The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Fourteen
SALVIANI |
SALVIANUS |
LIBER V |
BOOK 5 |
| Sed quid possunt aliud velle miseri, qui adsiduum, immo continuum exactionis publicae patiuntur excidium, quibus imminet semper gravis et indefessa proscriptio, qui domus suas deserunt, ne in ipsis domibus torqueantur, exilia petunt, ne supplicia sustineant? Leniores his hostes quam exactores sunt. Et res ipsa hoc indicat: ad hostes fugiunt, ut vim exactionis evadant. Et quidem ipsum hoc, quamvis durum et inhumanum, minus tamen grave atque acerbum erat, si omnes aequaliter atque in commune tolerarent. Illud indignius ac poenalius, quod omnium onus non omnes sustinet, immo quod pauperculos homines tributa divitum premunt, et infirmiores ferunt sarcinas fortiorum. Nec alia causa est, quod sustinere non possunt, nisi quia maior est miserorum sarcina quam facultas. Res diversissimas dissimillimas- que patiuntur, invidiam et egestatem. Invidia enim est in solutione, egestas in facultate. Si respicias quod dependunt, abundare arbitreris: si respicias quod habent, egere reperies. Quis aestimare rem huius iniquitatis potest? Solutionem sustinent divitum et indigentiam mendicorum. Plus multo est, quod dicturus sum. Adiectiones tributarias ipsi interdum divites faciunt, pro quibus pauperes solvunt. Sed dicis: cum ipsorum maximus census sit et ipsorum maximae pensiones, quomodo fieri id potest, ut ipsi sibi augere debitum velint? Neque ego id dico, quod sibi augeant; nam et ideo augent, quia non sibi augent. Dicam quomodo. Veniunt plerumque novi nuntii, novi epistolarii a summis sublimitatibus missi, qui commendantur inlustribus paucis ad exitia plurimorum. Decernuntur his nova munera, decernuntur novae indictiones. Decernunt potentes quod solvant pauperes, decernit gratia divitum quod pendat turba miserorum; ipsi enim in nullo sentiunt, quod decernunt. Sed non possunt, inquis, non honorari et liberalius accipi, qui fuerint a maioribus missi. Estote ergo, divites, primi in conferendo, qui estis primi in decernendo: estote primi in largitate rerum, qui primi estis in liberalitate verborum. Qui das de meo, da et de tuo. Tametsi rectissime, quisquis ille es, qui solus capere vis gratiam, solus patereris expensam. . . Sed acquiescimus pauperes vestrae, divites, voluntati. Quod pauci iubetis, solvamus omnes: quid tam iustum, quid tam humanum? Gravant nos novis debitis decreta vestra: facite saltim debitum ipsum vobis nobiscum esse commune. Quid enim iniquius esse aut quid indignius potest, quam ut soli sitis immunes a debito, qui cunctos facitis debitores? Et quidem miserrimi pauperes sic totum hoc, quod diximus, solvunt, quod qua re vel qua ratione solvant, penitus ignorant. Cui enim licet discutere cur solvat, aut cui permittitur explorare quid debeat? Sed tunc id evidentissime proditur, cum invicem sibi divites irascuntur, cum indignantur aliqui eorum, quod sine consilio ac tractatu suo aliqua decreta sint. Tunc a quibusdam eorum audias dici: o facinus indignum! Duo aut tres statuunt, quod multos necet, a paucis potentibus decernitur, quod a multis miseris dependatur. Honori enim suo unusquisque divitum praestat, ut nolit aliquid se absente decerni, non iustitiae, ut iniqua nolit se praesente constitui. Denique quod in aliis reprehenderent, ipsi postea aut pro contemptus praeteriti ultione aut pro potestatis praesumptione constituunt. Ac per hoc infelicissimi pauperes sic sunt quasi inter con- certantes procellas in medio mari positi: nunc istorum scilicet, nunc illorum fluctibus obruuntur. | But what other thing are the wretched people able to want, they who suffer the incessant or rather continuous destruction of the State's tax, to which a heavy and relentless proscription is always imminent, who desert their homes, lest they are tortured in their very homes; who seek exile, lest they endure punishment? The enemy are kinder to these men than the tax collectors. And this fact is revealed by this one thing: they flee to the enemy, so that they escape the amount of the tax. And indeed this very tax, although harsh and inhuman, nevertheless would be less heavy and strict, if all men would endure it equally and in common. It is more shameful and punishing, because all do not bear the tax burden of all men, rather that the taxes of the rich choke the poor little men, and the weak men bear the taxes of the stronger. There is no other reason that they are not able to endure it, except that burden of the wretched is greater than their resources. They suffer the most opposite and dissimilar things, hatred and poverty. For there is hatred in the payment, poverty in ability. If you should see what they pay up, you consider them to be rich: if you should see what they possess, you will discover them to be poor. Who is able to highly esteem the reality of this inequality? They endure the payment of the rich and the indignity of the beggars. There is much more, that I am about to say. The rich meanwhile themselves make additions to those subject to taxation, for which the poor pay. But you say: when the census is greatest of those and the payment is greatest of those, how is it able to happen, that they want to increase the debt to their own? I did not say that, that they add to their own; but they add therefore, because they do not add it to their own. I shall say how. New messengers come for the most part, new edicts sent from the lofty throne, who are commended to the few nobles to the destruction of most people. New taxes are decreed with these, new 15-year tax indictions are decreed. The powerful decree what the poor should pay, the influence of the rich decrees what the crowd of wretched should pay out, for they themselves feel in no way what they decree. But they are not able, you say, not to be honored and to be received freely, those who had been sent from their superiors. Therefore rich men, be first in bearing, what you are first in decreeing: be first in the giving of things, you who are first in the generosity of words. What you give from my stuff, give out of your own. Even if most properly, whoever you are, you who wish to receive thanks alone, you alone would suffer the expense. . . But we poor men acquiesce, rich men, to your will. What you few order, we all pay: what is so just, what is so humane? Your decrees weigh us down with new debts, at least make the debt to be common property to yourselves with us. For what is more wicked or what could be more shameful than that you men alone are free from debt, who make us all debtors? Indeed the most wretched poor thus pay all this, that we have mentioned, yet for what cause or for what reason they pay, they are completely ignorant. For to whom is it allowed to discuss why one pays, or to whom is it permitted to ascertain what one owes? Yet it is revealed most plainly, when the rich men get angry with each other, when some of them are indignant because some decrees are made without their advice or handling. Then you may hear it said by some of them: O shameful crime! Two or three men decide what kills many, it is decreed by a few powerful men what is paid by many poor men. For each one of the rich maintains his honor since he is unwilling that anything be decreed in his absense, but each does not support justice, inasmuch as being unwilling that wicked deeds be planned out in his presence. Finally what they find fault with in others, afterwards they themselves bring about either by virtue of vengeance of past contempt or by virtue of presumption of power. And in fact through this the most unfortunate poor are thus, as it were, put in the middle of the sea between conflicting violent winds: naturally they are swamped by waves first of this side, then of that side. |