public accounts.

[Footnote 854: 'Expensarum quoque fidelem notitiam per quaternos
menses ad scrinia nostra solemniter destinabis.']

'That you may, with God's help, be the better able to fulfil our
instructions, I have ordered A and B, servants of our tribunal, who
are mindful of their own past responsibilities, to assist you and your
staff[855]. Beware therefore, lest you incur the blame of corruptly
discharging the taxpayer, or of sluggish idleness in the discharge of
your duties, in which case your own fortunes will suffer from your
neglect.'

[Footnote 855: 'Illum atque illum sedis nostrae milites, tibi
officioque tuo periculorum suorum memores praecipimus imminere.']

17. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOHN, SILIQUATARIUS[856] OF
RAVENNA.

[Footnote 856: Collector of the Siliquaticum, or tax of one
twenty-fourth on sales. See ii. 30, iii. 35, iv. 19.]

[Sidenote: Defence of Ravenna.]

'In times of peace, by contact with foreigners who swarm in our
cities, we learn what will be our best defence in war. Who can tell
with what nation we may be next at war? Therefore, to be on the safe
side, make such preparations as our future enemies, whosoever they may
be, will dislike to hear of. Accordingly you are to order the peasants
to dig a series of pits with wide mouths near the mountains of
Caprarius and the parts round about the walls[857]; and let such a
chasm yawn there that there shall be no possibility of entrance that
way.

[Footnote 857: No doubt the walls of Ravenna. I cannot identify the
Mons Caprarius. The name Caprera is a common one in Italy.]

'If strangers want to enter the city, why do they not enter it in the
right way--by the gates--instead of going skulking about these
bye-paths? Henceforth, anyone trying to take any such short cut to our
city will probably find that he loses his life in consequence[858].'

[Footnote 858: One may conjecture that this letter was written in 535,
when war with the Empire was imminent, but before it was actually
declared.]

18. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO CONSTANTIAN, VIR
EXPERIENTISSIMUS.

[Sidenote: Repair of Flaminian Way.]

'Great is the reward of those who serve Kings efficiently; as severe
is the punishment of those who neglect their duties towards them.

'How delightful is it to journey without obstacles over a well-made
road[859], to pass doubtful places without fear, to ascend mountainous
steeps by a gentle incline, to have no fear of