[32.] King Theodoric to the Senate of the City of Rome.
Drainage of marshes of Decennonium.
'We always enjoy rewarding public spirit. Decius, Magnificus and Patrician, has most nobly volunteered to drain the marsh of Decennonium, where the sea-like swamp, accustomed to impunity through long licence, rushes in and spoils all the surrounding lands.
'We, in consideration of so great an undertaking, determine to secure to him the fruits of his labour, and we therefore wish that you, Conscript Fathers, should appoint a commission of two to visit the spot and mark out the ground, which is at present wasted by the inundations, that this land may be secured to Decius as a permanent possession when he has drained it.'
[The Palus Decennonii is undoubtedly connected with the Decennovial Canal mentioned by Procopius ('De Bello Gotth.' i. 11), and so called because it flowed for nineteen miles alongside the Appian Way. In the Piazza at Terracina there is a very interesting inscription, recording the fact that Theodoric had ordered that nineteen miles of the Appian Way should be cleared of the waters which had accumulated round it, and had committed the work to Caecina Maurus Basilius Decius, 'Vir Clarissimus et Illustris, Ex-Praefectus Urbi, Ex-Praefectus Praetori, Ex-Consul Ordinarius et Patricius.' See 'Italy and her Invaders' iii. 348.]
[33.] King Theodoric to Decius, Illustris and Patrician.
The same subject.
The complement of the foregoing letter, about the drainage of the marshes of Decennonium, which are hereby granted to him, apparently 'sine fisco,' tax-free.
[But the meaning may be, 'the marshes which you drain sine fisco'—without help from the Treasury.]
The chief point of difference between this and the previous letter is that here Decius is allowed and encouraged to associate partners with him in the drainage-scheme, whom he is to reward according to their share of the work. Thus will he be less likely to sink under the enterprise, and he will also lessen men's envy of his success.