he Scribe is more diligent
in other men's business than they are in their own. His
muniment-chest is the refuge of all the oppressed, and the repository
of the fortunes of all men[867].

[Footnote 867: 'Armarium ipsius fortuna cunctorum est.']

'In testimony of your past integrity, and in the hope that no change
will mar this fair picture, we appoint you to this honourable office.
Remember that ancient Truth is committed to your keeping, and that it
often really rests with you, rather than with the Judge, to decide the
disputes of litigants. When your indisputable testimony is given, and
when the ancient voice of charters proceeds from your _sanctum_,
Advocates receive it with reverence, and suitors, even
evil-intentioned men, are constrained into obedience.

'Banish, therefore, all thoughts of venality from your mind. The worst
moth that gets into papers and destroys them is the gold of the
dishonest litigant, who bribes the Scribes to make away with evidence
which he knows to be hostile. Thus, then, be ready always to produce
to suitors genuine old documents; and, on the other hand, transcribe
only, do not compose ancient proceedings[868]. Let the copy correspond
to the original as the wax to the signet-ring, that as the face is the
index of the emotions[869] so your handwriting may not err from the
authentic original in anything.

[Footnote 868: 'Translator esto, non conditor antiquorum gestorum.']

[Footnote 869: Compare Cassiodorus' treatise De Anima, chapters x. and
xi., in which he enumerates the various points in which the faces of
good men and bad men differ from one another.]

'If a claimant succeed in enticing you even once from the paths of
honesty, vainly will you in any subsequent case seek to obtain his
credence for any document that you may produce; for he will always
believe that the trick which has been played once may be played again.
Keep to the line of justice, and even his angry exclamations at the
impossibility of inducing you to deviate therefrom, will be your
highest testimonial. Your whole career is public, and the favour or
disgrace which awaits you must be public also.'

22. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE PROVINCIALS OF ISTRIA.

[This letter was written Sept. 1, 537, probably in consequence of the
scarcity which the operations of Belisarius were already causing at
Ravenna. Apparently the whole taxes levied from a Province at an
Indiction were divided into two heads: so much f