ters iii. 23 and 24.]

'A hungry army cannot be expected to preserve discipline, since the
armed man will always help himself to that which he requires. Let him
have the chance of buying, that he may not be forced to think what he
can plunder. Necessity loves not a law[338], nor is it right to
command the many to observe a moderation which even the few can barely
practise.'

[Footnote 338: 'Necessitas moderamen non diligit.']

14. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO GESILA.

[Sidenote: Evasion of land-tax by Goths in Picenum and Thuscia.]

'It is a great offence to put off the burden of one's own debts upon
other people. That man ought to pay the "tributum" for a property who
receives the income of it. But some of the Goths in Picenum and the
two Tuscanies[339] are evading the payment of their proper taxes[340].
This vicious practice must be suppressed at once, lest it spread by
imitation. If anyone in a spirit of clownish stubbornness shall still
refuse to obey our commands as expressed through you, affix the proper
notice to his houses and confiscate them, that he who would not pay a
small debt may suffer a great loss[341]. None ought to be more prompt
in their payments to the exchequer than those [the Goths] who are the
receivers of our donative. The sum thus given by our liberality is
much more than they could claim as soldiers' pay. In fact _we_ pay
them a voluntary tribute by the care which we have of their fortunes.'

[Footnote 339: 'Gothi per Picenum sive Thuscias utrasque residentes.'
What are the two Thusciae?]

[Footnote 340: 'Debitas functiones.']

[Footnote 341: 'Si quis ergo jussa nostra agresti spiritu resupinatus
abjecerit, casas ejus appositis titulis fisci nostri juribus
vindicabis; ut qui juste noluit parva solvere, rationabiliter videatur
maxima perdidisse.']

15. KING THEODORIC TO BENENATUS, SENATOR.

[Sidenote: New rowers to be selected. Their qualifications.]

'Being informed by the Illustrious and Magnificent Count of the
Patrimony that twenty-one of the _Dromonarii_ [rowers in the
express-boats] have been removed by the inconvenient incident of
death, we hereby charge you to select others to fill their places. But
they must be strong men, for the toil of rowing requires powerful arms
and stout hearts to battle with the stormy waves. For what is in fact
more daring than with one's little bark to enter upon that wide and
treacherous sea, which only despair enables a man successfully to
co