From: Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To: Consularis
Date: ~522 AD
Context: Theoderic orders a land surveyor to resolve a boundary dispute between two spectabiles, with a learned digression on the history of geometry and surveying from the Chaldeans and Egyptians to Rome.
As we have learned from the spiteful reports of petitioners, a boundary dispute has arisen between the spectabiles Leontius and Paschasius. They believed their property lines should be settled by force rather than by law. We are amazed that such hostility could arise over a matter that can be resolved by boundary markers, mountain ridges, riverbanks, built archways, and other clear signs.
What would these men do if they owned property in Egypt, where the annual flooding of the Nile erases all boundary markers and the vast waters make the face of the land indistinguishable, with mud covering everything? Even then they should not have resorted to arms, since even when no other resolution suffices, the matter can be settled through geometric forms and the science of surveying, determined as precisely as speech is organized by letters.
The Chaldeans are remembered as the first inventors of geometry, who established the principles of this discipline broadly and showed it to be essential in astronomy, music, mechanics, architecture, medicine, and the art of calculation -- anything that can be contained in general forms -- so that without it none of these could reach true knowledge. Later the Egyptians, burning with no less intellectual fervor, adapted it specifically to land measurement and the recovery of boundary lines after the Nile's annual flooding, so that what was vulnerable to litigious confusion might be distinguished by art.
Therefore, your greatness should also employ a most skilled surveyor -- a man named for his art -- so that everything already clearly defined by reason may be demonstrated through evident documentation. In the time of Augustus, the Roman world was divided into measured fields and described by census, so that no one's property would be uncertain. Let the parties see what public authority thinks of the practitioners of this art -- for these celebrated disciplines, known throughout the world, do not enjoy this honor. The arithmetician works in lecture halls. The geometer, when discussing only celestial matters, is exposed only to the learned. Astronomy and music are studied for knowledge alone. But to the surveyor, boundary disputes are entrusted so that the audacity of litigants may be cut short. He is truly a judge of his art: deserted fields are his courtroom. He follows tortuous paths to seek signs of boundaries among wild thickets. He does not walk by common roads -- his reading is his road. He shows what he states, proves what he has learned, and by his footsteps distinguishes the rights of the disputing parties. Like a vast river, he takes land from some and grants it to others.
Therefore, supported by our authority, choose a man after whose judgment the parties would be ashamed to litigate further with brazen faces.
LII. CONSULARI V. I. THEODERICUS REX.
[1] Sicut invidiosa nimis interpellantium suggestione comperimus, inter Leontium atque Paschasium spectabiles viros finalis orta contentio est, ita ut terminos casarum suarum non legibus, sed viribus crederent vindicandos. unde miramur tanta animositate fuisse litigatum, quod aut terminis testibus aut iugis montium aut fluminum ripis aut arcaturis constructis aliisque signis evidentibus constat esse definitum. [2] Quid isti facerent, si in Aegyptiacis partibus possiderent, ubi Nili fluminis superveniente diluvio indicia finium vastissimus gurges abradit et indiscreta terrae facies redditur, ubi omnia limus tegere comprobatur? quapropter nec tunc ad arma concurrere debuissent, si excitata lis nulla satisfactione superata discederet. hoc enim per geometricas formas et gromaticam disciplinam ita diligenter agnoscitur, quemadmodum litteris omnia sermo conclusus est. [3] Geometriam quippe, ut est hominum genus nimis acutissimum atque sollicitum, Chaldaei primum invenisse memorantur, qui rationem ipsius disciplinae generaliter colligentes et in astronomicis rebus et in musicis et in mechanicis et in architectis et in medicinam et ad artem logisticam, vel quicquid potest formis generalibus contineri, aptam esse docuerunt, ut sine ea nihil horum possit ad agnitionem verissimam pervenire. [4] Hanc post Aegyptii, non dissimiliter animi calore ferventes, propter augmenta Nilotica, quae singulis annis votiva inundatione patiuntur, ad dimensionem terrae et recuperandas formas finium transtulerunt, ut fieret arte distinctum, quod litigiosae confusioni videbatur obnoxium. [5] Quapropter agrimensorem peritissimum, cui ab arte nomen est, vestra nihilominus adhibeat magnitudo, ut iam omnia, quae manifesta ratione distincta sunt, per evidentia debeat documenta monstrare. nam si hoc egit illa disciplina mirabilis, ut indeterminatos agros ratione certa distingueret, quanto magis iste monstrare debet omnia, quae iam probantur suis finibus terminata? [6] Augusti siquidem temporibus orbis Romanus agris divisus censuque descriptus est, ut possessio sua nulli haberetur incerta, quam pro tributorum susceperat quantitate solvenda. [7] Hoc auctor Heron metricus redegit ad dogma conscriptum, quatenus studiosus legendo possit agnoscere, quod deberet oculis absolute monstrare. videant artis huius periti, quid de ipsis publica sentit auctoritas. nam disciplinae illae toto orbe celebratae non habent hunc honorem. arithmeticam indicas, auditoriis vacat. geometria, cum tantum de caelestibus disputat, tantum studiosis exponitur. astronomia et musica discuntur ad scientiam solam. [8] Agrimensori vero finium lis orta committitur, ut contentionum protervitas abscidatur. iudex est utique artis suae, forum ipsius agri deserti sunt: fanaticum credis, quem tortuosis semitibus ambulare conspexeris. indicia siquidem rerum inter silvas asperas et dumeta perquirit, non ambulat iure communi, via illi est lectio sua, ostendit quod dicit, probat quod didicit, gressibus suis concertantium iura discernit et more vastissimi fluminis aliis spatia tollit, aliis rura concedit. [9] Quapropter auctoritate nostra suffulti talem eligite, post quem partes erubescant impudenti fronte litigare, quatenus possessorum iura confusa esse non debeant, quibus est necessarium rebus propriis adhibere culturam.
◆
From:Theoderic (through Cassiodorus), King of the Ostrogoths
To:Consularis
Date:~522 AD
Context:Theoderic orders a land surveyor to resolve a boundary dispute between two spectabiles, with a learned digression on the history of geometry and surveying from the Chaldeans and Egyptians to Rome.
As we have learned from the spiteful reports of petitioners, a boundary dispute has arisen between the spectabiles Leontius and Paschasius. They believed their property lines should be settled by force rather than by law. We are amazed that such hostility could arise over a matter that can be resolved by boundary markers, mountain ridges, riverbanks, built archways, and other clear signs.
What would these men do if they owned property in Egypt, where the annual flooding of the Nile erases all boundary markers and the vast waters make the face of the land indistinguishable, with mud covering everything? Even then they should not have resorted to arms, since even when no other resolution suffices, the matter can be settled through geometric forms and the science of surveying, determined as precisely as speech is organized by letters.
The Chaldeans are remembered as the first inventors of geometry, who established the principles of this discipline broadly and showed it to be essential in astronomy, music, mechanics, architecture, medicine, and the art of calculation -- anything that can be contained in general forms -- so that without it none of these could reach true knowledge. Later the Egyptians, burning with no less intellectual fervor, adapted it specifically to land measurement and the recovery of boundary lines after the Nile's annual flooding, so that what was vulnerable to litigious confusion might be distinguished by art.
Therefore, your greatness should also employ a most skilled surveyor -- a man named for his art -- so that everything already clearly defined by reason may be demonstrated through evident documentation. In the time of Augustus, the Roman world was divided into measured fields and described by census, so that no one's property would be uncertain. Let the parties see what public authority thinks of the practitioners of this art -- for these celebrated disciplines, known throughout the world, do not enjoy this honor. The arithmetician works in lecture halls. The geometer, when discussing only celestial matters, is exposed only to the learned. Astronomy and music are studied for knowledge alone. But to the surveyor, boundary disputes are entrusted so that the audacity of litigants may be cut short. He is truly a judge of his art: deserted fields are his courtroom. He follows tortuous paths to seek signs of boundaries among wild thickets. He does not walk by common roads -- his reading is his road. He shows what he states, proves what he has learned, and by his footsteps distinguishes the rights of the disputing parties. Like a vast river, he takes land from some and grants it to others.
Therefore, supported by our authority, choose a man after whose judgment the parties would be ashamed to litigate further with brazen faces.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.