Letter 5032: VARIAE, BOOK 5, LETTER 32

32. King Theoderic to Brandila. [1] A repeated complaint of Patza has come to us on countless occasions: that, while he was stationed on a most successful campaign, his wife was mangled by your spouse Procula with a threefold beating, so that she escaped only by the benefit of being given up for dead, since she was thought to be not merely worn out by the blows but already lifeless. While we marvel at the very greatest boldness in a woman, if indeed this is true, we do not allow it to pass unpunished. [2] And therefore by the present decrees we admonish you that, if you clearly acknowledge the deed, you should rebuke the reported grievance by marital discipline, taking thought for your own honor, so that on this same account no just complaint may return to us. And you should know that what you ought to have corrected by domestic discipline can be cut away by the laws. [3] But if, accusing rather the falsehood of the petitioner, you should perhaps be willing to plead your case, then, with every obstacle of delay removed, present yourself without hesitation before our court together with your aforesaid spouse, intending to receive either punishment for an unjust presumption or victory over the woman's wickedness.

XXXII. BRANDILAE THEODERICUS REX. [1] Adiit nos innumeris vicibus Patzenis repetita conquestio, qui cum esset in expeditione felicissima constitutus, a Procula coniuge tua uxorem suam asseruit trina fuisse caede laceratam, ita ut solo beneficio desperationis evaderet, cum non plagis fessa, sed iam crederetur extincta. hanc nos, si tamen vera est, in femina quam maxima mirantes audaciam, transire non patimur impunitam. [2] Atque ideo decretis te praesentibus ammonemus, ut, si factum evidenter agnoscis, delatam querimoniam, pudori tuo consulens, maritali districtione redarguas, quatenus ex eadem causa ad nos querela iusta non redeat. et legibus noveris resecari posse, quod te oportuerat domestica districtione corrigere. [3] Quod si mendacium magis petitoris accusans causam dicere fortasse volueris, summoto dilationis obstaculo ad comitatum nostrum cum supra dicta coniuge tua incunctanter occurre, exceptura aut de iniqua praesumptione vindictam aut de mulieris improbitate victoriam.