vennatem.']

[Footnote 690: 'Ripam Ticinensem vel Placentinam.']

[Footnote 691: Here follows, 'Ut hi quibus commissum est exercere
singulos apparatus de injusto gravamine non querantur,' which I do not
venture to translate, as I am not sure whether it relates to buyers or
sellers.]

'As human ambition requires to be checked by fear of punishment,
anyone who by petitioning or canvassing seeks to obtain the place of
one of these lawfully appointed purveyors shall be visited with a fine
of 30 lbs. of gold[692], to be exacted from him by you. If unable to
pay this fine he shall suffer corporal punishment and be noted as
infamous. Nothing can be considered safe or stable if men are to be
perpetually exposed to the snares of envious competitors like these.
Your Greatness is to bring this law to the knowledge of all men.'

[Footnote 692: L1,200.]

[It is clear that this letter refers to an office greatly coveted, and
one in which there was a possibility of making great gains, but also
one in which, owing to the regulation of prices by the government,
there might be temporary losses; to guard against which it was
considered reasonable that the holder should be guaranteed in his
office for five years.

The office is the supply of the staple articles of food to the King's
household at Rome and Ravenna, and to the garrisons probably of Pavia
and Piacenza and the neighbouring country. Did this right carry with
it an absolute monopoly as far as the other inhabitants of those
places are concerned? This seems probable; but I do not know that we
can positively state it.

The term used, 'Arcarii,' is applied in the Theodosian Code (xii. 6,
14) to the bailiffs by whom the rents on the Imperial domain were
collected. Here it has manifestly altered its meaning.]

29. KING THEODAHAD TO COUNT WINUSIAD.

[Sidenote: An old soldier receives furlough for a visit to the baths
of Bormio.]

'Your noble birth and tried fidelity induced us to commit to you the
government of the City of Ticinum, which you had defended in war: but
now, being deluged with a sudden inundation of muddy gout[693], you
ask leave to resort to the waters of Bormio, which by their drying
influences are of healing power for this malady.

[Footnote 693: 'Limosae podagrae subita inundatione complutus.']

'We permit, nay earnestly encourage, you to undertake this journey;
for we cannot bear that one of our warriors should fall a victim to
the tyranny of this cru