udabili praejudicium a duodecima
Indictione cancellorum tibi decus attribuit.']

'Guard then the secrets of our Consistory with incorruptible fidelity.
Through your intervention the petitioner for justice has to approach
me. On your acts depends in great measure the opinion which men shall
form of me; for as a house is judged by its front towards the street,
and men by the trimness or shabbiness of their raiment, so are we high
officials judged by the demeanour of our subordinates who represent us
to the crowd. Therefore, if such officials do anything which redounds
to their master's dishonour, they put themselves altogether outside
the pale of his clemency.

'Remember your title, _Cancellarius_. Ensconced behind the
lattice-work (cancelli) of your compartment, keeping guard behind
those windowed doors, however studiously you may conceal yourself, it
is inevitable that you be the observed of all observers[741]. If you
step forth, _my_ glances range all over you: if you return to your
shelter, the eyes of the litigants are upon you. This is where
Antiquity ruled that you should be placed, in order that your actions
should be visible to all.

[Footnote 741: 'Respice quo nomine nuncuperis. Latere non potest quod
inter cancellos egeris. Tenes quippe lucidas fores, claustra patentia,
fenestratas januas; et quamvis studiose claudas, necesse est ut te
cunctis aperias.']

'Attend now to this advice which I have given you, and let it not
merely filter through your mind, like water through a pipe, but let it
sink down into your heart, and, safely stored up there, let it
influence the actions of your life.'

7. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.

[Sidenote: Duties of the Collectors of Taxes.]

'It is an excellent thing that the yearly taxes should be regularly
paid. What confidence does the consciousness of this give to the
taxpayer, who can march boldly through the Forum, feeling that he owes
nothing to anybody and need not fear the face of any official! One can
only enjoy an estate if one has no fear of the process-server making
his appearance upon it.

'Therefore, in the Diocese of your Excellency[742], we desire you and
your staff at the beginning of this twelfth Indiction[743], with all
proper gentleness, to impress upon the cultivator of the soil that he
must pay his land-tax[744] and end those long arrears, which were
introduced not for the assistance of the taxpayer, but for the c