CE.

[Sidenote: Probatoria Cartariorum.]

'At the suggestion of the Tribune of the Cartarii--to whom the whole
office pays fitting reverence--we bestow upon you the title of a
Cartarius. Flee avarice and avoid all unjust gains.'

[This letter gives no information as to the duties of a Cartarius, or,
as he is called in the Codes, Cartularius.]

44. FORMULA FOR THE GRANT OF PUBLIC PROPERTY ON CONDITION OF
IMPROVEMENT[496].

[Footnote 496: Formula de Competitoribus is the somewhat obscure title
of this document, which might perhaps be compared to our Commons'
Enclosure Acts.]

[Sidenote: De Competitoribus.]

'He who seeks to become owner of public property can only justify his
claim by making the squalid beautiful, and by adorning the waste.
Therefore, as you desire it, we confer upon you as your full property
such and such a place, reserving all mineral rights--brass, lead,
marbles--should any such be found therein; but we do this on the
understanding that you will restore to beauty that which has become
shabby by age and neglect. It is the part of a good citizen to adorn
the face of his city, and you may securely transmit to your posterity
that which your own labour has accomplished[497].'

[Footnote 497: 'Securus etiam ad posteros transmissurus, quod proprio
fuerit labore compositum.']

45. FORMULA OF REMISSION OF TAXES WHERE THE TAXPAYER HAS ONLY ONE
HOUSE, TOO HEAVILY ASSESSED.

[Sidenote: Formula qua census relevetur ei qui unam casam possidet
praegravatam.]

'You complain that the land-tax (tributum) levied upon your holding
(possessio) in such a Province is so heavy that all your means are
swallowed up in the swamp of indebtedness, and that more is claimed by
the tax-collectors than can be obtained from the soil by the
husbandman. You might, by surrendering the property altogether, escape
from this miserable necessity which is making you a slave rather than,
a landowner; but since the Imperial laws (sacratissimae leges) give us
the power to relieve a man of moderate fortune in such circumstances,
our Greatness, which always hath the cause of justice at heart,
decrees by these presents that if the case be as you say, the
liability for the payment of so many solidi on behalf of the aforesaid
property shall be cancelled in the public archives, and that this
shall be done so thoroughly that there shall be no trace of it left in
any copy of the taxing-rolls by which the charge may be revived at a
fut