that they are not to be imposed upon and that they are invited to
state their grievances[260].'

[Footnote 260: See Dahn, 'Könige der Germanen' iii. 153 and 112, n.
5.]


25. AN EDICT OF KING THEODORIC.

[Referred to in the preceding letter.]

[Sidenote: Evasion of taxes by the rich.]

The King detests the oppression of the unfortunate, and encourages
them to make their complaints to him. He has heard that the powerful
houses are failing to pay their share of the taxes, and that a larger
sum in consequence is being exacted from the _tenues_[261].

[Footnote 261: Here follows a sentence which I am unable to translate:
'Superbia deinde conductorum canonicos solidos non ordine traditos,
sed sub iniquo pondere imminentibus fuisse projectos nec universam
siliquam quam reddere consueverant solemniter intulisse.' I think the
meaning is, that the stewards of the Senators (conductores) arrogantly
refused to allow the money paid to the tax-collectors (canonici
solidi) to be tested, as in ordinary course it should have been, to
see if it was of full weight. The 'imminentes' are, I think, the
tax-collectors. I cannot at all understand the clause about 'universam
siliquam.']

To 'amputate' such wickedness for the future, the letter last