let him throw up his
share of the concession and allow his partner to work it out.'

[Footnote 258: 'Cum jam in soli faciem paulatim mollities siccata
duresceret, celatamque longa voracitate tellurem sol insuetus
afflaret.' I cannot understand these words. I suppose there was a hard
cake of clay left when the water was drained off, which was baked by
the sun, and that there should have been further digging to work
through this stratum and get at the good soil beneath; but the wording
is not very clear.]

[We find in this letter a good motto for Theodoric's reign: 'Nos
quibus cordi est in melius cuncta mutare.']

22. KING THEODORIC TO FESTUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Ecdicius to be buried by his sons.]

'The sons of Ecdicius, whom at first we had ordered to reside in the
city, are to be allowed to return to their own country in order to
bury their father. That grief is insatiable which feels that it has
been debarred from rendering the last offices to the dead. Think at
what risk of his life Priam implored the raging Achilles to give him
back the body of his son.'

[Apparently the sons of Ecdicius, not Ecdicius himself, had fallen
into disgrace with Theodoric, or incurred some suspicion of
disloyalty, which led to the rigorous order for their detention in
Rome. See Dahn iii. 279-280.]

23. KING THEODORIC TO AMPELIUS, DESPOTIUS, AND THEODULUS, SENATORS.

[Sidenote: Protection for owners of potteries.]

'It befits the discipline of our time that those who are serving the
public interests shall not be loaded with superfluous burdens. Labour
therefore diligently at the potteries (figulinae) which our Royal
authority has conceded to you. Protection is hereby promised against
the wiles of wicked men.' [What was the nature of the artifices to
which they were exposed is not very clear.]

24. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Arrears of taxation due from Senators.]

'We hear with sorrow, by the report of the Provincial Judges, that you
the Fathers of the State, who ought to set an example to your sons
(the ordinary citizens), have been so remiss in the payment of taxes
that on this first collection[259] nothing, or next to nothing, has
been brought in from any Senatorial house. Thus a crushing weight has
fallen on the lower orders (_tenues_, _curiales_), who have had to
make good your deficiencies and have been distraught by the violence
of the tax-gatherers.

[F