Letter 3027: It is the purpose of royal compassion to cut off the ground for unjust hatreds and to restrain the arrogance of...

XXVII. KING THEODERIC TO JOHN, MOST RESPECTABLE MAN, OF CONSULAR RANK IN CAMPANIA. [1] It is the resolve of royal devotion to cut away the occasion of unjust hatreds and to restrain the haughtiness of armed power by reverence for our commands. For the displeasure of a superior is dangerous to the lowly, when it is drawn toward praise should vengeance be exacted from men of moderate station. Accordingly, long buffeted by varied persecution, you have not vainly fled for refuge to the remedies of our devotion, declaring that the most eminent prefecture is a terror to you, lest private hatreds be sated upon you through public discipline. [2] But we, who desire that the dignities we have bestowed should serve justice and not resentment, fortify you with our protection against unlawful presumptions, so that, by the interposition of royal majesty, the fury of seething minds may be dashed to pieces upon its own rocks, and insolence may rather take punishment upon itself, while the innocent is shielded. For a man is called a judge only so long as he is also reckoned just, since a name that is derived from equity is not held by pride. [3] It remains now that you fulfill the office of consular rank which you have undertaken, and that you devote yourself diligently and faithfully to the public interests which it is established that your predecessors administered, and that you hasten to obey moderation as much as you are protected by us. For if you take delight in this, that you know the praetorian prefects to have been removed from doing you harm, you who are shown to be under that authority, what do you know yourself liable to suffer if you act wrongly?

XXVII. IOHANNI V. S. CONSULARI CAMPANIAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Propositum est pietatis regiae locum iniustis odiis amputare et potestatis armatae supercilium cohibere reverentia iussionum. infesta est siquidem humilibus superioris offensa, cum ad laudem trahitur, si vindicta de mediocribus adquiratur. proinde diu varia persecutione iactatus ad pietatis nostrae remedia haud irrite convolasti, asserens eminentissimam praefecturam tibimet esse terrori, ne privata odia in te satiarentur per publicam disciplinam. [2] Sed nos, qui donatas dignitates iustitiae parere cupimus, non dolori, contra illicitas praesumptiones nostra te tuitione vallamus, ut regiae maiestatis obiectu ferventium furor animorum in suis cautibus elidatur et de se magis poenam sumat protervia, dum cohibetur innoxia. tamdiu enim iudex dicitur, quamdiu et iustus putatur, quia nomen, quod ab aequitate sumitur, per superbiam non tenetur. [3] Restat nunc, ut assumptum impleas consularitatis officium et te utilitatibus publicis, quas tuos egisse constiterit decessores, sedulus ac devotus impendas quantumque a nobis protegeris, tantum modestiae parere festines. nam si gaudio perfrueris, quod a laesione tua praefectos praetorio remotos esse cognoscis, qui sub illo esse monstraris, quid te male agentem passurum esse cognoscis?