'It befits the discipline of our time that those who are serving the
public interests shall not be loaded with superfluous burdens. Labour
therefore diligently at the potteries (figulinae) which our Royal
authority has conceded to you. Protection is hereby promised against
the wiles of wicked men.' [What was the nature of the artifices to
which they were exposed is not very clear.]


24. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Arrears of taxation due from Senators.]

'We hear with sorrow, by the report of the Provincial Judges, that you
the Fathers of the State, who ought to set an example to your sons
(the ordinary citizens), have been so remiss in the payment of taxes
that on this first collection[259] nothing, or next to nothing, has
been brought in from any Senatorial house. Thus a crushing weight has
fallen on the lower orders (_tenues_, _curiales_), who have had to
make good your deficiencies and have been distraught by the violence
of the tax-gatherers.

[Footnote 259: 'Primae transmissionis tempus.']

'Now then, oh Conscript Fathers, who owe as much duty to the Republic
as we do, pay the taxes for which each one of you is liable, to the
Procurators appointed in each Province, by three instalments (trinâ
illatione). Or, if you prefer to do so--and it used to be accounted a
privilege--pay all at once into the chest of the Vicarius. And let
this following edict be published, that all the Provincials may know