Letter 10049: The vintage this year was excellent, and the estate manager has expressed a confidence in the coming season's yield...

What standing an accusation entails, you above all others know, you founders of public law, our lords the emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, illustrious victors and triumphators, ever Augusti. For it has been provided, lest anyone should rashly rush into endangering the life of another, that the accuser should first bind himself in advance by a formal pledge to undergo the same penalty [the law of reciprocal liability, by which a failed accuser bore the punishment sought for the accused]. In accordance with these ordinances of the laws, Africanus, an agens in rebus [an imperial courier-agent], having lodged a formal accusation, charged Campanus and Hyginus, men of clarissimus rank [senatorial], with the crime of violence. At once, as severity demanded, he surrounded the accused with a military guard, the deference owed to their rank being set aside; but when the parties had taken their stand under examination, the inquiry, conducted amid much wrangling of advocates, overflowed with speechmaking rather than with proofs. Since the case was being dragged out through a long string of words, we summoned to the interrogation the leading men of the town of Aricia, whom the accuser had called forward as witnesses privy to the matter [the magnates of Aricia, whom Africanus had cited as accomplices or those in the know]. We inquired into the sequence of what had been done: the testimony of all agreed that no disturbance had been stirred up. Then, to evade the verdict, the presence of a certain man began to be demanded, one whom the accusation did not bind. At length the matter came to this, that the dropping of the accusation was sought out of despair by the party of Africanus. It remained that, the charge not being proven, the penalty dreaded by the accused should pass over onto the accuser; but since Africanus's military service and likewise his incautious youth moved me, I preferred to reserve the judgment concerning him for your clemency. For the standing of magistrates is one thing—whose verdicts seem to have been corrupted if they are more lenient than the laws—and the power of the divine emperors is another, to whom it is fitting to bend the sharpness of stern law. I have appended the proceedings to this report, and I have also joined to it the supplementary submissions of the parties. I beg Your most august Perennity that, all things having been weighed, you may command what is to be followed. [Cod. Theod. IX, 1, 5. 8. 9. 11. 14.] [To the Lords Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, from Symmachus, vir clarissimus, Prefect of the City.]

Quid habeat condicionis inscriptio, prae ceteris nostis iuris publici conditores, ddd. imppp. Valentiniane Theodosi et Arcadi inclyti victores ac triumphatores semper Augusti. provisum est enim, ne quis temere in alieni capitis discrimen irrueret, ut se ett^dem prius poenae sponsione vinciret. secundum haec scita legum agens in rebus Africanus accusationem professus Campano et Hygino clarissimis viris violentiae crimen obiecit. continuo, ut severitas exigebat, reos custodia militaris dissimulata dignitatis reverentia circumdedit ; sed ubi partes sub examine constiterunt, multo luctamine patronorum decursa cognitio oratione magis quam probationibus redundavit. cum longa verborum serie causa traheretur, summates Aricinae urbis, quos ut conscios accusator exciverat, adhibuimus quaestioni. gestorum ordinem sciscitamur: omnium convenit adsertio, nihil turbarum esse conflatum. tunc ad eludendum iudicium praesentia cuiusdam coepit exposci, quem non tenebat inscriptio. eo denique res rediit, ut a partibus Africani accusationis omissio desperatione peteretur. supererat ut crimine non probato in accusatorem formidata reis poena transiret; sed cum me Africani militia pariter atque incauta adolescentia permoveret, malui iudicium de eo clementibus reservare. alia est enim condicio magistratuum, quorum corruptae videntur esse sententiae, si sint legibus mitiores, alia est divinorum principum potestas, quos decet acrimoniam severi iuris inflectere. relationi gesta subtexui, partium quoque subplementa sociavi. quaeso augustissimam perennitatem Vestram, ut perpensis omnibus sequenda iubeatis. Cod. Theod. Vim 1, 5. 8. 9. 11. 14. DD. Valentiniano Theodosio et Archadio Symmachus n. c. praef. urb. F 2 prae ceteris no-