[732] 'Episcopus doceat, ne judex possit invenire quod puniat.'
[733] 'Agenti vices.' Bethmann Hollweg (Gerichtsverfassung des sinkenden römischen Reichs, pp. 49-50) remarks: 'The relation of the Vices Magistratuum agentes does not belong to the Jurisdictio mandata. They are lieutenants (Stellvertreter) who are substituted provisionally in the room of an ordinary official of the Empire or of a Province, on account of his being temporarily disqualified or suspended from office by the Emperor or Praetorian Praefect. The municipal magistrates were also represented by vices agentes. But the extant authorities give us no very clear information as to their position.' Unfortunately this letter, relating to a vices agens of the Praetorian Praefect himself, does not add much to our information.
[734] I suggest this with hesitation as the translation of a difficult sentence: 'Si quos etiam fidejussoribus committere necessarium aestimaveris, confidenter assume: quia illud magis relevare potest animum nostrum, si aliquid per vos cognoscimus impletum.' Cassiodorus seems to be urging his deputy not to shrink from the exercise of even the most stringent rights inherent in his office, in order that causes may be terminated without reference to him. But is there authority for such a translation of the words 'fidejussoribus committere?'
[735] 'Curiositas.'
[736] Athalaric and Amalasuentha.
[737] In the last sentence but one, 'Fidem meam promitto: sed cum ipsis Divinitatis dona sustineo, cautelam offero,' I would suggest ipsius for 'ipsis,' making cum = 'when,' not 'with.' There does not seem to be any antecedent plural to which 'ipsis' can refer.
[738] 'Transgressio matriculae actio tua est.'
[739] September 1, 533.
[740] 'Hoc igitur laudabili praejudicium a duodecima Indictione cancellorum tibi decus attribuit.'
[741] 'Respice quo nomine nuncuperis. Latere non potest quod inter cancellos egeris. Tenes quippe lucidas fores, claustra patentia, fenestratas januas; et quamvis studiose claudas, necesse est ut te cunctis aperias.'