18. King Theodoric to Domitianus and Wilias.

Statute of Limitations.

'It is right that you, who are administering justice to the nations, should learn and practise it yourselves. We therefore hasten to reply to the question which you have asked [concerning the length of time that is required to bestow a title by prescription]. If any Barbarian usurper have taken possession of a Roman farm since the time when we, through God's grace, crossed the streams of the Isonzo, when first the Empire of Italy received us[229], and if he have no documents of title [sine delegatoris cujusquam pyctacio] to show that he is the rightful holder, then let him without delay restore the property to its former owner. But if he shall be found to have entered upon the property before the aforesaid time, since the principle of the thirty years' prescription comes in, we order that the petition of the plaintiff shall be dropped.

Crimes of violence.

'The assailant, as well as the murderer, of his brother, is to be driven forth from the kingdom, that the serenity of our Commonwealth may not be troubled with any such dark spots.'

[Theodoric crossed the Isonzo, August, 489, and as I understand this letter, it was written somewhere about 518, and he therefore lays down a convenient practical rule: 'No dispossession which occurred before I crossed the Isonzo shall be enquired into; any which have happened since, may.' But the letter is a very difficult one, and I am bound to say that Dahn's interpretation ('Könige der Germanen' iii. 11, 12) does not agree with mine.]