'We therefore confer upon you for this Indiction the dignity of Praefect of the City. The eyes of the world are upon you. The Senate, that illustrious and critical body, the youngest members of which are called _Patres_, will listen to your words. See that you say nothing which can displease those wise men, whose praise, though hard to win, will be most sweet to your ears. Diligently help the oppressed. Hand on to your posterity the renown which you have received from your ancestors.' 8. KING ATHALARIC TO COUNT OSUIN (OR OSUM), VIR ILLUSTRIS[588]. [Footnote 588: Cf. iii. 26 and iv. 9. In the former letter he is called Osun.] [Sidenote: Osuin made Governor of Dalmatia and Savia.] 'We reward our faithful servants with high honours, hoping thereby to quicken the slothful into emulation, when they ask themselves why, under such an impartial rule, they too do not receive promotion. 'We therefore again entrust to your Illustrious Greatness the Provinces of Dalmatia and S(u)avia. We need not hold up to you the examples of others. You have only to imitate yourself, and to confer now again in your old age the same blessings on those Provinces which, as a younger man, you bestowed on them under our grandfather.' 9. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS (IN DALMATIA AND SAVIA). [Sidenote: The same subject.] 'We send back to you the Illustrious Count Osuin, whose valour and justice you already know, to ward off from you the fear of foreign nations, and to keep you from unjust demands. With him comes the Illustrious Severinus[589], that with one heart and one mind, like the various reeds of an organ, they may utter their praiseworthy precepts. [Footnote 589: We are not told in what capacity Severinus came. Probably it was on account of Osuin's age that Severinus was associated with him.] [Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum.] 'As an act of grace on the commencement of our reign, we direct the Count of the Patrimony to remit to you all the super-assessment (augmentum) which was fixed for your Province at the fourth Indiction[590]. [Footnote 590: 'Per quartam Indictionem quod a nobis augmenti nomine quaerebatur illustrem virum Comitem Patrimonii nostri nunc jussimus removere.' As the fourth Indiction began Sept. 525, in the lifetime of Theodoric, it is clear that that date belongs to the imposition, not to the removal of the 'augmentum.'] 'We also grant that when the aforesaid person [Severinus] returns to our presence, you may send suitable men with him to inform us of your financial position, that we may, by readjustment of the taxes, lighten your load if it be still too heavy. Nothing consolidates the Republic so much as the uninjured powers of the taxpayer.' 10. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS OF THE CITY OF SYRACUSE. [Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum to Syracusans.]