is delightful to us whenever the tax is paid without calling in the aid of the Compulsor. Would that the peasant would always thus freely anticipate the needs of the Treasury!'
[To make this letter intelligible we must presuppose a custom, certainly a very extraordinary one, by which on the death of an African without heirs, any other African in Italy was allowed to claim the inheritance. By 'African,' no doubt, we must understand one of the indigenous inhabitants of Africa, perhaps a man of Negro race. The custom certainly cannot have applied to African Provincials of Roman descent. It was perhaps based on some old tribal notions of joint possession and mutual inheritance.]
'It is a work of wondrous kindness to oblige a foreign race with public benefits, and not only to invite blood relations to enjoy the advantages of property, but to permit even strangers to share them. This kind of heirship is independent of the ties of kindred, independent of succession from parents, and requires nothing else save only power to utter the speech of the fatherland.
'This is the privilege which, as the African asserts, was of old bestowed on his race. By virtue thereof they lawfully demand the inheritance of others, and thus obtain a right which the Roman in a similar case could never claim. Nor have they this benefit in their own land; but here they are for this purpose looked upon as all related to one another.
'The whole nation, in what relates to the advantages of succession, is regarded as one family.
'Your Experience is therefore to submit the subject of this man's petition to a diligent examination, and if it shall turn out, as he alleges, that the deceased has left no sons nor other persons who might reasonably claim to succeed him, your official staff is to induct him into the aforesaid property according to the established usage.
'He will thus cease to be a foreigner, and will acquire the status of a native possessor, and therewith the usual liability to pay tribute. He is inferior to other owners only in this one point, that he lacks the power of alienating his property. Let him who has derived so much benefit from our commiseration now relieve others. Fortunate and enviable has turned out his captivity[826], which enables him at one and the same time to enjoy the citizenship of Rome and the privileges of the African.'
'Arrears of tribute are like bodily diseases, serious and enfeebling when they become chronic. A man who is under a load of debt cannot be called free: he has abandoned the power of controlling his actions to another. Your supposed indulgence to the taxpayer is no real kindness. There comes a time when the whole arrear of debt has to be claimed, and then these venal delays of yours make the demand seem twice as heavy in the eyes of the unfortunate taxpayer. Cease then to trade upon the peasants' losses. Exact the whole amount of taxes for the coming Indiction, and pay them in on the appointed day to the Treasurer[827] of the Province; or else it will be the worse for you, and you will have to return, stripped of all official rank[828], into the Province which you are conscious of having badly administered.
'I shall not speak again on this subject, but shall, if necessary, extract the sums from you by an irrevocable act of distraint.'
'The liberality of a good Sovereign must not be discredited by fraud and carelessness in the person charged with its distribution. Even molten gold contracts a stain if not poured into an absolutely clean vessel. How sweet is it to see a stream flowing clear and unpolluted over a snow-white channel! Even so must you see that the gifts of the Sovereign of the State reach the Roman people as pure and as copious as they issue forth from him.
'All fraud is hateful; but fraud exercised upon the people of Romulus is absolutely unbearable. That quiet and easily satisfied people, whose existence you might forget except when they testify their happiness by their shouts; noisy without a thought of sedition; whose only care is to shun poverty without amassing wealth; lowly in fortune but rich in temper—it is a kind of profanation to rob such people as these.
'We therefore entrust to you the task of distributing the relishes[830] to the Roman people from this Indiction. Be true to the citizens, else you will become as an alien unto us. Do not be bribed into allowing anyone to pass as a Latin who was not born in Latium.
'These privileges belong to the Quirites alone: no slave must be admitted to share them. That man sins against the majesty of the Roman people, who defiles the pure river of their blood by thrusting upon them the fellowship of slaves.'
'When we were dining, according to our wonted custom, with the Sovereign of the State[831], the conversation happened to turn upon the delicacies of various Provinces, and we praised the wines of Bruttii and the cheese of the district around Mount Sila[832].
'The cheese, which retains in its pores the milk which has been collected there, recalls by its taste the fragrant herbs upon which the cattle have fed; by its texture it reminds us of the softness of oil, from which it differs in colour by its snowy whiteness. Having been carefully pressed into a wide cask and hardened therein, it retains permanently the beautiful round shape which has thus been given to it[833].
'The wine, to which Antiquity gave the name of praise, Palmatiana, must be selected not of a rough but sweet kind[834]. Though last [in geographical position] among the wines of Bruttii, it is by general opinion accounted the best, equal to that of Gaza, similar to the Sabine, moderately thick, strong, brisk, of conspicuous whiteness, distinguished by the fine aroma, of which a pleasant after-taste is perceived by the drinker[835]. It constrains loosened bowels, dries up moist wounds, and refreshes the weary breast.
'Let it be your care to provide as speedily as possible a stock of both these products of our country, and send them in ships to the Royal residence. For a temporary supply we have drawn on our own cellars, but we look to you to choose specimens of the genuine quality for the King. We cannot be deceived, who retain the true taste in our patriotic memory; and at your peril will you provide any inferior article to that which our cellars will have supplied[836].'
'The generous gifts of Kings ought to be respected by their subjects.
'Long ago the constitutions of the Emperors enriched the holy Churches of Bruttii and Lucania with certain gifts. But since the sacrilegious mind is not afraid of sinning against the Divine reverence, the Canonicarii (officers of the Exchequer) have robbed these ecclesiastical positions of a certain portion of their revenue in the name of the Numerarii of the Praetorian Praefect's staff; but these latter, with righteous indignation, declare that they have received no part of the spoils thus impiously collected in their name.
'Thus have the Canonicarii turned the property of the clergy into a douceur for the laity[837]. Oh, audacity of man! what barriers can be erected against thee? Thou mightest have hoped to escape human observation, but why commit crimes which the Divinity cannot but notice?
'Therefore we ordain by this edict that anyone who shall hereafter commit this kind of fraud shall lose his own private gains, and shall forfeit his place in the public service[838].
'Let the poor keep the gifts which God has put it into the heart of Kings to bestow upon them. It is cruel above all other cruelty to wish to become rich by means of the scanty possessions of the mendicant.'
'The citizens of Rhegium (so called from the Greek word 'ρηγνυμι, to break, because their island has been broken off from Sicily by the violence of the waves) complain that they are being unfairly harassed by the tax-gatherers. I, as an eyewitness, can confirm the truth of their statement that their territory does not bring forth the produce which is claimed at their hands. It is a rocky and mountainous country, too dry for pasture, though sufficiently undulating for vineyards; bad for grain-crops, though well suited for olives. The shade has to be all provided by the industry of man, who has planted there the tree of Pallas [the olive], which prospers in even the driest soil, because it sends its roots down into the very depths of the earth.
'The corn has to be watered by hand, like pot-herbs in a garden. You seldom see the husbandman bending beneath his load as he returns from the threshing-floor. A few bushels full are all that he can boast of, even in an abundant harvest[839].
'Contrary to the opinion of Virgil [who speaks of the bitter roots of the endive[840]], the fibres of endive are here extremely sweet, and encircled by their twisting leaves are caked together with a certain callous tenderness[841].
'In the treasures of the deep that region is certainly rich; for the Upper and Lower Sea meet there. The exormiston[842], a sort of king among fishes, with bristly nostrils and a milky delicacy of flavour, is found in these waters. In stormy weather it is tossed about on the top of the waves, and seems to be too tired or too indolent to seek a refuge in the deeper water[843]. No other fish can be compared to it in sweetness[844].
'These are the products—I speak from my own knowledge—of the Rhegian shore. Therefore you must not seek to levy a tribute of wheat or lard from the inhabitants under the name of "coemptio."
'I may add that they are so troubled by the constant passage of travellers entering Italy or leaving it, that it would have been right to excuse them even if those products had been found there in abundance[845].'
'Scyllacium, the first city of Bruttii, which Ulysses the destroyer of Troy is believed to have founded, is said to be unreasonably vexed by the exorbitant demands of purveyors[847]. These injuries grieve us all the more on account of our patriotic love for the place.
'The city of Scyllacium, which is so placed as to look down upon the Hadriatic Gulf, hangs upon the hills like a cluster of grapes: not that it may pride itself upon their difficult ascent, but that it may voluptuously gaze on verdant plains and the blue back of the sea. The city beholds the rising sun from its very cradle, when the day that is about to be born sends forward no heralding Aurora; but as soon as it begins to rise, the quivering brightness displays its torch. It beholds Phoebus in his joy; it is bathed in the brightness of that luminary, so that it might be thought to be itself the native land of the sun, the claims of Rhodes to that honour being outdone.
'It enjoys a translucent air, but withal so temperate that its winters are sunny, and its summers cool; and life passes there without sorrow, since hostile seasons are feared by none. Hence, too, man himself is here freer of soul than elsewhere, for this temperateness of the climate prevails in all things.
'In sooth, a hot fatherland makes its children sharp and fickle, a cold one slow and sly; it is only a temperate climate which composes the characters of men by its own moderation. Hence was it that the ancients pronounced Athens to be the seat of sages, because, enriched with an air of the greatest purity, it prepared with glad liberality the lucid intellects of its sons for the contemplative part of life. Assuredly for the body to imbibe muddy waters is a different thing from sucking in the transparency of a sweet fountain. Even so the vigour of the mind is repressed when it is clogged by a heavy atmosphere. Nature herself hath made us subject to these influences. Clouds make us feel sad; and again a bright sky fills us with joy, because the heavenly substance of the soul delights in everything that is unstained and pure.
'Scyllacium has also an abundant share of the delicacies of the sea, possessing near it those gates of Neptune which we ourselves constructed. At the foot of the Moscian Mount we hollowed out the bowels of the rock, and tastefully[848] introduced therein the eddying waves of Nereus. Here a troop of fishes, sporting in free captivity, refreshes all minds with delight, and charms all eyes with admiration. They run greedily to the hand of man, and before they become his food seek dainties from him. Man feeds his own dainty morsels, and while he has that which can bring them into his power, it often happens that being already replete he lets them all go again.
'The spectacle moreover of men engaged in honourable labour is not denied to those who are sitting tranquilly in the city. Plenteous vineyards are beheld in abundance. The fruitful toil of the threshing-floor is seen. The face of the green olive is disclosed. No one need sigh for the pleasures of the country, when it is given him to see them all from the town.
'And inasmuch as it has now no walls, you believe Scyllacium to be a rural city, though you might judge it to be an urban villa; and thus placed between the two worlds of town and country, it is lavishly praised by both.
'This place wayfarers desire frequently to visit, and as they object to the toil of walking, the citizens, called upon to provide them with post-horses, and rations for their servants, have to pay heavily in purse for the pleasantness of their city. Therefore to prevent this, for the future we decide that all charges for providing post-horses and rations shall be debited to the public account. We cut up, root and branch, the system of paying Pulveratica[849] to the Judge; and we decide, according to ancient custom, that rations for three days only shall be given on their arrival to the great Dignitaries of the State, and that any more prolonged delay in their locomotion be provided for by themselves.
'To relieve your city of its heaviest burdens will be, according to our injunctions, an act of judicial impartiality, not of laxity. Live, by God's help, a mirror of the justice of the age, delighting in the security of all. Some people call the Isles of the Atlantic 'Fortunate:' I would rather give that name to the place where you do now dwell.'
[This interesting letter is one of the few written by Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect which we can date with certainty. It is written apparently at the beginning of the first Indiction, i.e. Sept. 1, 537. Witigis and the Goths have been for nearly six months besieging Rome, and are beginning to be discouraged as to its capture. Cassiodorus is probably at Ravenna, directing the machine of government from that capital.]
'Time, which adapts itself incessantly to the course of human affairs, and reconciles us even to adversity[851], has brought round again the period for collecting the Trina Illatio from the taxpayer. Let the peasant (possessor) pay in your Diocese, for this first Indiction, his instalment of the tax freely, not being urged too soon nor allowed to postpone it too late, so that he may plead that he has been let off from payment[852]. Let none exceed the fair weight, but let him use a just pound: if once the true weight is allowed to be exceeded, there is no limit to extortion[853].
'Let a faithful account of the expenses of collection be rendered every four months to our office[854], that, all error and obscurity being removed, truth may be manifest in the public accounts.
'That you may, with God's help, be the better able to fulfil our instructions, I have ordered A and B, servants of our tribunal, who are mindful of their own past responsibilities, to assist you and your staff[855]. Beware therefore, lest you incur the blame of corruptly discharging the taxpayer, or of sluggish idleness in the discharge of your duties, in which case your own fortunes will suffer from your neglect.'
'In times of peace, by contact with foreigners who swarm in our cities, we learn what will be our best defence in war. Who can tell with what nation we may be next at war? Therefore, to be on the safe side, make such preparations as our future enemies, whosoever they may be, will dislike to hear of. Accordingly you are to order the peasants to dig a series of pits with wide mouths near the mountains of Caprarius and the parts round about the walls[857]; and let such a chasm yawn there that there shall be no possibility of entrance that way.
'If strangers want to enter the city, why do they not enter it in the right way—by the gates—instead of going skulking about these bye-paths? Henceforth, anyone trying to take any such short cut to our city will probably find that he loses his life in consequence[858].'
'Great is the reward of those who serve Kings efficiently; as severe is the punishment of those who neglect their duties towards them.
'How delightful is it to journey without obstacles over a well-made road[859], to pass doubtful places without fear, to ascend mountainous steeps by a gentle incline, to have no fear of the planking of a bridge when one crosses it[860], and in short to accomplish one's journey so that everything happens to one's liking!
'This is the pleasure which you can now prepare for your Sovereign. Therefore, as the Flaminian Way is furrowed by the action of torrents, join the yawning chasms by the broadest of bridges; clear away the rough woods which choke the sides of the highway; procure the stipulated number of post-horses, and see that they have all the points which are required in a good steed; collect the designated quantities of provisions without plundering the peasants. A failure in any one of these particulars will ruin your whole service.
'Collect, too, with the utmost diligence the spices which are needed for the King's table. What avails it to have satisfied the army, if the King's own board lack proper care. Let all the Provincials attend to your admonitions: let the cities furnish the stores set forth in the accompanying letters. Then, when they have put the Sovereign in a good humour, they may ask him for benefits to some purpose.
'Think of me as present and as judging of all your deeds. I shall have to bear the blame of your failures at Court; so act rather as to set my mind at rest, to cover me and yourselves with glory, and to entitle me to receive on your behalf the thanks of the whole army.'
[This letter was probably written in the autumn of 535, when Theodahad was preparing to march to Rome. The mention of the delicacies for the royal table suggests that that King, in addition to the other excellencies of his character, was probably an epicure.]
'As all great events in Nature have their heralding signs, so is the approaching visit of the King announced to you even by the concourse of wayfarers to your City. We, however, have to order you to clothe the waves of Tiber with a bridge [of boats]. The boat, thus used, is no longer moved by slowly hauled ropes, as it is wont to be. Fixed itself, it affords a means of transit to others. The joining of its planks gives the desired appearance of solidity; all the terror of the waves is removed by its likeness to the land, and the traveller passing over it unharmed only wishes that the bridge were longer.
'Let a safe bulwark of lattice-work shield the bridge on the right side and on the left. See that you give no cause for misadventure of any kind. You have a noble opportunity of distinguishing yourself in the presence of so many Senators and of the King himself, the rewarder of every well-done work. On the other hand, if you do it badly and put him out of humour, woe be unto you!
'We send A B, a servant of our Praefecture[861], to assist you and your staff and bring us report of the accomplishment of the work; for so heavy is our responsibility in this matter that we dare not leave anything to chance.'
[The King whose advent to Rome is here announced may be Witigis, after his election in the plains of Regeta (August, 536). But the fact that he is apparently approaching Rome by the northern bank of the Tiber, coupled with the directions in the preceding letter for the repair of the Flaminian Way, makes it more probable that some visit of Theodahad (probably in the year 535), when he would come from Ravenna to Rome, is here in prospect.]
'You will remember, most faithful Sirs, that when the holy Agapetus, Pope of the City of Rome, was sent as ambassador to the Sovereign of the East[862], he received so many pounds of gold from you for the expenses of the journey, for which he gave his bond[863] and deposited some of the Church plate as security[864]. The provident ruler thus lent him money in his necessity, and now, far more gloriously, returns as a free gift those pledges which the Pope might well have thanked him for taking.
'Therefore, in obedience to these instructions of ours, and fortified by the Royal order, do you return without any delay to the stewards[865] of the holy Apostle Peter the vessels of the saints together with the written obligation, that these things may be felt to be profitably restored and speedily granted, that the longed-for means of performing their world-famous ministrations may be replaced in the hands of the Levites. Let that be given back which was their own, since that is justly received back by way of largesse which the Priest had legally mortgaged.
'Herein is the great example of King Alaric surpassed. He, when glutted with the spoil of Rome, having received the vessels of the Apostle Peter from his men, when he heard the story of their seizure, ordered them to be carried back across the sacred threshold, that so the remembrance of the cupidity of their capture might be effaced by the generosity of their restoration.
'But our King, with religious purpose, has restored the vessels which had become his own by the law of mortgage. In recompense for such deeds frequent prayer ought to ascend, and Heaven will surely gladly grant the required return for such good actions[866].'
[There are in this letter several extremely obscure sentences as to the generosity of Theodahad. As the Papal journey was undertaken by Theodahad's orders, it was a piece of meanness, quite in keeping with that King's character, to treat the advance of money for the journey as a loan, and to insist on a bond and the deposit of the Church plate as a security for repayment. Cassiodorus evidently feels this; and very probably the restoration of the vessels and the quittance of the debt had been insisted on by him. But the more he despises his master's shabbiness, the more he struggles through a maze of almost nonsensical sentences, to prove that he has committed some very glorious action in lending the money and then forgiving the debt.]