We are aware that a law previously enacted provides that magistrates invested with civil or military jurisdiction shall not, after they have been deprived of their offices, abandon the province before having remained fifty days in the capital of the same, constantly appearing there in public and giving satisfaction to anyone who may bring suit against them; and that they shall not leave the province under the pretext that they are summoned here, and, in case they do leave it, they can be sent back. We have ascertained that certain magistrates are so bold that, in defiance of the law which We have just mentioned, they dare to leave their provinces and repair to this Most Fortunate City, before having even relinquished the insignia of their offices; and that they do this through apprehension of being prosecuted for the acts of their administration, and of incurring just punishment for their crimes.

  Hence We decree that no magistrate, no matter to what province he may belong, whether of the East, West, North, or South of the Empire, shall abandon it before having given up the insignia of his office; and after having done so (for We confirm the ancient custom), We wish him to show himself publicly for fifty days in the province which he has governed, and finish all matters begun during his administration, in order that it may be proved whether or not he is entitled to confidence.
  (1) Where, however, anyone who is administering a civil or military magistracy, and having been removed from it, leaves the province without having been authorized to do so by Our order, he will be considered guilty of the crime of treason, and shall be sent back to the province; and, after he has satisfied all claims brought against him, he shall be subjected to the extreme penalty of treason. If, then, after having relinquished his office, he does not remain in the province for the prescribed time, and show himself in public every day, or flees from the province, what We have heretofore provided with reference to this shall be observed.
  (2) We notify all magistrates that when they have once accepted an office they must discharge its duties; and We do not desire their successors to acquire the habit of sending what are called interdicts outside the boundaries of the province, or of removing Governors, delaying to take journeys, remaining here too long, visiting other provinces before having repaired to the one which they are called upon to govern, or of conducting themselves as indolent magistrates are accustomed to do. We wish them promptly to assume the administration of the government to which they were appointed, in order that during the interval between the departure of the retiring magistrates and the arrival of those who take their places, the province shall not remain without a judge. We desire that, only two days before the magistrates arrive in the province where he whom they succeed is to be found, they send him a friendly letter notifying him to despatch an officer to meet them; that, up to that time, he who occupies the position shall be entitled to his salary; that the entry of a magistrate upon the duties of his office shall not date from the moment when he receives his commission, or from that when your order has been dispatched; but that magistrates shall receive their salaries from the very moment when (as has already been stated) they enter the province itself; and that up to this time he alone who is administering the government shall be entitled to his own. For it is not practicable nor to be endured that the province should be left without a judge; that the magistrate appointed by Us should substitute for himself a man who perhaps has no experience; that he who surrenders his office should quit the province before the proper time, and be deprived of the emoluments to which he is entitled before he has relinquished his administration. Nor shall he do this before the arrival of his successor in the province, and only two days before the latter enters it.

  We desire Your Highness to cause these provisions to be forever observed, and that as soon as you ascertain that a magistrate has arrived in his province, you will transfer to him the emoluments of him whom he succeeds; otherwise, in accordance with what We have already prescribed, you will give said emoluments to the magistrate who relinquishes his office, until his successor coming into the province shows himself to those subject to his jurisdiction. Your Highness will hasten to have what it has pleased Us to include in this Imperial Law executed without delay.