Letter 9002: EDICT OF KING ATHALARIC

II. AN EDICT. KING ATHALARIC. [1] He who desires that the condition of the commonwealth and the general standing of the realm should remain secure ought to be solicitous concerning all things, since there is no health in the body except such as the members also have been able to maintain. By an injury to a single place the whole frame is shaken, and so great is the force of cohesion that you would believe one wound to be received everywhere, when that part has begun to ache. For the commonwealth is not the care of a single city, but the foreseeing custody of the whole kingdom: wherefore, if anything is diminished from it, the losses are felt at the source. For he must needs have less from whom something perishes. And therefore the ever-watchful care of the various cities makes us anxious, lest evils, if permitted to spread further, be able to weigh down the palaces themselves. For the tree which you see flourish, which you behold rejoicing in the highest greenness, is animated by the underground sap of fertility, rendering to the surface what it holds in the root. The countenance of men too is adorned with great cheerfulness, if from sound inner parts it feels the burden of no injury. Thus the kingdom is rightly called most intact, if it has nowhere been diminished. This can come to pass when unbridled license is removed on every side, and no daring is given to a malignant mind to sin under an abominable liberty. The curials [town councilors], who take their name from provident solicitude, are said to be shaken by a most grievous harassment, so that whatever is delegated to them for the sake of honor seems rather to have been turned to their injury. O wicked crime, unbearable evil! When the curial ought to have gained advantage by serving the commonwealth, then he is seen to lose his own liberty together with his fortunes. [2] Wherefore by an edictal proclamation we determine that, if anyone has been engaged either in injuring or in despoiling a curial, or has perhaps presumed to impose upon him anything beyond what has been commanded by us or by the courtiers in whose authority the matter lies, he shall either be struck with the loss of ten pounds of gold, which shall nonetheless go to the benefit of the very man who suffered any such thing, or, if his means do not suffice for the penalty, he shall be lacerated with the punishment of the cudgel, and shall pay to the penalties the debt which he could not discharge with money; yet in such a way that those things which have been delegated for the public utility shall be carried out with honorable solicitude, since they begin to owe the more, whom we do not permit to bear the iniquities of others. [3] As for the estates of the curials, from which especially snares are prepared against the humble, let no one seize upon them by an illicit purchase, since that cannot be called a contract which does not proceed from the laws. Concerning the molestations of the saiones [royal agents] and of soldiers, let them be protected by the aid of the judges. From those governors themselves also our authority will vindicate them, since he is to be more gravely punished, if he to whom the giving of aid is delegated is proved to inflict detriment. [4] Raise your necks, you who are downcast: lift up your spirits, you who are weighed down by the burdens of evils: apply your zeal to recover what you ill perceive that you have lost. To each citizen his own city is the commonwealth. Administer the justice of the cities with consonant will. Let your orders live equitably. Do not oppress the humble, lest the more powerful be able with justice to oppress you. This is the penalty of sin, that each one may receive into himself what he has insolently practiced upon another. Live justly, live temperately, since scarcely does anyone dare to transgress against those in whom he cannot find faults. [5] The cranes know how to practice a moral concord, among whom no primacy is sought, because there is no ambition of iniquity. They keep watch by turns, they guard themselves by common caution, the very feeding is alternate. Thus honor is taken from none, while all things are preserved under community. Their flight too is arranged with reciprocal equality: the last becomes the first, and that which held the primacy does not refuse to be the latter. Thus, associated by a certain community, they obey one another without kings, they comply without lordship, they serve without terror. By serving voluntarily they are free, and by loving one another in turn they are fortified. The writers of natural things, observing their custom, record that there is among them a certain polity, since they have recognized them to live with civic affection. [6] If you imitate these, you will exclude from yourselves all the calumnies of depravities. For you, who receive the prayers of the upright, have through the laws power over your fellow citizens. For not in vain did antiquity grant you a curia, not idly did it call you the lesser senate, calling you also the sinews and the inner parts of the cities. What of either power or honor would you not have in that appellation? For he who is compared to the senate is excluded by no genius of distinction.

II. EDICTUM. ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Qui rei publicae statum et generale cupit stare fastigium, ad universa debet esse sollicitus, quia non est salus in corpore, nisi quam et membra potuerint optinere. iniuria unius loci compago tota concutitur et tanta convenientiae vis est, ut unum vulnus ubique credas accipi, quando illa coeperit condolere. res publica siquidem non est unius civitatis cura, sed totius regni provisa custodia: quapropter si quid ex ipsa minuitur, in origine dispendia sentiuntur. minus enim habere necesse est, cui aliquid perit. et ideo diversarum civitatum pervigil nos cura sollicitat, ne permissa longius mala possint gravare palatia. arbor enim, quam florere vides, quam summa conspicis viriditate laetari, subterraneo suco fecunditatis animatur, reddens in superficiem quod continet in radice. hominum quoque vultus magna hilaritate decoratur, si visceribus sanis gravamen nullius sentiat laesionis. sic regnum iure dicitur integerrimum, si nusquam fuerit inminutum. hoc fieri potest, cum undique summovetur effrenata licentia nec datur ausus menti malignae sub abominabili libertate peccare. curiales, quibus a provida sollicitudine nomen est, gravissima dicuntur infestatione quassari, ut quicquid eis honoris causa delegatur, ad iniuriam potius videatur esse perductum. o nefarium scelus, importabile malum! quando debuit rei publicae serviendo proficere, tunc libertatem suam cum fortunis videtur amittere. [2] Quocirca edictali programmate definimus, ut si quis versatus fuerit aut in iniuria aut in dispendio curialis vel aliquid ei, praeterquam iussum fuerit a nobis vel ab aulicis quorum interest potestatibus, imponere fortasse praesumpserit, aut decem librarum auri dispendio feriatur, ipsi qui aliquid tale pertulit nihilominus profuturarum, aut, si facultas vindictae non sufficit, per fustuaria supplicia laceretur, et reddat debitum poenis, quod non potuit compensare pecuniis, ita tamen, ut, quae pro publica utilitate fuerint delegata, ingenua sollicitudine compleantur, quando plus incipiunt debere, quos alienas iniquitates non permittimus sustinere. [3] Praedia curialium, unde maxime mediocribus parantur insidiae, nullus illicita emptione pervadat, quia contractus dici non potest, nisi qui de legibus venit. circa saionum et militantum molestias iudicum protegantur auxilio. ab ipsis quoque moderatoribus eos nostra vindicabit auctoritas, quando gravius plectendus est, si ille, cui delegatur auxilium, probetur inferre detrimentum. [4] Erigite colla, depressi: sublevate animos, malorum sarcinis ingravati: date studium recuperare quae vos male cognoscitis amisisse. unicuique civi urbs sua res publica est. administrate civitatum sub consentanea voluntate iustitiam. ordines vestri aequabiliter vivant. nolite gravare mediocres, ne vos merito possint opprimere potiores. poena ista peccati est, ut unusquisque in se recipere possit quod in alterum protervus exercuit. vivite iuste, vivite continenter, quia vix audet quisquam in illos excedere, quibus culpas non potest invenire. [5] Grues moralem noverunt exercere concordiam, inter quas nullus primatus quaeritur, quia iniquitatis ambitus non habetur. vigilant vicissim, communi se cautela custodiunt, ipse pastus alternus est. sic honor nullis adimitur, dum omnia sub communione servantur. his etiam volatus vicaria aequalitate disponitur: ultima fit prima et quae primatum tenuit, esse posterior non recusat. sic quadam communione sociatae sibi sine regibus obsequuntur, sine dominatu parent, sine terrore famulantur. voluntarie serviendo liberae sunt et invicem se diligendo muniuntur. quarum morem scriptores rerum naturalium contuentes politiam quandam inter ipsas esse commemorant, quas civico affectu vivere cognoverunt. [6] Has si vos imitemini, omnes a vobis pravitatum calumnias excludetis. nam vos, qui recti vota recipitis, habetis per leges potestatem in civibus vestris. non enim in cassum vobis curiam concessit antiquitas, non inaniter appellavit minorem senatum, nervos quoque vocitans ac viscera civitatum. quid in ista appellatione non habeatis vel potentiae vel honoris? nam qui senatui comparatur, a nullo genio claritatis excluditur.