11. Edict concerning Prices to be Maintained at Ravenna.

Prices at Ravenna.

'The price at which provisions are sold ought to follow, in a reasonable way, the circumstances of the times, that there may be neither cheapness in a dear season, nor dearness in a cheap one, and that the grumblings of both buyers and sellers may be avoided, by fairness being observed towards both.

'Therefore, after careful consideration, we have fixed in the subjoined schedule the prices of the various articles of produce, which prices are to remain free from all ambiguity.

'If any vendor does not observe the prices named in the present edict, he will be liable to a fine of six solidi (£3 12s.) for each violation of the law, and may be visited by corporal punishment[759].'

[The schedule mentioned in this letter is unfortunately not preserved. Few documents that Cassiodorus could have handed down to posterity would have been more valuable. If we could have compared it with the celebrated Edict of Stratonicea (cir. a.d. 301), we should have seen what changes had been wrought in the value of the precious metals and the distribution of wealth during the two centuries of disturbance and barbaric invasion which had elapsed since the reign of Diocletian. But, unfortunately, Cassiodorus believed that his rhetoric and his natural history would be more interesting to us than these vulgar facts.]