it out of it.'

[Footnote 251: 'Foemina spectabilis.']

[Footnote 252: 'Retentatores.' So the Gepid Prince is called the
Retentator of Sirmium (Ennodius, Panegyric. Theod. 178. Ed. Migne).]

11. KING THEODORIC TO PROVINUS (PROBINUS?), ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Gift obtained from Agapita under undue influence.]

[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a
woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The petition
of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced
by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good
reason quitted her own home. Her own petition confirms this; and she
states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church,
she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a
most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose
reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one
who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now
seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession
which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has
brought the poor woman to destitution. Alienation of property should
be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor
creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband
causelessly.

'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in
complying.'

[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores'
referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly
identify him with them.]

12. KING THEODORIC TO THE COUNT OF THE SILIQUATARII (CUSTOMS
OFFICERS), AND TO HIM WHO HAS THE CARE OF THE HARBOUR (OF PORTUS?).

[Sidenote: Prohibition of export of lard.]

'Italy ought to enjoy her own products, and it is monstrous that
anything which she produces should be wanting to her own children.

'Therefore let no lard be exported to foreign parts, but let it by
God's grace be all kept for consumption at home.

'Now take care not to incur the slightest blame in this matter. It is
a very serious fault even in trifles to disobey orders. Sin consists
in quality, not in quantity; and injustice cannot be measured. A
command, if it be despised in one part, is violated in the whole.'

13. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO[253] FRUINARITH.

[Footnote 253: The Sajo was an officer, not of very high rank,
apparently always