e mind, and restores it to the reader whenever he chooses to
consult it; paper which is the faithful witness of all human actions,
eloquent of the past, a sworn foe to oblivion.

'Therefore for this thirteenth Indiction[793] pay so many solidi from
the land-tax of the Tuscan Province to our Bureau, that it may be able
to keep in perpetuity a faithful record of all its transactions.'

[Footnote 793: Sept. 1, 534. The reading 'de tertiae decimae
Indictionis rationibus' seems required by the sense, instead of
'tertiam de decimae Indictionis rationibus.' It is quite clear that
Cassiodorus was not Praetorian Praefect at the tenth Indiction.]

39. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS VITALIAN,
CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Payment by Province of Bruttii of commuted cattle-tax.]

'The vast numbers of the Roman people in old time are evidenced by the
extensive Provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as
by the wide circuit of their walls, the massive structure of their
amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the
enormous multitude of mills, which could only have been made for use,
not for ornament.

'It was to feed this population, that mountainous Lucania paid her
tribute of swine, that fertile Bruttii furnished her droves of oxen.
It was a glorious privilege for them thus to feed the Roman people:
yet the length of roads over which the animals had to be driven made
the tribute unnecessarily burdensome, since every mile reduced their
weight, and the herdsman could not possibly obtain credit at the
journey's end for the same number of pounds of flesh which he
possessed at its beginning. For this reason the tribute was commuted
into a money payment, one which no journeyings can diminish and no
toil can wound. The Provinces should understand and respond to this
favourable change, and not show themselves more slack than their
ancestors were, under far more burdensome conditions. Your Diligence
has now collected both these taxes[794] at the appointed periods; and
I am glad of it, that my countrymen, who have served alien
magistrates with praiseworthy diligence, might not seem negligent
under my rule. These Provinces, which I, my grandfather, and my
great-grandfather have benefited as private persons, I have
endeavoured to help yet more earnestly while I bore the majesty of the
_fasces_, that they who have rejoiced in my exaltation might see that
I stil