Letter 12009: It is an act of mercy to bind a foreign people to the state through public benefits — and to extend to newcomers,...

IX. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to Paschasius, Prefect of the Annona [the grain supply]. [1] It is a thing full of piety to bind a foreign people by public benefits, and not so much to permit blood-relations to gain advantage from a man's estate as to invite the newcomers themselves: an inheritance that has no near kin, a succession without kindred, and the sole proof of descent is to speak the ancestral tongues. For the African [Afer] seeks the benefit in such a way as to show that long ago it was granted to him: a gift without the name of a recipient, a bounty apart from any particular person, because it was first conferred upon the nation, so that afterwards the name of those petitioning could be attached to it. [2] Hence it is that by a certain right they claim inheritances belonging to others, and that alone seems to be due to them which a Roman cannot obtain in like cases. They did not have such a benefit in their own homeland, but here all are kinsmen under this condition: the whole nation, as far as concerns the benefit of succession, is a single family. [3] Therefore let your Experience [the official addressed] examine his petition with diligent scrutiny, and if in truth the man whom he reports to have passed from this light left no children, and it is not established that the property is reasonably possessed by anyone else, let your office carry out the induction into the said property according to custom, so that the ancient piety of present rulers may restore the benefits of past lords, and he may be able to make supplication on behalf of those under whom he understands that he has the more deserved his wishes. Let him resume the means which he had sighed to have lost. He could no longer call himself a foreigner, who acquires the lands he longed for. Let him hold a dignity like that of other proprietors, and now, restored, let him pay in his tributes, he who used to seek help from the hands of strangers. [4] Let him rejoice that he has been brought to this point, that he may give what surely is not shown to issue except from one who has it, inferior to the other lords in this lot alone, since he cannot alienate what he has prevailed to possess. But this too we believe to have been devised with great equity, that he who succeeds in place of a pledge should by the affection of a father lawfully preserve his substance for outsiders. Fed by compassion, let him now feed others also: a fortunate and praiseworthy captivity has befallen him, to enjoy Roman citizenship and to have been able to share in the privileges of the Africans.

VIIII. PASCHASIO PRAEFECTO ANNONAE SENATOR PPO. [1] Pietate plenum est peregrinam gentem publicis beneficiis obligare et non tantum consanguineos ad substantiae lucra permittere quantum ipsos quoque advenas invitare: hereditas quae est sine proximis, absque parentela successio solaque fides generis est patrios sonare sermones. Afer enim sic expetit beneficia, ut sibi olim doceat fuisse concessa: donum sine accipientis nomine, praeter personam largitas, quia primum collatum est genti, ut postea petentium vocabulum potuisset affigi. [2] Hinc est quod iure quodam postulant hereditates alienas et illis tantum videtur competere, quod Romanus non potest in causis similibus optinere. beneficium tale non habuerunt in patria sua, sed hic omnes sub hac condicione parentes sunt: universa natio, quantum ad successionis beneficium, una familia est. [3] Quocirca experientia tua preces illius diligenti examinatione discutiat et si re vera ille, quem suggerit de hac luce transisse, filios non reliquit nec ab alio constat rationabiliter possideri, introductionem memoratae rei officium vestrum celebrato ex more, quatinus antiqua pietas regnantum praesentium reparet beneficia dominorum et possit pro illis supplicare, sub quibus se magis intellegit votiva meruisse. resumat facultatem, quam se suspiraverat amisisse. peregrinum se ultra dicere non potuit, qui optata rura conquirit. habeat possessorum similem dignitatem et iam tributa reparatus inferat, qui opem ab alienis manibus expetebat. [4] Gaudeat se ad hoc perductum, ut daret quod utique nisi habenti non probatur emergere, ceteris dominis in hac tantum sorte deterior, quoniam alienare nequit quod possidere praevaluit. sed et hoc quoque magna credimus aequitate repertum, ut qui loco succedit pignoris, substantiam suam affectu patris iure servet extraneis. miseratione pastus nunc pascat et alios: felix illi contigit et praedicanda captivitas Romana civitate perfrui et Afrorum privilegiis potuisse misceri.