DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51387#0024
22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY
of sacrilege than of theft; and the punishment was frequently
a moral one, like the familiar curse on him ‘that moves my
bones’. On this point, the enactments of Theodoric are
interesting and significant of the weakness of human good
intentions. In one missive1 he orders that strict inquiry
should be made whether the priest Laurentius has com-
mitted the execrable crime of rifling the tombs of the dead,
and if so that he be forced to give up the gold which he had
no right to find. The king does not inflict any punishment,
which he leaves to the ecclesiastical authorities.2
To give up the gold to whom? We learn the answer from
another letter,3 in which the king orders an official to go
to a place where treasure is reported to be hidden, and if
gold or silver be found to seize it for the public treasury.
But the condition is laid down that he shall not touch the
ashes of the dead, because ‘we do not wish to seek for gain
which is to be won by polluting our hands with crime. Let
the tomb-buildings protect the ashes, let column, or marble
sculptures adorn the sepulchres, but let those, who have
left the commerce of this world, not keep their treasures.
For it is right to withdraw gold from tombs, where there is
no longer any owner; indeed it is in a way blameworthy to
leave uselessly hidden4 the property of the dead, which may
for the offence, especially in Asia Minor under the Empire, see also
Larfeld, Handb. d. griech. Epigraphik, i, 1907, p. 558; B. Keil in Hermes, 43,
1908, pp. 561 ff. On the general wickedness of tomb-breaking, Horace,
Epod. xvi. 13-14: ‘Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini, Nefas
videre! dissipabit insolens.’
1 Cassiodorus, Var. iv, Ep. xviii.
2 This seems to be the sense of: ‘scelus enim quod nos pro sacerdotali
honore relinquimus impunitum, maiori pondere credimus vindi-
candum.’
3 Cassiodorus, Var. iv, Ep. xxxiv.
4 Theodoric would have approved the description of KeiunXta by a
commentator on Homer as apya Kai caroSe-ra ypripaTa, ‘wealth hidden
away and lying idle’ (quoted by Fornerius, ad loc.). The idea that
the man who finds treasure acquires merit by restoring to circulation
wealth that was lying useless has been expressed in modern times by
many writers, such as Dernburg, op. cit., p. 482; Czyhlarz, op. cit.,
of sacrilege than of theft; and the punishment was frequently
a moral one, like the familiar curse on him ‘that moves my
bones’. On this point, the enactments of Theodoric are
interesting and significant of the weakness of human good
intentions. In one missive1 he orders that strict inquiry
should be made whether the priest Laurentius has com-
mitted the execrable crime of rifling the tombs of the dead,
and if so that he be forced to give up the gold which he had
no right to find. The king does not inflict any punishment,
which he leaves to the ecclesiastical authorities.2
To give up the gold to whom? We learn the answer from
another letter,3 in which the king orders an official to go
to a place where treasure is reported to be hidden, and if
gold or silver be found to seize it for the public treasury.
But the condition is laid down that he shall not touch the
ashes of the dead, because ‘we do not wish to seek for gain
which is to be won by polluting our hands with crime. Let
the tomb-buildings protect the ashes, let column, or marble
sculptures adorn the sepulchres, but let those, who have
left the commerce of this world, not keep their treasures.
For it is right to withdraw gold from tombs, where there is
no longer any owner; indeed it is in a way blameworthy to
leave uselessly hidden4 the property of the dead, which may
for the offence, especially in Asia Minor under the Empire, see also
Larfeld, Handb. d. griech. Epigraphik, i, 1907, p. 558; B. Keil in Hermes, 43,
1908, pp. 561 ff. On the general wickedness of tomb-breaking, Horace,
Epod. xvi. 13-14: ‘Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini, Nefas
videre! dissipabit insolens.’
1 Cassiodorus, Var. iv, Ep. xviii.
2 This seems to be the sense of: ‘scelus enim quod nos pro sacerdotali
honore relinquimus impunitum, maiori pondere credimus vindi-
candum.’
3 Cassiodorus, Var. iv, Ep. xxxiv.
4 Theodoric would have approved the description of KeiunXta by a
commentator on Homer as apya Kai caroSe-ra ypripaTa, ‘wealth hidden
away and lying idle’ (quoted by Fornerius, ad loc.). The idea that
the man who finds treasure acquires merit by restoring to circulation
wealth that was lying useless has been expressed in modern times by
many writers, such as Dernburg, op. cit., p. 482; Czyhlarz, op. cit.,