et this be done at once to those who are chargeable
on the accounts of the thirteenth Indiction (Sept. 1, 534--Sept. 1,
535). Let there be no venal delays. Behave to the out-going public
servant as you would wish that others should behave to you on your
retirement from office. All men should honour the veteran, but
especially they who are still toiling in the public service.'

[Footnote 780: It is not clear to whom the letter is addressed.]

[Footnote 781: 'Ex illatione tertia.']

[Footnote 782: The marginal note says: 'i.e. Agentium in Rebus.']

36. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANAT(H)OLIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE
PROVINCE OF SAMNIUM.

[Sidenote: The retirement of a Cornicularius on a superannuation
allowance justified on astronomical grounds.]

'As all things else come to an end, so it is right that the laborious
life of a civil servant should have its appointed term.

'The heavenly bodies have their prescribed time in which to complete
their journeyings. Saturn in thirty years wanders over his appointed
portion of space. Jupiter in twelve years finishes the survey of his
kingdom. Mars, with fiery rapidity, completes his course in eighteen
months. The Sun in one year goes through all the signs of the Zodiac.
Venus accomplishes her circuit in fifteen months; the rapid Mercury in
thirteen months. The Moon, peculiar in her nearer neighbourhood,
traverses in thirty days the space which it takes the Sun a year to
journey over[783].

[Footnote 783: As might be expected from an observer who did not
understand the earth's motion in its orbit, the periods assigned to
the _inferior_ planets in this paragraph are all wrong, while those
assigned to the _superior_ planets are pretty nearly right.

_Periods according to Cassiodorus_. _True Periods_.

Saturn 30 years 29 years 174 days.
Jupiter 12 " 11 " 317 "
Mars 1 year 182 days 1 year 321 "
Venus 1 " 91 " 224 "
Mercury 1 " 30 " 88 "]

'All these bodies, which, as philosophers say, shall only perish with
the world, have an appointed end to their journeyings. But they
complete their course that they may begin it again: the human race
serves that it may rest from its ended labours. Therefore, since the
Cornicularius in my Court has completed his term of office, you are to
pay him without any deduction this 1st Septemb