Letter 7001: FORMULA OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNTSHIP

I. FORMULA FOR THE COUNTSHIP OF A PROVINCE. [1] Although the duties of all the dignities are kept apart from the armed hand, and those who are appointed to carry out public severity appear clothed in civilian garments, your dignity alone is adorned with terrors, being girded with the sword of war even in peaceful affairs. See by what judgment you have been raised when promoted, since we see that to others the strength of the fasces [rods of office] has been entrusted, but to you it is established that iron has been held out by the laws themselves. They have given a bloody charge to a peaceful mind, so that the guilty might fear exceedingly and the injured might rejoice in the vengeance they have longed for. Otherwise our predecessors would be blamed, had they not made all things temperate. But since you understand that you have been chosen for moderation, you should not readily desire a man's destruction. [2] Let him who is called the accused also be proven guilty. Know that the remedy of punishing has been given to you for the safety of many. These weapons are of the law, not of fury. This display, to be sure, has been instituted against the guilty, so that terror may correct more than punishment consumes. For he is not compelled to cut down with iron the strength of one whose boldness, still tender, he bends with words. This dread is civil, not warlike, which you will make to be glorious if it is not proven to have any excess. [3] You have iron likewise that is bloodless nonetheless. Let those whom the odium of light crimes assails be shut up in the bonds of chains. He who judges concerning safety ought to be one who delays: another sentence can be corrected, but what has been transacted concerning life does not permit itself to be changed. Let cattle-rustlers fear your standards, let thieves be afraid, let robbers shudder; let innocence alone look on rejoicing, while it believes that aid has come to it which the discipline of the laws has dispatched. Let no one turn your will aside by bribes for release: the sword is despised where gold is accepted; you render yourself unarmed if you have departed from a manly spirit through greed. [4] Wherefore, by the indiction in question, we grant to you the dignity of the countship in that province, so that you may carry out the matters pertaining to your titles in a manner rather praiseworthy for its civility, and may presume to do nothing except what a private man could vindicate by the laws. For that is the right administration which is defended even without power, so that he may then be proven to have been just, when an enemy can charge him only with the things he would prefer. [5] Yet your hope is not abandoned as if through scorn: for if you preside well over the administrations of the provinces, the laws have with good reason judged that you may hope for the most ample honors. Whence it now seems almost a debt, that which is known to have been promised to you of its own accord by so great an authority.

I. FORMULA COMITIVAE PROVINCIAE. [1] Quamvis omnium dignitatum officia a manu secludantur armata et civilibus vestibus videantur induti qui districtionem publicam docentur operari, tua tantum dignitas a terroribus ornatur, quae gladio bellico rebus etiam pacatis accingitur. vide quo iudicio frueris evectus, quando aliis vigorem fascium videamus esse creditum, tibi autem ab ipsis legibus ferrum constet esse porrectum. rem cruentam dederunt animo pacato, ut et noxii nimium metuerent et laesi de optata ultione gauderent. alioquin culparentur priores, si temperata omnia non fecissent. sed cum te intellegas ad moderamen electum, humanum facile non concupiscas exitium. [2] Reus qui dicitur, et probetur. scito puniendi remedium datum tibi pro salute multorum. arma ista iuris sunt, non furoris. haec ostentatio nimirum est contra noxios instituta, ut plus terror corrigat quam poena consumat. non enim cogitur ferro succidere robustam qui adhuc teneram verbis curvat audaciam. civilis est pavor iste, non bellicus, quem tu sic facies esse gloriosum, si habere non probetur excessum. [3] Habes etiam et ferrum nihilominus incruentum. claudantur nexibus catenarum, quos levium criminum pulsat invidia. cunctator esse debet, qui iudicat de salute: alia sententia potest corrigi, de vita transactum non patitur immutari. signa tua abactores timeant, fures pavescant, latrones perhorreant, innocentia tantum laeta respiciat, dum sibi auxilia venisse credit, quae legum disciplina transmisit. nemo redemptionibus tuum velle deflectat: gladius contemnitur, ubi aurum suscipitur: tu te inermem reddis, si a virili animo cupiditate recesseris. [4] Quocirca per indictionem illam comitivae tibi in illa provincia tribuimus dignitatem, ut ad titulos tuos pertinentia civilitate potius laudabilis exsequaris nec quicquam praesumas facere, nisi quod privatus possis legibus vindicare. ipsa est enim recta amministratio, quae et sine potestate defenditur, ut tunc probetur fuisse iustus, quando ei quae mavult obicere possit inimicus. [5] Nec tamen spes vestra velut fastiditate deseritur: nam si bene provinciarum amministrationibus praesidetis, honores vos amplissimos sperare leges merito censuerunt. unde iam videtur paene debitum, quod vobis a tanta auctoritate ultro noscitur fuisse promissum.