[10.] Senator, Praetorian Praefect, to divers Cancellarii in the Provinces.
Taxes to be punctually enforced.
'Arrears of tribute are like bodily diseases, serious and enfeebling when they become chronic. A man who is under a load of debt cannot be called free: he has abandoned the power of controlling his actions to another. Your supposed indulgence to the taxpayer is no real kindness. There comes a time when the whole arrear of debt has to be claimed, and then these venal delays of yours make the demand seem twice as heavy in the eyes of the unfortunate taxpayer. Cease then to trade upon the peasants' losses. Exact the whole amount of taxes for the coming Indiction, and pay them in on the appointed day to the Treasurer[827] of the Province; or else it will be the worse for you, and you will have to return, stripped of all official rank[828], into the Province which you are conscious of having badly administered.
'I shall not speak again on this subject, but shall, if necessary, extract the sums from you by an irrevocable act of distraint.'
[11.] Senator, Praetorian Praefect, to Peter, Vir Clarissimus, Distributor of Relishes[829].
Distribution of relishes to Roman citizens.
'The liberality of a good Sovereign must not be discredited by fraud and carelessness in the person charged with its distribution. Even molten gold contracts a stain if not poured into an absolutely clean vessel. How sweet is it to see a stream flowing clear and unpolluted over a snow-white channel! Even so must you see that the gifts of the Sovereign of the State reach the Roman people as pure and as copious as they issue forth from him.
'All fraud is hateful; but fraud exercised upon the people of Romulus is absolutely unbearable. That quiet and easily satisfied people, whose existence you might forget except when they testify their happiness by their shouts; noisy without a thought of sedition; whose only care is to shun poverty without amassing wealth; lowly in fortune but rich in temper—it is a kind of profanation to rob such people as these.
'We therefore entrust to you the task of distributing the relishes[830] to the Roman people from this Indiction. Be true to the citizens, else you will become as an alien unto us. Do not be bribed into allowing anyone to pass as a Latin who was not born in Latium.
'These privileges belong to the Quirites alone: no slave must be admitted to share them. That man sins against the majesty of the Roman people, who defiles the pure river of their blood by thrusting upon them the fellowship of slaves.'