[Footnote 406: 'Sed quid, Judaeo, supplicans temporalem quietem quaeris si aeternam requiem invenire non possis.'] 38. KING THEODORIC TO ALL CULTIVATORS[407]. [Footnote 407: 'Universis Possessoribus.'] [Sidenote: Shrubs obstructing the aqueduct of Ravenna to be rooted up.] 'The aqueducts are an object of our special care. We desire you at once to root up the shrubs growing in the Signine Channel[408], which will before long become big trees scarcely to be hewn down with the axe, and which interfere with the purity of the water in the aqueduct of Ravenna. Vegetation is the peaceable overturner of buildings, the battering-ram which brings them to the ground, though the trumpets never sound for siege. [Footnote 408: Where was this? Signia in Latium is, of course, not to be thought of.] 'We shall now again have baths that we may look upon with pleasure; water which will cleanse, not stain; water after using which we shall not require to wash ourselves again; drinking-water such that the mere sight of it will not take away all our appetite for food[409].' [Footnote 409: The scarcity of water at Ravenna was proverbial.] 39. KING THEODORIC TO AMPELIUS AND LIVERIA[410]. [Footnote 410: Cf. the somewhat similar letter to Severinus, Special Commissioner for Suavia (v. 14).] [Sidenote: Sundry abuses in the administration of the Spanish government to be rectified.] 'That alone is the true life of men which is controlled by the reign of law. 'We regret to hear that through the capricious extortions of our revenue-officers anarchy is practically prevailing in Spain. The public registers (polyptycha), not the whim of the collector, ought to measure the liability of the Provincial. 'We therefore send your Sublimity to Spain in order to remedy these disorders. '(1) Murder must be put down with a strong hand; but the sharper the punishment is made the more rigid we ought to be in requiring proof of the crime[411]. [Footnote 411: 'Homicidii scelus legum jubemus auctoritate resecari: sed quantum vehementior poena est tanto ejus rei debet inquisitio plus haberi: ne amore vindictae innocentes videantur vitae pericula sustinere.'] '(2) The collectors of the land-tax (assis publicus) are accused of using false weights [in collecting the quotas of produce from the Provincials]. This must cease, and they must use none but the standard weights kept by our Chamberlain[412]. [Footnote 412: 'Libra cubiculi nostri.'] '(3) The farmers[413] of our Royal domain must pay the rent imposed on them, otherwise they will get to look on the farms as their own property; but certain salaries may be paid them for their trouble, as you shall think fit[414]. [Dahn suggests that the salary was to reimburse them for their labours as a kind of local police, but is not himself satisfied with this explanation.] [Footnote 413: 'Conductores domus Regiae.']