Letter 12024: By a previous order, we directed that Istria should send its produce of wine, oil, and grain -- with which the...

24. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to the Tribunes of the Maritime Districts. [1] By an order issued some time ago we decreed that Istria should auspiciously dispatch to the residence at Ravenna its products of wine, oil, and grain, of which it enjoys an abundance granted to it in the present year. But you, who possess numerous vessels in its neighboring waters, see to it with an equal grace of devotion that what that province stands ready to hand over, you may strive to convey with all speed. For the grace of accomplishment will indeed be the same for both parties, since one of these tasks, set apart from the other, does not allow the result to be fulfilled. Be therefore most ready for these near journeys, you who often traverse boundless distances. [2] You who sail through your homeland run, in a manner of speaking, through your own lodgings. It is added also to your advantages that another route opens for you, tranquil with perpetual security. For when the sea has been closed off by raging winds, a road is laid open for you through the most delightful courses of the rivers. Your keels do not dread harsh blasts: they touch the land with the utmost good fortune, and they cannot perish, those vessels that frequently run aground. From a distance they are thought to be borne as if through meadows, when it happens that their channel is not visible. Drawn by ropes, they move along, those that were accustomed to stand by their cables, and, the condition being changed, men aid their ships with their feet: they drag along their carriers without toil, and instead of the dread of sails they make use of the more favorable pace of the sailors. [3] It is pleasing to relate in what manner we have observed your dwellings to be situated. The Venetiae, praiseworthy and once full of nobles, border on Ravenna and the Po to the south, and to the east they enjoy the pleasantness of the Ionian shore: where the alternating tide, going out, now closes off, now lays open, the face of the fields by its reciprocal flooding. Here, after the manner of aquatic birds, is your home. For he who is now of the land is presently seen to be of the islands, so that there you might rather suppose them to be the Cyclades, where you behold the appearance of the places suddenly altered. [4] For in their likeness there appear dwellings scattered across the far-extending waters, which nature brought forth, but the care of men founded. For by means of pliant withies bound together, an earthen solidity is gathered there, and so fragile a fortification is not doubtfully set against the sea's surge, namely since the shallow shore does not know how to cast forth the mass of the waves, and that which is not aided by the help of depth is carried along without force. [5] For the inhabitants, therefore, there is one supply, that they are filled with fish alone. There poverty dwells together with riches on equal terms. One food refreshes all, a like dwelling encloses everyone alike; they do not know how to envy one another over their households, and, living within this measure, they escape the vice to which it is established the world is liable. [6] But in working the salt-pans lies all their effort: instead of plows, instead of sickles, you roll your cylinders: from there all your produce is born, since in those very pans you possess even those things you do not make. There, in a manner of speaking, an edible coinage is struck. To your craft every wave is bound. Someone may seek gold less eagerly, but there is no one who does not desire to find salt, and rightly, since to it every food owes the fact that it can be most pleasing. [7] Accordingly, repair with diligent care the ships which, after the manner of animals, you fasten to your walls, so that, when that most experienced man Laurentius, who has been sent to procure the products, has tried to remind you, you may hasten to set out, so that you may delay the necessary expenses by no difficulty, you who, according to the quality of the weather, can choose for yourselves the shorter way of the journey.

XXIIII. TRIBUNIS MARITIMORUM SENATOR PPO. [1] Data pridem iussione censuimus ut Histria vini, olei vel tritici species, quarum praesenti anno copia indulta perfruitur, ad Ravennatem feliciter dirigeret mansionem. sed vos, qui numerosa navigia in eius confinio possidetis, pari devotionis gratia providete, ut quod illa parata est tradere, vos studeatis sub celeritate portare. similis erit quippe utrisque gratia perfectionis, quando unum ex his dissociatum impleri non permittit effectum. estote ergo promptissimi ad vicina, qui saepe spatia transmittitis infinita. [2] Per hospitia quodammodo vestra discurritis, qui per patriam navigatis. accedit etiam commodis vestris, quod vobis aliud iter aperitur perpetua securitate tranquillum. nam cum ventis saevientibus mare fuerit clausum, via vobis panditur per amoenissima fluviorum. carinae vestrae flatus asperos non pavescunt: terram cum summa felicitate contingunt et perire nesciunt, quae frequenter inpingunt. putantur eminus quasi per prata ferri, cum eorum contingit alveum non videri. tractae funibus ambulant, quae stare rudentibus consuerunt, et condicione mutata pedibus iuvant homines naves suas: vectrices sine labore trahunt, et pro pavore velorum utuntur passu prosperiore nautarum. [3] Iuvat referre quemadmodum habitationes vestras sitas esse perspeximus. Venetiae praedicabiles quondam plenae nobilibus ab austro Ravennam Padumque contingunt, ab oriente iucunditate Ionii litoris perfruuntur: ubi alternus aestus egrediens modo claudit, modo aperit faciem reciproca inundatione camporum. hic vobis aquatilium avium more domus est. nam qui nunc terrestris, modo cernitur insularis, ut illic magis aestimes esse Cycladas, ubi subito locorum facies respicis immutatas. [4] Earum quippe similitudine per aequora longe patentia domicilia videntur sparsa, quae natura protulit, sed hominum cura fundavit. viminibus enim flexibilibus illigatis terrena illic soliditas aggregatur et marino fluctui tam fragilis munitio non dubitatur opponi, scilicet quando vadosum litus moles eicere nescit undarum et sine viribus fertur quod altitudinis auxilio non iuvatur. [5] Habitatoribus igitur una copia est, ut solis piscibus expleantur. paupertas ibi cum divitibus sub aequalitate convivit. unus cibus omnes reficit, habitatio similis universa concludit, nesciunt de penatibus invidere et sub hac mensura degentes evadunt vitium, cui mundum esse constat obnoxium. [6] In salinis autem exercendis tota contentio est: pro aratris, pro falcibus cylindros volvitis: inde vobis fructus omnis enascitur, quando in ipsis et quae non facitis possidetis. moneta illic quodammodo percutitur victualis. arti vestrae omnis fluctus addictus est. potest aurum aliquis minus quaerere, nemo est qui salem non desideret invenire, merito, quando isti debet omnis cibus quod potest esse gratissimus. [7] Proinde naves, quas more animalium vestris parietibus illigatis, diligenti cura reficite, ut, cum vos vir experientissimus Laurentius, qui ad procurandas species directus est, commonere temptaverit, festinetis excurrere, quatenus expensas necessarias nulla difficultate tardetis, qui pro qualitate aeris compendium vobis eligere potestis itineris.