'Any calamity which comes upon a man from causes beyond his control ought not to be imputed to him as a fault. The pathetic petition of the Superintendents of Grain[335] informs us that the cargoes which they destined for Gaul have perished at sea. [Footnote 335: 'Prosecutores frumentorum.' It would seem that these are not merchants supplying the famine-stricken Provinces of Gaul as a private speculation (according to iv. 5), but public officers who have had certain cargoes of corn entrusted to them from the State magazines, and who, but for this letter, would be bound to make good the loss suffered under their management.] 'The framework of the timbers of the ships gaped under the violence of the winds and waves, and from all that overabundance of water nothing remains to them but their tears. 'Let your Sublimity therefore promptly refund to them the proportion (modiatio) which each of them can prove that he has thus lost. It would be cruel to punish them for having merely suffered shipwreck.' 8. KING THEODORIC TO THE HONOURED POSSESSORES AND CURIALES OF FORUM LIVII (FORLI). [Sidenote: Transport of timber ordered for Alsuanum.] 'You must not think anything which we order hard; for our commands are reasonable, and we know what you ought to do. Your Devotion is therefore to cut timber and transport it to Alsuanum[336], where you will be paid the proper price for it.' [Footnote 336: Where is this?] 9. KING THEODORIC TO OSUIN, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND COMES. [Sidenote: Tuitio regii nominis.] [This letter is quoted by Dahn ('Koenige der Germanen' iii. 117) as an illustration of '_tuitio regii nominis_.'] 'Maurentius and Paula, who are left orphans, inform us that their youth and helplessness expose them to the attacks of many unscrupulous persons. 'Let your Sublimity therefore cause it to be known that any suits against them must be prosecuted in our Comitatus, the place of succour for the distressed and of sharp punishment for tricksters.' 10. KING THEODORIC TO JOANNES, SENATOR AND CONSULARIS OF CAMPANIA. [Sidenote: The lawless custom of Pignoratio is to be repressed.] [A custom had apparently grown up during the lawless years of the Fifth Century, of litigants helping themselves, during the slow progress of the suit, to a 'material guarantee' from the fields of their opponents. This custom, unknown apparently at the time of the Theodosian Code, was called 'Pignoratio,' and was especially rife in the Provinces of Campania and Samnium.]