XIV. KING THEODERIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
[1] We gladly give our full assent whenever the demand of petitioners is just, since it does not befit a favor to be grudging when it causes no loss to our generosity. [2] Therefore let Your Exalted Magnificence cause the payment that was being exacted from the people of Catalia under the heading of thirds to be paid annually as part of their regular tax assessment, and let the petitioners suffer no further dispute on this matter. For what does it matter by what name a landowner makes his payment, so long as he pays in full what is owed without diminution? Thus we remove from them the hateful name of the thirds, and from our clemency we remove the importunities of those who make claims.
XIIII. FAUSTO PPO THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Libentes omnimodis praebemus assensum, quotiens vox est iusta poscentium, quia nec decet esse difficile beneficium, quod non patitur largitate detrimentum. [2] Et ideo praecelsa magnificentia tua, quod a Cataliensibus inferebatur genere tertiarum, faciat annis singulis in tributaria summa persolvi, nec post super hac parte patiantur supplices aliquam quaestionem. quid enim interest, quo nomine possessor inferat, dummodo sine imminutione quod debetur exsolvat? ita et illis suspectum tertiarum nomen auferimus et a nostra mansuetudine importunitates competentium summovemus.
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XIV. KING THEODERIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PREFECT.
[1] We gladly give our full assent whenever the demand of petitioners is just, since it does not befit a favor to be grudging when it causes no loss to our generosity. [2] Therefore let Your Exalted Magnificence cause the payment that was being exacted from the people of Catalia under the heading of thirds to be paid annually as part of their regular tax assessment, and let the petitioners suffer no further dispute on this matter. For what does it matter by what name a landowner makes his payment, so long as he pays in full what is owed without diminution? Thus we remove from them the hateful name of the thirds, and from our clemency we remove the importunities of those who make claims.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.