Addenda

^A particularis singulorum administratio, which was changed at different times and in different ways, according to the whims of those who presided over the courts, brought great destruction to affairs and caused total confusion. We, therefore, turning our thoughts both forward and backward regarding what is advantageous, dispelling those confused and varied practices, and ordering the administration of all things with a certain rhythm and reason, decree the following: if there be heirs to those enrolled soldiers who are descendants, or ancestors, or collateral relatives up to the sixth degree, they are to be entirely admitted, with preference given according to the closeness of the degrees, to reclaim those things which have been evilly alienated by the soldiers or seized by the violence of a powerful person. But if the relatives of a closer degree are unwilling or unable, more distant relatives are also to be admitted. If no such relatives exist, or ^B those who are called by law kinsmen, those who are fellow-soldiers and share the same military obligations who come forward are to be heard. If these do not exist, then the poorer fellow-taxpayers [in the same unit] are to be heard, so that by making up the deficiency of their need from among them, they might be built up to the strength of self-sufficiency. If these also do not exist, it is necessary that the civilian taxpayers be heard as well, so that the tax from the census does not fail. If, however, a soldier has purchased the property of another soldier, if a rich man has purchased from a poor man, he shall undergo the same penalty as the powerful, losing what was purchased without the restitution of the price. If a poor man has purchased from a rich man, he shall entirely keep what was purchased or shall receive the price. But if both are found to be poor, we command that the party affected by the loss be assisted, having regard in this for good faith, which allows no one to make a profit from the disadvantage of another.

4. Concerning these military possessions, which we have found and which we have worked out, we deemed it necessary to pass on to the military persons themselves and to recount from a little further back the things that happened to them. ^C There was once a time when a total overturning of affairs and a tide of destruction was irrepressibly active, and every one of those who excelled in glory, cutting off fields here and there without measure, treated the miserable owners like slaves, thinking he was doing nothing wicked, but rather suffering, as long as another surpassed him in greed: thus there was a certain contest full of evils. And this evil did not indeed persist among the powerful, but beginning from them, it ended in the less capable, for the inclinations of those in authority are generally propagated to the masses. And so those who obtained command ^D of the army, as if a law somehow commanded the leader to be such, drove the soldiers up and down, and having accepted gifts and bribes, repaid them with immunity from military service; they were venal men, negligent, unwarlike, more ignoble than ants and more rapacious than wolves! Wherefore, since they could not exact tribute from the enemy, they exacted money from their subjects. Thus, it did not take long for them to overturn the state, but by their own precipitation they drove the Roman empire to extreme danger. How much, therefore, the zeal

horum ergo repressione quantum studii posuerimus, multi boni moderatique viri prædicaturi sunt. Vel multitudo potius eorum, qui ad patrium solum reversi sunt, recens servitute liberati, clamabit. ^A Celebrabunt etiam, opinor, aliæ res in melius redactæ, quarum curis assiduo cruciamur, ipso cum somno bellum gerentes: ne futilis et evanida sit a nobis excogitata rerum, quæ vitiose feruntur, correctio; quam in edicto præsenti, quantum ejus fieri potuit, accurate instituimus, et ævo secuturo ad durationem æternam tradentes, sancimus; ut si quis militem coloni loco detinere deprehensus fuerit, siquidem is ipse fundos etiam, de quibus functiones militares exhibentur, raptos habeat, triginta sex solidos aureos multæ loco solvat, quorum dimidiam quidem partem miles accipiet ad recuperationem restitutionis in integrum suæ; dimidiam vero fiscus, ejus servitutis nomine, qua spoliatus est. Quod si cum prædia militaria non rapuisse, sed emisse compertum fuerit, fisco quidem viginti tres solidos solvet, adversus militem vero actionem de pretio nullam habebit. Si vero suis bonis ab aliis expulsos, vel per semetipsos cessione usos, alii miseriti receperunt, vel uti colonorum obeant munera, vel uti pro mercede serviant; extra culpam sunto. Si qui autem milites idoneos ad exhibenda ministeria sua, fossatis subreptos habere fuerint ausi; pro quolibet eorum ab excussore sive discussore publico, solidi sex singulis vicibus exigentur, quos fiscus sibi vindicabit: nisi forte ab ipsis ducibus, aliisve magistratibus eos acceperint, ipsique milites ex eorum sint numero, qui ministerio ducis aut magistratuum destinantur. Nam si extranei sint et gregarii, non liberabitur qui eos detinet, tametsi probare non difficulter possit, a duce vel magistratu potestatem ^B sibi factam, ut eis utatur.

VIII.

Injustam contra nostros tributarios nuper excogitatam pensionem hac præsenti lege emendandam esse credidimus, putamus enim, quod nullum fugit, qualem confusionem, et implicationem dictarum sportularum causa introduxit; deprehensi namque, quod fieri non debuit, uni ex judicibus lucrum facientes ex alieno damno, sic probationes eludunt, ut sæpenumero partes exhibere sese non valeant. Ante siquidem necessariam probationem, et audientiam possessionem transferentes præveniunt; interim sæpe contingit ex frequentium judicum viatico, et crebra profectione ambitionem, sive pecuniam judicibus corrumpendis datam supe^Crare rerum de quibus agitur æstimationem. Idcirco Serenitas nostra, consulens iis quæ occurrunt, nec ^D

^A novam aliquam constitutionem introducens, sed veterem incorruptam consuetudinem renovans, breviter hæc de his constituit.

1. Nulla igitur ratione volumus judices ex his lucrum facere, nec prætextu notariorum, vel suorum hominum; neque permittimus, ipsos sportularum participes esse; sed iis duntaxat, qui judicibus subserviunt in faciendis itineribus, pro dispensationis hic subjectæ modo, perceptionem harum concedimus. Judicem igitur contentum iis esse jubemus, quæ ab imperatoris pia manu accipit, adeoque reditus sui præstatione; subditos autem ministerio ipsius, tam notarios, quam apparitores; iis, quæ pro judiciis in scripta redactis ab illis accipiunt, qui sententiam victricem consecuti, scriptis judiciis, ^B munire eam cupiunt. Sic enim, et judex laboriosus ad definitivam sententiam in rebus controversis properabit, et illius apparitores ipsum ad hoc agendum incitabunt, et invitabunt, alacriorique animo inservient, scientes aliunde fructum capere se non posse, quam ex consummatione litis. Quod si sententiam unam quolibet die protulerit de trecentis amplius solidis, omnino lucrum anno toto nullum capiet.

2. Verumtamen neque confusam in his, et indistinctam licentiam ipsis concedimus, sed pro [C] quantitate litis, etiam salarium judicii scriptura comprehensi constituimus. Quapropter in causa triginta sex solidorum, sex millia, sive mala litis victorem, qui sententiam in scriptis accipit, solvere jubemus. In una vero libra, vel duabus, vel tribus, solidum unum. In libris quatuor, vel quinque, vel sex solidos duos. In septem, vel octo, vel novem libris, solidos tres. In libris decern, vel undecim, vel duodecim, solidos quatuor. In majore summa, quantacunque fuerit usque ad centenarium, solidos quinque, non amplius. Atque hæc in judiciis, ubi partitiones sæpenumero, vel solutiones sequuntur. In quibus autem particulares divisiones, vel mandata, vel notationes, quarumdam forte depositionum, aut causæ cognitionum [D] versantur, quæ tamen ad minores spectent; in talibus non amplius uno solido præstetur in duodecim librarum summa, et ultra, licet centenarium excedat. Quin potius etiam minus solido pro ratione summæ propositæ; ut in libra qualibet millia apparitoribus judicis sufficiat.

3. Officialibus autem, qui judicibus subserviunt in itineribus faciendis, permittimus cum alia immunitate, qua fruuntur, a fossatis, et militia excusati, et immunes, sportularum quoque commoda percipere, ut ex iis quantum satis est acquirentes hospitiis venerabiles domos non gravent, nec ipsi quoque cæteris accedant, ad eos novo quodam more magis onerandos, quorum est hospitia præbere; sed ipsi quidem suis ex lucris, quæ faciunt, victum.