Letter 2026: We take no pleasure in unjust profits, and gains that come at the expense of fairness never reach our conscience.

26. KING THEODERIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT. [1] We take no delight in unjust gains, nor do those things reach the heart of our piety which are forsaken to the detriment of honesty. For the commonwealth is always increased by the right of equity, and when it is cherished together with restraint, those things which will profit succeed swiftly. [2] And therefore, moved by the petition of the merchants of Apulia and Calabria, we have judged that your illustrious magnificence must be instructed, so that, with respect to the grain which is purchased for the public by the aforesaid merchants, no quantity of solidi should again be demanded from those same men under the name of a broker's fee. For if you do not have the purchased commodity necessary for the public expenses, let the measured portion taken up by your office be faithfully disposed of: the fiscal account will have to bear the outcome of the matter, since it appears unjustly to have imposed what it now rejects. For it is exceedingly unfair that he should suffer the loss who carried out another's command. [3] Decreeing on equal terms also concerning the sextarius [a measure] which the merchant of that province appears to bring in, let no insolent person dare to exact prices that have always been condemned. And that we may more forcefully beat back excesses, we impose a penalty of thirty pounds of gold upon the prefects of your seat, if anyone with rash audacity shall attempt to come against these most salutary enactments. But your office is to know that it shall be struck with the loss of ten pounds of gold, if it shall presume to carry out the forbidden orders. [4] In that part too our clemency extends itself to the weary, so that, if one renders the payment of this title to the siliquatarius [collector of the siliquaticum tax], the merchant may also exercise his monopoly. But if the siliquatarius judges that this title is to be abolished for the merchants, let him exact no payment from them, since it is absurd enough that he should be afflicted with losses who has no advantage from the transaction. [5] In the gold-tax matters, finally, let the ancient order be preserved, and let that very function regard only those whom the authority of antiquity wished to serve this title. Wherefore see by all means that our benefits toward the merchants, who are proved to be necessary to your titles, are guarded, lest a class of men which lives by profits be able to be brought to ruin by losses.

XXVI. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Nullis compendiis delectamur iniustis nec ad animum nostrae pietatis perveniunt quae probitatis gratia deseruntur. res publica siquidem iure semper aequitatis augetur, et cum temperantia diligitur, velociter profutura succedunt. [2] Atque ideo illustrem magnificentiam tuam, negotiatorum Apuliae sive Calabriae supplicatione permoti, duximus instruendam, ut frumenta, quae per supra dictos negotiatores publico comparantur, non iterum ab eisdem interpretii nomine solidorum quantitas exigatur. nam si coemptam speciem expensis publicis necessariam non habetis, ab officio vestro suscepta modiatio fideliter distrahatur: eventum rei ratio fiscalis habitura, quae iniuste videtur imposuisse quod respuit. nimis enim iniquum est, ut ille patiatur dispendium, qui imperium fecit alienum. [3] Pari condicione censentes de sextario quoque, quem negotiator eius provinciae videtur inferre, ne quis audeat damnata semper pretia protervus exigere. et ut validius retundamus excessus, poenam triginta librarum auri sedis vestrae praefectis imponimus, si quis contra haec saluberrima constituta ausu temerario venire temptaverit. officium vero decem librarum auri dispendio se noverit esse feriendum, si inhibitas praesumpserit exsequi iussiones. [4] In illa quoque parte fessis clementia nostra se porrigit, ut si pensionem huius tituli siliquatario praestat, monopolium quoque negotiator exerceat. si vero siliquatarius hunc titulum negotiatoribus iudicat abrogandum, nullam ab eis exigat pensionem, quia satis absurdum est, ut affligatur damnis, qui commoda non habet actionis. [5] In aurariis denique priscus ordo servetur et ad eos tantum functio ipsa respiciat, quos huic titulo servire voluit antiquitatis auctoritas. quapropter beneficia nostra erga negotiatores, qui vestris titulis necessarii comprobantur, omnimodis facite custodiri, ne genus hominum, quod vivit lucris, ad necem possit pervenire dispendiis.