milar good advice to that contained in the previous letter to
the Senate.

'The Circus, in which the King spends so much money, is meant to be
for public delight, not for stirring up wrath. Instead of uttering
howls and insults like other nations [the populace of Byzantium?],
whom they have despised for doing so, let them tune their voices, so
that their applause shall sound like the notes of some vast organ,
and even the brute creation delight to hear it.

'Anyone uttering outrageous reproaches against any Senator will be
dealt with by the Praefectus Urbis.'

32. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.

[Sidenote: On the same subject.]

'The ruler of the city ought to keep the peace, and justify my choice
of him. Your highest praise is a quiet people.

'We have issued our "oracles" to the "amplissimus ordo" (Senate) and
to the people, that the custom of insulting persons in the Circus is
to be put under some restraint; on the other hand, any Senator who
shall be provoked to kill a free-born person shall pay a fine. The
games are meant to make people happy, not to stir them up to deadly
rage. Helladius[238] is to come forth into the midst and afford the
people pleasure [as a pantomimist], and he is to receive his monthly
allowance (menstruum) with the other actors of the Green Faction. His
partisans are to be allowed to sit where they please.'

[Footnote 238: See Letter i. 20.]

[Was there not some division in the Green Faction itself concerning
the merits of Helladius and his rival Theodorus?]

33. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.

[Sidenote: Arrangements for the Pantomime.]

'Our Serenity is not going to change the arrangements which we have
once made for the public good. We told Albinus and Albienus[239] to
choose the most fitting person they could find as Pantomimist of the
Greens. They have done so [choosing probably Helladius]. He shall have
his monthly allowance, and let there be peace.'

[Footnote 239: Ibid.]

34. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.

[Sidenote: Only the surplus of corn to be exported.]

'It should be only the surplus of the crops of any Province, beyond
what is needed for the supply of its own wants, that should be
exported. Station persons in the harbours to see that foreign ships do
not take away produce to foreign shores until the Public
Providers[240] have got all that they require.'

[Footnote 240: 'Expensae publ