und to
conduce to _civilitas_ should be held fast with enduring devotion.'

[Footnote 349: 'Privilegia debere servari quae Judaicis institutis
legum provida decrevit antiquitas.']

[Footnote 350: 'Quod nos libenter annuimus qui jura veterum ad nostram
cupimus reverentiam custodiri.']

34. KING THEODORIC TO DUDA THE SAJO.

[Sidenote: Buried treasure to be reclaimed for the State.]

'It is the part of true prudence to recall to the uses of commerce
"the talent hidden in the earth." We therefore direct you, by this
"moderata jussio," where you hear of buried treasures to proceed to
the spot with suitable witnesses and reclaim for the public Treasury
either gold or silver, abstaining, however, from actually laying hands
on the ashes of the dead[351]. The dead can do nothing with treasure,
and it is not greedy to take away what the holder of it can never
mourn the loss of.

[Footnote 351: How this was to be done is not quite clear, since it is
plain that this letter is really and chiefly an order for rifling
_sepulchres_ in search of buried treasure.]

'Eacus is said to have discovered the use of gold, and Indus, King of
the Scythians, that of silver. They are extremely useful metals.'

35. KING THEODORIC TO THE REPRESENTATIVES (ACTORES) OF ALBINUS.

[Sidenote: An extravagant minor. Restitutio in integrum.]

'It has been wisely decided by Antiquity that minors cannot make a
binding contract, for they are naturally the prey of every sharper.
You allege that your _patronus_ [Albinus] is under age, that he is
heaping up expenses instead of property, and that his raw boyhood does
not know what is really for his benefit. If this be correct, and be
legally proved, he is entitled to a _restitutio in integrum_' [a suit
commenced through these Actores for the quashing of the contracts
which have been fraudulently made with the minor].

[For the _restitutio in integrum_, see Cod. Theod. ii. 16. 1, and vi.
4. 16. Nothing seems to be expressly said in this letter about the
appointment of a _Curator_.]

36. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT. A.D. 509-510.

[Sidenote: Remission of taxes for Provincials of Cottian Alps.]

'A wise ruler will always lessen the weight of taxation when his
subjects are weighed down by temporary poverty. Therefore let your
Magnificence remit to the Provincials of the Cottian Alps the _as
publicum_ for this year [the third Indiction], in consideration of
their losses by the pa