[For the _restitutio in integrum_, see Cod. Theod. ii. 16. 1, and vi. 4. 16. Nothing seems to be expressly said in this letter about the appointment of a _Curator_.] 36. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT. A.D. 509-510. [Sidenote: Remission of taxes for Provincials of Cottian Alps.] 'A wise ruler will always lessen the weight of taxation when his subjects are weighed down by temporary poverty. Therefore let your Magnificence remit to the Provincials of the Cottian Alps the _as publicum_ for this year [the third Indiction], in consideration of their losses by the passage of our army. [The army of Ibbas, on its march in 408 to fight Clovis, after the fall of the Visigothic Monarchy.] True, that army went forth with shouts of concord to _liberate_ Gaul. But so a river bursting forth may irrigate and fertilise a whole country, and yet destroy the increase of that particular channel in which its waters run. 'We have earned new subjects by that campaign: we do not wish them to suffer loss by it. Our own heart whispers to us the request which the subjects dare not utter to their Prince.' 37. KING THEODORIC TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS WOMAN THEODAGUNDA. [Sidenote: Theodagunda is admonished to do justice to Renatus.] Warns Theodagunda [apparently a member of the royal family and governing some Province; but what place could she hold in the Roman official hierarchy?], that she must emulate the virtue of her ancestors and show prompt obedience to the royal commands. 'The lamentable petition of Renatus states that, after judgment given in his favour by the King's Court, he is still harassed by the litigation (not in the way of regular appeal) of Inquilina, who appears to be not so much desirous of victory as anxious to ruin his adversary.' [Notwithstanding the form of the name I think Inquilina is male, not female.] 'You must see that this is put right at once.' 38. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT. [Sidenote: Taxes must be reduced to the figure at which they stood in the days of Odoacer.] 'The inhabitants of Gravasi (?) and Ponto (?) complain that they have been overloaded with taxes by the Assessors (discussores) Probus and Januarius. They have bad land, and say that they really cannot cope with the taxes imposed upon them [at the last Indiction?]. The former practice is to be reverted to, and they are not to be called upon to pay more than they did in the days of Odoacer.' [An evidence that in one case at least the fiscal yoke of Odoacer was lighter than that of his successor.] 39. KING THEODORIC TO THEODAHAD, VIR ILLUSTRIS [AND NEPHEW OF THE KING]. [Sidenote: The encroachments of Theodahad repressed.] 'Avarice, which Holy Writ declares to be "the root of all evil," is a vulgar vice which you, our kinsman, a man of Amal blood, whose family is known to be royal, are especially bound to avoid[352]. [Footnote 352: 'Amali sanguinis virum nos decet vulgare desiderium: quia genus suum conspicit esse purpuratum.']