Letter 5024: VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 24

24. King Theoderic to Epiphanius, Most Distinguished Man, Consular [governor] of the Province of Dalmatia. [1] Iohanna is reported to have succeeded, by the gift of the law, to Andreas, once her husband, who is said to have been deprived of the light of day intestate, with no near relatives surviving. Her estate, it is suggested, is being held by various persons supported by no lawful right, through a willful usurpation; and because the laws have prudently decreed that ownerless [escheated] goods fall to our treasury, we therefore admonish you by these present commands that, once the truth of this matter has been examined, if in very fact, as has been reported to us, no heir came forward for her either by testament or succeeded by right of kinship, you are to cause her estate to be gathered into the profits of our treasury: since it is the avowed principle of our innocence not to neglect just gains, in whom calumny could never find a place. [2] For in cases of this kind it is fitting that the prince be petitioned, not defrauded, because it is a fault of negligence to leave unchallenged those presumptions which the laws command to be cut off. But if you should find anything to the contrary, you shall allow the owners to remain undisturbed, because those patrimonies are the more truly ours which are lawfully possessed by our subjects.

XXIIII. EPIPHANIO V. S. CONSULARI PROVINCIAE DALMATIAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Iohanna Andreae quondam iugali suo successisse legis munere perhibetur, quae intestata nullis existentibus proximis luce dicitur esse privata. cuius substantia a diversis nullo legitimo iure suffultis usurpatione voluntaria suggeritur possideri, et quia caduca bona fisco nostro competere legum cauta decreverunt, ideo te praesentibus oraculis ammonemus, ut huius rei veritate discussa, si re vera, ut ad nos perlatum est, nullus ei aut testamento heres extitit aut proximitatis iure successit, fisci nostri eam facies compendiis aggregari: quando innocentiae nostrae professio est iusta compendia non neglegere, apud quem calumnia numquam locum potuit invenire. [2] Rogari enim in talibus causis, non fraudari principem decet, quia neglegentiae vitium est praesumptiones relinquere, quas iura praecipiunt amputare. si quid autem contra reppereris, quietos dominos habere patieris, quia magis illa nostra sunt patrimonia, quae a subiectis legitime possidentur.