ose who are sent on public errands follow so good an
example? Every transport master[362] who violates this rule by loading
a horse with more than 100 lbs. shall pay 50 solidi (L30).

[Footnote 362: 'Catabulensis.' See iii. 10.]

'All fines levied under this edict are to go to the benefit of the
postal-servants[363], and thus the evil will, as we so often see in
human affairs, furnish its own remedy.'

[Footnote 363: 'Mancipes mutationum.' The 'mutationes' were the places
for changing horses; there are generally two of them between each
'mansio' (hostelry). Probably the horses were found by the 'Mancipes
mutationum.' It was therefore a sort of _corvee_.]

48. KING THEODORIC TO EUSEBIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS.

[Sidenote: Honourable retirement of Eusebius.]

'After the worries of the noisy City, and the heavy burden of your
official duties, your Greatness is longing to taste the sweetness of
country life. When therefore you have finished your present duties, we
grant you by our authority a holiday of eight months in the charming
recesses of Lucania [near Cassiodorus' own country], to be reckoned
from the time when by Divine [royal?] favour you depart from the City.
When those months are at an end, return with speed, much missed as you
will be, to your Roman habitation, to the assembly of the nobles, and
to social intercourse of a kind that is worthy of your character.'

49. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS AND THE LONG-HAIRED
MEN[364], THE DEFENSORES AND THE CURIALES RESIDING IN SUAVIA[365].

[Footnote 364: _Capillatis._ The only passage which throws a light on
this name--and that is a doubtful one--is Jordanes, De Rebus Geticis
xi. After describing the _pileati_, the tiara-wearing priests of the
Getae, he says: 'Reliquam vero gentem capillatos dicere jussit
[Diceneus] quod nomen Gothi pro magno suscipientes adhuc hodie suis
cantionibus reminiscuntur.']

[Footnote 365: _Suavia_ is nearly equivalent to the modern Sclavonia,
between the rivers Drave and Save.]

[Sidenote: Fridibad to be Governor of Suavia, and to punish
freebooters.]

'The King's orders must be vigorously executed, that terror may be
struck into the hearts of the lawless, and that those who have
suffered violence may begin to hope for better days. Often the threat
of punishment does more to quiet a country than punishment itself.
Therefore, under Divine guidance, we have appointed Fridibad to be
your Governor.

'He will punish cattle-lifter