X. KING THEODERIC TO BOETHIUS, A MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK AND A PATRICIAN.
[1] Although justice should be administered impartially to all peoples — for it maintains the dignity of its name only if it runs with even measure through the great and the humble alike — those who do not depart from palace service nevertheless seek it with greater confidence. For something is granted freely by princely munificence to one who is at leisure; but customary payment is rendered as a kind of debt to one who faithfully serves. [2] The household cavalry and infantry, who are seen to keep continual watch at our court, have made united complaint to us — as is wont to happen from great distress — that from such-and-such a paymaster of the prefects they receive neither coins of full weight for their regular emoluments, nor proper numbers, sustaining heavy losses in both respects. Let your wisdom, therefore, schooled in learned studies, cast out wicked falsehood from the company of truth, so that no one may find it profitable to subtract anything from that integrity. [3] For this science that is called arithmetic stands with the most certain reason amid the uncertainties of the world, which we know to be equal to the celestial bodies: a manifest order, a beautiful arrangement, a simple knowledge, an immovable science, which both contains the things above and guards the things below. For what is there that either lacks measure or exceeds its weight? It embraces all things, moderates all things, and all things derive their beauty from it, because they are known to exist under its rule. [4] It is pleasing to observe how the number ten — after the manner of the heavens — revolves upon itself and is never found wanting. It grows by a new law through returning upon itself, the calculation always adding itself back again; and though the number ten does not seem to be exceeded, from small beginnings it prevails to embrace greater things. This, often repeated, with the fingers of the hand now bent and now raised, is always rendered extended; and the more the reckoning is reduced to its starting point, the more it undoubtedly increases. By countable quantity the sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the shining stars are encompassed. For to their Creator every creature stands under number, and whatever has come into existence cannot be removed from that condition. [5] And since it delights us to speak of the deeper secrets of this discipline with those who know it: the coins themselves — however base they may seem from common use — one must observe with what reason they were devised by the ancients. They willed that six thousand denarii make one solidus, so that the round form of the radiant metal might fittingly encompass the age of the world, like a golden sun. And the number six — which learned antiquity not without reason defined as perfect — they marked with the name of the ounce, which is the first step of measurement; and computing it twelve times in the likeness of the months, they gathered it into the fullness of a pound to correspond to the circuit of the year. [6] O inventions of the wise! O the foresight of our ancestors! An exquisite thing was devised that both distinguished what was necessary for human use and figuratively contained so many secrets of nature. Rightly therefore is it called a pound — a word implying balance — since it has been weighed with the consideration of so many great things. To violate such secrets, then — to wish to confound what is so certain — is it not a cruel and foul tearing of truth itself? Let commerce exercise itself in its merchandise: let men buy broadly what they may sell more narrowly. Let full weight and honest measure be established for the people, because everything is thrown into confusion if integrity is mixed with fraud. [7] Certainly what is given to those who labor must not be clipped; but to one from whom faithful service is required, let the compensation not be diminished. Give a solidus and then try to take something from it; hand over a pound and then try to reduce it. Against such things the very names have been devised as protection: either you deliver the thing whole, or you do not deliver what you call it. You cannot — you absolutely cannot — give the names of whole amounts and then effect wicked reductions. See to it, then, that the keeper of the chest maintain his lawful practices, and that those who have well deserved receive in uncorrupted payment what we bestow upon them.
X. BOETHIO V. I. ATQUE PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Licet universis populis generalis sit impendenda iustitia, quae sic nominis sui obtinet dignitatem, si aequabili moderatione per potiores currat et humiles, confidentius tamen illam expetunt, qui a palatii militia non recedunt. otioso enim gratuite praestatur aliquid munificentia principali; consuetudo autem quodam debito redditur fideliter obsequenti. [2] Domestici partis equitum et peditum, qui nostrae aulae videntur iugiter excubare, quod ex magnis fieri doloribus solet, adunata nobis supplicatione conquesti sunt ab illo arcario praefectorum pro emolumentis sollemnibus nec integri ponderis solidos percipere et in numero gravia se dispendia sustinere. Quapropter prudentia vestra lectionibus erudita dogmaticis scelestam falsitatem a consortio veritatis eiciat, ne cui sit appetibile aliquid de illa integritate subducere. [3] Haec enim quae appellatur arithmetica inter ambigua mundi certissima ratione consistit, quam cum caelestibus aequaliter novimus: evidens ordo, pulchra dispositio, cognitio simplex, immobilis scientia, quae et superna continet et terrena custodit. quid est enim quod aut mensuram non habeat aut pondus excedat? omnia complectitur, cuncta moderatur et universa hinc pulchritudinem capiunt, quia sub modo ipsius esse noscuntur. [4] Iuvat inspicere, quemadmodum denarius numerus more caeli et in se revolvitur et numquam deficiens invenitur. crescit nova condicione per se redeundo addita sibi semper ipsa calculatio et, cum denarius non videatur excedi, ex modicis praevalet maiora complecti. hoc saepe repetitum inflexis manualibus digitis et erectis redditur semper extensum, et quanto ad principium suum supputatio reducitur, tanto amplius indubitanter augetur. quantitate numerabili harena maris, guttae pluviarum, stellae lucidae concluduntur. auctori quippe suo omnis creatura sub numero est et quicquid ad existentiam pervenit, a tali non potest condicione dimoveri. [5] Et quoniam delectat nos secretiora huius disciplinae cum scientibus loqui, pecuniae ipsae quamvis usu celeberrimo viles esse videantur, animadvertendum est quanta tamen a veteribus ratione collectae sunt. sex milia denariorum solidum esse voluerunt, scilicet ut radiantis metalli formata rotunditas aetatem mundi, quasi sol aureus, convenienter includeret. senarium vero, quem non inmerito perfectum antiquitas docta definit, unciae, qui mensurae primus gradus est, appellatione signavit, quam duodecies similitudine mensium computatam in librae plenitudinem ad anni curricula collegerunt. [6] O inventa prudentium! o provisa rnaiorum! exquisita res est, quae et usui humano necessaria distingueret et tot arcana naturae figuraliter contineret. merito ergo dicitur libra, quae tanta rerum est consideratione trutinata. talia igitur secreta violare, sic certissima velle confundere, nonne veritatis ipsius videtur crudelis ac foeda laceratio? exerceantur negotiationes in mercibus: emantur late, quae vendantur angustius: constet populis pondus ac mensura probabilis, quia cuncta turbantur, si integritas cum fraudibus misceatur. [7] Mutilari certe non debet, quod laborantibus datur: sed a quo actus fidelis exigitur, compensatio imminuta praestetur. da certe solidum et aufer inde, si praevales: trade libram, at aliquid, si potes, imminue. contra ista nominibus ipsis constat esse provisum: aut integra tribuis aut non ipsa quae dicuntur exsolvis. non potestis omnimodo, non potestis nomina integritatum dare et scelestas imminutiones efficere. providete itaque, ut et arbiter arcae habeat iustas consuetudines suas, et quod bene meritis impendimus, incorrupto munere consequantur.
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X. KING THEODERIC TO BOETHIUS, A MAN OF ILLUSTRIOUS RANK AND A PATRICIAN.
[1] Although justice should be administered impartially to all peoples — for it maintains the dignity of its name only if it runs with even measure through the great and the humble alike — those who do not depart from palace service nevertheless seek it with greater confidence. For something is granted freely by princely munificence to one who is at leisure; but customary payment is rendered as a kind of debt to one who faithfully serves. [2] The household cavalry and infantry, who are seen to keep continual watch at our court, have made united complaint to us — as is wont to happen from great distress — that from such-and-such a paymaster of the prefects they receive neither coins of full weight for their regular emoluments, nor proper numbers, sustaining heavy losses in both respects. Let your wisdom, therefore, schooled in learned studies, cast out wicked falsehood from the company of truth, so that no one may find it profitable to subtract anything from that integrity. [3] For this science that is called arithmetic stands with the most certain reason amid the uncertainties of the world, which we know to be equal to the celestial bodies: a manifest order, a beautiful arrangement, a simple knowledge, an immovable science, which both contains the things above and guards the things below. For what is there that either lacks measure or exceeds its weight? It embraces all things, moderates all things, and all things derive their beauty from it, because they are known to exist under its rule. [4] It is pleasing to observe how the number ten — after the manner of the heavens — revolves upon itself and is never found wanting. It grows by a new law through returning upon itself, the calculation always adding itself back again; and though the number ten does not seem to be exceeded, from small beginnings it prevails to embrace greater things. This, often repeated, with the fingers of the hand now bent and now raised, is always rendered extended; and the more the reckoning is reduced to its starting point, the more it undoubtedly increases. By countable quantity the sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the shining stars are encompassed. For to their Creator every creature stands under number, and whatever has come into existence cannot be removed from that condition. [5] And since it delights us to speak of the deeper secrets of this discipline with those who know it: the coins themselves — however base they may seem from common use — one must observe with what reason they were devised by the ancients. They willed that six thousand denarii make one solidus, so that the round form of the radiant metal might fittingly encompass the age of the world, like a golden sun. And the number six — which learned antiquity not without reason defined as perfect — they marked with the name of the ounce, which is the first step of measurement; and computing it twelve times in the likeness of the months, they gathered it into the fullness of a pound to correspond to the circuit of the year. [6] O inventions of the wise! O the foresight of our ancestors! An exquisite thing was devised that both distinguished what was necessary for human use and figuratively contained so many secrets of nature. Rightly therefore is it called a pound — a word implying balance — since it has been weighed with the consideration of so many great things. To violate such secrets, then — to wish to confound what is so certain — is it not a cruel and foul tearing of truth itself? Let commerce exercise itself in its merchandise: let men buy broadly what they may sell more narrowly. Let full weight and honest measure be established for the people, because everything is thrown into confusion if integrity is mixed with fraud. [7] Certainly what is given to those who labor must not be clipped; but to one from whom faithful service is required, let the compensation not be diminished. Give a solidus and then try to take something from it; hand over a pound and then try to reduce it. Against such things the very names have been devised as protection: either you deliver the thing whole, or you do not deliver what you call it. You cannot — you absolutely cannot — give the names of whole amounts and then effect wicked reductions. See to it, then, that the keeper of the chest maintain his lawful practices, and that those who have well deserved receive in uncorrupted payment what we bestow upon them.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.