ckets they look like the patients who seek their
aid; yet their milk is so thick that it sticks to the milker's
fingers.

'Do you therefore supply the invalid when he arrives, with the
appointed rations and pecuniary allowance, that he may be suitably
maintained in that place while he is recreating his exhausted energies
with the food of infancy.

'And, oh! all ye who are suffering under the like grievous malady,
lift up your hearts. There is hope for you. By no bitter antidote, but
by a delicious draught, you shall imbibe life--life, in itself the
sweetest of all things.'

11. EDICT CONCERNING PRICES TO BE MAINTAINED AT RAVENNA.

[Sidenote: Prices at Ravenna.]

'The price at which provisions are sold ought to follow, in a
reasonable way, the circumstances of the times, that there may be
neither cheapness in a dear season, nor dearness in a cheap one, and
that the grumblings of both buyers and sellers may be avoided, by
fairness being observed towards both.

'Therefore, after careful consideration, we have fixed in the
subjoined schedule the prices of the various articles of produce,
which prices are to remain free from all ambiguity.

'If any vendor does not observe the prices named in the present edict,
he will be liable to a fine of six solidi (L3 12s.) for each violation
of the law, and may be visited by corporal punishment[759].'

[Footnote 759: 'Per singulos excessus sex solidorum mulctam a se
noverit exigendam et fustuario posse subjacere supplicio.']

[The schedule mentioned in this letter is unfortunately not preserved.
Few documents that Cassiodorus could have handed down to posterity
would have been more valuable. If we could have compared it with the
celebrated Edict of Stratonicea (cir. A.D. 301), we should have seen
what changes had been wrought in the value of the precious metals and
the distribution of wealth during the two centuries of disturbance and
barbaric invasion which had elapsed since the reign of Diocletian.
But, unfortunately, Cassiodorus believed that his rhetoric and his
natural history would be more interesting to us than these vulgar
facts.]

12. EDICT CONCERNING PRICES ALONG THE FLAMINIAN WAY.

[Sidenote: Prices per Viam Flaminiam.]

'If prices need to be fixed for the leisurely inhabitant of a town,
much more for the traveller, whose journey may otherwise become a
burden instead of a pleasure. Let strangers therefore find that they
are entertained by you at fixed pric