Letter 5007: King Theodoric to John, Vir Clarissimus [Most Distinguished], Treasurer.

VII. King Theoderic to Johannes, Most Distinguished Man [vir clarissimus], Arcarius [paymaster of the treasury]. [1] It is fitting to render valid the wishes of those who prefer to safeguard the public interests; nor do we suffer to be anxious about their own loss those who have made us secure from expenditures. By your report, therefore, we have learned that, in such-and-such an indiction [tax-cycle], the estates of our patrimony situated in the province of Apulia, that is, such-and-such and such-and-such, were committed by leasehold title [libellarius titulus] to the honorable man Thomas; but that he, by mismanaging what he had undertaken, has stood revealed in the public accounts as a debtor of arrears up to ten thousand solidi from the indictions of such-and-such and such-and-such; and that he, though frequently admonished by our nobles to repay his debts, has by detestable cunning neglected to do so. And lest any dispute should arise for you hereafter, you attest that you are willing to satisfy the amount owed to the public interests under this arrangement, if the estates of the aforesaid debtor are handed over to you in the place of a pledge. [2] Hence it is that we confirm by the present command your desire, conceived upon just grounds: first, that you should fear no dispute from this matter in the name of the public treasury; then, that under this condition we adjudge over to you the whole property of Thomas the debtor, which he either now holds or possessed at the earlier time when he had already begun to be liable to our accounts; which property we caused, some while ago, to be claimed in our name by affixed notices: [3] relaxing this much only out of regard for humanity, namely that he should have the interval until the Kalends of September for repaying the amount owed: but if, by the aforesaid day, you should not have paid to the illustrious man, the count of our patrimony, the money that is owed, then his entire estate, as we have said, is to be applied to your profit. This we do not believe to be a grievous thing for him who loses it, since he does not appear to lose entirely what he knows that you, his own son-in-law, acquire: for what you could have obtained by right of succession is now held by you on the terms of a purchaser.

VII. IOHANNI V. C. ARCARIO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Decet eorum vota in ratum reddere, qui malunt utilitates publicas continere: nec patimur de damno proprio esse sollicitos, qui nos a dispendiis fecere securos. tua igitur suggestione comperimus per illam indictionem patrimonii nostri praedia in Apulia provincia constituta, id est illud atque illud, honesto viro Thomati libellario titulo commisisse, sed eum male amministrando suscepta usque ad decem milia solidorum de indictionibus illa atque illa reliquatorem publicis rationibus extitisse: qui a proceribus nostris frequenter ammonitus debita reddere detestabili calliditate neglexit. et ne tibi aliqua in posterum quaestio nasceretur, publicis utilitatibus debitam quantitatem sub hac ratione satisfacere te velle testaris, si tibi praedia supradicti debitoris loco pignoris contradantur. [2] Hinc est, quod desiderium tuum iusta ratione conceptum praesenti iussione firmamus: primum, ut nullam ex hac re nomine publico metuas quaestionem: deinde sub hac condicione tibi universam substantiam, quam vel nunc tenet vel primo tempore possidebat, cum nostris rationibus obnoxius esse iam coeperat, Thomatis debitoris addicimus, quam pridem nostro nomine fixis titulis fecimus vindicari: [3] hoc tantum humanitatis intuitu relaxantes, ut usque ad kal. Sept. spatium habeat reddendi debitam quantitatem: minus ne cum ad supradictum diem tu pecuniam viro illustri comiti patrimonii nostri, quae debetur, intuleris facultas eius universa, sicut diximus, tuis compendiis applicetur. quod triste non credimus esse perdenti, quando nec ex toto videtur amittere, quod te generum suum cognoscit adquirere: nam quod poteras adipisci iure successionis, condicione a te possidetur emptoris.