which interfere with the purity of the water in the aqueduct
of Ravenna. Vegetation is the peaceable overturner of buildings, the
battering-ram which brings them to the ground, though the trumpets
never sound for siege.

[Footnote 408: Where was this? Signia in Latium is, of course, not to
be thought of.]

'We shall now again have baths that we may look upon with pleasure;
water which will cleanse, not stain; water after using which we shall
not require to wash ourselves again; drinking-water such that the mere
sight of it will not take away all our appetite for food[409].'

[Footnote 409: The scarcity of water at Ravenna was proverbial.]

39. KING THEODORIC TO AMPELIUS AND LIVERIA[410].

[Footnote 410: Cf. the somewhat similar letter to Severinus, Special
Commissioner for Suavia (v. 14).]

[Sidenote: Sundry abuses in the administration of the Spanish
government to be rectified.]

'That alone is the true life of men which is controlled by the reign
of law.

'We regret to hear that through the capricious extortions of our
revenue-officers anarchy is practically prevailing in Spain. The
public registers (polyptycha), not the whim of the collector, ought to
measure the liability of the Provincial.

'We therefore send your Sublimity to Spain in order to remedy these
disorders.

'(1) Murder must be put down with a strong hand; but the sharper the
punishment is made the more rigid we ought to be in requiring proof of
the crime[411].

[Footnote 411: 'Homicidii scelus legum jubemus auctoritate resecari:
sed quantum vehementior poena est tanto ejus rei debet inquisitio plus
haberi: ne amore vindictae innocentes videantur vitae pericula
sustinere.']

'(2) The collectors of the land-tax (assis publicus) are accused of
using false weights [in collecting the quotas of produce from the
Provincials]. This must cease, and they must use none but the standard
weights kept by our Chamberlain[412].

[Footnote 412: 'Libra cubiculi nostri.']

'(3) The farmers[413] of our Royal domain must pay the rent imposed on
them, otherwise they will get to look on the farms as their own
property; but certain salaries may be paid them for their trouble, as
you shall think fit[414]. [Dahn suggests that the salary was to
reimburse them for their labours as a kind of local police, but is
not himself satisfied with this explanation.]

[Footnote 413: 'Conductores domus Regiae.']

[Footnote 414: 'Et ne cuiquam labor suus videatur ingra