ls, let him lose his _emolumenta_ altogether. Our gifts
ennoble the receiver, and are given in order to take away from him any
pretext for begging from others.'

[The Domestici were a very select corps of Life-guardsmen; probably
only a very small number of them would accompany a Provincial Governor
to his charge. This may explain what seems an extraordinarily high
rate of pay. Perhaps it is the Comes himself, not his Domestici, who
is to receive the emolumenta here specified; but, if so, the letter is
very obscurely expressed.]

14. KING ATHALARIC TO GILDIAS, VIE SPECTABILIS, COUNT OF SYRACUSE.

[Sidenote: Oppressive acts charged against Gildias, Comes of
Syracuse.]

'We hear great complaints of you from the Sicilians; but, as they are
willing to let bye-gones be bye-gones, we accede to their request, but
give you the following warning:

'(1) You are said to have extorted large sums from them on pretence of
rebuilding the walls, which you have not done. Either repay them the
money or build up their walls. It is too absurd, to promise
fortifications and give instead to the citizens hideous
desolation[595].

[Footnote 595: 'Nimis enim absurdum est, spondere munitiones et dare
civibus excecrabiles vastitates.']

'(2) You are said to be claiming for the Exchequer (under the name of
"Fiscus Caducus") the estates of deceased persons, without any sort of
regard for justice, whereas that title was only intended to apply to
the case of strangers dying without heirs, natural or testamentary.

'(3) You are said to be oppressing the suitors in the Courts with
grievous charges[596], so that you make litigation utterly ruinous to
those who undertake it.

[Footnote 596: 'Conventiones.' I think the complaint here is of the
expenses of 'executing process.' It is not as Judge but as the
functionary who carries the Judge's orders into effect that Gildias is
here blamed.]

'We order therefore that when _our_[597] decrees are being enforced
against a beaten litigant, the gratuity claimed by the officer shall
be the same which our glorious grandfather declared to be
payable--according to the respective ranks of the litigants--to the
Sajo who was charged with the enforcement of the decree; for
gratuities ought not to be excessive[598].

[Footnote 597: 'Nostra' (the reading of Nivellius) seems evidently a
better reading than 'vestra' (which Migne has adopted).]

[Footnote 598: 'Commodum debet esse _cum modo_.' A derivation o