IV. ON THE OFFICIUM OF THE PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO[120]
[Footnote 120: To illustrate the Eleventh Book of the Variae, Letters 18 to 35.]
[Sidenote: Military character of the Roman Civil Service.]
The official staff that served under the Roman governors of high rank was an elaborately organised body, with a carefully arranged system of promotion, and liberal superannuation allowances for those of its members who had attained a certain position in the office.
Although, in consequence of the changes introduced by Diocletian and Constantine, the civil and military functions had been for the most part divided from one another, and it was now unusual to see the same magistrate riding at the head of armies and hearing causes in the Praetorium, in theory the officers of the Courts of Justice were still military officers. Their service was spoken of as a militia; the type of their office was the cingulum, or military belt; and one of the leading officers of the court, as we shall see, was styled Cornicularius, or trumpeter.
The Praetorian Praefect, whose office had been at first a purely military one, had now for centuries been chiefly concerned in civil administration, and as Judge over the highest court of appeal in the Empire. His Officium (or staff of subordinates) was, at any rate in the Fifth Century, still the most complete and highly developed that served under any great functionary; and probably the career which it offered to its members was more brilliant than any that they could look for elsewhere. Accordingly, in studying the composition of this body we shall familiarise ourselves with the type to which all the other officia throughout the Empire more or less closely approximated.
NOTITIA. CASSIODORUS LYDUS (xi.). (iii. 3 and ii. 18.).
Princeps. Cornicularius. Cornicularius. Cornicularius. Adjutor. Primiscrinius. II Primiscrinii. Commentariensis. Scriniarius Actorum. Ab Actis. Cura Epistolarum. IV Numerarii. Scriniarius Curae Militaris. Subadjuva. Primicerius Exceptorum. Cura Epistolarum. Sextus Scholarius. Regerendarius. Praerogativarius. Exceptores. Commentariensis. II Commentarisii. Adjutores. Regendarius. II Regendarii. Singularii. Primicerius Deputatorum. II Curae Epistolarum Ponticae. Primicerius Augustalium. Primicerius Singulariorum. Singularii.
Lydus calls all the officers down to the Curae Ep. Ponticae [Greek: Hai Logikai Leitourgiai] (Officium Litteratum).
[Sidenote: Sources of information as to the Officium.]
Our chief information as to this elaborate official hierarchy is derived from three sources[121]:--
[Footnote 121: See Table, p. 94.]
(1) The Notitia Dignitatum, the great Official Gazetteer of the Empire[122], which in its existing shape appears to date from the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, early in the Fifth Century.
[Footnote 122: To use a modern illustration, we might perhaps say that the Notitia Dignitatum = Whitaker's Almanac + the Army List.]
(2) The De Magistratibus of Joannes Lydus, composed by a civil servant of the Eastern Empire in the middle of the Sixth Century.
(3) The Variae Epistolae of Cassiodorus, the composition of which ranges from about 504 to 540.
The first of these authorities relates to the Eastern and Western Empires, the second to the Eastern alone, the third to the Western Empire as represented by the Ostrogothic Kingdom founded by Theodoric.
Much light is also thrown on the subject by the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian.
Godefroy's Commentary on the Theodosian Code, and Bethmann Hollweg's 'Gerichtsverfassung des sinkenden Römischen Reichs,' are the chief modern works which have treated of the subject.
[Sidenote: The Officium as described in the Notitia.]
We will follow the order in which the various offices are arranged by the 'Notitia,' which is most likely to correspond with that of official precedence.
In the second chapter of the 'Notitia Orientis,' after an enumeration of the five Dioceses and forty-six Provinces which are 'sub dispositione viri illustris Praefecti Praetorio per Orientem,' we have this list, 'Officium viri illustris Praefecti Praetorio Orientis:'
Princeps. Cornicularius. Adjutor. Commentariensis. Ab actis. Numerarii. Subadjuvae. Cura Epistolarum. Regerendarius. Exceptores. Adjutores. Singularii.
The lists of the officia of all the other Praetorian Praefects in the 'Notitia' are exactly the same as this, except that under the head 'Praefectus Praetorio per Illyricum' we have, instead of the simple entry 'Numerarii,'
'Numerarii quatuor: in his auri unus, operum alter;'
and the 'Praefectus Urbis Romae' had under his Numerarii, a
'Primiscrinius,'
and between the 'Adjutores' and 'Singularii,'
Censuales and Nomenculatores.
We will go through the offices enumerated above in order:
[Sidenote: Princeps.]
(1) The PRINCEPS was the head of the whole official staff. In the case of the officium of the Praetorian Praefect, however, this officer seems, after the compilation of the 'Notitia,' to have disappeared, and his rights and privileges became vested in the Cornicularius. It will be observed that in the letters of Cassiodorus to the members of his staff there is none addressed to the Princeps; and similarly there is no mention of a Princeps as serving under the Praetorian Praefect in the treatise of Lydus. This elimination of the Princeps, however, was not universally applicable to all the officia. Cassiodorus (xi. 35) mentions a Princeps Augustorum, who was, perhaps, Princeps of the Agentes in Rebus; and Lydus more distinctly ('De Mag.' iii. 24) speaks of a bargain made between the Cornicularius of the Praetorian Praefect and the [Greek: Prinkips tôn magistrianôn], who must be supposed to be Princeps in the officium of the Magister Officiorum, though no such officer appears in the 'Notitia[123].'
[Footnote 123: See also Var. vii. 24 and 28.]
Speaking generally, however, we may perhaps say that the greater part of what we are about to hear concerning the rights and endowments of the Cornicularius in the Praefect's office might be truly asserted of the Princeps at the time when the 'Notitia' was compiled, before the two offices had been amalgamated.
[Sidenote: Cornicularius.]
(2) The Cornicularius. As to this officer we have a good many details in the pages of Joannes Lydus. The antiquarian and etymological part of his information must generally be received with caution; but as to the actual privileges of the office in the days of Justinian we may very safely speak after him, since it was an office which he himself held, and whose curtailed gains and privileges caused him bitter disappointment.
'The foremost in rank,' says he[124], 'of the Emperor's assistants (Adjutores) is even to this day called Cornicularius, that is to say horned ([Greek: keraïtês]), or fighting in the front rank. For the place of the monarch or the Caesar was in the middle of the army, where he alone might direct the stress of battle. This being the Emperor's place, according to Frontinus, on the left wing was posted the Praefect or Master of the Horse, and on the right the Praetors or Legati, the latter being the officers left in charge of the army when their year of office was drawing to a close, to hold the command till the new Consul should come out to take it from them.
[Footnote 124: De Mag. iii. 3, 4.]
'Of the whole Legion then, amounting to 6,000 men, exclusive of cavalry and auxiliaries, as I before said, the Cornicularius took the foremost place; and for that reason he still presides over the whole [civil] service, now that the Praefect, for reasons before stated, no longer goes forth to battle.
'Since, then, all the rest of the staff are called assistants (Adjutores), the Praefect gives an intimation under his own hand to him who is entering the service in what department ([Greek: katalogos]) he is ordered to take up his station[125]. And the following are the names of all the departments of the service. First the Cornicularius, resplendent in all the dignity of a so-called Count ([Greek: komês]; comes; companion), but having not yet laid aside his belt of office, nor received the honour of admission to the palace, or what they call brevet-rank (codicilli vacantes), which honour at the end of his term of service is given to him, and to none of the other chiefs of departments[126].
[Footnote 125: Lydus here gives the Formula for the admission of assistants, 'et colloca eum in legione primâ adjutrice nostrâ,' which he proceeds to translate into Greek for the benefit of his readers ([Greek: kai taxeias auton en tô prôtô tagmati tô boêthounti hêmin]).]
[Footnote 126: I have slightly expanded a sentence here, but this is evidently the author's meaning.]
'And after the Cornicularius follow:--
'2 Primiscrinii, '2 Commentarisii, '2 Regendarii, '2 Curae Epistolarum, '15 Scholae of Exceptores,
and then the "unlearned service" of the Singularii[127].'
[Footnote 127: Condensed from Lydus, De Mag. iii. 4-7.]
Again, further on[128], Lydus, who delights to 'magnify his office,' gives us this further information as to the rank and functions of the Cornicularius:
[Footnote 128: Ib. iii. 22-24.]
'Now that, if I am not mistaken, we have described all the various official grades, it is meet to set forth the history of the Cornicularius, the venerable head of the Civil Service, the man who, as beginning and ending, sums up in himself the complete history of the whole official order. The mere antiquity of his office is sufficient to establish his credit, seeing that he was the leader of his troop for 1,300 years, and made his appearance in the world at the same time with the sacred City of Rome itself: for the Cornicularius was, from the first, attendant on the Master of the Horse, and the Master of the Horse on the King, and thus the Cornicularius, if he retained nothing of his office but the name, would still be connected with the very beginnings of the Roman State.
'But from the time when Domitian appointed Fuscus to the office of Praefect of the Praetorians (an office which had been instituted by Augustus), and abolished the rank of Master of the Horse, taking upon himself the command of the army[129], everything was changed. Henceforward, therefore, all affairs that were transacted in the office of the Praefect were arranged by the Cornicularius alone, and he received the revenues arising from them for his own refreshment. This usage, which prevailed from the days of Domitian to our own Theodosius, was then changed, on account of the usurpation of Rufinus. For the Emperor Arcadius, fearing the overgrown power of the Praefectoral office, passed a law that the Princeps of the Magister [Officiorum]'s staff[130] ... should appear in the highest courts, and should busy himself with part of the Praefect's duties, and especially should enquire into the principle upon which orders for the Imperial post-horses ([Greek: synthêmata]; evectiones) were granted[131].... This order of Arcadius was inscribed in the earlier editions of the Theodosian Code, but has been omitted in the later as superfluous.
[Footnote 129: This seems to be the meaning of Lydus, but it is not clearly expressed.]
[Footnote 130: There is something wanting in the text here.]
[Footnote 131: See Cod. Theod. vi. 29. 8, which looks rather like the law alluded to by Lydus, notwithstanding his remark about its omission.]
'Thus, then, the Princeps of the Magistriani, being introduced into the highest courts, but possessing nothing there beyond his mere empty dignity, made a bargain with the Cornicularius of the day, the object of which was to open up to him some portion of the business; and, having come to terms, the Princeps agreed to hand over to the Cornicularius one pound's weight of gold [£40] monthly, and to give instant gratuities to all his subordinates according to their rank in the service. In consequence of this compact the Cornicularius then in office, after receiving his 12 lbs. weight of gold without any abatement, with every show of honour conceded to his superior[132] (?) the preferential right of introducing "one-membered" cases ([Greek: tên tôn monomerôn entuchiôn eisagôgên]), having reserved to himself, beside the fees paid for promotion in the office[133], and other sources of gain, especially the sole right of subscribing the Acta of the court, and thus provided for himself a yearly revenue of not less than 1,000 aurei [£600].'
[Footnote 132: [Greek: tô kreittoni].]
[Footnote 133: [Greek: ek tou bathmou].]
I have endeavoured to translate as clearly as possible the obscure words of Lydus as to this bargain between the two court-officers. The complaint of Lydus appears to be that the Cornicularius of the day, by taking the money of the Princeps Magistrianorum, and conceding to him in return the preferential claim to manage 'one-membered' cases (or unopposed business), made a purse for himself, but prepared the way for the ruin of his successors. The monthly payment was, I think, to be made for twelve months only, and thus the whole amount which the Cornicularius received from this source was only £480, but from other sources--chiefly the sums paid for promotion by the subordinate members of the officium, and the fees charged by him for affixing his subscription to the acta of the court--he still remained in receipt of a yearly revenue of £600.
[Sidenote: Jealousy between the Officia of the Praefect and the Magister.]
The jealousy between the Officia of the Praetorian Praefect and the Magister Officiorum was intense. Almost every line in the treatise of Lydus testifies to it, and shows that the former office, in which he had the misfortune to serve, was being roughly shouldered out of the way by its younger and more unscrupulous competitor.
Lydus continues[134]: 'Now, what followed, like the Peleus of Euripides, I can never describe without tears. For on account of all these sources of revenue having been dried up, I myself have had to bear my part in the general misery of our time, since, though I have reached the highest grade of promotion in the service, I have derived nothing from it but the bare name. I do not blush to call Justice herself as a witness to the truth of what I say, when I affirm that I am not conscious of having received one obol from the Princeps, nor from the Letters Patent for promotions in the office[135]. For indeed whence should I have derived it, since it was the ancient custom that those who in any way appeared in the highest courts should pay to the officium seven and thirty aurei [£22] for a "one-membered" suit; but ever after this bargain was made there has been given only a very moderate sum of copper--not gold--in a beggarly way, as if one were buying a flask of oil, and that not regularly? Or how compel the Princeps to pay the ancient covenanted sum to the Cornicularius of the day, when he now scarcely remembered the bare name of that officer, as he never condescended to be present in the court when promotions were made from a lower grade to a higher? Bitterly do I regret that I was so late in coming to perceive for what a paltry price I was rendering my long services as assistant in the courts, receiving in fact nothing therefrom as my own solatium. It serves me right, however, for having chosen that line of employment, as I will explain, if the reader will allow me to recount to him my career from its commencement to the present time.'
[Footnote 134: De Mag. iii. 25.]
[Footnote 135: [Greek: apo tôn legomenôn kompleusimôn], apparently the same source of revenue as the promotion-money ([Greek: tên ek tou bathmou pronomian]).]
Lydus then goes on to describe his arrival at Constantinople (A.D. 511), his intention to enter the Scrinium Memoriae (in which he would have served under the Magister Officiorum), and his abandonment of this intention upon the pressing entreaties of his countryman Zoticus, who was at the time Praefectus Praetorio. This step Lydus looks upon as the fatal mistake of his life, though the consequences of it to him were in some degree mitigated by the marriage which Zoticus enabled him to make with a lady possessed of a fortune of 100 pounds' weight of gold (£4,000). Her property, her virtues (for 'she was superior to all women who have ever been admired for their moral excellence'), and the consolations of Philosophy and Literature, did much to soothe the disappointment of Lydus, who nevertheless felt, when he retired to his books after forty years of service, in which he had reached the unrewarded post of Cornicularius, that his official life had been a failure.
It has seemed worth while to give this sketch of the actual career of a Byzantine official, as it may illustrate in some points the lives of the functionaries to whom so many of the letters of Cassiodorus are addressed; though I know not whether we have any indications of such a rivalry at Ravenna as that which prevailed at Constantinople between the officium of the Praefect and that of the Magister. We now pass on to
[Sidenote: Adjutor.]
[Sidenote: Primiscrinius.]
(3) The Adjutor. Some of the uses of this term are very perplexing. It seems clear (from Lydus, 'De Mag.' iii. 3) that all the members of the officium were known by the generic name Adjutores. Here however we may perhaps safely assume that Adjutor means simply an assistant to the officer next above him, as we find, lower down in the list of the 'Notitia,' the Exceptores followed by their Adjutores. We may find a parallel to Adjutor in the word Lieutenant, which, for the same reason is applied to officers of such different rank as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a Lieutenant-General, a Lieutenant-Colonel, and a simple Lieutenant in the Army or Navy. In the lists of Cassiodorus and Lydus we find no mention of an officer bearing the special name of Adjutor, but we meet instead with a Primiscrinius, of whom, according to Lydus, there were two. He says[136], 'After the Cornicularius are two Primiscrinii, whom the Greeks call first of the service[137].' And later on[138], when he is describing the course of business in the secretum of the Praefect, as it used to be in the good old days, he informs us that after judgment had been given, and the Secretarii had read to the litigant the decree prepared by the Assessors and carefully copied by one of the Cancellarii, and after an accurate digest of the case had been prepared in the Latin language by a Secretarius, in order to guard against future error or misrepresentation, the successful litigant passed on with the decree in his hand to the Primiscrinii, who appointed an officer to execute the judgment of the Court[139]. These men then put the decree into its final shape by means of the persons appointed to assist them[140] (men who could puzzle even the professors themselves in logical discussions), and endorsed it on the litigant's petition in characters which at once struck awe into the reader, and which seemed actually swollen with official importance[141]. The name and titles of the 'completing' officer were then subscribed.
[Footnote 136: De Mag. iii. 4.]
[Footnote 137: [Greek: meta de ton kornikoularion primiskrinioi duo, ous Hellênes prôtous tês taxeôs kalousi].]
[Footnote 138: De Mag. iii. 11.]
[Footnote 139: [Greek: parêei pros tous primiskrinious taxantas ekbibastên tois apopephasmenois]. Probably we should read [Greek: taxontas] for [Greek: taxantas].]
[Footnote 140: [Greek: eplêroun dia tôn boêthein autois tetagmenôn] (? Adjutores).]
[Footnote 141: [Greek: epi tou nôtou tês entuchias grammasin aidous autothen apasês kai exousias onkô sesobêmenois].]
If the suggestion that the Primiscrinii were considered as in some sense substitutes (Adjutores) for the Cornicularius be correct, we may perhaps account for there being two of them in the days of Lydus by the disappearance of the Princeps. The office of Cornicularius had swallowed up that of Princeps, and accordingly the single Adjutor, who was sufficient at the compilation of the 'Notitia,' had to be multiplied by two.
[Sidenote: Commentariensis, or Commentarisius.]
(4) The Commentariensis. Here we come again to an officer who is mentioned by all our three authorities, though in Cassiodorus he seems to be degraded some steps below his proper rank (but this may only be from an accidental transposition of the order of the letters), and though Lydus again gives us two of the name instead of one. The last-named authority inserts next after the Primiscrinii 'two Commentarisii--so the law calls those who are appointed to attend to the drawing up of indictments[142].'
[Footnote 142: [Greek: kommentarisioi duo (houtô de tous epi tôn hypomnêmatôn graphê tattomenous ho nomos kalei)] (iii. 4). I accept the necessary emendation of the text proposed in the Bonn edition.]
The Commentariensis (or Commentarisius, as Lydus calls him[143]) was evidently the chief assistant of the Judge in all matters of criminal jurisdiction[144]. We have a remarkably full, and in the main clear account of his functions in the pages of Lydus (iii. 16-18), from which it appears that he was promoted from the ranks of the Exceptores (shorthand writers), and had six of his former colleagues serving under him as Adjutores[145]. Great was the power, and high the position in the Civil Service, of the Commentariensis. The whole tribe of process-servers, gaolers, lictors[146]--all that we now understand by the police force--waited subserviently on his nod. It rested with him, says Lydus, to establish the authority of the Court of Justice by means of the wholesome fear inspired by iron chains and scourges and the whole apparatus of torture[147]. Nay, not only did the subordinate magistrates execute their sentences by his agency, he had even the honour of being chosen by the Emperor himself to be the minister of vengeance against the persons who had incurred his anger or his suspicion. 'I myself remember,' says Lydus, 'when I was serving as Chartularius in the office of the Commentariensis, under the praefecture of Leontius (a man of the highest legal eminence), and when the wrath of Anastasius was kindled against Apion, a person of the most exalted rank, and one who had assisted in his elevation to the throne[148], at the same time when Kobad, King of Persia, blazed out into fury[149], that then all the confiscations and banishments which were ordered by the enraged Emperor were entrusted to no one else but to the Commentarienses serving under the Praefect. In this service they acquitted themselves so well, with such vigour, such harmonious energy, such entire clean-handedness and absence of all dishonest gain, as to move the admiration of the Emperor, who made use of them on all similar occasions that presented themselves in the remainder of his reign. They had even the honour of being employed against Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, when that prelate had provoked the Emperor by suspending all intercourse with him as a heretic; and that, although Celer, one of the most intimate friends of Anastasius, was at that very time holding the rank of Magister Officiorum.'
[Footnote 143: To avoid confusion I will use the term 'Commentariensis' throughout.]
[Footnote 144: So Bethmann Hollweg (p. 179), 'Diess ist der Gehülfe des Magistrats bei Verwaltung der Criminaljustiz.' I compare him in the following translation of Cassiodorus to a 'magistrate's clerk.']
[Footnote 145: See iii. 9 (p. 203, ed. Bonn), and combine with iii. 16. The Augustales referred to in the latter passage were a higher class of Exceptores.]
[Footnote 146: Applicitarii, Clavicularii, Lictores.]
[Footnote 147: [Greek: sidêreois desmois kai poinaiôn organôn kai plêktrôn poikilia saleuontôn tô phobô to dikastêrion] (iii. 16).]
[Footnote 148: [Greek: kai koinônêsantos autô tês basileias].]
[Footnote 149: [Greek: hote Kôadês ho Persês ephlegmaine]. The whole passage is mysterious, but we seem to have here an allusion to the outbreak of the Persian War (A.D. 502).]
An officer who was thus privileged to lay hands on Patriarch and Patrician in the name of Augustus was looked up to with awful reverence by all the lower members of the official hierarchy; and Lydus, with one graphic touch, brings before us the glow of gratified self-love with which, when he was a subordinate Scriniarius, he found himself honoured by the familiar conversation of so great a person as the Commentariensis[150]: 'I too am struck with somewhat of my old awe, recurring in memory to those who were then holders of the office. I remember what fear of the Commentarisii fell upon all who at all took the lead in the Officium, but especially on the Scriniarii; and how greatly he who was favoured with a chat with a Commentarisius passing by valued himself on the honour.' Lydus also describes to us how the Commentariensis, instructed by the Praefect, or perhaps even by the Emperor himself, would take with him one of his faithful servants, the Chartularii, would visit the abode of the suspected person (who might, as we have seen, be one of the very highest officers of the State), and would then in his presence dictate in solemn Latin words the indictment which was to be laid against him, the mere hearing of which sometimes brought the criminal to confess his guilt and throw himself on the mercy of the Emperor.
[Footnote 150: iii. 17 (p. 210).]
It was from this commentum, the equivalent of a French acte d'accusation, that the Commentariensis derived his title.
[Sidenote: Ab Actis (Scriniarius Actorum?).]
(5) The Ab Actis. The officer who bore this title (which is perhaps the same as the Scriniarius Actorum of Cassiodorus[151]) seems to have been exclusively concerned with civil cases, and perhaps held the same place in reference to them that the Commentarienses held in criminal matters[152]. Practically, his office appears to have been very much what we understand by that of Chief Registrar of the Court. He (or they, for in Lydus' time there were two Ab Actis as well as two Commentarienses[153]) was chosen from the select body of shorthand writers who were known as Augustales, and was assisted by six men of the same class, 'men of high character and intelligence and still in the vigour of their years[154].' His chief business--and in this he was served by the Nomenclatores, who shouted out in a loud voice the names of the litigants--was to introduce the plaintiff and defendant into the Court, or to make a brief statement of the nature of the case to the presiding magistrate. He then had to watch the course of the pleadings and listen to the Judge's decision, so as to be able to prepare a full statement of the case for the Registers or Journals[155] of the Court. These Registers--at least in the flourishing days of Roman jurisprudence--were most fully and accurately kept. Even the Dies Nefasti were marked upon them, and the reason for their being observed as legal holidays duly noted. Elaborate indices, prepared by the Chartularii, made search an easy matter to those who wished to ascertain what was the decision of the law upon every point; and the marginal notes, or personalia, prepared in Latin[156] by the Ab Actis or his assistants, were so excellent and so full that sometimes when the original entry in the Registers had been lost the whole case could be sufficiently reconstructed from them alone.
[Footnote 151: Var. xi. 22.]
[Footnote 152: This seems to be Bethmann Hollweg's view (p. 181).]
[Footnote 153: This we learn from iii. 20. They are not mentioned in iii. 4, where we should have expected to find them.]
[Footnote 154: [Greek: hex andres erastoi kai nounechestatoi kai sphrigôntes eti] (Lydus iii. 20).]
[Footnote 155: [Greek: rhegestôn ê kottidianôn (anti tou ephêmerôn)].]
[Footnote 156: [Greek: Italisti]. Of course the emphasis laid on this point proceeds from the Greek nationality of our present authority.]
The question was already mooted at Constantinople in the sixth century whence the Ab Actis derived his somewhat elliptical name; and our archaeology-loving scribe was able to inform his readers that as the officer of the household who was called A Pigmentis had the care of the aromatic ointments of the Court; as the A Sabanis[157] had charge of the bathing towels of the baths; as the A Secretis (who was called Ad Secretis by vulgar Byzantines, ignorant of the niceties of Latin grammar) was concerned in keeping the secret counsels of his Sovereign: so the Ab Actis derived his title from the Acts of the Court which it was his duty to keep duly posted up and properly indexed.
[Footnote 157: [Greek: sabanon] = a towel.]
[Sidenote: Numerarii.]
(6) The Numerarii (whose exact number is not stated in the 'Notitia'[158]) were the cashiers of the Praefect's office. Though frequently mentioned in the Theodosian Code, and though persons exercising this function must always have existed in a great Court of Justice like the Praefect's, we hear but little of them from Cassiodorus[159]; and Lydus' notices of the [Greek: diapsêphistai], who seem to correspond to the Numerarii[160], are scanty and imperfect. Our German commentator has collected the passages of the Theodosian Code which relate to this class of officers, and has shown that on account of their rapacity and extortion their office was subjected to a continual process of degradation. All the Numerarii, except those of the two highest classes of judges[161], were degraded into Tabularii, a name which had previously indicated the cashiers of a municipality as distinguished from those in the Imperial service; and the Numerarii, even of the Praetorian Praefect himself, were made subject to examination by torture. This was not only to be dreaded on account of the bodily suffering which it inflicted, but was also a mark of the humble condition of those to whom it was applied.
[Footnote 158: Except, as before stated, those in the office of the Praetorian Praefect for Illyricum. These were four in number, and one of them had charge of 'gold,' another of '[public] works.' Further information is requisite to enable us to explain these entries.]
[Footnote 159: They are alluded to in Var. xii. 13. The Canonicarii (Tax-collectors) had plundered the Churches of Bruttii and Lucania in the name of 'sedis nostrae Numerarii;' but the Numerarii with holy horror declared that they had received no part of the spoils.]
[Footnote 160: See Bethmann Hollweg, 184.]
[Footnote 161: Illustres and Spectabiles.]
[Sidenote: Scriniarius Curae Militaris.]
We may perhaps see in the Scriniarius Curae Militaris of Cassiodorus[162] one of these Numerarii detailed for service as paymaster to the soldiers who waited upon the orders of the Praefect.
[Footnote 162: xi. 24.]
[Sidenote: Subadjuvae.]
(7) The Subadjuvae. This is probably a somewhat vague term, like Adjutores, and indicates a second and lower class of cashiers who acted as deputies for the regular Numerarii.
[Sidenote: Cura Epistolarum.]
(8) Cura Epistolarum. The officer who bore this title appears to have had the duty of copying out all letters relating to fiscal matters[163]. This theory as to his office is confirmed by the words of Cassiodorus (Var. xi. 23): 'Let Constantinian on his promotion receive the care of the letters relating to the land-tax' (Hic itaque epistolarum canonicarum curam provectus accipiat).
[Footnote 163: This is Bethmann Hollweg's interpretation of the words of Lydus, [Greek: hoi tas men epi tois dêmosiois phoitôsas psêphous graphousi monon, to loipon kataphronoumenoi] (iii. 21). In another passage (iii. 4, 5) Lydus appears to assign a reason for the fact that the Praefectus Urbis Constantinopolitanae, the Magister Militum, and the Magister Officiorum had no Cura Epistolarum on their staff; but the paragraph is to me hopelessly obscure. Curiously enough, too, while he avers that every department of the State (perhaps every diocese) had, as a rule, its own Curae Epistolarum, he limits the two in the Praetorian Praefect's office to the diocese of Pontica ([Greek: koura epistolaroum Pontikês duo]).]
[Sidenote: Regerendarius, or Regendarius.]
(9) Regerendarius, or Regendarius[164]. This officer had the charge of all contracts relating to the very important department of the Cursus Publicus, or Imperial Mail Service. At the time of the compilation of the 'Notitia' only one person appears to have acted in this capacity under each Praefect. When Lydus wrote, there were two Regendarii in each Praefecture, but, owing to the increasing influence of the Magister Officiorum over the Cursus Publicus[165], their office had become apparently little more than an ill-paid sinecure. As we hear nothing of similar changes in the West, the Cursus Publicus was probably a part of the public service which was directly under the control of Cassiodorus when Praetorian Praefect, and was administered at his bidding by one or more Regendarii.
[Footnote 164: The first form of the name is found in the Notitia, the second in Lydus and Cassiodorus.]
[Footnote 165: It is not easy to make out exactly what Lydus wishes us to understand about the Cursus Publicus; but I think his statements amount to this, that it was taken by Arcadius from the Praetorian Praefect and given to the Magister Officiorum, was afterwards restored to the Praefect, and finally was in effect destroyed by the corrupt administration of John of Cappadocia. (See ii. 10; iii. 21, 61.)]
[Sidenote: Exceptores.]
(10) We now come to the Exceptores, or shorthand writers[166], a large and fluctuating body who stood on the lowest step of the official ladder[167] and formed the raw material out of which all its higher functionaries were fashioned in the regular order of promotion.
[Footnote 166: The [Greek: tachygraphoi] of Lydus.]
[Footnote 167: In making this statement I consider the Adjutores to be virtually another class of Exceptores, and I purposely omit the Singularii as not belonging to the Militia Litterata, which alone I am now considering.]
[Sidenote: Augustales.]
[Sidenote: Deputati.]
We are informed by Lydus[168], that in his time the Exceptores in the Eastern Empire were divided into two corps, the higher one called Augustales, who were limited in number to thirty, and the lower, of indefinite number and composing the rank and file of the profession. The Augustales only could aspire to the rank of Cornicularius; but in order that some prizes might still be left of possible attainment by the larger class, the rank of Primiscrinius was tenable by those who remained 'on the rolls of the Exceptores.' The reason for this change was that the unchecked application of the principle of seniority to so large a body of public servants was throwing all the more important offices in the Courts of Justice into the hands of old men. The principle of 'seniority tempered by selection' was therefore introduced, and the ablest and most learned members of the class of Exceptores were drafted off into this favoured section of Augustales, fifteen of the most experienced of whom were appropriated to the special service of the Emperor, while the other fifteen filled the higher offices (with the exception of the Primiscriniate) in the Praefectoral Courts[169]. The first fifteen were called Deputati[170], the others were apparently known simply as Augustales.
[Footnote 168: iii. 6, 9.]
[Footnote 169: I think this is a fair summary of Lydus iii. 9 and 10, but these paragraphs are very difficult and obscure.]
[Footnote 170: We should certainly have expected that the Augustales would be those writers who were specially appropriated to the Emperor's service, but the other conclusion necessarily follows from the language of Lydus (iii. 10): [Greek: hôste kai pentekaideka ex autôn tôn pepanôterôn peira te kai tô chronô kreittonôn pros hypographên tois basileusin aphoristhênai, ous eti kai nun dêpoutatous kalousin, hoi tou tagmatos tôn Augoustaliôn prôteuousin].]
The change thus described by Lydus appears to have been made in the West as well as in the East, since we hear in the 'Variae' of Cassiodorus (xi. 30) of the appointment of a certain Ursus to be Primicerius of the Deputati, and of Beatus to take the same place among the Augustales[171].
[Footnote 171: The form of the word must I think prevent us from applying the Princeps Augustorum of xi. 35 to the same class of officers.]
[Sidenote: Adjutores.]
(11) The Adjutores of the 'Notitia' were probably a lower class of Exceptores, who may very likely have disappeared when the Augustales were formed out of them by the process of differentiation which has been described above.
We have now gone through the whole of what was termed the 'Learned Service[172]' mentioned in the 'Notitia,' with one exception--the title of an officer, in himself humble and obscure, who has given his name to the highest functionaries of mediaeval and modern Europe.
[Footnote 172: [Greek: tous epi tais logikais tetagmenous leitourgiais] (Lydus iii. 7). [Greek: Peras men hode tôn logikôn tês taxeôs systêmatôn] (iii. 21). The 'Learned Service' may be taken as corresponding to 'a post fit for a gentleman,' in modern phraseology. In our present Official Directories the members of the [Greek: logikê taxis] appear to be all dignified with the title 'Esq.;' the others have only 'Mr.']
[Sidenote: Cancellarius.]
(12) The Cancellarius appears in the 'Notitia' only once[173], and then in connection not with the Praetorian Praefect, but with the Master of the Offices. At the very end of the Officium of this dignitary, after the six Scholae and four Scrinia of his subordinates, and after the Admissionales, whom we must look upon as the Ushers of the Court, comes the entry,
Cancellarii:
their very number not stated, the office being too obscure to make a few less or more a matter of importance.
[Footnote 173: Occidentis ix. 15.]
After the compilation of the 'Notitia' the office of Cancellarius apparently rose somewhat in importance, and was introduced into other departments besides that of the Master of the Offices.
One Cancellarius appears attached to the Court of Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect, and from the admonitions addressed to him by his master[174], we see that he had it in his power considerably to aid the administration of justice by his integrity, or to hinder it by showing himself accessible to bribes.
[Footnote 174: In Var. xi. 6, which see.]
In describing the Cancellarius, as in almost every other part of his treatise, Lydus has to tell a dismal story of ruin and decay[175]:
[Footnote 175: iii. 36, 37.]
'Now the Scriniarii [subordinates of the Magister Officiorum] are made Cancellarii and Logothetes and purveyors of the Imperial table, whereas in old time the Cancellarius was chosen only from the ranks of Augustales and Exceptores who had served with credit. In those days the Judgment Hall [of the Praefect] recognised only two Cancellarii, who received an aureus apiece[176] per day from the Treasury. There was aforetime in the Court of Justice a fence separating the Magistrate from his subordinates, and this fence, being made of long splinters of wood placed diagonally, was called cancellus, from its likeness to network, the regular Latin word for a net being casses, and the diminutive cancellus[177]. At this latticed barrier then stood two Cancellarii, by whom, since no one was allowed to approach the judgment-seat, paper was brought to the members of the staff and needful messages were delivered. But now that the office owing to the number of its holders[178] has fallen into disrepute, and that the Treasury no longer makes a special provision for their maintenance, almost all the hangers-on of the Courts of Law call themselves Cancellarii; and, not only in the capital but in the Provinces, they give themselves this title in order that they may be able more effectually to plunder the wealthy.'
[Footnote 176: About twelve shillings.]
[Footnote 177: This derivation from casses is, of course, absurd.]
[Footnote 178: Can this be the meaning of [Greek: eis plêthos]?]
This description by Lydus, while it aptly illustrates Cassiodorus' exhortations to his Cancellarii to keep their hands clean from bribes, shows how lowly their office was still considered; and indeed, but for his statement that it used to be filled by veteran Augustales, we might almost have doubted whether it is rightly classed among the 'Learned Services' at all.
[Sidenote: End of the Militia Literata.]
Now at any rate we leave the ranks of the gentlemen of the Civil Service behind us, and come to the 'Militia Illiterata,' of whom the 'Notitia' enumerates only
[Sidenote: Militia Illiterata: Singularii.]
(13) The Singularii, a class of men of whose useful services Lydus speaks in terms of high praise, contrasting their modest efficiency with the pompous verbosity[179] of the Magistriani (servants of the Master of the Offices) by whom they were being generally superseded in his day. They travelled through the Provinces, carrying the Praefect's orders, and riding in a post-chaise drawn by a single horse (veredus), from which circumstance, according to Lydus, they derived their name Singularii[180].
[Footnote 179: [Greek: Kompophakellorrêmosynê] = Pomp-bundle-wordiness, an Aristophanic word.]
[Footnote 180: De Dignitatibus iii. 7.]
We observe that the letter of Cassiodorus[181] addressed to the retiring chief (Primicerius) of the Singularii informs him that he is promoted to a place among the King's Body-guard (Domestici et Protectores), a suitable reward for one who had not been a member of the 'Learned Services.'
[Footnote 181: Var. xi. 31.]
After the Singularii Lydus mentions the Mancipes, the men who were either actually slaves or were at any rate engaged in servile occupations; as, for instance, the bakers at the public bakeries, the Rationalii, who distributed the rations to the receivers of the annona[182], the Applicitarii (officers of arrest), and Clavicularii (gaolers), who, as we before heard, obeyed the mandate of the Commentariensis. The Lictors, I think, are not mentioned by him. A corresponding class of men would probably be the Apparitores, who in the 'Notitia' appear almost exclusively attached to the service of the great Ministers of War[183].
[Footnote 182: This seems a probable explanation of a rather obscure passage.]
[Footnote 183: See the following sections of the Notitia: Magister Militum Praesentatis (Oriens v. 74, vi. 77; Occidens v. 281, vi. 93); M.M. per Orientem (Or. vii. 67); M.M. per Thracias (Or. viii. 61); M.M. per Illyricum (Or. ix. 56); Magister Equitum per Gallias (Occ. vii. 117). The only civil officer who has Apparitores is the Proconsul Achaiae (Oriens xxi. 14).]
Thus, it will be seen, from the well-paid and often highly-connected Princeps, who, no doubt, discussed the business of the court with the Praetorian Praefect on terms of friendly though respectful familiarity, down to the gaoler and the lictor and the lowest of the half-servile mancipes, there was a regular gradation of rank, which still preserved, in the staff of the highest court of justice in the land, all the traditions of subordination and discipline which had once characterised the military organisation out of which it originally sprang.
V. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[Sidenote: Editiones Principes.]
The Ecclesiastical History ('Historia Tripartita') seems to have been the first of the works of Cassiodorus to attract the notice of printers at the revival of learning. The Editio Princeps of this book (folio) was printed by Johann Schuszler, at Augsburg, in 1472[184].
[Footnote 184: This edition is described by Dibdin (Bibliotheca Spenceriana iii. 244-5).]
The Editio Princeps of the 'Chronicon' is contained in a collection of Chronicles published at Basel in 1529 by Joannes Sichardus (printer, Henricus Petrus). The contribution of Cassiodorus is prefaced by an appropriate Epistle Dedicatory to Sir Thos. More, in which a parallel is suggested between the lives of these two literary statesmen.
Next followed the Editio Princeps of the 'Variae,' published at Augsburg in 1533, by Mariangelus Accurtius.
In 1553, Joannes Cuspinianus, a counsellor of the Emperor Maximilian, published at Basel a series of Chronicles with which he interwove the Chronicle of Cassiodorus, and to which he prefixed a short life of our author.
[Sidenote: Edition of Nivellius.]
The Editio Princeps of the collected works of Cassiodorus was published at Paris in 1579 by Sebastianus Nivellius; and other editions by the same publisher followed in 1584 and 1589. This edition does not contain the Tripartite History, the Exposition of the Psalter, or the 'Complexiones' on the Epistles. Some notes, not without merit, are added, which were compiled in 1578 by 'Gulielmus Fornerius, Parisiensis, Regius apud Aurelianenses Consiliarius et Antecessor.' The annotator says[185] that these notes had gradually accumulated on the margin of his copy of Cassiodorus, an author who had been a favourite of his from youth, and whom he had often quoted in his forensic speeches.
[Footnote 185: p. 492.]
The edition of Nivellius, which is evidently prepared with a view to aid the historical rather than the theological study of the writings of Cassiodorus, contains also the Gothic history of Jordanus (sic), the 'Edictum Theoderici,' the letter of Sidonius describing the Court of Theodoric II the Visigoth (453-466), and the Panegyric of Ennodius on Theodoric the Great. The letter of Sidonius is evidently inserted owing to a confusion between the two Theodorics; and this error has led many later commentators astray. But the reprint of the 'Edictum Theoderici' is of great interest and value, because the MS. from which it was taken has since disappeared, and none other is known to be in existence. A letter is prefixed to the 'Edictum,' written by Pierre Pithou to Edouard Molé, Dec. 31, 1578, and describing his reasons for sending this document to the publisher who was printing the works of Cassiodorus. At the same time, 'that the West might not have cause to envy the East,' he sent a MS. of the 'Leges Wisigothorum,' with illustrative extracts from Isidore and Procopius, which is printed at the end of Nivellius' edition.
I express no opinion about the text of this edition; but it possesses the advantage of an Index to the 'Variae' only, which will be found at the end of the Panegyric of Ennodius. Garet's Index, which is in itself not so full, has the additional disadvantage of being muddled up with the utterly alien matter of the Tripartite History.
In 1588 appeared an edition in 4to. of the works of Cassiodorus (still excluding the Tripartite History and the Biblical Commentaries), published at Paris by Marc Orry. This was republished in 1600 in two volumes 12mo.
The 'Variae' and 'Chronicon' only, in 12mo. were published at Lyons by Jacques Chouet in 1595, and again by Pierre and Jacques Chouet at Geneva in 1609, and by their successors in 1650. These editions contain the notes of Pierre Brosse, Jurisconsult, as well as those of Fornerius.
[Sidenote: Edition of Garet.]
In 1679 appeared, in two volumes folio, the great Rouen edition by François Jean Garet (of the Congregation of S. Maur), which has ever since been the standard edition of the works of Cassiodorus. Garet speaks of collating several MSS. of various ages for the text of this edition, especially mentioning 'Codex S. Audoeni' (deficient for Books 5, 6, and 7 of the 'Variae'), 'et antiquissimae membranae S. Remigii Remensis' (containing only the first four books of the same collection). A codex which once belonged to the jurist Cujacius, and which had been collated with Accurtius' text in 1575 by a certain Claude Grulart, seems to have given Garet some valuable readings by means of Grulart's notes, though the codex itself had disappeared. Garet's edition was re-issued at Venice in 1729, and more recently in Migne's 'Patrologia' (Paris, 1865), of which it forms vols. 69 and 70.
[Sidenote: Forthcoming Edition by Meyer.]
There can be little doubt, however, that all these editions will be rendered obsolete by the new edition which is expected to appear as a volume of the 'Auctores Antiquissimi' in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The editor is Professor Wilhelm Meyer, of Munich. The work has been for some years announced as near completion, but I have not been able to ascertain how soon it may be expected to appear.
[Sidenote: Supposed fragment of orations.]
Finally, I must not omit to notice the fragments of an oration published by Baudi de Vesme in the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Turin (1846). Those fragments, which were found in a palimpsest MS. of the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, were first published in 1822 by Angelo Mai, who was then disposed to attribute them to Symmachus (the elder), and to assign them to the early part of the fifth century. On reflection, however, he came to the conclusion that they were probably the work of Cassiodorus, and formed part of a panegyric addressed to Theodoric. This theory appears now to meet with general approval. The style is certainly very similar to that of Cassiodorus; but, as will be inferred from the doubt as to their origin, there is little or nothing in these scanty fragments which adds anything to our knowledge of the history of Theodoric.
[Sidenote: Life by Garet.]
To the literature relating to Cassiodorus the most important contribution till recent times was the life by Garet prefixed to his edition of 1679. I cannot speak of this from a very minute investigation, but it seems to be a creditable performance, the work of one who had carefully studied the 'Variae,' but unfortunately quite misleading as to the whole framework of the life of Cassiodorus, from the confusion which it makes between him and his father, an error which Garet has probably done more than any other author to perpetuate.
[Sidenote: Life by St. Marthe.]
The life by Garet was paraphrased in French by Denys de Ste. Marthe ('Vie de Cassiodore,' Paris, 1695), whose work has enjoyed a reputation to which it was not entitled on the ground either of originality or accuracy, but which was probably due to the fact that the handy octavo volume written in French was accessible to a wider circle of readers than Garet's unwieldy folio in Latin. A more original performance was that of Count Buat (in the 'Abhandlungen der Kurfürstlichen Bairischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,' Munich, 1763); but this author, though he pointed out the cardinal error of Garet, his confusion between Senator and his father, introduced some further gratuitous entanglements of his own into the family history of the Cassiodori.
[Sidenote: Modern monographs.]
All these works, however, are rendered entirely obsolete by three excellent monographs which have recently been published in Germany on the life and writings of Cassiodorus. These are--
[Sidenote: Thorbecke.]
August Thorbecke's 'Cassiodorus Senator' (Heidelberg, 1867);
[Sidenote: Franz.]
Adolph Franz's 'M. Aurelius Cassiodorius Senator' (Breslau, 1872); and
[Sidenote: Usener.]
Hermann Usener's 'Anecdoton Holderi' (Bonn, 1877), described in the second chapter of this introduction.
Thorbecke discusses the political, and Franz the religious and literary aspects of the life of their common hero, and between them they leave no point of importance in obscurity. Usener, as we have already seen, brings an important contribution to our knowledge of the subject in presenting us with Holder's fragment; and his Commentary (of eighty pages) on this fragment is a model of patient and exhaustive research. It seems probable that these three authors have really said pretty nearly the last word about the life and writings of Cassiodorus. In addition to these authors many writers of historical works in Germany have of late years incidentally contributed to a more accurate understanding of the life and times of Cassiodorus.
Dahn, in the third section of his 'Könige der Germanen' (Würzburg, 1866), has written a treatise on the political system of the Ostrogoths which is almost a continuous commentary on the 'Variae,' and from which I have derived the greatest possible assistance.
Köpke, in his 'Anfänge des Königthums bei den Gothen' (Berlin, 1859), has condensed into a small compass a large amount of useful disquisition on Cassiodorus and his copyist Jordanes. The relation between these two writers was also elaborately discussed by von Sybel in his thesis 'De Fontibus Libri Jordanis' (Berlin, 1838), and by Schirren, in his monograph 'De Ratione quae inter Jordanem et Cassiodorum intercedat' (Dorpat, 1885). The latter, though upon the whole a creditable performance, is disfigured by one or two strange blunders, and not improved by some displays of irrelevant learning.
Von Schubert, in his 'Unterwerfung der Alamannen unter die Franken' (Strassburg, 1884), throws some useful light on the question of the date of the early letters in the 'Variae;' and Binding, in his 'Geschichte des Burgundisch-Romanischen Königreichs' (Leipzig, 1868), discusses the relations between Theodoric and the Sovereigns of Gaul, as disclosed by the same collection of letters, in a manner which I must admit to be forcible, though I do not accept all his conclusions.
Mommsen, in his paper 'Die Chronik des Cassiodorus Senator' (Vol. viii. of the 'Abhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften;' Leipzig, 1861), has said all that is to be said concerning the unfortunate 'Chronicon' of Cassiodorus, which he handles with merciless severity.
To say that Ebert, in his 'Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters im Abendlande' (Leipzig, 1874), and Wattenbach, in his 'Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter,' tell us with fullness and accuracy just what the student ought to wish to know concerning Cassiodorus as an author, is only to say that they are Ebert and Wattenbach. Every one who has had occasion to refer to these two books knows their merits.
Passing from German literature, I regret that I am prevented by ignorance of the Dutch language from forming an opinion as to the work of Thijm ('Iets over M.A. Cassiodorus en zijne eeuw;' Amsterdam, 1857), which is frequently quoted by my German authorities.
Gibbon of course quotes from the 'Variae,' and though he did not know them intimately, he has with his usual sagacity apprehended the true character of the book and of its author. But the best account of the 'Various Letters' in English, as far as I know, is unfortunately entombed in the pages of a periodical, being an article by Dean Church, contributed in July, 1880, to the 'Church Quarterly Review.' There is also a very good though necessarily brief notice of Cassiodorus in Ugo Balzani's little volume on the 'Early Chroniclers of Italy,' published by the Christian Knowledge Society in 1883.
VI. CHRONOLOGY
In the following chronological table of the life of Cassiodorus I have, for convenience sake, assumed 480 as the year of his birth, and 575 as that of his death. It is now, I think, sufficiently proved that if these dates are not absolutely correct, they cannot be more than a year or two wrong in one direction or the other.
[Sidenote: Consular Fasti.]
As dates were still reckoned by Consulships, at any rate through the greater part of the life of Cassiodorus, I have inserted the Consular Fasti for the period in question. It will be seen that several names of correspondents of Cassiodorus figure in this list. As a general though not universal practice, one of the two Consuls at this time was chosen from out of the Senate of Rome and the other from that of Constantinople. We can almost always tell whether a chronicler belongs to the Eastern or Western Empire by observing whether he puts the Eastern or Western Consul first. Thus, for A.D. 501, Marcellinus Comes, who was an official of the Eastern Empire, gives us 'Pompeius et Avienus, Coss.;' while Cassiodorus, in his 'Chronicon,' assigns the year to 'Avienus et Pompeius.' Pompeius was a nobleman of Constantinople, nephew of the Emperor Anastasius; while Avienus was a Roman Senator[186]. Again, in A.D. 490, Marcellinus gives the names of Longinus and Faustus, which Cassiodorus quotes as Faustus and Longinus. Longinus was a brother of the Emperor Zeno, and Faustus was for many years Praetorian Praefect under Theodoric, and was the receiver of many letters in the following collection.
[Footnote 186: See Usener, p. 32.]
I have endeavoured to give the priority always to the Western Consul in the list before us, except in those cases where an Emperor (who was of course an Eastern) condescended to assume the Consular trabea.
[Sidenote: Indictions.]
Another mode of reckoning the dates which the reader will continually meet with in the following pages is by Indictions. The Indiction, as is well known, was a cycle of fifteen years, during which, as we have reason to believe, the assessment for the taxes remained undisturbed, a fresh valuation being made all round when the cycle was ended. Traces of this quindecennial period may be found in the third century, but the formal adoption of the Indiction is generally assigned to the Emperor Constantine, and to the year 312[187]. The Indiction itself, and every one of the years composing it, began on the 1st of September of the calendar year. The reason for this period being chosen probably was that the harvests of the year being then gathered in, the collection of the tithes of the produce, which formed an important part of the Imperial revenue, could be at once proceeded with. What gives an especial importance to this method of dating by Indictions, for the reader of the following letters is, that most of the great offices of State changed hands at the beginning of the year of the Indiction (Sept. 1), not at the beginning of the Calendar year.
[Footnote 187: Compare Marquardt (Römische Staatsverwaltung ii. 237). He remarks that the Indiction seems to have been first adopted in Egypt, and did not come into universal use all over the Empire till the end of the Fourth Century.]
To make such a mode of dating the year at all satisfactory, it would seem to us necessary that the number of the cycle itself, as well as of the year in the cycle, should be given; for instance, that A.D. 313 should be called the first year of the first Indiction, and A.D. 351 the ninth year of the third Indiction. This practice, however, was not adopted till far on into the Middle Ages[188]. At the time we are speaking of, the word Indiction seems generally to have been given not to the cycle itself, but to the year in the cycle. Thus, 313 was the first Indiction, 314 the second Indiction, 315 the third Indiction, and so on. And thus we find a year, which from other sources we know to be 313, called the first Indiction, 351 the ninth Indiction, 537 the fifteenth Indiction, without any clue being given to guide us to the important point in what cycles these years held respectively the first, the ninth, and the fifteenth places.
[Footnote 188: The Twelfth Century, according to Marquardt.]
As the Indiction began on the 1st of September a question arises whether the calendar year is to be named after the number of the Indiction which belongs to its beginning or its end; whether, to go back to the beginning, A.D. 312 or A.D. 313 is to be accounted the first Indiction. The practice of the chroniclers and of most writers on chronology appears to be in favour of the latter method, which is natural, inasmuch as nine months of the Indiction belong to the later date and only three to the earlier. Thus, for instance, Marcellinus Comes calls the year of the Consulship of Belisarius, which was undoubtedly 535, 'Indictio XIII:' the thirteenth Indiction of that cycle having begun Sept. 1, 534, and ended August 31, 535. But it is well that the student should be warned that our greatest English authority, Mr. Fynes Clinton, adopts the other method. In the very useful table of comparative chronology which he gives in his Fasti Romani[189] he assigns the Indiction to that year of the Christian era in which it had its beginning, and accordingly 534, not 535, is identified with the thirteenth Indiction.
[Footnote 189: Vol. ii. pp. 214-216. See his remarks, p. 210: 'The Indictions in Marcellinus and in the Tables of Du Fresnoy are compared with the Consulship and the Julian year in which they end. In the following Table they are compared with the year in which they begin, because the years of the Christian era are here made the measure of the rest, and contain the beginnings of all the other epochs.']
In order to translate years of Indiction into years of the Christian era it is necessary first to add some multiple of 15 (what multiple our knowledge of history must inform us) to 312. On the 1st of September of the year so obtained the Indiction cycle began; and for any other year of the same cycle we must of course add its own number minus one. Thus, when we find Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect writing a letter[190] informing Joannes of his appointment to the office of Cancellarius 'for the twelfth Indiction,' as we know within a little what date is wanted, we first of all add 14 x 15 (= 210) to 312, and so obtain 522. The first Indiction in that cycle ran from September 1, 522, to August 31, 523. The twelfth Indiction was therefore from September 1, 533, to August 31, 534, and that is the date we require.
[Footnote 190: Var. xi. 6.]
On the other hand, when we find a letter written by Cassiodorus as Praetorian Praefect to the Provincials of Istria[191] as to the payment of tribute for the first Indiction, we know that we must now have entered upon a new cycle. We therefore add 15 x 15 (= 225) to 312, and get 537. As it happens to be the first Indiction that we require, our calculation ends here: September 1, 537, to August 31, 538, is the answer required.
[Footnote 191: Var. xii. 22.]
If anyone objects that such a system of chronology is cumbrous, uncertain, and utterly unscientific, I can only say that I entirely agree with him, and that the system is worthy of the perverted ingenuity which produced the Nones and Ides of the Roman Calendar.
In the following tables I have not attempted to mark the years of the Indiction, on account of the confusion caused by the fact that two calendar years require the same number. But I have denoted by the abbreviation 'Ind.' the years in which each cycle of the Indictions began. These years are 492, 507, 522, 537, 552, and 567.
Chronological Tables.
Private Public Rulers of A.D. Consuls. Events. Events. Italy. Popes. Emperors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 480 Basilius Magnus Assassination ODOVACAR SIMPLICIUS ZENO Junior. Aurelius of Nepos, (from 476). (from 468). (from 474). Cassiodorus formerly Senator, Emperor of born at the West. Scyllacium (?). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 481 Placidus. Odovacar avenges the murder of Nepos. Death of Theodoricus Triarii. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 482 Trocondus Accession of and Clovis. Severinus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 483 Faustus. Zeno issues FELIX II the Henoticon. (or III). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 484 Theodoricus Illus revolts and against Zeno. Venantius. Schism between Eastern and Western Churches. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 485 Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 486 Decius and Longinus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 487 Boethius War between (_Father of Odovacar and the great the Rugians. Boethius_). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 488 Dyanamius Theodoric and starts for Sifidius. Italy. Death of Illus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 489 Anicius Theodoric Probinus descends into and Italy. Battles Eusebius. of the Isonzo and Verona. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 490 Flavius Battle of the Faustus Adda. Junior and Longinus (II). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 491 Olybrius Battle of ANASTASIUS. Junior. Ravenna. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 492 Flavius GELASIUS. (Ind.) ANASTASIUS Augustus and Rufus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 493 Eusebius Surrender of THEODORIC. (II) and Ravenna. Albinus. Death of Odovacar. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 494 Turcius Rufus Apronianus Asterius and Praesidius. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 495 Flavius Viator. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 496 Paulus. Clovis ANASTASIUS. defeats the Alamanni. His conversion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 497 Flavius SYMMACHUS ANASTASIUS (Antipope Aug. (II). Laurentius). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 498 Paulinus and Joannes Scytha. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 499 Joannes Gibbus.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 500 Patricius Cassiodorus War between and Senior, Gundobad and Hypatius. Patrician, Clovis. Praefect. Theodoric's His son visit to becomes his Rome. _Consili- Conspiracy of arius_. Odoin. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 501 Rufius About this Synodus Magnus time Palmaris at Faustus Cassiodorus Rome. Avienus pronounces Symmachus and his confirmed in Flavius panegyric the Pompeius. on Pontificate. Theodoric, and is rewarded by being appointed Quaestor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 502 Flavius Avienus Junior and Probus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 503 Dexicrates and Volusianus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 504 Cethegus. War of Sirmium. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 505 Theodorus War between and Theodoric and Sabinianus. Anastasius (affair of Mundo). Battle of Horrea Margi. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 506 Messala and Areobinda. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 507 Flavius Clovis (Ind.) ANASTASIUS defeats Aug. (III) Alaric II at and Campus Venantius. Vogladensis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 508 Venantius Tulum and Celer. endeavours to raise siege of Arles. Byzantine raid on Apulia. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 509 Importunus. Mammo invades Burgundy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 510 Anicius Ibbus defeats Manlius Franks and Severinus Burgundians. Boethius (_Author of the 'Consolation'_). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 511 Felix and Death of Secundinus. Clovis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 512 Paulus and Muschianus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 513 Probus and Clementinus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 514 Senator, Cassiodorus HORMISDAS. _solus as Consul Consul_ restores (Cassio- harmony dorus). between clergy and people of Rome. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 515 Florentius Cassiodorus Marriage of and receives Eutharic and Anthemius. the Amalasuentha. Patriciate (?). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 516 Petrus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 517 Agapitus and Flavius Anastasius (_nephew of the Emperor_).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 518 Magnus. JUSTIN I. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 519 JUSTINUS Composition End of schism Augustus of the between and 'Chroni- Eastern and Eutharicus con,' Western Cillica. dedicated Churches. to Eutharic. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 520 Rusticus Composition and of the Vitalianus. Gothic History (?). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 521 Valerius and Flavius Justinianus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 522 Symmachus (Ind.) and Boethius (_sons of the great Boethius_). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 523 Flavius Franks invade JOHN I. Anicius Burgundy. Maximus. Imprisonment of Boethius. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 524 Flavius Death of JUSTINUS Boethius. Aug. (II) and Opilio. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 525 Anicius Death of Probus Symmachus. Junior and Pope John's Flavius Mission to Theodorus Constantinople. Philoxenus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 526 Olybrius. Cassiodorus Pope John ATHALARIC. FELIX III Master of dies in (or IV). the prison (May Offices. 25). Death of Theodoric (Aug. 30). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 527 Vettius Death of JUSTINIAN. Agorius Amalafrida, Basilius Queen-dowager Mavortius. of the Vandals. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 528 Flavius JUSTINIANUS Aug. (II). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 529 Decius BONIFACE II. Junior. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 530 Flavius Lampadius and Orestes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 531 _Post Consulatum Lampadii et Orestis._ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 532 _Post Final invasion Consulatum of Burgundy by Lampadii et the Franks. Orestis. Anno II._ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 533 Flavius Cassiodorus The Vandal War JOHN III. JUSTINIANUS Praetorian of Justinian Aug. (III). Praefect (June, 533- (Sept. 1), March, 534). which office he holds till he retires from public life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 534 Flavius Death of AMALASUENTHA. JUSTINIANUS Athalaric THEODAHAD. Aug. (IV) (Oct. 2). and Flavius Association of Theodorus Theodahad with Paulinus Amalasuentha. Junior. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 535 Flavius Death of AGAPETUS. Belisarius. Amalasuentha. The Gothic War begins.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 536 _Post Belisarius WITIGIS. SILVERIUS. Consulatum takes Naples Fl. and enters Belisarii._ Rome. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 537 _Post Siege of Rome VIGILIUS. (Ind.) Consulatum by Witigis. Fl. Belisarii Anno II._ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 538 Flavius Collection Siege of Rome Johannes of the raised. (John of 'Variae.' Cappa- Composition docia). of the 'De Animâ.' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 539 Flavius Cassiodorus Mediolanum Appion. about this taken by the time lays Goths. down his Belisarius office and takes retires to Auximum. his birthplace (Scyllacium), where he founds the Monastery of Vivaria. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 540 Flavius Ravenna ILDIBAD. Justinus surrendered Junior. to Belisarius. Captivity of Witigis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 541 Flavius He writes ERARIC. Basilius Commentary BADUILA Junior. on the (TOTILA). Psalms as far as Psalm 20. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 542 Years " Totila twice reckoned defeats the Post Imperial Consulatum generals, and Basilii. retrieves the fortune of the Ostrogoths. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 543 " Composition of the 'Institutiones Divinarum et Humanarum Litterarum.' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 544 " Belisarius returns to Italy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 545 " Rome taken by Totila. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 546 " Continues and completes his Commentary on the Psalms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 547 " " Rome re-occupied by Belisarius. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 548 " " Death of Empress Theodora. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 549 " " Rome again taken by Totila. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 550 " " Death of Germanus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 551 " Narses Commander of Italian Expedition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 552 " Writes the Narses TEIAS. (Ind.) 'Complexi- defeats ones in Totila Epistolas near Apostolo- Tadinum. rum,' and compiles the 'Historia Tripartita' (the precise date of these works unknown). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 553 " " Teias NARSES, defeated and Governor of slain near Italy under Mons the Emperor. Lactarius. The Ostrogoths leave Italy. Invasion of the Alamannic brethren. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 554 " " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 555 " " PELAGIUS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 556 " " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 557 " " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 558 " " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 559 " " Belisarius defeats the Huns under Zabergan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 560 " " JOHN III. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 561 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 562 " Disgrace of Belisarius. Belisarius restored to favour. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 563 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 564 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 565 Post JUSTIN II. Consulatum Basilii XXIV. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 566 Flavius Death of JUSTINUS Belisarius Augustus. and of Justinian. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 567 Years Narses LONGINUS, (Ind.) reckoned recalled by Exarch. Post Justin. Consulatum Alleged Justini. invitation to the Lombards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 568 " The Lombards ALBOIN, under Alboin King of the enter Italy. Lombards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 569 " Milan taken by the Lombards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 570 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 571 " Ticinum taken by the Lombards. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 572 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 573 " Composition Assassination CLEPH, Death of of treatise of Alboin. King of the John III. 'De Lombards. Orthographia' in 93rd year of Cassiodorus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 574 " Death of BENEDICT I. Cleph. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 575 " Cassiodorus dies in his 95th year (?). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
LETTERS OF CASSIODORUS.
PREFACE[192].
[Footnote 192: Translated in full.]
[Sidenote: Reason for publication: entreaties of friends.]
Learned men, who had become my friends through conversations which we had had together, or benefits which I had bestowed upon them, sought to persuade me to draw together into one work the various utterances which it had been my duty to make, during my tenure of office, for the explanation of different affairs. They desired me to do this, in order that future generations might recognise the painful labours which I had undergone for the public good, and the workings of my own unbribed conscience. I then replied that their very kindness for me might turn out to my disadvantage, since the letters which their good-will found acceptable might to future readers seem insipid. I reminded them also of the words of Horace, warning us of the dangers of hasty publication.
[Sidenote: Difficulty of writing.]
'You see,' said I, 'that all require from me a speedy reply to their petitions; and do you think that I couch those replies in words which leave me nothing to regret hereafter? Our diction must be somewhat rude when there is no sufficient delay to enable the speaker to choose words which shall rightly express the precise shade of his meaning. Speech is the common gift of all mankind: it is embellishment (ornatus) alone which distinguishes between the learned and unlearned. The author is told to keep his writings by him for nine years for reflection; but I have not as many hours, hardly as many moments. As soon as I begin the petitioner worries me with his clamours, and hurries me too much to prevent my finishing cautiously, even if I have so begun my task. One vexes me past endurance by his interruptions and innuendoes; another torments me with the doleful tale of his miseries; others surround me with the mad shouts of their seditious contentions[193]. In such circumstances how can you expect elegance of language, when we have scarcely opportunity to put words together in any fashion? Even at night indescribable cares are flitting round our couch[194], while we are harassed with fear lest the cities should lack their supplies of food--food which the common people insist upon more than anything else, caring more for their bellies than for the gratification of their ears by eloquence. This thought obliges us to wander in imagination through all the Provinces, and ever to enquire after the execution of our orders, since it is not enough to tell our staff what has to be done, but the diligent administrator must see that it is done[195]. Therefore, I pray you, spare us your harmful love. I must decline this persuasion of yours, which will bring me more of danger than of glory.'
[Footnote 193: 'Alii furiosa contentionum seditione circumdant.' This is probably meant to describe turbulent Goths.]
[Footnote 194: [Greek: ou chrê pannuchion eudein boulêphoron andra] (Il. ii. 24).]
[Footnote 195: Quia non sufficit agenda militibus imperare, nisi haec Judicis assiduitas videatur exigere.]
So I pleaded; but they plied me all the more with such arguments as these:
[Sidenote: The Praefecture.]
'All men have known you as Praefect of the Praetorian throne, a dignity which all other public employments wait upon like lacqueys. For from this high office, ways and means for the army are demanded; from this, without any regard for the difficulty of the times, the food of the people is required; on this, a weight of judicial responsibility is thrown, which would be by itself a heavy burden. Now the law, which has thrown this immense load on the Praefect's office, has, on the other hand, honoured him by putting almost all things under his control. In truth, what interval of leisure could you snatch from your public labours, when into your single breast flowed every claim which could be made on behalf of the common good of all?
[Sidenote: The Quaestorship.]
'We must add, moreover, that when you were on frequent occasions charged with the office of the Quaestorship, the leisure which you might have enjoyed was taken from you by your own constant thoughtfulness for the public good; and when you were thus bearing the weight of an honour which was not the highest, your Sovereigns used to lay upon you those duties, properly belonging to other offices, which their own holders were unable to discharge[196]. All these duties you discharged with absolute freedom from corruption, following your father's example in receiving, from those who hoped for your favour, nothing but the obligation to serve them, and bestowing on petitioners all that they had a right to ask for without traffic or reward.
[Footnote 196: 'Addimus etiam quod frequenter Quaesturae vicibus ingravato otii tempus adimit crebra cogitatio, et velut mediocribus fascibus insudanti, illa tibi de aliis honoribus principes videntur imponere, quae proprii Judices nequeunt explicare.' This is probably the clearest account that is anywhere given of the peculiar and somewhat undefined position held by Cassiodorus during the greater part of the reign of Theodoric.]
[Sidenote: Intimacy with Theodoric.]
'Moreover, men know that the conversations which you were honoured by holding with the King occupied a large portion of your days, greatly to the public welfare[197], so that men of leisure have no right to expect that their requirements shall be met by you, whose day was thus occupied with continuous toil[198]. But in truth this will redound yet more to your glory, if amid so many and such severe labours you succeed in writing that which is worthy to be read. Besides, your work can without wounding their self-love instruct unlettered persons who are not prepared by any consciousness of eloquence for the service of the Republic[199]; and the experience which you have gained by being tossed to and fro on the waves of stormy altercation, they in their more tranquil lot may more fortunately make their own. Again (and here we make an appeal which your loyalty cannot resist), if you allow posterity to be ignorant of the numerous benefits conferred by your King, it is in vain that with benevolent eagerness he so often granted your requests. Do not, we pray, draw back once more into silence and obscurity those who, while you were sounding their eulogies, seemed worthy to receive illustrious dignities. For you then professed to describe them with true praises, and to paint their characters with the colours of history[200]. Now if you leave it to posterity to write the panegyric on these men, you take away as it were from those who die an honourable death the funeral oration to which, by the customs of our ancestors, they are entitled. Besides, in these letters you correct immorality with a ruler's authority; you break the insolence of the transgressor; you restore to the laws their reverence. Do you still hesitate about publishing that which, as you know, satisfies so many needs? Will you conceal, if we may say so, the mirror of your own mind, in which all ages to come may behold your likeness? Often does it happen that a man begets a son unlike himself, but his writings are hardly ever found unequal to his character[201]. The progeny of his own will is his truest child; what is born in the secret recesses of his own heart is that by which posterity will know him best.
[Footnote 197: 'Regum quinetiam gloriosa colloquia pro magnâ diei parte in bonum publicum te occupare noverunt.' It is difficult to translate the expressive term, 'gloriosa colloquia.']
[Footnote 198: 'Ut fastidium sit otiosis exspectare quae tu continuo labore cognosceris sustinere.' I cannot translate this literally.]
[Footnote 199: 'Rudes viros et ad Rempublicam consciâ facundiâ praeparatos.' Surely some negative has dropped out of the latter clause.]
[Footnote 200: 'Tu enim illos assumpsisti verâ laude describere, et quodammodo historico colore depingere.']
[Footnote 201: 'Contingit enim dissimilem filium plerumque generari, oratio dispar moribus vix potest inveniri.']
[Sidenote: Gothic History.]
'You have often, amid universal acclamation, pronounced the praises of kings and queens. In twelve books you have compiled the History of the Goths, culling the story of their triumphs[202]. Since these works have had such favourable fortunes, and since you have thus served your first campaign in literature, why hesitate to give these productions of yours also to the public?'
[Footnote 202: 'Duodecim libris Gothorum historiam defloratis prosperitatibus condidisti.' By an extraordinary error this sentence has been interpreted to mean that Cassiodorus wrote his history of the Goths after their prosperity had faded; and some writers have accordingly laboured, quite hopelessly, to bring down the composition of the Gothic History to a late period in the reign of Athalaric. It is perfectly clear from many passages that Cassiodorus uses 'deflorare' in the sense of 'picking flowers,' 'culling a nosegay.' See Historia Tripartita, Preface (twice); De Instit. Divin. Litterarum, cap. xxx; and De Orthographiâ, cap. ii (title). I doubt not that careful search would discover many more instances. It is only strange to me that Cassiodorus should, by the words 'defloratis prosperitatibus,' so naïvely confess the one-sided character of his history.]
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus consents to publish.]
So pleaded my friends, and to my shame I must own that I was conquered, and could no longer resist so many prayers; especially when I saw myself accused of want of affection. I have now only to crave my readers' pardon; and if they find rashness and presumption in my attempt, to blame my advisers rather than me, since my own judgment agrees with that of my severest critic.
All the letters, therefore, which I have been able to find in various public archives that had been dictated by me as Quaestor, as Magister [Officiorum], or as Praefect, are here collected and arranged in twelve books. By the variety of subjects touched upon, the attention of the reader will be aroused, and it will be maintained by the feeling that he is rapidly approaching the conclusion of the letter.
I have also wished to preserve others from those unpolished and hasty forms of speech into which I am conscious that I have often fallen in announcing the bestowal of dignities, a kind of document which is often asked for in such haste that there seems scarce time for the mere manual labour of writing it. I have therefore included in my Sixth and Seventh Books Formulae for the granting of all the dignities of the State, hoping thus to be of some service to myself, though at a late period of my career, and to help my successors who may be hard pressed for time. What I have thus written concerning the past will serve equally well for the future, since I have said nothing about the qualities of the individual office-holder, but have made such explanations as seemed suitable concerning the office.
[Sidenote: Reason of the title Variarum.]
As for the title of all twelve books, the index of the work, the herald of its meaning, the expression in briefest compass of the whole performance, I have for this chosen the name VARIAE. And this, because it was necessary for me not always to use the same style, since I had undertaken to address various kinds of persons. One must speak in one way to men jaded with much reading; in another to those who skim lightly over the surface, tasting here and there; in another (if one would persuade them), to persons who are devoid of a taste for letters, since it is sometimes a proof of skill to avoid the very things which please the learned. In short, the definition given by our ancestors is a good one: 'To speak fitly is to persuade the hearers to accept your wishes for their own.' Nor was it at random that the prudence of Antiquity thus defined the three modes of speaking:--
[Sidenote: The three styles of composition.]
(1) The humble style, which seems to creep along the ground in the very expression of its thought.
(2) The middle style, which is neither swollen with self-importance nor shrunk into littleness; but being placed between the two, and enriched by a peculiar elegance, is contained within its own true boundaries.
(3) The supreme style, which by exquisite phraseology is raised to the very highest pitch of oratory.
The object of this distinction is that the various sorts and conditions of men may each receive their appropriate address, and that the thoughts which proceed from the same breast may nevertheless flow in divers channels. No man is entitled to the name of eloquent who is not prepared to do his duty manfully with the triple strength of these three styles, as one cause after another may arise. It must be added hereto that we have sometimes to speak to Kings, sometimes to the Officers of the Court, sometimes to the very humblest of the people. To the last we may allowably pour out our words with some degree of haste, but the other addresses should be deeply pondered before they are delivered. Deservedly therefore is a work entitled VARIAE, which is subject to so much diversity in its composition.
Would that, as we have received these maxims from those who have gone before us, so our own compositions could claim the praise of having reduced them into practice. In sooth we do with shamefacedness promise that the Humble style shall be found in us; we think we may without dishonesty covenant for the Middle style; but the Supreme style, which on account of its nobility is the fitting language of a royal Edict[203], we cannot hope that we have attained unto.
[Footnote 203: The editors waver between 'quod est in edicto' and 'quod est in edito (constitutum).']
But since we are to be read, let us abstain from further unlawful canvassing for the votes of our readers. It is an incongruous thing for us to be thus piling up our own discourses about ourselves: we ought rather to wait for your judgment on our work.
Book I
CONTAINING FORTY-SIX LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN THE NAME OF THEODORIC.
1. KING THEODORIC TO EMPEROR ANASTASIUS.
[Sidenote: Persuasives to peace between Italy and Constantinople.]
'It behoves us, most clement Emperor, to seek for peace, since there are no causes for anger between us.
'Peace by which the nations profit; Peace the fair mother of all liberal arts, the softener of manners, the replenisher of the generations of mankind. Peace ought certainly to be an object of desire to every kingdom.
'Therefore, most pious of princes, it accords with your power and your glory that we who have already profited by your affection [personally] should seek concord with your Empire. You are the fairest ornament of all realms; you are the healthful defence of the whole world, to which all other rulers rightfully look up with reverence[204], because they know that there is in you something which is unlike all others[205]: we above all, who by Divine help learned in your Republic the art of governing Romans with equity. Our royalty is an imitation of yours, modelled on your good purpose, a copy of the only Empire; and in so far as we follow you do we excel all other nations.
[Footnote 204: 'Vos totius orbis salutare praesidium, quod caeteri dominantes jure suspiciunt quia in vobis singulare aliquid inesse cognoscunt.' 'Suspiciunt' seems to give a better sense than the other reading, 'suscipiunt.']
[Footnote 205: 'Quia in vobis singulare aliquid inesse cognoscunt.']
'Often have you exhorted me to love the Senate, to accept cordially the laws of past Emperors, to join together in one all the members of Italy. How can you separate from your august alliance one whose character you thus try to make conformable to your own? There is moreover that noble sentiment, love for the City of Rome, from which two princes, both of whom govern in her name, should never be disjoined.
'We have thought fit therefore to send A and B[206] as ambassadors to your most serene Piety, that Peace, which has been broken, through a variety of causes, may, by the removal of all matters of dispute, be firmly restored between us. For we think you will not suffer that any discord should remain between two Republics, which are declared to have ever formed one body under their ancient princes[207], and which ought not to be joined by a mere sentiment of love, but actively to aid one another with all their powers. Let there be always one will, one purpose in the Roman Kingdom. Therefore, while greeting you with our respectful salutations, we humbly beg that you will not remove from us the high honour of your Mildness's affection[208], which we have a right to hope for if it were never granted to any others.
[Footnote 206: 'Illum atque illum.' I shall always render this phrase (which shows that Cassiodorus had not preserved the names of the ambassadors) as above.]
[Footnote 207: 'Quia pati vos non credimus, inter utrasque Respublicas, quarum semper unum corpus sub antiquis principibus fuisse declaratur, aliquid discordiae permanere.']
[Footnote 208: 'Pomâ meute deposcimus ne suspendatis a nobis mansuetudinis vestrae gloriosissimam caritatem.']
'The rest of their commission will be verbally conveyed to your Piety by the bearers of these letters[209].'
[Footnote 209: For some remarks on the date of this letter, see Introduction, p. 23. The mention of interrupted peace, which evidently requires not mere estrangement but an actual state of war, points to the year 505, when Sabinian, the general of Anastasius, was defeated by the Ostrogoths and their allies at Horrea Margi; or to 508, when the Imperial fleet made a raid on the coast of Apulia, as probable dates for the composition of the letter. Its place at the beginning of the Variae does not at all imply priority in date to the letters which follow it. It was evidently Cassiodorus' method to put in the forefront of every book in his collection a letter to an Emperor or King, or other great personage.
As for the tone of the letter, and the exact character of the relation between the Courts of Ravenna and Constantinople which is indicated by it, there is room for a wide divergence of opinion. To me it does not seem to bear out Justinian's contention (recorded by Procopius, De Bello Gotthico ii. 6) that Theodoric ruled Italy as the Emperor's lieutenant. Under all the apparent deference and affectation of humility the language seems to me to be substantially that of one equal addressing another, older and with a somewhat more assured position, but still an equal.]
2. KING THEODORIC TO THEON, VIR SUBLIMIS.
[Sidenote: Manufacture of purple dye.]
'We are informed by Count Stephen that the work of preparing the purple for the sacred (i.e. royal) robes, which was put under your charge, has been interrupted through reprehensible negligence on your part. There must be neglect somewhere, or else the wool with its milk-white hairs would long before now have imbibed the precious quality of the adorable murex. If the diver in the waters of Hydruntum[210] had sought for these murex-shells at the proper season, that Neptunian harvest, mixed with an abundant supply of water, would already have generated the flame-bright liquid which dyes the robes that adorn the throne. The colour of that dye is gay[211] with too great beauty; 'tis a blushing obscurity, an ensanguined blackness, which distinguishes the wearer from all others, and makes it impossible for the human race not to know who is the king. It is marvellous that that substance after death should for so long a time exude an amount of gore which one would hardly find flowing from the wounds of a living creature. For even six months after they have been separated from the delights of the sea, these shell-fish are not offensive to the keenest nostrils, as if on purpose that that noble blood might inspire no disgust. Once this dye is imparted to the cloth, it remains there for ever; the tissue may be destroyed sooner than part with it. If the murex has not changed its quality, if the press (torcular) is still there to receive its one vintage, it must be the fault of the labourers that the dye is not forthcoming. What are they doing, all those crowds of sailors, those families of rustics? And you who bear the name of Count, and were exalted high over your fellow-citizens on purpose that you might attend to this very thing, what sacrilegious negligence is this which you are manifesting in reference to the sacred vesture? If you have any care for your own safety come at once with the purple[212], which you have hitherto been accustomed to render up every year. If not, if you think to mock us by delay, we shall send you not a constrainer but an avenger.
[Footnote 210: Otranto.]
[Footnote 211: Vernans.]
[Footnote 212: Blatta.]
'How easy was the discovery of this great branch of manufacture! A dog, keen with hunger, bounding along the Tyrian shore, crunched the shells which were cast up there. The purple gore dyed his jaws with a marvellous colour; and the men who saw it, after the sudden fashion of inventors, conceived the idea of making therewith a noble adornment for their kings. What Tyre is for the East, Hydron[213] is for Italy--the great cloth-factory of Courts, not keeping its old art (merely), but ever transmitting new improvements.'
[Footnote 213: I presume the same as Hydruntum (Otranto).]
3. KING THEODORIC TO CASSIODORUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN[214].
[Footnote 214: Father of the Author.]
[Sidenote: Praises of the father of Cassiodorus.]
Extols in high-flown language the merits of the minister who in the early and troublous days of Theodoric's reign conciliated the wavering affections of the suspicious Sicilians[215], governed them so justly that not even they (addicted as they are, according to Cicero, to grumbling) could complain; then displayed equal rectitude in the government of his own native Province of Bruttii and Lucania (hard as it is to be perfectly just in the government of one's own native place); then administered the Praefecture in such a way as to earn the thanks of all Italy, even the taxes not being felt to be burdensome under his rule, because so justly levied; and now, finally, as a reward for all these services, is raised to the distinguished honour of the Patriciate.
[Footnote 215: 'In ipso quippe imperii nostri devotus exordio, cum adhuc fluctuantibus rebus provinciarum corda vagarentur, et negligi rudem dominum novitas ipsa pateretur.']
4. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Introducing Cassiodorus (Senior) on his accession to the honours of the Patriciate.]
[Sidenote: Great deeds of the ancestors of Cassiodorus for three generations.]
Compliments to the Senate, of which Theodoric wishes to increase the dignity by bestowing honours on its most eminent members.
Recital of the services and good qualities of Cassiodorus[216]:
[Footnote 216: Father of Cassiodorus Senator.]
(a) as 'Comes Privatarum;'
(b) as 'Comes Sacrarum Largitionum;'
(c) as Governor of Provinces.
(General reflections on the importance of a governor being himself a virtuous man).
'Having been trained thus to official life under the preceding King [Odovacar] he came with well-earned praises to our palace.'
(d) His eminent career as Praetorian Praefect and modest demeanour therein.
Services of previous members of his family. Fame seems to be always at home among the Cassiodori. They are of noble birth, equally celebrated among orators and warriors, healthy of body, and very tall.
His father, Cassiodorus[217], was 'Tribunus et Notarius' under Valentinian III. This last was a great honour, for only men of spotless life were associated with the Imperial 'Secretum.' A friendship, founded on likeness, drew him to the side of Aetius, whose labours for the State he shared.
[Footnote 217: Grandfather of Cassiodorus Senator.]
Embassy to Attila. 'With the son of this Aetius, named Carpilio, he was sent on no vain embassy to Attila, the mighty in arms. He looked undaunted on the man before whom the Empire quailed. Calm in conscious strength, he despised all those terrible wrathful faces that scowled around him. He did not hesitate to meet the full force of the invectives of the madman who fancied himself about to grasp the Empire of the world. He found the King insolent; he left him pacified; and so ably did he argue down all his slanderous pretexts for dispute that though the Hun's interest was to quarrel with the richest Empire in the world, he nevertheless condescended to seek its favour. The firmness of the orator roused the fainting courage of his countrymen, and men felt that Rome could not be pronounced defenceless while she was armed with such ambassadors. Thus did he bring back the peace which men had despaired of; and as earnestly as they had prayed for his success, so thankfully did they welcome his return.'
He was offered honours and revenues, but preferred to seek the pleasant retirement of Bruttii in the land which his exertions had freed from the terror of the stranger.
His father, Cassiodorus[218], an 'Illustris,' defended the coasts of Sicily and Bruttii from the Vandals, thus averting from those regions the ruin which afterwards fell upon Rome from the same quarter.
[Footnote 218: Great-grandfather of Cassiodorus Senator.]
In the East, Heliodorus, a cousin of the Cassiodori, has brilliantly discharged the office of Praefect for eighteen years, as Theodoric himself can testify. Thus the family, conspicuous both in the Eastern and Western World, has two eyes with which it shines with equal brilliancy in each Senate.
Cassiodorus is so wealthy that his herds of horses surpass those of the King, to whom he makes presents of some of them in order to avoid envy. 'Hence it arises that our present candidate [for patrician honours] mounts the armies of the Goths; and having even improved upon his education, generously administers the wealth which he received from his parents.
'Now, Conscript Fathers, welcome and honour the new Patrician, who is so well worthy of a high place among you.'
5. KING THEODORIC TO FLORIANUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.
[Sidenote: Interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium.]
'Lawsuits must not be dragged on for ever. There must be some possibility of reaching a quiet haven. Wherefore, if the petitioners have rightly informed us that the controversy as to the farm at Mazenes has been decided in due course of law by Count Annas, and there is no reasonable ground for appeal[219], let that sentence be held final and irreversible. We must sometimes save a litigious man from himself, as a good doctor will not allow a patient to take that which is injurious to him.'
[Footnote 219: 'Nec aliqua probatur appellatione suspensa.']
6. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.
[One of the MSS. reads Pontifici, but this is clearly wrong. The language is not at all suitable to be addressed to a Pope, and there was no Pope Agapetus till 535, nine years after the death of Theodoric.]
[Sidenote: Mosaics ordered for Ravenna.]
'I am going to build a great Basilica of Hercules at Ravenna, for I wish my age to match preceding ones in the beauty of its buildings, as it does in the happiness of the lives of my subjects.
'Send me therefore skilful workers in Mosaic' [of which kind of work we have a very good description as follows].
(Cassiodorus on Mosaic).
'Send us from your city some of your most skilful marble-workers, who may join together those pieces which have been exquisitely divided, and, connecting together their different veins of colour, may admirably represent the natural appearance[220]. From Art proceeds this gift, which conquers Nature. And thus the discoloured surface of the marble is woven into the loveliest variety of pictures; the value of the work, now as always, being increased by the minute labour which has to be expended on the production of the Beautiful.'
[Footnote 220: 'Et venis colludentibus illigata naturalem faciem laudabiliter mentiantur.']
7. KING THEODORIC TO FELIX, VIR CLARISSIMUS.
This letter will be best understood by a reference to the following pedigree:
N. | __________________________________________ | | | FELIX = A daughter. NEOTHERIUS PLUTIANUS [a spendthrift]. [a minor, whose guardian is Venantius].
[Sidenote: The inheritance of Plutianus.]
Apparently Felix is accused by Venantius, the guardian of his young brother-in-law Plutianus, of having, on behalf of his wife, made an unfair division of the family property (which had been originally given to the father of these lads by Theodoric, as a reward for his services). In doing this he has availed himself of the spendthrift character of Neotherius, the elder brother, who was probably already of age.
Felix is severely blamed, and ordered to hand over what he has fraudulently appropriated to the official, who is charged with the execution of this mandate.
Both are summoned to the 'Comitatus' of the King, that a fair division may there be made between them.
8. KING THEODORIC TO AMABILIS, THE COLLECTOR (EXSECUTOR).
[Sidenote: The prodigality of Neotherius.]
In reference to this same matter of the wasted property of Plutianus. It appears from this letter that Neotherius has been not merely a spendthrift, but has been actuated by motives of passionate hatred to his younger brother[221]. The King enlarges on his obligation to protect the weak, and orders the officer to see that justice is done according to the representations of Venantius, unless the other side have any counter plea to allege, in which case 'ad nostrum venire deproperet comitatum.'
[Footnote 221: 'Neotherium fratrem suum, affectum germanitatis oblitum, bona parvuli hostili furore lacerasse.']
9. KING THEODORIC TO EUSTORGIUS, BISHOP OF MILAN.
[Sidenote: Offences charged against Ecclesiastics.]
'You will be glad to hear that we are satisfied that the Bishop of Augusta [Turin or Aosta] has been falsely accused of betrayal of his country. He is therefore to be restored to his previous rank. His accusers, as they are themselves of the clerical order, are not punished by us, but sent to your Holiness to be dealt with according to the ecclesiastical tradition.'
[The reflections in this letter about the impropriety of believing readily accusations against a Bishop[222], and the course adopted of handing over the clerical false accusers to be dealt with by their Bishop, have an obvious bearing on the great Hildebrandic controversy. But as Dahn ('Könige der Germanen' iii. 191) points out, there is no abandonment by the King of the ultimate right to punish an ecclesiastic.]
[Footnote 222: 'Nihil enim in tali honore temeraria cogitatione praesumendum est, ubi si proposito creditur, etiam tacitus ab excessibus excusatur. Manifesta proinde crimina in talibus vix capiunt fidem. Quidquid autem ex invidia dicitur, veritas non putatur.']
10. KING THEODORIC TO BOETIUS[223], VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Footnote 223: If the MSS. are correctly represented in the printed editions, the name of the author of the Consolation of Philosophy was spelt Boetius in the Variae. There can be little doubt however that Boethius is the more correct form, and this is the form given us in the Anecdoton Holderi.]
[Sidenote: Frauds of the moneyers.]
The Horse and Foot Guards[224] seem to have complained that after their severe labours they were not paid in solidi of full weight by the 'Arcarius Praefectorum.'
[Footnote 224: Why are these called 'Domestici patres equitum et peditum?']
Cassiodorus gives--
(1) Some sublime reflections in the true Cassiodorian vein on the nature of Arithmetic, by which earth and the heavens are ruled.
(2) Some excellent practical remarks on the wickedness of clipping and depreciating the currency.
The most interesting but most puzzling sentence in this letter is that in which he says that 'the ancients wished that the solidus should consist of 6,000 denarii, in order that the golden coin like a golden sun might represent the 6,000 years which are the appointed age of the world.' But how can we reconcile this with any known solidus or any known denarius? The solidus of Constantine (72 to the lb.) was worth about twelve shillings. The reduced denarius of Diocletian was probably worth one penny. At the very lowest (and most improbable) computation it was worth at least a farthing, and even thus one would only get 576 to a solidus. The earlier denarius, worth about eightpence, clearly will not do; and the matter is made more difficult by the fact that Cassiodorus is talking about the ancients (veteres), whereas the solidus was a comparatively modern coin. It seems that either Cassiodorus has some entirely wrong information as to the early currency of Rome, or else that we have not yet got the clue to his meaning.
This passage is quoted by Finlay ('Greece under the Romans,' p. 536, ed. 1857), but the difficulty is not removed by his remarks.
11. KING THEODORIC TO SERVATUS, DUKE OF THE RAETIAS.
[Sidenote: Violence of the Breones.]
'It is your duty to repress all violence and injustice in the Provinces over which you preside. Maniarius complains that his slaves (mancipia) have been without any cause taken away from him by the Breones [a Raetian tribe dwelling near the pass of the Brenner], who are continuing in peace the habits and maxims of war.
'If this proves to be a true complaint, see that justice is done, and speedily.'
12. KING THEODORIC TO EUGENIUS (OR EUGENITES)[225], VIR ILLUSTRIS, MAGISTER OFFICIORUM.
[Footnote 225: Perhaps the name really was Eugenes, -etis. See Var. viii. 19, and Ennodii, Epist. iv. 26.]
[Sidenote: Bestowal of dignity of Magister Officiorum.]
'It is the glory of our reign to confer office on those who deserve it.
'You are a learned man, and arrived long ago at the dignity of the Quaestorship as a reward for your creditable exertions as an Advocate.
'One office leads to another: the tree of the fasces puts forth fresh fasces; and we therefore have great pleasure in calling you now to the dignity of Magister, bestowing upon you all the privileges which have belonged to your predecessors in that office. Justify our choice by your actions. You know, as one of our counsellors, what our standard of righteousness is. A sort of religious holiness is required from those who hold office under a righteous king[226].'
[Footnote 226: 'Pio principi sub quodam sacerdotio serviatur.' Cf. Claudian, 'Nunquam libertas gratior exstat quam sub rege pio.']
13. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
Announces the elevation of Eugenius (or Eugenites) to the post of Master of the Offices, and recapitulates his past services and character in nearly the same terms as the preceding letter. He is to go from one office to another, 'even as the sun having shone one day, rises in order to shine again on another. Even horses are stimulated to greater speed by the shouts of men. But man is an animal peculiarly fond of approbation. Do you therefore stimulate the new Master to all noble deeds.'
[Notice this sentence about the Senate: 'Whatever is the flower of the human race, the Senate ought to possess it: and as the citadel is the crown of the city, so should your order be the ornament of all other ranks.']
14. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Collection of 'Tertiae.']
'We have no objection to grant the petition of the inhabitants of Cathalia (?), that their "Tertiae" shall be collected at the same time as the ordinary tribute. What does it matter under what name the "possessor" pays his contribution, so long as he pays it without deduction? Thus they will get rid of the suspected name of "Tertiae," and our mildness will not be worried by their importunity.'
[See Dahn ('Könige der Germanen' iii. 143), who decides that the 'Tertiae' was the pecuniary equivalent paid by the Roman possessor for that portion of the Sors Barbarica (the Gothic third of the lands of Italy) which, for convenience sake, was left in the actual occupation of Romans.]
15. KING THEODORIC TO FESTUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Looking after the interests of the absent.]
'We are glad to see that our good opinion of you is shared by your neighbours, and that the Patrician Agnellus, going to Africa on our business, has chosen you to defend his interests in his absence. No one can give a higher proof of confidence than this. Look well after the trust committed to you. There seems to be a peculiar temptation to neglect the interests of the absent.'
16. KING THEODORIC TO JULIANUS, COMES PATRIMONII [probably 508].
[Sidenote: Remission of taxes. Hostile incursions.]
'It is an excellent investment to do a generous thing to our subjects. The Apulian "Conductores" [farmers of the Royal domain] have represented to us with tears that their crops have been burned by hostile invaders [Byzantines?]. We therefore authorise you to deduct at the next Indiction what shall seem the right proportion for these losses from the amount due to us[227]. See, however, that our revenue sustains no unnecessary loss. We are touched by the losses of the suppliants, but we ought on the other hand to share their profits.'
[Footnote 227: 'Ut quantum eos minus vendidisse constiterit, de reliquis primae indictionis habita moderatione detrahatis.']
17. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE GOTHIC AND ROMAN INHABITANTS OF DERTONA (TORTONA).
[Sidenote: Fortification of camp near Dertona.]
'We have decided that the camp near you shall at once be fortified. It is expedient to execute works of this kind in peace rather than in war.
'The true meaning of expeditio shows that the leader of a military expedition should have an unencumbered mind.
'Do you therefore second our efforts by building good private houses, in which you will be sheltered, while the enemy (whenever he comes) will be in the worst possible quarters[228], and exposed to all the severity of the weather.'
[Footnote 228: 'Durissimae mansiones.']
18. KING THEODORIC TO DOMITIANUS AND WILIAS.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Footnote 229: 'Ex quo, Deo propitio, Sonti fluenta transmisimus ubi primum Italiae nos suscepit imperium.']
[Sidenote: 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.]
19. KING THEODORIC TO SATURNINUS AND VERBUSIUS, VIRI SUBLIMES.
[Sidenote: The rights of the Fiscus.]
'The Fiscus is to have its rights, but we do not wish to oppress our people. Let moderation be observed in all things.
'When you receive the petition of the Curiales of Adriana, if anyone who is able to pay, stubbornly and impudently refuses to contribute to the Fiscus Gothorum, you are to compel him to do so. But let off the really poor man who is unable to contribute.'
20. KING THEODORIC TO ALBINUS AND ALBIENUS, VIRI ILLUSTRES AND PATRICIANS.
[Sidenote: Circus quarrels. Patronage of the Greens. Rivalry between Helladius and Theodorus.]
'Notwithstanding our greater cares for the Republic, we are willing to provide also for the amusement of our subjects. For it is the strongest possible proof of the success of our labours that the multitude knows itself to be again at leisure[230].
[Footnote 230: 'Illud enim, propitiante Deo, labores nostros asserit quod se otiosam generalitas esse cognoscit.']
'The petition of the Green party in the circus informs us that they are oppressed, and that the factions of the circus are fatal to public tranquillity. We therefore order you to assume the patronage of the Green party, which our father of glorious memory paid for[231]. So let the spectators be assembled, and let them choose between Helladius and Theodorus which is fittest to be Pantomimist of the Greens, whose salary we will pay.'
[Footnote 231: 'Quapropter illustris magnitudo vestra praesenti jussione commonita, patrocinium partis Prasini, quod gloriosae recordationis pater noster impendit, dignanter assumat.' This passage probably alludes to Theodoric's adoption by Zeno. But one reading is 'pater vester.']
Then follows a digression on pantomimes.
21. KING THEODORIC TO MAXIMIAN, VIR ILLUSTRIS; AND ANDREAS, VIR SPECTABILIS.
[Sidenote: Embellishment of Rome.]
'If the people of Rome will beautify their City we will help them.
'Institute a strict audit (of which no one need be ashamed) of the money given by us to the different workmen for the beautification of the City. See that we are receiving money's worth for the money spent. If there is embezzlement anywhere, cause the funds so embezzled to be disgorged. We expect the Romans to help from their own resources in this patriotic work, and certainly not to intercept our contributions for the purpose.
'The wandering birds love their own nests; the beasts haste to their own lodgings in the brake; the voluptuous fish, roaming the fields of ocean, returns to its own well-known cavern. How much more should Rome be loved by her children!'
22. KING THEODORIC TO MARCELLUS, VIR SPECTABILIS, ADVOCATUS FISCI.
[Sidenote: Promotion of Marcellus.]
After some rather vapid praise of the eloquence and good qualities of Marcellus, Theodoric promotes him from the rank of a Private Advocate to that of an Advocatus Fisci, and gives him some excellent counsels about not pressing the claims of the Crown too far. 'We shall not enquire how many causes you have gained, but how you have gained them. Let there sometimes be a bad cause for the Fiscus, that the Sovereign may be seen to be good.'
23. KING THEODORIC TO COELIANUS AND AGAPITUS, VIRI ILLUSTRES AND PATRICIANS.
[Sidenote: Litigation between Senators.]
'The concord and harmony of subjects redound to the praise of their prince.
'We desire that Festus and Symmachus (Patricians and Magnifici) should prosecute the causes for action which they say they have against Paulinus (Illustris and Patrician) in your Court. Let Paulinus bring before you any counter-claim which he may assert himself to possess. Let justice be rendered speedily. Show yourselves worthy of this high trust. It is a matter of great moment to end lawsuits between men of such eminence in the State as these.'
24. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE GOTHS.
[Sidenote: A call to arms for the invasion of Gaul.]
'To the Goths a hint of war rather than persuasion to the strife is needed, since a warlike race such as ours delights to prove its courage. In truth, he shuns no labour who hungers for the renown of valour. Therefore with the help of God, whose blessing alone brings prosperity, we design to send our army to the Gauls for the common benefit of all, that you may have an opportunity of promotion, and we the power of testing your merits; for in time of peace the courage which we admire lies hidden, and when men have no chance of showing what is in them, their relative merits are concealed. We have therefore given our Sajo[232], Nandius, instructions to warn you that, on the eighth day before the kalends of next July, you move forward to the campaign in the name of God, sufficiently equipped, according to your old custom, with horses, arms, and every requisite for war. Thus will ye at the same time show that the old valour of your sires yet dwells in your hearts, and also successfully perform your King's command. Bring forth your young men for the discipline of Mars. Let them see you do deeds which they may love to tell of to their children. For an art not learned in youth is an art missing in our riper years. The very hawk, whose food is plunder, thrusts her still weak and tender young ones out of the nest, that they may not become accustomed to soft repose. She strikes the lingerers with her wings; she forces her callow young to fly, that they may prove to be such in the future as her maternal fondness can be proud of. Do you therefore, lofty by nature, and stimulated yet more by the love of fame, study to leave such sons behind you as your fathers have left in leaving you.'
[Footnote 232: See for the office of the Sajo, note on ii. 13.]
[We can hardly be wrong in referring this stirring proclamation to the year 508, when Theodoric sent troops into Gaul to save the remnants of the Visigothic Monarchy from the grasp of Clovis. The first sentence recalls the expression 'certaminis gaudia,' which Jordanes no doubt borrowed from Cassiodorus. For the simile at the end of the letter, cf. Deuteronomy xxxii. 11, 'As an eagle stirreth up her nest'.]
25. KING THEODORIC TO SABINIANUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.
[Sidenote: Repair of the walls of Rome.]
'It is important to preserve as well as to create. We are earnestly anxious to keep the walls of Rome in good repair, and have therefore ordered the Lucrine port[233] to furnish 25,000 tiles annually for this purpose. See that this is done, that the cavities which have been formed by the fall of stones may be roofed over with tiles, and so preserved, and that thus we may deserve the thanks of ancient kings, to whose works we have given immortal youth.'
[Footnote 233: I presume that 'portum Lucini' is an error for the Lucrine harbour; but there is an allusion which I do not understand in the following passage: 'Simul etiam portubus junctis, qui ad illa loca antiquitus pertinebant, et nunc diversorum usurpatione suggeruntur invasi?']
26. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Immunity of Church property from taxation.]
In the time of Cassiodorus the Patrician (a man of tried integrity and pure fidelity[234]), a grant of freedom from taxation[235] was made to the Church of Vercelli. Since that time other property has been conveyed to the same Church, apparently by a soldier. An attempt is made to represent this after-acquired property as also tax-free. 'No,' says the King. 'It would be very wrong in us to recall our gift; but it is equally wrong in you to try to stretch it to something which it never included. Private persons must not make grants to the injury of our treasury. Tribute belongs to the purple, not to the military cloak[236]. Your newly acquired possessions must pay taxes along with those of other owners.'
[Footnote 234: This is evidently the writer's father.]
[Footnote 235: 'Onera indictorum titulorum.']
[Footnote 236: 'Tributa sunt purpurae, non lacernae.']
27. KING THEODORIC TO SPECIOSUS.
[Sidenote: Circus quarrels.]
'If we are moderating under our laws the character of foreign nations, if the Roman law is supreme over all that is in alliance with Italy, how much more doth it become the Senate of the seat of civilisation itself to have a surpassing reverence for law, that by the example of their moderation the beauty of their dignities may shine forth more eminently. For where shall we look for moderation, if violence stains Patricians? The Green party complain that they have been truculently assaulted by the Patrician Theodoric and the "Illustris and Consul Importunus," and that one life has been lost in the fray. We wish the matter to be at once brought before the Illustres Coelianus and Agapitus and examined into by them[237].
[Footnote 237: See i. 23, from which it appears that these two men had special jurisdiction in cases affecting Patricians.]
'As to their counter-complaints of rudeness against the mob, you must distinguish between deliberate insolence and the licence of the theatre. Who expects seriousness of character at the spectacles? It is not exactly a congregation of Catos that comes together at the circus. The place excuses some excesses. And besides, it is the beaten party which vents its rage in insulting cries. Do not let the Patricians complain of clamour that is really the result of a victory for their own side, which they greatly desired.'
[The mention of 'the Patrician Theodoric' is a difficulty, as we know of no namesake of the King among the Roman nobility. Perhaps we ought to read (with the Remensian MS.) 'Theodoro,' as we know from 'Anon. Valesii' 68 that there was a Theodorus, son of Basilius, who perhaps succeeded Liberius, Praef. Praetorio.]
28. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS.
[Sidenote: The walls of Rome.]
'Most worthy of Royal attention is the rebuilding of ancient cities, an adornment in time of peace, a precaution for time of war.
'Therefore, if anyone have in his fields stones suitable for the building of the walls, let him cheerfully and promptly produce them. Even though he should be paid at a low rate, he will have his reward as a member of the community, which will benefit thereby.'
29. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE LUCRISTANI (LUSTRIANI?) ON THE RIVER SONTIUS (ISONZO).
[Sidenote: The Postal Service.]
'The post (Cursus Publicus) is evidently an institution of great public utility, tending to the rapid promulgation of our decrees.
'Care must therefore be taken that the horses are not allowed to get out of condition, lest they break down under their work, and lest the journey, which should be rapid, become tediously slow.
'Also any lands formerly appropriated to the mutationes [places for changing horses] which have fallen into private hands must be reclaimed for the public service, the owners being sufficiently indemnified for their loss.'
30. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the injury to public peace arising from the Circus rivalries.]
The Senators are exhorted not to allow their menials to embroil themselves with the populace, and thus bring their good name into disgrace. Any slave accused of the murder of a free-born citizen is to be at once given up, under penalty of a fine of 10 lbs. of gold (£400), and the King's severe displeasure for the master who disobeys this command.
'And do not you, oh Senators, be too severe in marking every idle word which the mob may utter amidst the general rejoicing. If there is any insult which requires notice, bring it before the "Praefectus Urbis"--a far better and safer course than taking the law into your own hands.'
[This letter, a very interesting and sensible one, is somewhat spoilt by a characteristic Cassiodorian sentence at the end:--
'Men in old time used always to fight with their fists, whence the word pugna, "a pugnis." Afterwards iron was introduced by King Belus, and hence came bellum, "a Belo."']
31. KING THEODORIC TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
Gives similar good advice to that contained in the previous letter to the Senate.
'The Circus, in which the King spends so much money, is meant to be for public delight, not for stirring up wrath. Instead of uttering howls and insults like other nations [the populace of Byzantium?], whom they have despised for doing so, let them tune their voices, so that their applause shall sound like the notes of some vast organ, and even the brute creation delight to hear it.
'Anyone uttering outrageous reproaches against any Senator will be dealt with by the Praefectus Urbis.'
32. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
'The ruler of the city ought to keep the peace, and justify my choice of him. Your highest praise is a quiet people.
'We have issued our "oracles" to the "amplissimus ordo" (Senate) and to the people, that the custom of insulting persons in the Circus is to be put under some restraint; on the other hand, any Senator who shall be provoked to kill a free-born person shall pay a fine. The games are meant to make people happy, not to stir them up to deadly rage. Helladius[238] is to come forth into the midst and afford the people pleasure [as a pantomimist], and he is to receive his monthly allowance (menstruum) with the other actors of the Green Faction. His partisans are to be allowed to sit where they please.'
[Footnote 238: See Letter i. 20.]
[Was there not some division in the Green Faction itself concerning the merits of Helladius and his rival Theodorus?]
33. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.
[Sidenote: Arrangements for the Pantomime.]
'Our Serenity is not going to change the arrangements which we have once made for the public good. We told Albinus and Albienus[239] to choose the most fitting person they could find as Pantomimist of the Greens. They have done so [choosing probably Helladius]. He shall have his monthly allowance, and let there be peace.'
[Footnote 239: Ibid.]
34. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Only the surplus of corn to be exported.]
'It should be only the surplus of the crops of any Province, beyond what is needed for the supply of its own wants, that should be exported. Station persons in the harbours to see that foreign ships do not take away produce to foreign shores until the Public Providers[240] have got all that they require.'
[Footnote 240: 'Expensae publicae' perhaps = curatores annonae.]
35. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Unreasonable delays. The sucking-fish and torpedo.]
'This extraordinarily dry season having ruined the hopes of our harvest, it is more than ever necessary that the produce should be brought forward promptly. We are therefore exceedingly annoyed at finding that the crops which are generally sent forward by your Chancellor from the coasts of Calabria and Apulia in summer have not yet arrived, though it is near autumn and the time is at hand when the sun, entering the southern signs (which are all named from showers), will send us storm and tempest.
'What are you waiting for? Why are your ships not spreading their sails to the breeze? With a favourable wind and with bending oarsmen, are you perhaps delayed by the echeneis (Remora, or sucking-fish)? or by the shell-fish of the Indian Ocean? or by the torpedo, whose touch paralyses the hand? No; the echeneis in this case is entangling venality; the bites of the shell-fish, insatiable avarice; the torpedo, fraudulent pretence.
'The merchants are making delays in order that they may seem to have fallen on adverse weather.
'Let your Magnitude put all this to rights promptly, otherwise our famine will be imputed, not to bad seasons, but to negligence[241].'
[Footnote 241: For a fuller translation of this marvellous letter, see Introd. p. 18.]
36. KING THEODORIC TO THERIOLUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.
[Sidenote: Guardianship of children of Benedictus.]
'We wish you to take the place of the late Benedictus in the city of Pedon.
'As we never forget the services of the dead, we wish you to undertake officially the guardianship of the sons of the said Benedictus.
'We always pay back to our faithful servants more than we have received from them, and thus we do not go on the principle "equality is equity," because we think it just to make them more than an equal recompence.'
37. KING THEODORIC TO CRISPIANUS.
[Sidenote: Justifiable homicide.]
'Murder is abominable, but it is right to take into account the circumstances which may have provoked to homicide. If the slain man was trying to violate the rights of wedlock, his blood be on his own head. For even brute beasts vindicate their conjugal rights by force: how much more man, who is so deeply dishonoured by the adulterer!
'Therefore, if it be true that the man whom you slew had wronged you as a husband, we do not agree to the punishment of exile which has been inflicted upon you. Nor will we uphold the action of the Vicarius or of his Officium, who, as you say, have impounded the money paid by your fidei-jussor (guarantor) Agnellus. Also, we will protect you against the hostile assaults of Candax [next of kin to the murdered man?] in future. But your allegation as to the provocation must be fully established by legal process.'
[It may be remarked that Candac, King of the Alani in Moesia, is mentioned in the pedigree of Jordanes ('Getica,' cap. 4).]
38. KING THEODORIC TO BAION, A SENATOR[242].
[Footnote 242: See remarks on this letter in Dahn, Könige der Germanen iv. 147-8. Some MSS. read Coion or Goinon, as the name of the Senator to whom it is addressed.]
[Sidenote: The young Hilarius to be allowed to enter on possession of his property.]
'We are told that you are keeping in your own hands the administration of the property of your young nephew [or grandson] Hilarius against his will, and not for his good, but yours. Restore it at once. Let him dispose of it as he likes. He seems to be quite able to enter upon the lordship of his own. The eagle feeds her callow young with food which she has procured for them, till their wings grow. Then, when their flight is strong and their nails sharp, she trains them to strike their own prey. So with our young Goths: when they are fit for soldiership we cannot bear that they should be deemed incapable of managing their own concerns. "To the Goths valour makes full age. And he who is strong enough to stab his enemy to the heart should be allowed to vindicate himself from every accusation of incapacity."'
[Notwithstanding his Roman name, Hilarius is evidently a Goth.]
39. KING THEODORIC TO FESTUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: The nephews of Filagrius to be detained in Rome.]
'We are always delighted to grant just requests.
'Filagrius (Vir Spectabilis), who has been long absent from his home on our business, seeks to return to Syracuse, but at the same time asks that his brother's sons may be kept for their education's sake at Rome. Do you attend to this petition, and do not let the lads go till we send you a second order to that effect. No one ought to murmur at being detained in Rome, which is everyone's country, the fruitful mother of eloquence, the wide temple of all virtues. Ulysses would very likely never have become famous if he had lingered on at home; but Homer's noble poem most chiefly proclaims his wisdom in this fact, that he roamed among many cities and nations.'
40. KING THEODORIC TO ASSUIN (OR ASSIUS), VIR ILLUSTRIS AND COMES.
[Sidenote: The inhabitants of Salona to be drilled.]
'War needs rehearsal and preparation. Therefore let your Illustrious Sublimity provide the inhabitants of Salona with arms, and let them practise themselves in the use of them; for the surest safeguard of the Republic is an armed defender.'
The necessity of drill and practice is shown by the early combats of bullocks, the play-huntings of puppies, the necessity of first kindling a fire with very little sticks, and so forth.
41. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.
[Sidenote: Enquiries into character of the younger Faustus.]
'The dignity of the Senate makes it necessary to be unusually careful who is admitted into that body. Let other orders receive middling men: the Senate must receive none but those who are of proved excellence.
'Therefore let your Illustrious Magnificence cause those enquiries to be made concerning Faustus, the grown-up son of the Illustrious Faustus, which the Senate hath ordered to be made concerning all persons who are to be enrolled in its council[243]. In thus confirming and ratifying the proceedings of the Senate we are in no degree trenching on the accustomed authority of that sacred order.'
[Footnote 243: 'Quae circa referendos curiae priscus ordo designavit.']
42. KING THEODORIC TO ARTEMIDORUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN [509 OR 524].
[Sidenote: Artemidorus to be Praefect of the City.]
'We are especially bound to reward merit. Everyone who does us a service makes a very good investment. You have long had what was formerly considered more precious than great dignity--near access to our person. Much as we loved you, we somewhat retarded your advance in order that you might be the more richly adorned with all virtues when you came to honour. Your birthplace, your lineage, your merit, all declare you worthy of the promotion which we now bestow upon you, declaring you for this third Indiction[244] Praefectus Urbis. You will thus have the function of presiding over the Senate, a far higher office than that of ruling the Palace or arranging private houses. The value of the object committed to a person's care increases the dignity of the post. It is much more honourable to be caretaker of a diadem than of a wine-cellar. Judge of our esteem for you by the preciousness of the body over which we are thus calling you to preside.'
[Footnote 244: Either 509-510 or 524-525; more probably the former.]
43. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Promotion of Artemidorus.]
[Announcing the elevation of Artemidorus to the post of Praefectus Urbis.]
'Artemidorus, though entitled from his relationship to the Emperor Zeno to expect great promotion at the Court of Constantinople, has preferred to share the fortunes and attach himself to the person of Theodoric, who has often been refreshed after the cares of State by an hour of his charming converse. Though he might have aspired to the highest dignities of the Court, he has hitherto been satisfied with the comparatively humble post of Superintendent of the Public Spectacles [as Tribunus Voluptatum?]. Now, as Praefectus Urbis, he is to preside over and become a member of your body. Welcome him.'
44. KING THEODORIC TO THE PEOPLE OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
[On the same subject as 42 and 43, the elevation of Artemidorus to the Urban Praefecture.]
Rebukes the commonalty sharply for their recent disturbances, which defile with illicit seditions the blessings of peace, earned under God's blessing by their Prince. The newly-appointed Praefectus Urbanus, Artemidorus, long devoted to the service of Theodoric, will attest the innocence of the good, and sharply punish the errors of the bad, both by his own inherent prerogative and by a special commission entrusted to him for that purpose by the King.
45. KING THEODORIC TO BOETIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: The water-clock and sundial destined for the Burgundian King.]
'It is important to oblige our royal neighbours even in trifles, for none can tell what great matters may be aided thereby. Often what arms cannot obtain the offices of kindness bring to pass. Thus let even our unbending be for the benefit of the Republic. For our object in seeking pleasure is that we may thereby discharge the serious duties of life.
'The Lord of the Burgundians has earnestly requested that we would send him a clock which is regulated by water flowing under a modulus, and one which is marked by embracing the illumination of the immense sun[245].'
[Footnote 245: An unintelligible translation doubtless, but is the original clearer? 'Burgundionum dominus a nobis magnopere postulavit ut horologium quod aquis sub modulo fluentibus temperatur et quod solis immensi comprehensa illuminatione distinguitur ... ei transmittere deberemus.' It is pretty clear that the first request of the Burgundian King was for a clepsydra of some kind. The second must be for some kind of sundial, but the description is very obscure.]
[I transcribe, and do not attempt to translate, the further description of the two machines, the order of which is now changed.]
'Primum sit, ubi stylus diei index, per umbram exiguam horas consuevit ostendere. Radius itaque immobilis, et parvus, peragens quod tam miranda magnitudo solis discurrit, et fugam solis aequiparat quod modum semper ignorat. [This must be the sundial.] Inviderent talibus, si astra sentirent: et meatum suum fortasse deflecterent, ne tali ludibrio subjacerent. Ubi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum, si has et umbra demonstrat? Ubi praedicabilis indefecta roratio, si hoc et metalla peragunt, quae situ perpetuo continentur? O artis inaestimabilis virtus quae dum se dicit ludere, naturae praevalet secreta vulgare.
'Secundum sit [the clepsydra] ubi praeter solis radios hora dignoscitur, noctes in partes dividens: quod ut nihil deberet astris, rationem coeli ad aquarum potius fluenta convertit, quorum motibus ostendit, quod coelum volvitur; et audaci praesumptione concepta, ars elementis confert quod originis conditio denegavit.'
'It will be a great gain to us that the Burgundians should daily look upon something sent by us which will appear to them little short of miraculous. Exert yourself therefore, oh Boetius, to get this thing put in hand. You have thoroughly imbued yourself with Greek philosophy[246]. You have translated Pythagoras the musician, Ptolemy the astronomer, Nicomachus the arithmetician, Euclid the geometer, Plato the theologian, Aristotle the logician, and have given back the mechanician Archimedes to his own Sicilian countrymen (who now speak Latin). You know the whole science of Mathematics, and the marvels wrought thereby. A machine [perhaps something like a modern orrery] has been made to exhibit the courses of the planets and the causes of eclipses. What a wonderful art is Mechanics! The mechanician, if we may say so, is almost Nature's comrade, opening her secrets, changing her manifestations, sporting with miracles, feigning so beautifully, that what we know to be an illusion is accepted by us as truth.'
[Footnote 246: Evidently 'sic enim Atheniensium scholas longe positus introisti' does not mean that Boethius actually visited Athens, but that he became thoroughly at home in the works of Athenian philosophers.]
46. KING THEODORIC TO GUNDIBAD [SIC], KING OF THE BURGUNDIANS.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
Sends the two clocks, or rather perhaps the celestial globe and the water-clock.
'Have therefore in your country what you have often seen in Rome. It is right that we should send you presents, because you are connected with us by affinity. It is said that under you "Burgundia" looks into the most subtle things, and praises the discoveries of the ancients. Through you she lays aside her "Gentile" (barbarous) nature, and imitating the prudence of her King, rightly desires to possess the inventions of sages. Let her arrange her daily actions by the movements of God's great lights; let her nicely adjust the moments of each hour. In mere confusion passes the order of life when this accurate division of time is unknown. Men are like the beasts, if they only know the passage of the hours by the pangs of hunger, and have no greater certainty as to the flight of time than such as is afforded them by their bellies. For certainty is undoubtedly meant to be entwined in human actions.'
Book II
CONTAINING FORTY-ONE LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN THE NAME OF THEODORIC.
I. KING THEODORIC TO ANASTASIUS, MOST PIOUS EMPEROR. A.D. 511.
[Sidenote: Consulship of Felix.]
'By excellent ordinance of the ancients the year is named from the Consul. Let the happy year take its title from our new Consul, Felix [Consul with Secundinus, A.D. 511[247]].
[Footnote 247: 'Portamque dierum tali nomine dicatus annus, tempos introeat.' The figure here used seems borrowed from Claudian, In Primum Cons. Stilichonis ii. 425-476.]
'It is most suitable that Rome should gather back her children to her bosom, and in her venerable Senate should enrol a son of Gaul.
'Felix showed his excellent disposition first in this, that while still a young man he hastened to "the native land of all the virtues" [Rome]. Success followed his choice; we promoted him as he deserved. While still a young man, deprived of his father's care, he showed the rare gift of continence; he subdued avarice, the enemy of wisdom; he despised the blandishments of vice; he trampled under foot the vanities of pride.
'We have now determined to reward him with the Consulship. Do you who can with indiscriminate pleasure rejoice in both the blessings of the Republic [in the Consuls of the East and West] join your favouring vote. He who is worthy of so high an office as the Consulship may well be chosen by the judgment of both' [Emperor and King].
[An important letter, as showing the extent to which concurrent choice of Consuls was vested in Rome, or rather Ravenna, and Constantinople.]
2. KING THEODORIC TO FELIX, VIR ILLUSTRIS, CONSUL ORDINARIUS, A.D. 511 (4TH OF THE INDICTION).
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
An address on his elevation to the Consulship, touching on nearly the same topics as the preceding.
Theodoric delights in bestowing larger favours on those whom he has once honoured [a favourite topic with Cassiodorus].
Felix has come back from Gaul to the old fatherland[248]. Thus the Consulship has returned to a Transalpine family, and green laurels are seen on a brown stock.
[Footnote 248: 'Cum soli genitalis fortunâ relictâ, velut quodam postliminio in antiquam patriam commeasses.']
Felix has shown an early maturity of character. He has made a wise use of his father's wealth. The honour which other men often acquire by prodigality he has acquired by saving. Cassiodorus evidently has a little fear that the new Consul may carry his parsimony too far, and tells him that this office of the Consulship is one in which liberality, almost extravagance, earns praise[249]; in which it is a kind of virtue not to love one's own possessions; and in which one gains in good opinion all that one loses in wealth.
[Footnote 249: 'Ubi praeconium meretur effusio.']
'See the sacred City all white with your vota (?). See yourself borne upon the shoulders of all, and your name flitting through their mouths, and manifest yourself such that you may be deemed worthy of your race, worthy of the City, worthy of our choice, worthy of the Consular trabea.'
[The letter makes one suspect a certain narrowness and coldness of heart in the subject of its praise.]
3. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE. A.D. 511.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
Recommends Felix for the Consulship, going over again the topics mentioned in the two last letters. It appears that it was the father of Felix who emerged, after a temporary eclipse of the family fortunes, and then showed himself 'the Cato of our times, abstaining from vice himself, and forming the characters of others; imbued also with all Greek philosophy, he glutted himself with the honey of the Cecropian doctrine.'
Mention is made of the Consulship of an earlier Felix, A.D. 428, the happy renown of which still lingered in the memories of men.
The young Felix is praised for the qualities described in the two previous letters, and also for his power of conciliating the friendship of older men, especially the excellent Patrician Paulinus.
4. KING THEODORIC TO ECDICIUS (OR BENEDICTUS), VIR HONESTUS.
[Sidenote: Collection of Siliquaticum.]
'We wish always to observe long-established rules in fiscal matters, the best guarantee against extortion. Therefore, whatever dues in the way of Siliquaticum appertained to Antiochus are now transferred to you by the present authority, and the Sajo is charged to support your claims herein; only the contention must not be mixed up with any private matters of your own.'
[The Siliquaticum was a tax of one twenty-fourth--the siliqua being the twenty-fourth of a solidus--payable on all sales in market overt by buyer and seller together.]
5. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Soldiers' arrears.]
'We are always generous, and sometimes out of clemency we bestow our gifts on persons who have no claim upon us. How much more fitting is it then that the servants of the State should receive our gifts promptly! Wherefore, pray let your Magnificence see to it that the sixty soldiers who are keeping guard in the fastnesses of Aosta receive their annonae without delay. Think what a life of hardship the soldier leads in those frontier forts for the general peace, thus, as at the gate of the Province, shutting out the entry of the barbarous nations. He must be ever on the alert who seeks to keep out the Barbarians. For fear alone checks these men, whom honour will not keep back.'
[A singular letter to write in the name of one who was himself a Barbarian invader.]
6. KING THEODORIC TO AGAPITUS, ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Embassy to Constantinople.]
'We have decided to send you on an embassy to the East (Constantinople). Every embassy requires a prudent man, but here there is need of especial prudence, because you will have to dispute against the most subtle persons--artificers of words, who think they can foresee every possible answer to their arguments. Do your best therefore to justify the opinion which I formed of you before full trial of your powers.'
7. KING THEODORIC TO SURA (OR SUNA), ILLUSTRIS AND COMES.
[Sidenote: Embellishment of the City.]
'Let nothing lie useless which may redound to the beauty of the City. Let your Illustrious Magnificence therefore cause the blocks of marble which are everywhere lying about in ruins to be wrought up into the walls by the hands of the workmen whom I send herewith. Only take care to use only those stones which have really fallen from public buildings, as we do not wish to appropriate private property, even for the glorification of the City.'
8. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP SEVERUS, VIR VENERABILIS.
[Sidenote: Compensation for damage done by troops on march.]
'None is more suitable than a member of the Priesthood to perform acts of justice towards his flock.
'We therefore send your Holiness, by Montanarius, 1,500 solidi (£900), for distribution among the Provincials, according to the amount of damage which each one has sustained this year by the passage of our army. See that the distribution is made systematically--not at random--so that it may reach the right persons.'
9. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Allowance to a retired charioteer.]
'We always enjoy being generous. Compassion is the one virtue to which all other virtues may honourably give way. Long ago we made the charioteer Sabinus a monthly allowance of a solidus [twelve shillings]. Now, as we learn from Histrius [or Historius] that this former servant of the public pleasures is afflicted with the most melancholy poverty, we have pleasure in adding another solidus to his monthly allowance. We are never so well pleased as when the accounts of our expenditure show these items of charitable disbursement.'
10. KING THEODORIC TO SPECIOSUS, VIR DEVOTUS, COMITIACUS [OFFICER OF THE COURT].
[Sidenote: The abduction of Agapita.]
'The laws guarding the sanctity of the marriage bed[250] must be carefully upheld.
[Footnote 250: 'Illud Humani generis procreabile Sacramentum.']
'Agapita[251] has explained to us that she was tempted away from her husband by seducers, who promised to procure his death. From the time of her leaving his company let all revenues which came to her under the marriage contract (invalidated by her unfaithfulness) be given up by her wrongful detainers[252] without any delay. It is too absurd that men who ought to be severely punished for their wrong-doing should even seek to make a profit out of it.'
[Footnote 251: 'Foemina spectabilis.']
[Footnote 252: 'Retentatores.' So the Gepid Prince is called the Retentator of Sirmium (Ennodius, Panegyric. Theod. 178. Ed. Migne).]
11. KING THEODORIC TO PROVINUS (PROBINUS?), ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Gift obtained from Agapita under undue influence.]
[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The petition of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good reason quitted her own home. Her own petition confirms this; and she states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church, she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has brought the poor woman to destitution. Alienation of property should be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband causelessly.
'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in complying.'
[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores' referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly identify him with them.]
12. KING THEODORIC TO THE COUNT OF THE SILIQUATARII (CUSTOMS OFFICERS), AND TO HIM WHO HAS THE CARE OF THE HARBOUR (OF PORTUS?).
[Sidenote: Prohibition of export of lard.]
'Italy ought to enjoy her own products, and it is monstrous that anything which she produces should be wanting to her own children.
'Therefore let no lard be exported to foreign parts, but let it by God's grace be all kept for consumption at home.
'Now take care not to incur the slightest blame in this matter. It is a very serious fault even in trifles to disobey orders. Sin consists in quality, not in quantity; and injustice cannot be measured. A command, if it be despised in one part, is violated in the whole.'
13. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO[253] FRUINARITH.
[Footnote 253: The Sajo was an officer, not of very high rank, apparently always of Gothic nationality, who was charged with executing the King's mandates. Perhaps our word 'henchman' would be the best translation of his title. His conventional attribute was 'devotio.' See Dahn, 'Könige der Germanen' iii. 181-186, and my 'Italy and her Invaders' iii. 282-284.]
[Sidenote: Dishonest conduct of Venantius.]
'We are always especially touched by the prayers of petitioners who complain that they are forced to pay unjustly. Ulpianus in his lamentable petition informs us that on the request of Venantius he bound himself as a guarantor (fidei jussionis vinculo) to pay over to the public Treasury at the time of his administration 400 solidi (£240). With the presumption of a truculent rustic Venantius despised his own promise, and Ulpianus has therefore been burdened with payment of the money. We therefore order that Venantius, who has been accused of many other crimes besides this, shall be summoned before you, and if found to be legally liable, shall be at once, and sharply, compelled to fulfil his promise.'
14. KING THEODORIC TO SYMMACHUS, PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Romulus the parricide.]
'Parricide is the most terrible and unnatural of crimes. Even the cubs of wild beasts follow their sires; the offshoot of the vine serves the parent stem: shall man war against him who gave him being? It is for our little ones that we lay up wealth. Shall we not earn the love of those for whom we would willingly incur death itself? The young stork, that harbinger of spring, gives a signal example of filial piety, warming and feeding its aged parents in the moulting season till they have recovered their strength, and thus repaying the good offices received in its earlier years. So too, when the partridge, which is wont to hatch the young of other birds, takes her adopted brood forth into the fields, if these hear the cry of their genuine mother they run to her, leaving the partridge forsaken.
'Wherefore, if Romulus[254] have fouled the Roman name by laying violent hands on his father Martinus, we look to your justice (we chose you because we knew you would not spare the cruel) to inflict on him legitimate revenge.'
[Footnote 254: Quaere if named from the last Emperor.]
15. KING THEODORIC TO VENANTIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS.
[Sidenote: Promotion of Venantius to Comitiva Domesticorum Vacans.]
'We always like to promote to office the sons of distinguished fathers. We therefore bestow on you the honour of Comes Domesticorum (Comitiva Vacans), in memory of your glorious father. He held at the same time the Praefecture [of Italy] and the command of the army, so that neither the Provinces lacked his ordering, nor did his wise care for the army fail. All was mastered by his skilled and indefatigable prudence; he inclined the manners of the Barbarians to peace, and governed so that all were satisfied with our rule.
'You are a zealous student of literature, illustrious by birth and eloquent by education. Go on as you have begun, and show yourself worthy of our choice.'
16. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
This letter adds a little to the information contained in the preceding one, as to the career of Liberius, father of Venantius.
[Sidenote: Praises of Liberius.]
Liberius was a faithful servant of Odovacar, who adhered to his master to the last. 'He awaited incorruptly the Divine judgments, nor did he allow himself to seek a new King till he had first lost his old one. On the overthrow of his lord he was bowed by no terror; he bore unmoved the ruin of his Prince; nor did the revolution, at which even the proud hearts of the Barbarians trembled[255], avail to move him from his calm.
[Footnote 255: 'Quam etiam ferocitas gentilis expavit.']
'Prudently did he follow the common fortunes, in order that while fixedly bearing the Divine judgments he might with the more approbation find the Divine favour. We approved the faith of the man; he came over in sadness to our allegiance as one who being overcome changes his mind, not like one who has contrived [treacherously] that he should be conquered. We made him Praefectus Praetorio. He administered the finances admirably. By his economical management we felt the increased returns, while you knew nothing of added tributes.
[Sidenote: Apportionment of Tertiae.]
'We especially like to remember how in the assignment of the [Gothic] Thirds (in Tertiarum deputatione) he joined both the possessions and the hearts of Goths and Romans alike. For whereas men are wont to come into collision on account of their being neighbours, with these men the common holding of their farms proved in practice a reason for concord. Thus it has happened that while the two nations have been living in common they have concurred in the same desires. Lo! a new fact, and one wholly laudable. The friendship of the lords has been joined with the division of the soil; amity has grown out of the loss of the Provincials, and by the land a defender has been gained whose occupation of part guarantees the quiet enjoyment of the whole. One law includes them: one equal administration rules them: for it is necessary that sweet affection should grow between those who always keep the boundaries which have been allotted them.
'All this the Roman Republic owes to Liberius, who to two such illustrious nations has imparted sentiments of mutual affection. See to it, Conscript Fathers, that his offspring does not go unrewarded.'
17. TO THE POSSESSORS, DEFENSORS, AND CURIALS[256] OF THE CITY OF TRIDENTUM (TRIENT).
[Footnote 256: Cf. iii. 9 for a similar heading.]
[Sidenote: Immunity from Tertiae enjoyed by lands granted by the King.]
'We do not wish to be generous at the expense of others, and we therefore declare that the Sors which in our generosity we have bestowed on Butilianus the Presbyter, is not to be reckoned in to the tax calculations; but as many solidi as are comprehended in that gift, so many are you to be relieved from, in the contribution of "Tertiae."'
[That is to say, the land given by the Gothic King to Butilian was to be itself, as a matter of course, free from Tertiae; but, in order that this might not throw a heavier burden on the other owners in the district, they were to be allowed to deduct the solidi of that portion from the gross amount payable by them on behalf of the whole district. Butilian's own immunity from Tertiae seems to be taken for granted as a result of the King's gift to him. (See Dahn, 'Könige der Germanen' iii. 145.)]
18. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP GUDILA.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastics as Curiales.]
An interesting but rather obscure letter on the condition of Curiales.
Apparently some ecclesiastics were claiming as slaves some men whom the Curia of Sarsena (?) asserted to be fellow-curials of their own, whom they therefore wanted to assist them in performing curial obligations.
Cassiodorus argues that as the 'Sors nascendi' prevented the Curialis from rising to the higher honours of the State, it certainly ought also to prevent him from sinking into slavery[257]. 'Therefore we advise you to look well to your facts, and see whether these men are not justly claimed as Curials, in which case the Church should give them up before the matter comes to trial. It does not look well for the Bishop, who should be known as a lover of justice, to be publicly vanquished in a suit of this kind.'
[Footnote 257: 'Quod si eos vel ad honores transire jura vetuerunt, quam videtur esse contrarium, Curialem Reipublicae, amissâ turpiter libertate, servire? et usque ad conditionem pervenisse postremam quem vocavit antiquitas Minorem Senatum.']
[Did the alleged Curials, in such a case, wish to have their curiality or their quasi-ecclesiastical character established? Who can say?]
19. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS, AND THOSE WHO KEEP THE HARBOURS AND MOUNTAIN-FORTRESSES (CLUSURAS).
[Sidenote: Domestic treachery and murder.]
'We hate all crime, but domestic bloodshed and treachery most of all. Therefore we command you to act with the utmost severity of the law against the servants of Stephanus, who have killed their master and left him unburied. They might have learned pity even from birds. Even the vulture, who lives on the corpses of other creatures, protects little birds from the attacks of the hawk. Yet men are found cruel enough to slay him who has fed them. To the gallows with them! Let him become the food of the pious vulture, who has cruelly contrived the death of his provider. That is the fitting sepulchre for the man who has left his lord unburied.'
20. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO UNIGILIS (OR WILIGIS).
[Sidenote: Provision-ships to follow movements of Theodoric's Court.]
'Let any provision-ships [sulcatoriæ?] which may be now lying at Ravenna be ordered round to Liguria (which in ordinary times supplies the needs of Ravenna herself).
'Our presence and that of our Court (Comitatus) attracts many spectators and petitioners to those parts, for whose maintenance an extra effort must be made.' [See Dahn, 'Könige der Germanen' iii. 282.]
21. KING THEODORIC TO JOANNES THE APPARITOR.
[Sidenote: A concession too timidly acted upon.]
'The King has conceded to the Spectabiles Spes and Domitius a certain tract of land which was laid waste by wide and muddy streams, and which neither showed a pure expanse of water nor had preserved the comeliness of solid earth, for them to reclaim and cultivate.
'The petition of the Actores of Spes sets forth that the operation is put in jeopardy by the ill-timed parsimony of Domitius, which throws back the labourers to the point from which they set out at first[258]. Therefore let Domitius be stirred up to finish his part of the work, or if he thinks that too expensive, let him throw up his share of the concession and allow his partner to work it out.'
[Footnote 258: 'Cum jam in soli faciem paulatim mollities siccata duresceret, celatamque longâ voracitate tellurem sol insuetus afflaret.' I cannot understand these words. I suppose there was a hard cake of clay left when the water was drained off, which was baked by the sun, and that there should have been further digging to work through this stratum and get at the good soil beneath; but the wording is not very clear.]
[We find in this letter a good motto for Theodoric's reign: 'Nos quibus cordi est in melius cuncta mutare.']
22. KING THEODORIC TO FESTUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Ecdicius to be buried by his sons.]
'The sons of Ecdicius, whom at first we had ordered to reside in the city, are to be allowed to return to their own country in order to bury their father. That grief is insatiable which feels that it has been debarred from rendering the last offices to the dead. Think at what risk of his life Priam implored the raging Achilles to give him back the body of his son.'
[Apparently the sons of Ecdicius, not Ecdicius himself, had fallen into disgrace with Theodoric, or incurred some suspicion of disloyalty, which led to the rigorous order for their detention in Rome. See Dahn iii. 279-280.]
23. KING THEODORIC TO AMPELIUS, DESPOTIUS, AND THEODULUS, SENATORS.
[Sidenote: Protection for owners of potteries.]
'It befits the discipline of our time that those who are serving the public interests shall not be loaded with superfluous burdens. Labour therefore diligently at the potteries (figulinae) which our Royal authority has conceded to you. Protection is hereby promised against the wiles of wicked men.' [What was the nature of the artifices to which they were exposed is not very clear.]
24. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Arrears of taxation due from Senators.]
'We hear with sorrow, by the report of the Provincial Judges, that you the Fathers of the State, who ought to set an example to your sons (the ordinary citizens), have been so remiss in the payment of taxes that on this first collection[259] nothing, or next to nothing, has been brought in from any Senatorial house. Thus a crushing weight has fallen on the lower orders (tenues, curiales), who have had to make good your deficiencies and have been distraught by the violence of the tax-gatherers.
[Footnote 259: 'Primae transmissionis tempus.']
'Now then, oh Conscript Fathers, who owe as much duty to the Republic as we do, pay the taxes for which each one of you is liable, to the Procurators appointed in each Province, by three instalments (trinâ illatione). Or, if you prefer to do so--and it used to be accounted a privilege--pay all at once into the chest of the Vicarius. And let this following edict be published, that all the Provincials may know that they are not to be imposed upon and that they are invited to state their grievances[260].'
[Footnote 260: See Dahn, 'Könige der Germanen' iii. 153 and 112, n. 5.]
25. AN EDICT OF KING THEODORIC.
[Referred to in the preceding letter.]
[Sidenote: Evasion of taxes by the rich.]
The King detests the oppression of the unfortunate, and encourages them to make their complaints to him. He has heard that the powerful houses are failing to pay their share of the taxes, and that a larger sum in consequence is being exacted from the tenues[261].
[Footnote 261: Here follows a sentence which I am unable to translate: 'Superbia deinde conductorum canonicos solidos non ordine traditos, sed sub iniquo pondere imminentibus fuisse projectos nec universam siliquam quam reddere consueverant solemniter intulisse.' I think the meaning is, that the stewards of the Senators (conductores) arrogantly refused to allow the money paid to the tax-collectors (canonici solidi) to be tested, as in ordinary course it should have been, to see if it was of full weight. The 'imminentes' are, I think, the tax-collectors. I cannot at all understand the clause about 'universam siliquam.']
To 'amputate' such wickedness for the future, the letter last preceding has been addressed to the Senate; and the 'Possessores sive curiales' are now invited to state their grievances fully and frankly, or else ever after hold their peace and cultivate a habit of patience.
26. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Regulations for corn-traffic of Southern Italy.]
A difficult letter about the corn-merchants of Apulia and Calabria.
1. The corn which they have collected by public sale is not to be demanded over again from them under the title of 'interpretium' [difference of price].
2. Similarly as to the Sextarius which the merchant of each Province imports. No one is to dare insolently to exact the prices which have been always condemned.
3. Fines of £1,200 on the Praefect himself, and £400 on his officium (subordinates), are to be levied if this order is disobeyed.
4. If the 'Siliquatarius' thinks right to withhold the monopoly (of corn) from any merchant, he must not also exact the monopoly payment from him.
5. As to the Aurarii [persons liable to payment of the lustralis auri collatio[262]], let the old order be observed, and those only be classed under this function whom the authority of antiquity chose to serve thereunder.
[Footnote 262: This appears to have been a tax levied on all traders, otherwise known as the Chrysargyron. See Cod. Theod. xiii. 1. Aurarii is therefore equivalent to Licensed Traders.]
27. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE JEWS LIVING IN GENOA.
[Sidenote: Rebuilding of Jewish Synagogue.]
The Jews are permitted to roof in the old walls of their synagogue, but they are not to enlarge it beyond its old borders, nor to add any kind of ornament, under pain of the King's sharp displeasure; and this leave is granted on the understanding that it does not conflict with the thirty years' 'Statute of Limitations.'
'Why do ye desire what ye ought to shun? In truth we give the permission which you craved, but we suitably blame the desire of your wandering minds. We cannot order a religion, because no one is forced to believe against his will.'
28. KING THEODORIC TO STEPHANUS, 'SENATOR, COMES PRIMI ORDINIS, AND EX-PRINCEPS OF OUR OFFICIUM[263].'
[Footnote 263: Are we to understand by this expression the Officium of the Praetorian Praefect?]
[Sidenote: Honours conferred on Stephanus on his retirement from the Civil Service.]
Praises him for all the good qualities which have been recognised by successive Judges under whom he has served--his secrecy, efficiency, and incorruptibility.
He is therefore, on his retirement from active service, raised to the honour of a 'Spectabilis,' and rewarded with the rank of 'Comitiva Primi Ordinis.' As a substantial recompence he is to have all the privileges which by 'divalia constituta' belong to the 'ex-principes' of his Schola, and is guaranteed against all damage and 'sordid burdens[264],' with a hope of further employment in other capacities[265].
[Footnote 264: Curial obligations.]
[Footnote 265: 'Fixum tenuisti militiae probatae vestigium. Spectabilitatis honorem, quem militiae sudore detersis justa deputavit antiquitas praesenti tibi auctoritate conferimus ut laboris tui tandem finitas excubias ... intelligas ... Tibique utpote militiae munere persoluto.' The term 'militia' is employed here, as in the Codes, of 'service in a bureau.']
29. KING THEODORIC TO ADILA, SENATOR AND COMES.
[Sidenote: Protection to dependents of the Church.]
[Notice the Senatorial rank borne by a man with a Gothic name.]
'We wish to protect all our subjects[266], but especially the Church, because by so doing we earn the favour of Heaven. Therefore, in accordance with the petition of the blessed Eustorgius[267], Bishop of Milan, we desire you to accord all necessary protection to the men and farms belonging to the Milanese Church in Sicily: always understanding, however, that they are not to refuse to plead in answer to any public or private suit that may be brought against them. They are to be protected from wrong, but are not themselves to deviate from the path of justice.'
[Footnote 266: 'Quia Regnantes est gloria, subjectorum otiosa tranquillitas.']
[Footnote 267: For Eustorgius, cf. Letter i. 9.]
30. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sequel to last letter.]
[Sidenote: Freedom from taxation granted to Church of Milan.]
'Our generosity to an individual does not harm the public, and there is no reason for putting any bounds to its exercise.
'The Defensores of the Holy Church of Milan want to be enabled to buy as cheap as possible the things which they need for the relief of the poor; and they say that we have bestowed this favour on the Church of Ravenna.
'Your Magnificence will therefore allow them to single out some one merchant who shall buy for them in the market, without being subject to monopoly, siliquaticum, or the payment of gold-fee[268].'
[Footnote 268: Auraria pensio. See note on ii. 26.]
[It is easy to see how liable to abuse such an exception was. Who was to decide when this merchant was buying for the Church and when for himself; when the Church was buying for the poor and when for her own enrichment?]
31. KING THEODORIC TO THE DROMONARII [ROWERS IN EXPRESS-BOATS].
[Sidenote: State Galleys on the Po.]
'Those who claim the title of "militia" ought to serve the public advantage. We have therefore told the Count of Sacred Largesses that you are to assemble at Hostilia [on the Padus, about fifteen miles east of Mantua], there to receive pay from our Treasury, and then to relieve the land postal-service (veredarii) by excursions up and down the channel of the Padus. There is no fear of your limping; you walk with your hands. No fear of your carriages wearing out; they travel over liquid roads, and suffer no wear and tear because they are borne along upon the wave which itself runs with them.'
32. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Drainage of marshes of Decennonium.]
'We always enjoy rewarding public spirit. Decius, Magnificus and Patrician, has most nobly volunteered to drain the marsh of Decennonium, where the sea-like swamp, accustomed to impunity through long licence, rushes in and spoils all the surrounding lands.
'We, in consideration of so great an undertaking, determine to secure to him the fruits of his labour, and we therefore wish that you, Conscript Fathers, should appoint a commission of two to visit the spot and mark out the ground, which is at present wasted by the inundations, that this land may be secured to Decius as a permanent possession when he has drained it.'
[The Palus Decennonii is undoubtedly connected with the Decennovial Canal mentioned by Procopius ('De Bello Gotth.' i. 11), and so called because it flowed for nineteen miles alongside the Appian Way. In the Piazza at Terracina there is a very interesting inscription, recording the fact that Theodoric had ordered that nineteen miles of the Appian Way should be cleared of the waters which had accumulated round it, and had committed the work to Caecina Maurus Basilius Decius, 'Vir Clarissimus et Illustris, Ex-Praefectus Urbi, Ex-Praefectus Praetori, Ex-Consul Ordinarius et Patricius.' See 'Italy and her Invaders' iii. 348.]
33. KING THEODORIC TO DECIUS, ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
The complement of the foregoing letter, about the drainage of the marshes of Decennonium, which are hereby granted to him, apparently 'sine fisco,' tax-free.
[But the meaning may be, 'the marshes which you drain sine fisco'--without help from the Treasury.]
The chief point of difference between this and the previous letter is that here Decius is allowed and encouraged to associate partners with him in the drainage-scheme, whom he is to reward according to their share of the work. Thus will he be less likely to sink under the enterprise, and he will also lessen men's envy of his success.
34. KING THEODORIC TO ARTEMIDORUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.
[Sidenote: Embezzlement of City building funds.]
'The persons to whom money was entrusted for the rebuilding of the walls of Rome have been embezzling it, as was proved by your examination of their accounts (discussio). We are very glad that you have not hidden their misconduct from us (inclined as a generous mind is to cover up offences), since you would thereby have made yourself partaker of their evil deeds. They must restore that which they have dishonestly appropriated, but we shall not (as we might fairly do) inflict upon them any further fine. We are naturally inclined to clemency, and they will groan at having to give up plunder which they had already calculated upon as their own.'
35. KING THEODORIC TO TANCILA, SENATOR.
[We have here another Senator with a Gothic name].
[Sidenote: Theft of brazen statue at Como.]
'We are much displeased at hearing that a brazen statue has been stolen from the City of Como. It is vexatious that while we are labouring to increase the ornaments of our cities, those which Antiquity has bequeathed to us should by such deeds be diminished. Offer a reward of 100 aurei (£60) to anyone who will reveal the author of this crime; promise pardon [to an accomplice], and if this does not suffice, call all the workmen together "post diem venerabilem" [Does this mean on the day after Sunday?], and enquire of them "sub terrore" [by torture?] by whose help this has been done. For such a piece of work as moving this statue could only have been undertaken by some handicraftsman.'
36. EDICT ABOUT THE STATUE AT COMO.
[Refers to previous letter.]
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'Though impunity for the crime should be sufficient reward, we promise 100 aurei, as well as forgiveness for his share in the offence, to anyone who will reveal the author of the theft of the statue at Como. A golden reward for a brazen theft. Anyone not accepting this offer and afterwards convicted will suffer the extreme penalty of the law.'
37. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Largesse to citizens of Spoleto.]
'As our Kingdom and revenues prosper, we wish to increase our liberality. Let your Magnificence therefore give to the citizens of Spoletium another "millena" for extraordinary gratuitous admissions to the baths[269]. We wish to pay freely for anything that tends to the health of our citizens, because the praise of our times is the celebration of the joys of the people.'
[Footnote 269: 'Ad exhibitionem thermarum supra consuetudinem.']
[The 'millena' probably means 1,000 solidi, or £600.]
38. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Immunity from taxation. Hostile ravages.]
'We have no pleasure in gains which are acquired by the misery of our subjects. We are informed that the merchants of the city of Sipontum [in Apulia] have been grievously despoiled by hostile incursions [probably by the Byzantine fleet in 508]. Let your Magnificence therefore see to it that they are for two years not vexed by any claims for purveyance (coemptio) on the part of our Treasury. But their other creditors must give them the same indulgence.'
39. KING THEODORIC TO ALOISIUS THE ARCHITECT.
[Sidenote: Hot springs of Aponum.]
'The fountain of Aponus--so called originally in the Greek language as being the remover of pain[270]--has many marvellous and beneficial properties, for the sake of which the buildings round it ought to be kept in good repair. One may see it welling up from the bowels of the earth in spherical form, under a canopy of steam. From this parent spring the waters, glassy-clear and having lost their first impetuosity, flow by various channels into chambers prepared for them by nature but made longer by art. In the first, when the boiling element dashes against the rock, it is hot enough to make a natural sudatorium; then it cools sufficiently for the tepidarium; and at last, quite cold, flows out into a fish-pond like that of Nero. Marvellous provision of Nature, whereby the opposing elements, fire and water, are joined in harmonious union and made to soothe the pain and remove the sickness of man! Yet more wonderful is the moral purity of this fountain. Should a woman descend into the bath when men are using it, it suddenly grows hotter, as if with indignation that out of its abundant supply of waters separate bathing-places should not be constructed for the two sexes, if they wish to enjoy its bounty[271]. Moreover, those secret caves, the bowels of the mountains from whence it springs, have power even to judge contentious business. For if any sheep-stealer presumes to bring to it the fleece of his prey, however often he may dip it in the seething wave, he will have to boil it before he succeeds in cleansing it.
[Footnote 270: [Greek: aponos].]
[Footnote 271: I think this is Cassiodorus' meaning, but his language is obscure.]
'This fountain then, as we before said, deserves a worthy habitation. If there be anything to repair in the thermae themselves or in the passages (cuniculi), let this be done out of the money which we now send you. Let the thorns and briers which have grown up around it be rooted up. Let the palace, shaken with extreme old age, be strengthened by careful restoration. Let the space which intervenes between the public building and the source of the hot-spring be cleared of its woodland roughness, and the turf around rejoice in the green beauty which it derives from the heated waters.'
[The hot-springs of Abano, the ancient Aponum, are situated near the Euganean Hills, and are about six miles from Padua. The heat of the water varies from 77° to 185° (Fahr.). The chief chemical ingredients are, as stated by Cassiodorus, salt and sulphur. Some of the minute description of Cassiodorus (greatly condensed in the above abstract) seems to be still applicable; but he does not mention the mud-baths which now take a prominent place in the cure. On the other hand, the wonderful moral qualities of the spring are not mentioned by modern travellers.]
40. KING THEODORIC TO BOETIUS THE PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Boetius to choose a harper for the King of the Franks.]
'The King of the Franks [Clovis] has asked us to send him a harper. We felt that in you lay our best chance of complying with his request, because you, being such a lover of music yourself, will be able to introduce us to the right man.'
Reflections on the nature of music. She is the Queen of the senses; when she comes forth from her secret abiding place all other thoughts are cast out. Her curative influence on the soul.
The five tones: the Dorian[272], influencing to modesty and purity; the Phrygian to fierce combat; the Aeolian to tranquillity and slumber; the Ionian (Jastius), which sharpens the intellect of the dull and kindles the desire of heavenly things; the Lydian, which soothes the soul oppressed with too many cares.
[Footnote 272: Cf. Milton:
'To the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders; such as rais'd To highth of noblest temper heroes old Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valour breath'd, firm and unmov'd With dread of death to flight or foul retreat.']
We distinguish the highest, middle, and lowest in each tone, obtaining thus in all fifteen tones of artificial music.
The diapason is collected from all, and unites all their virtues.
Classical instances of music:
Orpheus. Amphion. Musaeus.
The human voice as an instrument of music. Oratory and Poesy as branches of the art.
The power of song: Ulysses and the Sirens.
David the author of the Psalter, who by his melody three (?) times drove away the evil spirit from Saul.
The lyre is called 'chorda,' because it so easily moves the hearts (corda) of men.
As the diadem dazzles by the variegated lustre of its gems, so the lyre with its divers sounds.
The lyre, the loom of the Muses.
Mercury, the inventor of the lyre, is said to have derived the idea of it from the harmony of the spheres. This astral music, apprehended by reason alone, is said to form one of the delights of heaven. 'If philosophers had placed that enjoyment not in sweet sounds but in the contemplation of the Creator, they would have spoken fitly; for there is truly joy without end, eternity abiding for ever without weariness, and the mere contemplation of the Divinity produces such happiness that nothing can surpass it. This Being furnishes the true immortality; this heaps delight upon delight; and as outside of Him no creature can exist, so without Him changeless happiness cannot be[273].
[Footnote 273: 'Bene quidem arbitrati, si causam celestis beatitudinis non in sonis sed in Creatore possuissent; ubi veraciter sine fine gaudium est, sine aliquo taedio manens semper aeternitas: et inspectio sola Divinitatis efficit, ut beatius esse nil possit. Haec veraciter perennitatem praestat: haec jucunditates accumulat; et sicut praeter ipsam creatura non extat, ita sine ipsâ incommutabilem laetitiam habere non praevalet.']
'We have indulged ourselves in a pleasant digression, because it is always agreeable to talk of learning with the learned; but be sure to get us that Citharoedus, who will go forth like another Orpheus to charm the beast-like hearts of the Barbarians. You will thus both obey us and render yourself famous.'
41. KING THEODORIC TO LUDUIN [CLOVIS], KING OF THE FRANKS.
[Sidenote: Victories of Clovis over the Alamanni.]
Congratulates him on his recent victories over the Alamanni. Refers to the ties of affinity between them (Theodoric having married the sister of Clovis). Clovis has stirred up the nation of the Franks, 'prisca aetate residem,' to new and successful encounters. 'It is a memorable triumph that the impetuous Alaman should be struck with such terror as even to beg for his life. Let it suffice that that King with all the pride of his race should have fallen: let it suffice that an innumerable people should have been doomed either to the sword or to slavery.'
He recommends (almost orders) Clovis not to touch the panic-stricken refugees who have fled to the territory of Theodoric. Theodoric himself has always found that those wars were prosperously waged which were ended moderately.
Theodoric sends 'illum et illum' as ambassadors, to take certain verbal counsels from himself, to bring this letter and carry back the reply, and also to introduce the Citharoedus of whom we heard in the preceding letter[274].
[Footnote 274: There are two allusions to the relationship between the Kings: 'vestrae virtutis affinitate' (line 1), and 'ad parentum vestrorum defensionem confugisse' (line 10).]
[The campaign of Clovis against the Alamanni, referred to in this letter, is not mentioned by Gregory of Tours. Ennodius, however, in his Panegyric on Theodoric, and Agathias in his History, make distinct allusions to this event, and to Theodoric's reception of the vanquished Alamanni in his own dominions, probably in the valleys of Raetia.
This letter is very fully discussed by Von Schubert, at pp. 32-43 of his 'Unterwerfung der Alamannen' (Strassburg, 1884). I may also refer to 'Italy and her Invaders' iii. 390-91.
The date of the letter is probably about 504.]