Letter 1019: KING THEODERIC TO SATURNINUS AND UMBISUS, MEN OF DISTINCTION.

19. KING THEODERIC TO SATURNINUS AND VERBUSIUS, MOST EXCELLENT MEN. [1] We wish to preserve the lawful profit of the treasury, since Our Clemency is seen to be content with its own resources; and just as We desire to burden no one, so We ought not to lose what is owed to Us. We justly shun want, which urges men to excesses, for poverty is a dangerous thing in one who rules. Moderation is everywhere to be praised. For why should either blameworthy negligence let one's own property slip away, or another man's base greed scrape it off? [2] And therefore by this present order We command you, once you have received the report of the curials of the city of Adriana, that whoever among the Goths refuses to pay the treasury, you compel him to the fairness of repayment, lest the man of small means be forced to pay out of his own what it is clear that men of substance are improperly withholding: this rule, of course, being observed, that if anyone, through the vice of contumacy, should prefer to delay Our commands, he shall pay as a fine what he ought to have offered even without being compelled, so that audacity, indecently raised up in a defiant spirit, may not be left unpunished in just ages.

XVIIII. SATURNINO ET VMBISVO VV. SS. THEODERICUS REX. [1] Fisci volumus legale custodire compendium, quia nostra clementia rebus propriis videtur esse contenta, et sicut nullum gravare cupimus, ita nobis debita perdere non debemus. indigentiam iuste fugimus, quae suadet excessus, dum perniciosa res est in imperante tenuitas. modus ubique laudandus est. nam cur aut vituperabilis neglegentia in propriis defluat aut aliena cupiditas turpis abradat? [2] Et ideo praesenti vobis iussione praecipimus, ut Adrianae civitatis curialium insinuatione suscepta, quicumque Gothorum fiscum detrectat implere, eum ad aequitatem redhibitionis artetis, ne tenuis de proprio cogatur exsolvere, quod constat idoneos indebite detinere: hac scilicet ratione servata, ut si quis contumaciae vitio maluerit nostra iussa tardare, cum multa reddat quod debuit etiam non compulsus offerre, quatenus protervo spiritu indecenter erecta inpunita iustis saeculis non relinquatur audacia.