Letter 12007: Under the clemency of a good ruler, nothing is left to the mercy of chance — for those who have resolved to govern...

Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to the Tax Collector [canonicarius] of Venetia. [1] Under the clemency of a good prince it is established that nothing is permitted to chance occurrences, since those who have resolved to provide most prosperously correct adverse misfortunes. For how could a man stripped bare endure savage barbarity and a rigorous prince, when, despoiled by law, he refuses what in his abundance he had learned to render? And therefore, to these and those whose lands were laid waste by the incursion of the Suebi, the royal serenity has remitted the treasury's tax of the fifteenth indiction, as the rescript, once read over, will be able to instruct you. [2] Hence, commending obedience, you are not to exact the tribute of the present indiction from the aforesaid landholders for those estates which you shall have ascertained were indeed laid waste; but the remainder collect by the customary compulsion, so that at the appointed times you may make up to our treasurer [arcarius] the balance of the sum. Beware, therefore, lest you become more grievous than the enemy, if you should wish still further to strip the despoiled: let those who feared arms not dread the cloak [chlamys]; let them not feel plunderings after the plunderers. They have found valid receipts against you: their own calamity has given them unassailable guarantees: the violent one has carried off what you were seeking. He to whom nothing appears to have been left is established to have been freed from tributes.

VII. CANONICARIO VENETIARUM SENATOR PPO. [1] Sub clementia boni principis nihil constat licere fortuitis, quando sinistros casus corrigunt, qui praestare prosperrime censuerunt. nam quemadmodum ferret nudus saevam barbariem et districtum principem, quando spoliatus iure negat quod affluens inferre didicerat? atque ideo illi vel illi Sueborum incursione vastatis fiscum quintae decimae indictionis serenitas regalis indulsit, sicut te poterit instruere relecta praeceptio. [2] Unde oboedientiam commendantes a supradictis possessoribus de praediis, quae tamen cognoveris esse vastata, praesentis indictionis tributa non exigas: reliqua vero sollemni compulsione procura, ut constitutis temporibus arcario nostro residuam compleas quantitatem. cave ergo, ne gravior fias hostibus, si adhuc nudare velis exutos: chlamydes non pavescant, qui arma timuerunt: rapinas non sentiant post praedones. validas contra te apochas invenerunt: invictas securitates illis dedit calamitas sua: violentus abstulit quod quaerebas. cui nihil videtur relictum, a tributis constat esse liberatum.