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

[Footnote 260: See Dahn, 'Koenige 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
preceding has been addressed to the Senate; and the 'Possessores sive
curiales' are now invited to state their grievances fully and
frankly, or else ever after hold their peace and cultivate a habit of
patience.

26. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.

[Sidenote: Regulations for corn-traffic of Southern Italy.]

A difficult letter about the corn-merchants of Apulia and Calabria.

1. The corn which they have collected by public sale is not to be
demanded over again from them under the title of 'interpretium'
[difference of price].

2. Similarly as to the Sextarius which the merchant of each Province
imports. No one is to dare insolently to exact the prices which have
been always condemned.

3. Fines of L1,200 on the