Book IX
CONTAINING TWENTY-FIVE LETTERS, ALL WRITTEN IN THE NAME OF ATHALARIC THE KING.
1. KING ATHALARIC TO HILDERIC, KING OF THE VANDALS (A.D. 527).
[Sidenote: Murder of Amalafrida, widow of King Thrasamund and sister of Theodoric.]
'Friendship and relationship are turned to bitterness by the tidings that Amalafrida, of divine memory, the distinguished ornament of our race, has been put to death by you[574]. If you had any cause of offence against her, you ought to have sent her to us for judgment. What you have done is a species of parricide. If the succession, on the death of her husband, passed to another [yourself], that was no reason why a woman should be embroiled in the contest. It was really an addition to your nobility to have the purple dignity of the Amal blood allied to the lineage of the Hasdingi.
[Footnote 574: With reference to this event Victor Tunnunensis writes: 'Cujus (Trasamundi) uxor Amalafrida fugiens ad barbaros congressione facta Capsae juxta Heremum capitur, et in custodia privata moritur.' Procopius (De B. Vandalico i. 9) says: [Greek: Kai sphisi (tois Bandilois) xynênechthê Theuderichô te kai Gotthois en Italia ek te symmachôn kai philôn polemioi genesthai tên te gar Amalaphridan en phylakê eschon kai tous Gotthous diephtheiran hapantas epenenkontes autois neôterizein es te Bandilous kai Hilderichon]. Both Victor and Procopius seem to place the conflict before the death of Theodoric; Victor says A.D. 523. Probably therefore the fighting, the capture of Amalafrida, and the death of her countrymen, took place in that year, the year of her husband's death and Hilderic's accession. Three or four years later (526 or 527), when her brother Theodoric was dead, the imprisoned princess was murdered--a grievous insult to the young Sovereign of the Goths, her great-nephew.]
'Our Goths keenly feel the insults conveyed in this deed, since to slay the royal lady of another race is to despise the valour of that race and doubt its willingness to avenge her.
'We send you two ambassadors to hear what your excuses are. We hear that you pretend that her death was natural. And you also must send ambassadors in return to us to explain the matter, without war or bloodshed, and either pacify us or acknowledge your guilt. If you do not do this, all ties of alliance between us are broken, and we must leave you to the judgment of the Divine Majesty, which heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground.'
2. EDICT OF KING ATHALARIC.
[Sidenote: Oppression of the Curiales.]
'The body of the Republic is so tempered together that if one member suffers all the members suffer with it. The Curiales, whose name is derived from their care (cura) and forethought, are, we are told, molested by hostile proceedings, so that what was bestowed upon them as an honour turns out rather to their injury. What scandalous injustice! What an insupportable evil! that he who ought to have benefited the Republic by his services, should often lose both fortune and liberty.
'Wherefore by this edict we decree that if any Curialis suffer oppression, if anyone, without the express warrant of ourselves or the high officers of State whose business it is, inflict upon a Curialis any injury or loss of property, he shall pay a fine of 10 lbs. of gold (£400), to go to the benefit of the person thus oppressed; or, if his property be insufficient to pay this fine, he shall be beaten with clubs. The Curialis must then give additional diligence to the discharge of his public duties, since his debt to the State is, as it were, increased by the protection which we are thus affording him. As for the farms of Curiales, in connection with which the greatest frauds are practised on poor men, let no one seek to obtain them by an unlawful purchase; for a contract cannot be called a contract when it is in violation of the law[575]. The Judges must help the Curiales against the molestations of Sajones and other officials. It is a grievous offence, when the very person to whom is entrusted the duty of defending the weak, himself turns oppressor.
[Footnote 575: 'Praedia Curialium, unde maximae mediocribus parantur insidiae, nullus illicita emptione pervadat. Quia contractus dici non potest nisi qui de legibus venit.']
'Raise your heads in hope, oh ye oppressed ones! lift up your hearts, ye who are weighed down with a load of evils! To each citizen his own city is his Republic. Administer justice in your cities in conformity with the general will. Let your various ranks live on a footing of justice. Do not oppress the weak, lest you in your turn be deservedly oppressed by the strong. This is the penalty of wrong-doing, that each one suffers in his own person what he has wantonly inflicted on another.
'Live then in justice and moderation. Follow the example of the cranes, who change the order of their flight, making foremost hindmost, and hindmost foremost, without difficulty, each willingly obeying its fellow--a commonwealth of birds.
'You have, according to the laws, power over your citizens. Not in vain has Antiquity conceded to you the title of Curia: not vainly did it call you the Lesser Senate, the nerves and vital organs of the State[576]. What is not contained of honour and power in that title! For that which is compared to the Senate is excluded from no kind of glory.'
[Footnote 576: 'Non enim incassum vobis Curiam concessit Antiquitas, non inaniter appellavit Minorem Senatum, nervos quoque vocitans ac viscera civitatum.']
3. KING ATHALARIC TO BERGANTINUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, COMES [PATRIMONII], AND PATRICIAN[577].
[Footnote 577: Cf. viii. 23.]
[Sidenote: Gold-mining in Italy.]
'Gold, as well as many other fair fruits of Nature which gold can buy, is said to be produced by our generous Italy. Theodorus, who is an expert in such matters, asserts that gold will be found on the farm Rusticiana in Bruttii[578]. Let your Greatness therefore send a Cartarius to commence mining operations on that spot. The work of a miner resembles that of a mole. He burrows underground, far from the light of day. Sometimes the sides of his passages fall in and his way is closed up behind him; but if he emerge safely with his treasure, how happy is he! Then the gold-miner proceeds to immerse his ore in water, that the heavy metal may be separated from the lighter earth; then to submit it to a fervent heat, that it may thence derive its beautiful colour[579].
[Footnote 578: Have we any clue to the geographical position of this farm? The only Rusticiana known to the Itineraries is in Spain.]
[Footnote 579: 'Origo quidem nobilis, sed de flamma suscipit vim coloris, ut magis credas inde nasci, cujus similitudine videtur ornari. Sed cum auro tribuat splendidum ruborem, argento confert albissimam lucem. Ut mirum sit, unam substantiam tradere, quod rebus dissimilibus possit aptari.' Have we here a hint of 'the transmutation of metals?' Cassiodorus seems to think that it is only the furnace that makes the difference between the colours of gold and of silver.]
'Let then the land of Bruttii pay her tribute in gold, the most desired of all treasure. To seek gold by war is wicked, by voyages dangerous, by swindling shameful; but to seek it from Nature in its own home is righteous. No one is hurt by this honest gain. Griffins are said to dig for gold and to delight in the contemplation of this metal; but no one blames them, because their proceedings are not dictated by criminal covetousness. For it is not the act itself, but the motive for the act, that gives it its moral quality.'
4. KING ATHALARIC TO ABUNDANTIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: A family of Curiales permitted to step down into the ranks of the Possessores.]
'The pietas of the King is happily shown in moderating the sentence of the law, where for certain reasons it bears with especial hardness on anyone. The Curiales have peculiar advantages in their opportunity of being thus liberated by the Sovereign from the performance of their duties[580]. It is reasonable to release a Curialis whose health prevents him from fulfilling his appointed task; and a numerous Curia will never miss a few names out of so large a number.
[Footnote 580: 'Neque enim ob aliud Curiales leges sacratissimae ligaverunt, nisi ut cum illos soli principes absolverent, indulgentiae praeconia reperirent.']
'Therefore let your Illustrious Magnificence remove Agenantia, wife [or widow?] of the most eloquent man Campanianus, dwelling in Lucania, from the album of her Curia, and her sons also, so that posterity may never know that they were formerly liable to Curial duties.
'Remitted to the ranks of [mere] Possessores they will now be liable to the same demands which formerly [as members of the Curia] they made upon others. They will now dread the face of the tax-collector (compulsor), and will begin to fear the mandates by which formerly they made themselves feared[581]. Still this is a sign of their past good life, that they are willing to live without office among a population whose dislike they are not conscious of having incurred, and under old colleagues whom they know that they have not incited to an abuse of their powers.'
[Footnote 581: 'Formidare delegata incipient, per quae antea timebantur.' To translate by an analogy, 'And will tremble at the rate-summonses, their signatures to which used to make other men tremble.']
5. KING ATHALARIC TO THE BISHOPS AND FUNCTIONARIES OF ----[582].
[Footnote 582: 'Episcopis et Honoratis.' Perhaps it is from motives of delicacy that Cassiodorus has not added the name of the Province.]
[Sidenote: Forestalling and regrating of corn prohibited.]
'We learn with regret by the complaint of the Possessores of your district that the severity of famine is being increased by the conduct of certain persons who have bought up corn and are holding it for higher prices. In a time of absolute famine there can be no "higgling of the market;" the hungry man will submit to be cheated rather than let another get the food before him[583].
[Footnote 583: 'In necessitate siquidem penuriae pretii nulla contentio est: dum patitur quis induci ne possit aliquâ tarditate percelli.']
'To stop this practice we send to you the present messengers, whose business it is to examine all the stores of corn collected for public distribution[584] or otherwise, to leave to each family sufficient for its needs, and to purchase the remainder from the owners at a fair market price. Co-operate with these orders of ours cheerfully, and do not grumble at them. Complain not that your freedom is interfered with. There is no free-trade in crime[585]. If you work with us you will earn good renown for yourselves; if against us, the King's reputation will gain by your loss. It is the sign of a good ruler to make men act righteously, even against their wills.'
[Footnote 584: 'Sive in gradu [panis gradilis?] sive in aliis locis.']
[Footnote 585: A paraphrase, confessedly anachronistic, of 'Ne quis ergo venditionem sibi impositam conqueratur, sciat libertatem in crimine non requiri.']
6. KING ATHALARIC TO ----, PRIMISCRINIUS.
[Sidenote: A furlough granted for a visit to Baiae.]
'You complain that your health is failing under the long pressure of your work, and that you fear, if you absent yourself, you may lose the emoluments of your office. At the same time you ask leave to visit the Baths of Baiae. Go then with a mind perfectly at rest as to your emoluments, which we will keep safe for you. Seek the Sun, seek the pure air and smiling shore of that lovely bay, thickly set with harbours and dotted with noble islands--that bay in which Nature displays all her marvels and invites man to explore her secrets. There is the Lake of Avernus, with its splendid supply of oysters. There are long piers jutting out into the sea; and the most delightful fishing in the world is to be had in the fish-ponds--open to the sky--on either side of them. There are warm baths, heated not by brick-work flues and smoky balls of fire, but by Nature herself. The pure air supplies the steam and softly stimulates perspiration, and the health-giving work is so much the better done as Nature is above Art. Let the Coralli [in Moesia, on the shore of the Euxine] boast their wonderful sea, let the pearl fisheries of India vaunt themselves. In our judgment Baiae, for its powers of bestowing pleasure and health, surpasses them all. Go then to Baiae to bathe, and have no fear about the emoluments.'
7. KING ATHALARIC TO REPARATUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.
[We learn from Procopius ('De Bello Gotthico' i. 26) that Reparatus was brother of Pope Vigilius; that in 537 he escaped from the captivity in which the other Senators were kept at Ravenna by Witigis, and fled to Milan. In 539 Reparatus, who was then Praefectus Praetorio, was captured at Milan by the Goths, hewn in pieces, and his flesh given to the dogs (Ibid. ii. 21).]
[Sidenote: Reparatus appointed Praefectus Urbis.]
'The son of a high official naturally aspires to emulate his father's dignities. Your father had a distinguished career, first as Comes Largitionum, then as Praefectus Praetorio. While holding the latter office, he repaired the Senate-house, restored to the poor the gifts (?) of which they had been deprived[586], and though not himself a man of liberal education, pleased all by the natural charm of his manner.
[Footnote 586: 'Curiam reparans, pauperibus ablata restituens.']
'You have those advantages of mental training which were denied to your father. Education lifts an obscure man on to a level with nobles, but also adorns him who is of noble birth. You have moreover been chosen as son-in-law by a man of elevated character, whose choice is in itself a mark of your high merit. You are coming young to office[587]; but, with such a man's approbation, you cannot be said to be untried.
[Footnote 587: 'Licet primaevus venias ad honorem.']
'We therefore confer upon you for this Indiction the dignity of Praefect of the City. The eyes of the world are upon you. The Senate, that illustrious and critical body, the youngest members of which are called Patres, will listen to your words. See that you say nothing which can displease those wise men, whose praise, though hard to win, will be most sweet to your ears. Diligently help the oppressed. Hand on to your posterity the renown which you have received from your ancestors.'
8. KING ATHALARIC TO COUNT OSUIN (OR OSUM), VIR ILLUSTRIS[588].
[Footnote 588: Cf. iii. 26 and iv. 9. In the former letter he is called Osun.]
[Sidenote: Osuin made Governor of Dalmatia and Savia.]
'We reward our faithful servants with high honours, hoping thereby to quicken the slothful into emulation, when they ask themselves why, under such an impartial rule, they too do not receive promotion.
'We therefore again entrust to your Illustrious Greatness the Provinces of Dalmatia and S(u)avia. We need not hold up to you the examples of others. You have only to imitate yourself, and to confer now again in your old age the same blessings on those Provinces which, as a younger man, you bestowed on them under our grandfather.'
9. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS (IN DALMATIA AND SAVIA).
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'We send back to you the Illustrious Count Osuin, whose valour and justice you already know, to ward off from you the fear of foreign nations, and to keep you from unjust demands. With him comes the Illustrious Severinus[589], that with one heart and one mind, like the various reeds of an organ, they may utter their praiseworthy precepts.
[Footnote 589: We are not told in what capacity Severinus came. Probably it was on account of Osuin's age that Severinus was associated with him.]
[Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum.]
'As an act of grace on the commencement of our reign, we direct the Count of the Patrimony to remit to you all the super-assessment (augmentum) which was fixed for your Province at the fourth Indiction[590].
[Footnote 590: 'Per quartam Indictionem quod a nobis augmenti nomine quaerebatur illustrem virum Comitem Patrimonii nostri nunc jussimus removere.' As the fourth Indiction began Sept. 525, in the lifetime of Theodoric, it is clear that that date belongs to the imposition, not to the removal of the 'augmentum.']
'We also grant that when the aforesaid person [Severinus] returns to our presence, you may send suitable men with him to inform us of your financial position, that we may, by readjustment of the taxes, lighten your load if it be still too heavy. Nothing consolidates the Republic so much as the uninjured powers of the taxpayer.'
10. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS OF THE CITY OF SYRACUSE.
[Sidenote: Remission of Augmentum to Syracusans.]
'Lately we announced to you our accession: now we wish to confer upon you a benefit in the matter of taxes. For we look on that only as our revenue which the cultivator pays cheerfully. Our grandfather, considering the great increase in wealth and population which his long and peaceful reign had brought with it, thought it prudent to increase the taxes to be paid by the Province of Sicily[591]. He was quite right in doing this, but he thereby prepared for us, his young successor, an opportunity of conferring an unexpected favour, for we hereby remit to you all the augmentum which was assessed upon you at the fourth Indiction. And not only so, but all that you have already paid under this head for the fifth Indiction (526-7) we direct the tax-collectors to carry to your credit on account[592].
[Footnote 591: 'Avus noster de suis beneficiis magna praesumens (quia longa quies et culturam agris praestitit et populos ampliavit) intra Siciliam provinciam sub consueta prudentiae suae moderatione censum statuit subflagitari ut vobis cresceret devotio, quibus se facultas extenderat.']
[Footnote 592: This most be the meaning of 'quicquid a discursoribus novi census per quintam Indictionem probatur affixum, ad vestram eos fecimus deferre notitiam.']
'Besides this, if anyone have to complain of oppression on the part of the Governors of the Province, let him seek at once a remedy from our Piety. Often did our grandfather of glorious memory grieve over the slowness of the Governors to obey their letters of recall, feeling sure that they were lingering in the Provinces neither for his good nor yours.
'We however, with God's help, shall go on in the good work which we have begun. You have a Prince who, the older he grows, the more will love you. We send to you our Sajo Quidila, who will convey to you our orders on this matter.'
11. KING ATHALARIC TO GILDIAS, VIR SPECTABILIS, COUNT OF SYRACUSE.
12. KING ATHALARIC TO VICTOR AND WITIGISCLUS (OR WIGISICLA), VIRI SPECTABILES, CENSITORES[593] OF SICILY.
[Footnote 593: Tax-collectors. The word is unknown to the Notitia, but Censuales occurs once in it (Not. Occ. iv.).]
[Sidenote: Oppressions exercised by the King's officers in Sicily rebuked.]
Victor and Witigisclus are sharply rebuked for their delay in desisting from the oppression of the Provincials and coming to the Court of Theodoric when called for[594], a delay which is made more suspicious by their not having presented themselves to welcome Athalaric on his accession. Both they and Count Gildias are informed of the King's decision to remit the increased tax imposed at the fourth Indiction (Sept. 525); and the two Censitores are recommended, if they are conscious of having oppressed or injured any of the Provincials, to remedy the matter themselves, as the King has given all the Sicilians leave to appeal to himself against their oppressions: and the complaints of the Sicilians, though distant, will certainly reach his ears.
[Footnote 594: 'Quos etiam seris praeceptionibus credidit esse admonendos, ut relicto tandem provincialium gravamine ad ejus deberetis justitiam festinare.']
13. KING ATHALARIC TO WILLIAS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, COMES PATRIMONII.
[Sidenote: Increase of emoluments of Domestici.]
'Your Greatness informs us of cases that have come to your knowledge, in which the Guards (Domestici) attending the Counts who are appointed [to the government of various Provinces] have oppressed the Provincials by their exactions. As we believe that there is some excuse for this in the smallness of their emolumenta, which at present consist of only 200 solidi (£120) and ten rations (Annonae), we direct that you henceforth pay them, as from the fifth Indiction (Sept. 526), 50 solidi (£30) annually, in addition to the above, charging this further payment to our account. By taking away Necessity, the mother of crimes, we hope that the practice of sinning will also be removed. If, after this, anyone is found oppressing the Provincials, let him lose his emolumenta altogether. Our gifts ennoble the receiver, and are given in order to take away from him any pretext for begging from others.'
[The Domestici were a very select corps of Life-guardsmen; probably only a very small number of them would accompany a Provincial Governor to his charge. This may explain what seems an extraordinarily high rate of pay. Perhaps it is the Comes himself, not his Domestici, who is to receive the emolumenta here specified; but, if so, the letter is very obscurely expressed.]
14. KING ATHALARIC TO GILDIAS, VIE SPECTABILIS, COUNT OF SYRACUSE.
[Sidenote: Oppressive acts charged against Gildias, Comes of Syracuse.]
'We hear great complaints of you from the Sicilians; but, as they are willing to let bye-gones be bye-gones, we accede to their request, but give you the following warning:
'(1) You are said to have extorted large sums from them on pretence of rebuilding the walls, which you have not done. Either repay them the money or build up their walls. It is too absurd, to promise fortifications and give instead to the citizens hideous desolation[595].
[Footnote 595: 'Nimis enim absurdum est, spondere munitiones et dare civibus excecrabiles vastitates.']
'(2) You are said to be claiming for the Exchequer (under the name of "Fiscus Caducus") the estates of deceased persons, without any sort of regard for justice, whereas that title was only intended to apply to the case of strangers dying without heirs, natural or testamentary.
'(3) You are said to be oppressing the suitors in the Courts with grievous charges[596], so that you make litigation utterly ruinous to those who undertake it.
[Footnote 596: 'Conventiones.' I think the complaint here is of the expenses of 'executing process.' It is not as Judge but as the functionary who carries the Judge's orders into effect that Gildias is here blamed.]
'We order therefore that when our[597] decrees are being enforced against a beaten litigant, the gratuity claimed by the officer shall be the same which our glorious grandfather declared to be payable--according to the respective ranks of the litigants--to the Sajo who was charged with the enforcement of the decree; for gratuities ought not to be excessive[598].
[Footnote 597: 'Nostra' (the reading of Nivellius) seems evidently a better reading than 'vestra' (which Migne has adopted).]
[Footnote 598: 'Commodum debet esse cum modo.' A derivation or a pun.]
'But if your decrees are being enforced--and that must be only in cases against persons with whom the edicts allow you to interfere[599]--then your officer must receive half the gratuity allowed to him who carries our decrees into execution. It is obviously improper that the man who only performs your orders should receive as much as is paid out of reverence for our command. Anyone infringing this constitution is to restore fourfold.
[Footnote 599: 'Duntaxat in illis causis atque personis, ubi te misceri edicta voluerunt.']
'(4) The edicts of our glorious grandfather, and all the precepts which he made for the government of Sicily, are to be so obediently observed that he shall be held guilty of sacrilege who, spurred on by his own beastly disposition, shall try to break down the bulwark of our commands[600].
[Footnote 600: 'Quisquis belluinis moribus excitatus munimen tentaverit irrumpere jussionum.']
'(5) It is said that you cite causes between two Romans, even against their will, before your tribunal. If you are conscious that this has been done by you, do not so presume in future, lest while seeking the office of Judge, for which you are incompetent, you wake up to find yourself a culprit. You, of all men, ought to be mindful of the Edictum, since you insist on its being followed by others. If not, if this rule is not observed by you, your whole power of decreeing shall be taken from you. Let the administration of the laws be preserved intact to the Judices Ordinarii. Let the litigants throng, as they ought to do, to the Courts of their Cognitores. Do not be gnawed by envy of their pomp. The true praise of the Goths is law-abidingness[601]. The more seldom the litigant is seen in your presence the greater is your renown. Do you defend the State with your arms; let the Romans plead before their own law courts in peace.
[Footnote 601: 'Gothorum laus est civilitas custodita.']
'(6) You are also accused of insisting on buying the cargoes of vessels that come to the port at your own price [and selling again at a higher]--a practice the very suspicion of which is injurious to an official, even if it cannot be proved against him in fact[602]. Wherefore, if you wish to avoid the rumour of this deed, let the Bishop and people of the city come forward as witnesses on behalf of your conscience[603]. Prices ought to be fixed by the common deliberation [of buyer and seller]; since no one likes a commercial transaction which is forced upon the unwilling.
[Footnote 602: This seems a possible interpretation of a dark sentence: 'Navigiis vecta commercia te suggerunt occupare, et ambitu cupiditatis exosae solum antiqua pretia definire, quod non creditur a suspicione longinquum etiam si non sit actione vicinum.']
[Footnote 603: Is this a kind of compurgation which is here proposed?]
'Wherefore we have thought it proper to warn your Sublimity by these presents, since we do not like those whom we love to be guilty of excess, nor to hear evil reports of those who are charged with reforming the morals of others.'
[This is an important letter, especially when taken in connection with the words of Totila (Procopius, 'De Bello Gotthico' iii. 16), as to the exceptional indulgence with which the Gothic Kings had treated Sicily, 'leaving, at the request of the inhabitants, very few soldiers in the island, that there might be no distaste to their freedom or to their general prosperity.'
Gildias is evidently a Goth, and though a Vir Spectabilis and holding a Roman office--the Comitiva Syracusanae Civitatis--still it is essentially a military office, and he has no business to divert causes from the Judices Ordinarii to his tribunal, though probably a Roman Comes might often do this without serious blame. But by his doing so, the general principle, that in purely Roman causes a Goth is not to interfere, seems to be infringed, and therefore he receives this sharp reprimand to prevent his doing it again.]
15. KING ATHALARIC TO POPE JOHN II (532).
[Sidenote: Against Simony at Papal elections.]
'The Defensor of the Roman Church hath informed us in his tearful petition that lately, when a President was sought for the Papal chair, so much were the usual largesses to the poor augmented by the promises which had been extorted from the candidate, that, shameful to say, even the sacred vessels were exposed to sale in order to provide the necessary money[604].
[Footnote 604: 'Quosdam nefariâ machinatione necessitatem temporis aucupatos, ita facultates pauperum extortis promissionibus ingravasse, ut quod dictu nefas est, etiam sacra vasa emptioni publicae viderentur exposita.']
'Therefore let your Holiness know that by this present decree, which relates also to all the Patriarchs and Metropolitan Churches [the five Metropolitan Churches in Rome, and such Sees as Milan, Aquileia, Ravenna], we confirm the wise law passed by the Senate in the time of the most holy Pope Boniface [predecessor of John II]. By it any contract or promise made by any person in order to obtain a Bishopric is declared void.
'Anyone refusing to refund money so received is to be declared guilty of sacrilege, and restitution is to be enforced by the Judge.'
'Should a contention arise as to an election to the Apostolic See, and the matter be brought to our Palace for decision, we direct that the maximum fee to be paid, on the completion of the necessary documents (?), shall be 3,000 solidi [£1,800][605]; but this is only to be exacted from persons of sufficient ability to pay it.
[Footnote 605: 'Et quia omnia decet sub ratione moderari, nec possunt dici justa quae nimia sunt, cum de Apostolici consecratione Pontificis intentio fortasse pervenerit, et ad Palatium nostrum producta fuerit altercatio populorum, suggerentes (?) nobis intra tria millia solidorum, cum collectione cartarum censemus accipere.']
'Patriarchs [Archbishops of the other great Italian Sees] under similar circumstances are to pay not more than 2,000 solidi [£1,200].
'No one is to give [on his consecration] more than 500 solidi [£300] to the poor.
'Anyone professing to obtain for money the suffrage of any one of our servants on behalf of a candidate for Papacy or Patriarchate, shall be forced to refund the money. If it cannot be recovered from him, it may be from his heirs. He himself shall be branded with infamy.
'Should the giver of the money have been bound by such oaths, that, without imperilling his soul, he cannot disclose the transaction, anyone else may inform, and on establishing the truth of his accusation, receive a third part of the money so corruptly paid, the rest to go to the churches themselves, for the repair of the fabric or for the daily ministry. Remember the fate of Simon Magus. We have ordered that this decree be made known to the Senate and people by the Praefect of the City.'
[I think the early part of this letter gives us the clue to the pretext under which these simoniacal practices were introduced. It was usual for the Pope on his election to give a certain sum of money to the poor. Then at a vehemently contested election certain of the voters--perhaps especially the priests of the different tituli of Rome--claimed to be distributors of the Papal bounty, a large part of which they no doubt kept for themselves.]
16. KING ATHALARIC TO SALVANTIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
Rehearses the motives of the previous edict, and directs that both it and the Senatus Consulta having reference to the same subject [and framed two years previously], be engraved on marble tablets, and fixed up in a conspicuous place, before the Atrium of St. Peter the Apostle.
17. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SAME (BETWEEN 532 AND 534).
[Sidenote: Release of two Roman citizens accused of sedition.]
'We cannot bear that there should be sadness in Rome, the head of the world. We hear with regret from the Apostolic Pope John, and other nobles, that A and B, who are Romans, on a mere suspicion of sedition are being macerated by so long imprisonment that the whole city mourns for them; no gladness of a holyday and no respect for the Papal name[606] (which is most dear to us) availing to mitigate their confinement. This treatment of persons against whom no crime has been proved distresses us much, and we admonish your Greatness, wherever you may succeed in finding them, to set them free. If, confident in their innocence, they think that they have been unjustly tormented, we give them liberty to make their appeal to the laws. Judges were raised to their high estate, not to oppress but to defend the innocent.
[Footnote 606: 'Nec ulla--quae apud nos est gratissima--nominis sui dignitas subveniret.' I think sui must refer to the recently-mentioned Papa Johannes.]
'Now let the Romans return to their ancient gladness; nor let them think that any [rulers] please us but those who seek to act with fairness and moderation. Let them understand that our forefathers underwent labours and dangers that they might have rest; and that we are expending large sums in order that they may rejoice with garrulous exultation. For even if they have before now suffered some rough and unjust treatment, let them not believe that that is a thing to be neglected by our Mildness. No; for we give ourselves no rest, that they may enjoy secure peace and calm gladness. Let them understand at once that we cannot love the men whose excesses have made them terrible to our subjects. Whose favour do those men expect to win who have earned the dislike of their fellow-citizens? They might have reaped a harvest of the public love, and instead thereof they have so acted that their names are justly held in execration.'
18. THE EDICT OF ATHALARIC.
[This edict is minutely examined by Dahn ('Könige der Germanen' iv. 123-135). I have adopted his division of paragraphs, though rather disposed to think that the 'De Donationibus' should be broken up into two, to prevent counting the Epilogue as a section. See also Manso ('Geschichte der Ostrogothen' 405-415).]
[Sidenote: Edict of Athalaric.]
'Prologue. This edict is a general one. No names are mentioned in it, and those who are conscious of innocence need take no offence at anything contained therein.
'For long an ominous whisper has reached our ears that certain persons, despising civilitas, affect a life of beastly barbarism[607], returning to the wild beginnings of society, and looking with a fierce hatred on all human laws. The present seems to us a fitting time for repressing these men, in order that we may be hunting down vice and immorality within the Republic at the same time that, with God's help, we are resisting her external foes. Both are hurtful, both have to be repelled; but the internal enemy is even more dangerous than the external. One, however, rests upon the other; and we shall more easily sweep down the armies of our enemies if we subdue under us the vices of the age. [This allusion to foreign enemies is perhaps explained by the hint in Jordanes ('De Reb. Get.' 59) of threatened war with the Franks. But he gives us no sufficient indication of time to enable us to fix the date of the Edictum.]
[Footnote 607: 'Affectare vivere belluinâ saevitiâ.']
'I. Forcible Appropriation of Landed Property[608] (Pervasio). This is a crime which is quite inconsistent with civilitas, and we remit those who are guilty of it to the punishment[609] provided by a law of Divus Valentinianus [Valentinian III. Novell. xix. 'De Invasoribus'], adding that if anyone is unable to pay the penalty therein provided he shall suffer banishment (deportatio). He ought to have been more chary of disobeying the laws if he had no means to pay the penalty. Judges who shrink from obeying this law, and allow the Pervasor to remain in possession of what he has forcibly annexed, shall lose their offices and be held liable to pay to our Treasury the same fine which might have been exacted from him. If the Pervasor sets the Judge's official staff (officium) at defiance, on the report of the Judge our Sajones will make him feel the weight of the royal vengeance who refused to obey the [humbler] Cognitor.
[Footnote 608: 'Praedia urbana vel rustica.']
[Footnote 609: The punishment consisted in loss of all claim to the property--which was generally seized by someone who had some kind of ostensible claim to it--and a penalty of equal value with that of the property wrongfully seized.]
'II. Affixing Titles to Property. [When land had from any cause become public property, the Emperor's officers used to affix tituli, to denote the fact and to warn off all other claimants. Powerful men who had dispossessed weaker claimants used to imitate this practice, and are here forbidden to do so.]
'This offence shall subject the perpetrator to the same penalties as pervasio. It is really a kind of sacrilege to try to add the majesty of the royal name to the weight of his own oppression. Costs are to be borne by the defeated claimant.
'III. Suppression of Words in a Decree. Anyone obtaining a decree against an adversary is to be careful to suppress nothing in the copy which he serves upon him. If he does so, he shall lose all the benefits that he obtained. We wish to help honest men, not rogues.
'IV. Seduction of a Married Woman. He who tries to interfere with the married rights of another, shall be punished by inability to contract a valid marriage himself. [This punishment of compulsory celibacy is, according to Dahn, derived neither from Roman nor German law, but is possibly due to Church influence.] The offender who has no hope of present or future matrimony[610] shall be punished by confiscation of half his property; or, if a poor man, by banishment.
[Footnote 610: 'Illis quos spes non habet praesentis conjugii vel futuri.' It is not easy to see how the Judge could ascertain whether a man belonged to this claim or not.]
'V. Adultery. All the statutes of the late King (divalis commonitio) in this matter are to be strictly observed. [Edict. Theodorici, § 38, inflicted the penalty of death on both offenders and on the abettors of the crime.]
'VI. Bigamy is to be punished with loss of all the offender's property.
'VII. Concubinage. If a married man forms a connection of this kind with a free woman, she and all her children shall become the slaves of the injured wife. If with a woman who is a slave already, she shall be subjected to any revenge that the lawful wife likes to inflict upon her, short of blood-shedding[611].
[Footnote 611: 'Quod si ad tale flagitium ancilla pervenerit, excepta poena sanguinis, matronali subjaceat ultioni: ut illam patiatur judicem, quam formidare debuisset absentem.' These provisions are probably of Germanic origin.]
'VIII. Donations are not to be extorted by terror, nor acquired by fraud, or as the price of immorality. Where a gift is bonâ fide, the document conveying it is to be drawn up with the strictness prescribed by Antiquity, in order to remove occasions of fraud.
'IX. Magicians and other persons practising nefarious arts are to be punished by the severity of the laws. What madness to leave the Giver of life and seek to the Author of death! Let the Judges be especially careful to avoid the contagion of these foul practices.
'X. Violence Exercised towards the Weak. Let the condition of mediocrity be safe from the arrogance of the rich. Let the madness of bloodshed be avoided. To take the law into your own hands is to wage private war, especially in the case of those who are fortified by the authority of our tuitio. If anyone attempts with foul presumption to act contrary to these principles, let him be considered a violator of our orders.
'XI. Appeals are not to be made twice in the same cause.
'XII. Epilogue. But lest, while touching on a few points, we should be thought not to wish the laws to be observed in other matters, we declare that all the edicts of ourself and of our lord and grandfather, which were confirmed by venerable deliberation[612], and the whole body of decided law[613], be adhered to with the utmost rigour.
[Footnote 612: 'Quae sunt venerabili deliberatione firmata.' Is it possible that we have here a reference to a theoretical right of the Senate to concur in legislation?]
[Footnote 613: 'Et usualia jura publica.' Dahn expands: 'All other juristic material, all sources of law--Roman leges and jus, and Gothic customary law--the whole inheritance of the State in public and private law.']
'And these laws are so scrupulously guarded that our own oath is interposed for their defence. Why enlarge further? Let the usual rule of law and the honest intent of our precepts be everywhere observed.'
19. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Promulgation of the Edict.]
'Good laws are called forth by evil manners. If no complaints were ever heard, the Prince might take holiday. Stirred up by many and frequent complaints of our people, we have drawn up certain regulations necessary for the Roman peace, in our edict which is divided into twelve chapters, after the manner of the civil law[614]. We do not thereby abrogate, but rather confirm, the previously existing body of law.
[Footnote 614: 'Necessaria quaedam Romanae quieti edictali programmate duodecim capitibus sicut jus civile legitur institutum in aevum servanda conscripsimus, quae custodita residuum jus non debilitare, sed potius corroborare videantur.']
'Let this edict be read in your splendid assembly, and exhibited for thirty days by the Praefect of the City in the most conspicuous places. Thus shall our civilitas be recognised, and truculent men lose their confidence. What insolent subjects[615] can indulge in violence when the Sovereign condemns it? Our armies fight that there may be peace at home. Let the Judges do their duty fearlessly, and avoid foul corruption.'
[Footnote 615: Evidently aimed at the Goths.]
20. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'It is vexatious that, though we appoint you year by year to your duties, and leave no district without its Judge, there is yet such tardiness in administering justice that suitors come by preference to our distant Court.
'To take away all excuse from you, and relieve the necessity of our subjects, we have drawn up an edict which we desire you to exhibit for thirty days in the wonted manner at all places of public meeting.'
21. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Increase of salaries of grammarians.]
'You who are called Fathers should be interested in all that concerns the education of your sons. We hear by certain whisperings that the teachers of eloquence at Rome are not receiving their proper reward, and that the sums appointed to be paid to the masters of schools are lessened by the haggling of some persons.
'Grammar is the noble foundation of all literature, the glorious mother of eloquence. As a virtuous man is offended by any act of vice, as a musician is pained by a discordant note, so does the grammarian in a moment perceive a false concord.
'The grammatical art is not used by barbarous kings: it abides peculiarly with legitimate sovereigns[616]. Other nations have arms: the lords of the Romans alone have eloquence. Hence sounds the trumpet for the legal fray in the Forum. Hence comes the eloquence of so many chiefs of the State. Hence, to say nothing more, even this discourse which is now addressed to you[617].
[Footnote 616: 'Hac non utuntur barbari reges: apud legales dominos manere cognoscitur singularis.']
[Footnote 617: 'Et, ut reliqua taceamus, hoc quod loquimur inde est.']
'Wherefore let the teacher of grammar and of rhetoric, if he be found suitable for his work and obey the decrees of the Praefect of the City, be supported by your authority, and suffer no diminution of his salary[618].
[Footnote 618: 'Et semel Primi Ordinis vestri ac reliqui Senatus amplissimi auctoritate firmatus.' What is the meaning of 'Primi Ordinis vestri?']
'To prevent his being dependent in any way on the caprice of his employer, let him receive half his salary at the end of half a year, and his annonae at the customary times. If the person whose business it is to pay him neglects this order, he shall be charged interest on the arrears.
'The Grammarian is a man to whom every hour unemployed is misery, and it is a shame that such a man should have to wait the caprice of a public functionary before he gets his pay. We provide for the salaries of the play-actors, who minister only to the amusement of the public; and how much more for these men, the moulders of the style and character of our youth! Therefore let them henceforward not have to try the philosophical problem of thinking about two things at once, but, with their minds at ease about their subsistence, devote themselves with all their vigour to the teaching of liberal arts.'
22. KING ATHALARIC TO PAULINUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS AND CONSUL (533).
[Flavius Theodoras Paulinus Junior was Consul with the Emperor Justinian in 534. This letter was written in Sept. 533, about thirteen months before the death of Athalaric. Paulinus was son of Venantius and grandson of Liberius.]
[Sidenote: Paulinus chosen as Consul.]
'The absent from our Court need not fear that they will be disregarded in the distribution of honours, especially when they are sprung from an illustrious stock, the offspring of the Senate.
'In your family Rome recognises the descendants of her ancient heroes the Decii, who, in a great crisis, alone saved their country.
'Take then for the twelfth Indiction the ensigns of the Consulship[619]. It is an arduous honour, but one which your family is well used to. The Fasti are studded with its names, and nearly all the Senate is of kin to you. Still, presume not too much on the merits of your ancestors, but rather seek to emulate their noble deeds.'
[Footnote 619: The twelfth Indiction began Sept. 1, 533. The Consul would enter office Jan. 1, 534. Was he designated when the great Imperial officers were appointed at the beginning of the Indiction?]
23. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the Consulship of Paulinus.]
'Judge of our esteem for your honourable body, Conscript Fathers, when, without any hesitation, we appoint your sons whom we have never seen to high office, because they are your sons.
'We admire the Patrician Venantius, blessed as he has been with such an abundant progeny, and found equal to the weight of so many Consulships. His sons have been all temperate and lively; worthy members of the same distinguished family. They have been trained in arms, their minds have been formed by letters, their bodies by the exercises of the gymnasium. They have learned to show constancy to their friends, loyalty to their lords; and they have succeeded to the virtues of their ancestors, as they will to their patrimony. Wisely husbanding his own fortune, Venantius has been able to support the honour--gratifying, but burdensome--of seeing so many of his sons made Consuls. But this is an honour not strange to his family, sprung from the ancient Decii. His hall is full of laurelled Fasces, and in his line one might almost say that each one is born a Consular.
'Favour our candidate then, Conscript Fathers, and cherish him with that care which the name of your body[620] signifies.'
[Footnote 620: Curia, from cura.]
24. KING ATHALARIC TO SENATOR [CASSIODORUS HIMSELF], PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT (SEPT. 1, 533).
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus appointed Praetorian Praefect.]
'If you had been hitherto an obscure person we might feel some doubt how you would bear yourself in your new office, but your long and glorious career under our grandfather relieves us from any such anxieties. His choice of you is a thing to be not discussed but reverently accepted. It was by him that we ourselves were chosen; and the Divine favour so conspicuously followed him that no General whom he selected was other than victorious, no Judge whom he appointed was other than just. In short, one might almost deem him to have been endowed with the gift of prophecy.
[Sidenote: His Quaestorship.]
'In your early manhood he received you into the office of Quaestor, and soon found you to be a conscientious man, learned in the law beyond your years[621]. You were the chief ornament of your times, inasmuch as you, by your blameless service sustaining the weight of that royal intellect by all the force of your eloquence, enabled him, with his keen interest in all public affairs, to await the result with confidence. In you he possessed a counsellor pleasant in the transaction of business, rigid in his sense of justice, free from all taint of avarice. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of his benefits; and thus you reaped your reward in a wealth of public opinion, not in gold. It was because that just Prince proved you to be averse from all these vices that he selected you for his glorious friendship. A wise judge, he threw upon you the weight of listening to the arguments of contending parties; and so high was his opinion of your tried sagacity that he at once uttered your decision as the greatest benefit that he could confer on the litigants. How often did he rank you among the oldest chiefs of his Council! How often was it seen that your young beginnings were more than a match for them, who had the experience of long years behind them! What he found to praise in you was your excellent disposition, wide open for useful work, tight closed against the vices of avarice. Whereas, for some reason, it is rare to find amongst men, the hand closed and justice open.
[Footnote 621: 'Primaevum recipiens ad Quaestoris Officium, mox reperit conscientia praeditum, et legum eruditione maturum.']
[Sidenote: His career as Master of the Offices.]
'Let us pass on to the dignity of Magister Officiorum, which all men knew that you obtained, not from the reputation of wealth, but as a testimony to your character. In this place you were always ready to help the [successive] Quaestors; for, when pure eloquence was required, the case was always put in your hands. The benignant Sovereign claimed from you the fulfilment of duties which he knew that he had not formally laid upon you; and such was the favour that he had for you, while others laboured you received the reward of his abundant praises[622]. For under your administration no dignity kept its exact limits; anything that was to be honestly done by all the chiefs of the State together, you considered to be entrusted to your conscience for its performance.
[Footnote 622: 'Et quadam gratia praejudiciali vacabat alios laborare, ut te sententiae suae copiosa laude compleret.' One would have expected Cassiodorus to say, 'You had the special privilege of doing other people's work and being praised for it, while they enjoyed their leisure;' but I hardly see how we can get this meaning out of 'vacabat alios laborare.']
'No one found occasion to murmur anything to your disadvantage, though you had to bear all the weight of unpopularity which comes from the Sovereign's favour. The integrity of your life conquered those who longed to detract from your reputation, and your enemies were obliged to utter the praises which their hearts abhorred; for even malice leaves manifest goodness unattacked, lest it be itself exposed to general hatred.
[Sidenote: His friendship for Theodoric.]
'To the Monarch you showed yourself a friendly Minister and an intimate Noble[623]. For when he had laid aside the cares of State, he would seek in your conversation the opinions of wise men of old, that by his own deeds he might make himself equal to the ancients[624]. Into the courses of the stars, into the gulfs of the sea, into the marvels of springing fountains, this most acute questioner enquired, so that by his diligent investigations into the nature of things he seemed to be a Philosopher wearing the purple.
[Footnote 623: 'Egisti rerum domino judicem familiarem et internum procerem.']
[Footnote 624: 'Nam cum esset publica cura vacuatus, sententias prudentum a tuis fabulis exigebat; ut factis propriis se aequaret antiquis.']
'It were long to narrate all your merits in the past. Let us rather turn to the future, and show how the heir of Theodoric's Empire proposes to pay the debts of Theodoric.
'Therefore, with the Divine help, we bestow on you from the twelfth Indiction [Sept. 1, 533] the authority and insignia of Praetorian Praefect. Let the Provinces, which we know to have been hitherto wearied by the administration of dishonest men, fearlessly receive a Judge of tried integrity.
'Though you have before you the example of your father's Praefecture[625], renowned throughout the Italian world, we do not so much set before you either that or any other example, as your own past character, exhorting you to rule consistently with that. You have always been averse from bribery; now earnestly help the victims of injustice. We have purposely delayed your accession to this high office that you might be the more heartily welcomed by the people, who expected to see you clothed with it long ago. Diligently seek out anything belonging to the titles of the Praetorian Praefecture, of which it has been defrauded by the cupidity of others. We send you as a light into a dark chamber, and expect that your sagacity and loyalty will discover many hidden things.
[Footnote 625: 'Quamvis habeas paternam Praefecturam, Italico orbe praedicatam.' This is one of the many proofs that Senator (now first advanced to the office of Praefectus Praetorio) is the son of the Cassiodorus to whom the letter (i. 3) is addressed on his retirement from that office.]
'We know that you will work not so much for the sake of honour as in order to satisfy your conscience; and work so done knows no limit to its excellence.'
25. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME (ON THE PROMOTION OF CASSIODORUS SENATOR TO THE PRAETORIAN PRAEFECTURE).
[Sidenote: Eulogy of Cassiodorus on his appointment as Praetorian Praefect.]
'We have loaded Senator with our benefits, Conscript Fathers, because he abounds in virtue, is rich in excellence of character, and is already full of the highest honours. But, in fact, we are his debtors. How shall we repay that eloquent tongue of his, with which he set forth the deeds of the Prince, till he himself who had wrought them wondered at his story? In praising the reign of the wearer of the purple, he made it acceptable to your nation. For taxes may be paid to a tyrant; praise, such as this, is given only to a good Prince.
[Sidenote: His Gothic History.]
'Not satisfied with extolling living Kings, from whom he might hope for a reward, he drew forth the Kings of the Goths from the dust of ages, showing that the Amal family had been royal for seventeen generations, and proved that the origin of the Gothic people belonged to Roman history[626], adorning the whole subject with the flowers of his learning gathered from wide fields of literature.
[Footnote 626: 'Tetendit se etiam in antiquam prosapiem nostram, lectione discens, quod vix majorum notitia cana retinebat. Iste Reges Gothorum longa oblivione celatos, latibulo vetustatis eduxit. Iste Amalos cum generis sui claritate restituit, evidenter ostendens in decimam septimam progeniem stirpem nos habere regalem. Originem Gothicam historiam fecit esse Romanam, colligens quasi in unam coronam germen floridum quod per librorum campos passim fuerat ante dispersum.']
'In the early days of our reign what labour he gave to the settling of our affairs! He was alone sufficient for all. The duty of making public harangues, our own private counsels, required him. He laboured that the Empire might rest.
[Sidenote: His official career.]
'We found him Magister; but he discharged the duties of Quaestor, and willingly bestowed on us, the heir, the experience which he had gained in the counsels of our grandfather.
[Sidenote: His military services.]
'And not only so, he helped the beginning of our reign both with his arms and his pen. For when the care of our shores[627] occupied our royal meditation, he suddenly emerged from the seclusion of his cabinet, boldly, like his ancestors, assumed the office of General[628], and triumphed by his character when there was no enemy to overcome. For he maintained the Gothic warriors[629] at his own charges, so that there should be no robbery of the Provincials on the one hand, no too heavy burden on the exchequer on the other. Thus was the soldier what he ought to be, the true defender, not the ravager of his country. Then when the time for victualling the ships was over, and the war was laid aside, he shone as an administrator rather than a warrior, healing, without injury to the litigants, the various suits which arose out of the sudden cessation of the contracts[630].
[Footnote 627: Probably from some expected descent of the Vandals, in connection with the affair of Amalafrida.]
[Footnote 628: 'Par suis majoribus ducatum sumpsit intrepidus.']
[Footnote 629: 'Deputatos.']
[Footnote 630: A conjectural translation of a difficult sentence: 'Mox autem ut tempus clausit navium commeatum, bellique cura resoluta est, ingenium suum legum potius ductor exercuit: sanans sine damno litigantium quod ante sub pretio comstabat esse laceratum.' I conjecture that by the sudden stoppage of the warlike preparations several of the contractors were in danger of being ruined, and there was a general disposition to repudiate all purchases.]
'Such was the glory of the military command of a Metellus in Asia, of a Cato in Spain--a glory far more durable than any that can be derived from the varying shock of war.
[Sidenote: His religious character.]
'Yet with all these merits, how humble he has been, how modest, how benevolent, how slow to wrath, how generous in the distribution of that which is his own, how slow to covet the property of others! All these virtues have been consolidated by his reading of the Divine Book, the fear of God helping him to triumph over baser, human motives. Thus has he been rendered humble towards all, as one imbued with heavenly teaching.
'Him therefore, Conscript Fathers, we make, under God's blessing, Praetorian Praefect from the twelfth Indiction [Sept. 1, 533], that he may repress by his own loyalty the trafficking of knaves, and may use his power for the good of the Republic, bequeathing eternal renown to his posterity.'
Book X
CONTAINING THIRTY-FIVE LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS:
FOUR IN THE NAME OF QUEEN AMALASUENTHA. TWENTY-TWO IN THAT OF KING THEODAHAD. FOUR IN THAT OF HIS WIFE GUDELINA. FIVE IN THAT OF KING WITIGIS.
1. QUEEN AMALASUENTHA TO JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR (A.D. 534).
[Sidenote: Association of Theodahad in the Sovereignty.]
'I have hitherto forborne to distress you with the sad tidings of the death of my son of glorious memory, but now am able to mingle a joyful announcement with this mournful message. We have promoted to the sceptre a man allied to us by a fraternal tie, that he may wear the purple robes of his ancestors, and may cheer our own soul by his prudent counsels. We are persuaded that you will give us your good wishes on this event, as we hope that every kind of prosperity may befall the kingdom of your Piety. The friendship of princes is always comely, but your friendship absolutely ennobles me, since that person is exalted in dignity who is united by friendship to your glory[631].
[Footnote 631: 'Nam licet concordia Principum semper deceat, vestra tamen absolute me nobilitat; quoniam ille redditur amplius excelsus, qui vestrae gloriae fuerit unanimiter conjunctus.']
'As we cannot in the short space of a letter express all that we desire to say on such an occasion, we have entrusted certain verbal messages to the ambassadors who bear this epistle.'
2. THEODAHAD THE KING TO JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'It is usual for newly-crowned Kings to signify their accession to the different nations round them. I, in making this communication to you, am greatly favoured by Providence, feeling secure of your favour, because I know that my most excellent Lady and Sister has already attained it. I feel confident that I shall justify the choice of one who shines in such a light of wisdom that she both governs her own kingdom with admirable forethought and keeps firmly the vows of friendship which she has plighted to her neighbours. Partner of her cares, I desire also to be a partner of her wisely-formed friendships, those especially which she has contracted with you, who have nothing like unto you in the whole world. This alliance is no new thing: if you will look back upon the deeds of our ancestors you will find that there is a custom which has obtained the force of a law, that the Amals should be friendly with the Empire. So old a friendship is likely to endure; and if, in obedience to it and to my Sister's choice, I have your love, I shall feel that I am indeed a King.
'The ambassadors who have charge of this letter will further express my sentiments.'
3. QUEEN AMALASUENTHA TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'After the death of our son of blessed memory[632] our love for the common weal overcame the yearnings of a mother's heart and caused us to seek your prosperity rather than an opportunity to indulge in our own sorrow. We have considered by what solace we should strengthen ourselves for the cares of royalty. The same Providence which has deprived us of a son in the dawn of manhood, has reserved for us the affection of a brother in mature age. Under the Divine auspices we have chosen Theodahad[633] as the fortunate partner of our throne. We two, with conjoined counsels, shall now labour for the common welfare, two in our meditations, one in the action which results from them. The stars give one another mutual help in ruling the heavens, and God has bestowed on man two hands, two ears, two eyes, that each one of these members should assist the other.
[Footnote 632: 'Divae recordationis.']
[Footnote 633: Is there any authority for the reading of Nivellius, 'Theo_baldum_?']
[Sidenote: Praises of Theodahad.]
'Therefore exult, Conscript Fathers, and commend our deed to the blessing of the Almighty. Our sharing our power with another is a pledge of its being wisely and gently exercised. By God's help we have opened our palace to a man of our own race, conspicuous by his illustrious position, who, born of the Amal stock, has a kingly dignity in all his actions, being patient in adversity, moderate in prosperity, and, most difficult of all kinds of government, long used to the government of himself. Moreover, he possesses that desirable quality, literary erudition, lending a grace to a nature originally praiseworthy. It is in books that the sage counsellor finds deeper wisdom, in books that the warrior learns how he may be strengthened by the courage of the soul, in books that the Sovereign discovers how he may weld nations together under his equal rule. In short, there is no condition in life the credit whereof is not augmented by the glorious knowledge of literature.
'Your new Sovereign is moreover learned in ecclesiastical lore, by which we are ever reminded of the things which make for our own true honour, right judgment, wise discretion, reverence for God, thought of the future judgment. For the remembrance that we shall one day stand at the bar to answer for ourselves compels us to follow the footprints of Justice. Thus does religious reading not only sharpen the intellect but ever tend to make men scrupulous in the performance of their duties.
'Let me pass on to that most generous frugality of his private household[634] which procured the means of such abundance in his gifts, of such plenty at his banquets, that even the kingdom will not call for any new expenditure in this respect greater than the old. Generous in his hospitality, most pitiful in his compassions, while he was thus spending much, his fortune, by a heavenly reward, was ever on the increase.
[Footnote 634: 'Veniamus ad illam privatae Ecclesiae (?) largissimam frugalitatem.' 'Ecclesiae,' if it means here 'the Church,' seems to spoil the sense. Can Cassiodorus mean to compare the household of Theodahad to a 'private Ecclesia?']
'The wish of the people should coincide with our choice of such a man, who, reasonably spending his own goods, does not desire the goods of others[635]. For moderation in his own expenditure takes away from the Sovereign the temptation to transgress the precepts of justice and to abandon the golden mean.
[Footnote 635: 'Talem universitas debuit optare, qualem nos probamur elegisse, qui rationabiliter disponens propria, non appetat aliena.' And this of Theodahad!]
'Rejoice then, Conscript Fathers, and give thanks to the Most High, that I have chosen such a ruler, who will supplement my justice by the good deeds which spring from his own piety. For this man is both admonished by the virtue of his ancestors and powerfully stimulated by the example of his uncle Theodoric.'
4. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'We announce to you, Conscript Fathers, the Divine favour which has been manifested unto us, in that our sovereign Lady[636], who is renowned throughout the whole world, has with generous affection made me partaker of her throne, so that she may not lack loyal support and I may be fittingly clothed with the purple of my ancestors.
[Footnote 636: 'Dominam rerum.']
'I know that this elevation of mine was the object of the wishes of the community. Your whispers in my favour might have been a source of danger, but now your openly expressed acclamations are my proudest boast. You wished that God should bestow upon me this honour, to which I for my part should not have ventured to aspire. But if I have, as I trust I have, any influence with you, let me prevail upon you to join with me in perpetually hymning the glorious praises of our Lady and Sister. She has wished to strengthen the greatness of our Empire by associating me therein, even as the two eyes of a man harmoniously co-operate towards a single act of vision. Divine grace joins us together: our near relationship cements our friendship. Persons of diverse character may find it an arduous matter thus to work in common; but, to those who resemble one another in the goodness of their intentions, the difficulty would rather be not to work in harmony. The man devoid of forethought may fear the changing of his purposes; but he who is really great in wisdom eagerly seeks wisdom in another.
'But of all the gifts which with this regal dignity the Divine favour has bestowed upon me, none pleases me more than the fact that I should have been thus chosen by that wisest Lady who is herself a moral balance of the utmost delicacy, and who made me first feel her justice before advancing me to this high dignity. For, as you know, she ordained that I should plead my cause against private persons in the common judgment-hall[637]. Oh wonderful nobility of her mind! Oh admirable justice, which the world may well tell of! She hesitated not first to subject her own relation to the course of public justice, even him whom, a little after, she would raise above the laws themselves. She thoroughly searched the conscience of him to whom she was about to hand over the dignity of kingship, that she might be recognised as sovereign Lady of all, and that I, when tested, might be advanced by her to the throne.
[Footnote 637: 'Cujus prius ideo justitiam pertuli ut prius [posterius?] ad ejus provectionis gratiam pervenirem. Causas enim, ut scitis, jure communi nos fecit dicere cum privatis.' We have here, no doubt, an allusion to the punishment which, as we learn from Procopius, Amalasuentha inflicted on her cousin for his various acts of injustice towards his Tuscan neighbours.]
[Sidenote: Praises of Amalasuentha.]
'When shall I be able to repay her for all these favours: her who, having reigned alone during the minority of her son, now chooses me as the partner of her realm? In her is the glory of all kingdoms, the flower of all our family. All our splendour is derived from her, and she reflects a lustre not only on our ancestors, but on the whole human race. Her dutiful affection, her weight of character, who can set forth? The philosophers would learn new lessons if they knew her, and would acknowledge that their books fail to describe all her attributes. Acute she is in her powers of reasoning; but with royal taciturnity she knows how to veil her conclusions in secrecy. She is mistress of many languages; and her intellect, if suddenly tested, is found so ready for the trial that it scarcely seems like that of a mortal. In the Books of Kings the Queen of the South is said to have come to learn the wisdom of Solomon: but here a woman speaks, and Sovereigns listen to her with admiration. Infinite depths of meaning are fathomed by her in few words, and she, with utmost ease, expresses what others can only after long deliberation embody in language[638].
[Footnote 638: 'Et summâ felicitate componitur quod ab aliis sub longâ deliberatione componitur.' 'Ab aliis' probably refers to Cassiodorus himself. The contrast between his elaborate and diffuse rhetoric, and the few, terse, soon-moulded sentences of his mistress is very fairly drawn.]
'Happy the commonwealth which boasts the guidance of such a mistress. It was not enough that already liberty and convenience were combined for the multitude[639]: her merits have secured the fitting reverence for the person of the Sovereign. In obeying her we obey all the virtues. I, too, with such a counsellor, fear not the weight of the crown; and I know that whatever is strange to me in my new duties I shall learn from her as the safest of teachers.
[Footnote 639: 'Minus fuit ut generalitas sub libertate serviret.']
'Acknowledge, noble Sirs, that all my power of increased usefulness to the State comes from this our most wise Lady, from whom I may either gain wisdom by asking questions, or virtue by following her example.
'Live happily: live in harmony by God's help, and emulate that grace of concord which you see prevailing between your Sovereigns.'
5. KING THEODAHAD TO HIS MAN THEODOSIUS[640].
[Footnote 640: 'Theodosio homini suo Theodahadus rex.' Does 'homo suus' mean a member of his Comitatus? We seem to have here an anticipation of the 'homagium' of later times.]
[Sidenote: The followers of the new King must live justly.]
'By my accession to the throne I have become lord of the whole nation and guardian of the general welfare. I therefore command that all who belong to my private household shall vindicate their rights only in the courts of law, and shall abstain from all high-handed modes of obtaining redress. Only that man must henceforward be called mine who can live quietly subject to the laws. My new dignity has changed my purpose; and if before I have defended my rights with pertinacity, I shall now temper all my acts with clemency[641]; since there is nothing exceptional about a Sovereign's household, but wheresoever, by the grace of God, our rule extends, there, as we fully confess, is something which it is our duty to defend. Augment therefore my renown by your patience, and let me hear praises rather than complaints of the actions of my servants.'
[Footnote 641: 'Mutavimus cum dignitate propositum, et si ante justa districte defendimus, nunc clementer omnia mitigamus.' A pretty plain confession of Theodahad's past wrong-doing, and one which was probably insisted upon by Amalasuentha in admitting him to a share in the kingship.]
6. KING THEODAHAD TO PATRICIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND QUAESTOR.
[Sidenote: Patricius appointed Quaestor.]
'In conferring upon you the office of Quaestor we look first to character, and we find in you that love of justice which is all important in a representative of the Prince. Then we look at the qualities of your intellect, and we find in you that flow of eloquence which among all mental accomplishments we value most highly. What does it profit to be a philosopher, if one cannot worthily set forth the results of one's investigations? To discover is natural to man; but to set forth one's discoveries in noble language, that is indeed a desirable gift. Therefore we bestow on you for this thirteenth Indiction[642] the fasces of the Quaestorship, desiring you to consecrate your time to the study of the laws and the responsa prudentum, and to spread abroad our fame by the eloquent manner in which you shall communicate our decrees to the Cities and Provinces under our sway, and speak in our name to the representatives of foreign nations.'
[Footnote 642: 534-535. As Athalaric died Oct. 2, 534, the appointment of Patricius cannot have taken place on the usual day, Sept. 1.]
7. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'After announcing to you our own accession, one of our first cares was to choose a Judge whose style of speaking might dignify the State. Such a Judge have we found in Patricius (Patrician by his name already), whom we hereby appoint to the office of Quaestor. He studied eloquence at Rome. Where could he have studied better? For while other parts of the world have their wine, their balm, their frankincense, which they can export, the peculiar product of Rome is eloquence.
'Having thus learned his art, he practised it at the bar with singular moderation. No heat of strife hurried him into abuse of his competitors. Seeking only to win his client's cause, he calmly and courteously set forth that client's rights without sacrificing his own dignity of demeanour.
'Thinking that this man has pleaded long enough, we now appoint that he shall sit as Judge, having made diligent enquiry as to his character. In this, and in all other matters, we wish to follow the example of the Emperors who have gone before us, in so far as they followed the paths of justice[643].'
[Footnote 643: 'Velle nostrum antiquorum principum est voluntas, quos in tantum desideramus imitari quantum illi justitiam sunt secuti.']
8. QUEEN AMALASUENTHA TO JUSTINIAN, AUGUSTUS.
[Sidenote: Present of marbles from Justinian to Amalasuentha.]
'Delighting to receive from your Piety some of those treasures of which the heavenly bounty has made you partaker, we send the bearer of the present letter to receive those marbles and other necessaries which we formerly ordered Calogenitus to collect on our behalf. All our adornments, furnished by you, redound to your glory. For it is fitting that by your assistance should shine resplendent that Roman world which the love of your Serenity renders illustrious.'
9. KING THEODAHAD TO JUSTINIAN, AUGUSTUS.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
[On the same subject as the previous letter, and in nearly the same words. Calogenitus apparently is dead.]
'We have directed the bearer of this letter to exhibit (?) those things for which Calogenitus was previously destined; so that, although that person is withdrawn from this life, your benefits, by God's help, may still be brought unto us.'
10. QUEEN AMALASUENTHA TO THEODORA, AUGUSTA[644].
[Footnote 644: There is something in the tone of this letter which suggests that Theodora was known to be pregnant when it was written.]
[Sidenote: Salutation to Theodora.]
'We approach you with the language of veneration, because it is agreed on all hands that your virtues increase more and more. Friendship exists not for those only who are in one another's presence, but also for the absent. Rendering you therefore the salutation of august reverence, I hope that our ambassadors, whom we have directed to the most clement and most glorious Emperor, will bring me news of your welfare. Your prosperity is as dear to me as my own; and as I constantly pray for your safety, I cannot hear without pleasure that my prayers have been answered.'
11. KING THEODAHAD TO MAXIMUS[645], VIR ILLUSTRIS AND DOMESTICUS.
[Footnote 645: This Maximus does not appear to be mentioned by Procopius. He may be the same Maximus who took refuge in one of the churches after Totila's capture of Rome in 546 (De Bello Gotthico iii. 20), and who was slain by order of Teias in 552 (Ibid. iv. 34); but that person was grandson of an Emperor, and it seems hardly probable that Cassiodorus would have spared us such a detail in the pedigree of Theodahad's kinsman. We seem also to be entirely without information as to the Amal princess who was the bride of Maximus.]
[Sidenote: Maximus appointed to office of Primicerius (Domesticorum?)]
'It is the glory of a good Sovereign to confer office on the deserving descendants of illustrious families. Such are the Anicii, an ancient family, almost on an equality with princes[646], from whom you are descended. Gladly would we decorate the descendants of the Marii and Corvini if time had permitted their progeny to survive to our own day. But it were inconsistent to regret the impossibility of enjoying this privilege if we neglected the opportunity which we do possess in your case.
[Footnote 646: 'Anicios quidem pene principibus pares aetas prisca genuit.']
'Therefore we bestow upon you from this fourteenth Indiction[647] the office of Primicerius, which is also called Domesticatus. This office may appear somewhat less than you are entitled to by your pedigree, but you have received an honour which is greater than all the fasces in being permitted to marry a wife of our royal race, a distinction which you could not have hoped for even when you sat in the curule chair. Comport yourself now with mildness, patience, and moderation, that you may show yourself worthy of your affinity with us. Your ancestors have hitherto been praised, but they were never dignified with such an alliance. Your nobility has now reached a point beyond which it can climb no further. All that you do henceforward of a praiseworthy kind will but have the effect of rendering you more worthy of the matrimonial alliance which you have already achieved[648].'
[Footnote 647: 535 to 536.]
[Footnote 648: 'Laudati sunt hactenus parentes tui, sed tantâ non sunt conjunctione decorati. Nobilitas tua non est ultra quod crescat. Quicquid praeconialiter egeris, proprio matrimonio dignissimus aestimaris.']
12. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'We do not think that the fact of a man's having received the Consulship early in life should shut him out from holding office of lower rank in his maturer years[649]. As the Tiber receives the water of smaller rivers which merge their names in his, so a man of Consular rank can serve the State in less conspicuous ways, yet still be Consular. Therefore we have thought fit to bestow on the Illustrious and Magnificent Patrician Maximus, the Primiceriatus which is also called Domesticatus, from this fourteenth Indiction, that the lowliness of the honour may be raised by the merit of the wearer. He is an Anicius, sprung from a family renowned throughout the whole world. He is also honoured with the affinity of our own illustrious race. Receive him, welcome him, rejoice at these nuptials, which bind me closer to you, now that you have in your ranks one whom I can truly call a relation.'
[Footnote 649: Flavius Anicius Maximus was Consul in 523.]
13. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[This letter may probably be referred to the Spring or Summer of 535. Theodahad, soon after the deposition or death of Amalasuentha, has apparently invited the Senate to Ravenna, an invitation which they have respectfully declined. He chides their suspicions of him.]
[Sidenote: Summons to Ravenna. Suspicions of the Senators.]
'After we had dismissed the venerable Bishops who brought your message, without taking exception to your requests, though there were some things blameworthy among them, we received tidings that the City of Rome was agitated by certain foolish anxieties, from which real evil would grow unless the suspicion which caused them could be laid to rest.
'I fear that I cannot complain of "popular levity" if your illustrious body, which should set an example to all others, should give way to such fond imaginings. If Rome, which should govern the Provinces, be so foolish, what can we expect of them?
'Divine grace, however, prompts us both to pardon your faults and to grant your requests. We owe you nothing, and yet we pay you[650]; but we trust to be rewarded by hearing not our own praises but yours. Put away these unworthy, these childish suspicions, and behave as becomes the fathers of the people.
[Footnote 650: 'Nihil debemus et solvimus.' Have we here an echo of St. Augustine's thought, 'Reddis debita nulli debens?']
'In desiring your presence at our Court, we sought not your vexation but your advantage. It is certainly a great privilege to see the face of the Sovereign, and we thought to bestow on you, for the advantage of the State, that which used to be counted as a reward. However, not to deal harshly with you, we shall be satisfied with the attendance of certain individuals from your body, as occasion may require, so that on the one hand Rome may not be denuded of her citizens, and on the other that we may not lack prudent counsellors in our chamber. Now return to your old devotion, and serve us, not as a matter of fear, but of love. The rest shall the bearer of this letter explain unto you.'
14. KING THEODAHAD TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.
[The occasion of writing this letter, which we may perhaps refer to the early part of 535, is apparently that some Gothic troops have been sent to Rome, and the people have broken out into clamours against them, or petitioned for their removal.]
[Sidenote: Dissensions between citizens of Rome and Gothic troops.]
'Your predecessors have always been distinguished by the loyal love which they bore to the Chief of the State; and it is only right that he [the Sovereign] who is defended with so much toil, he, for whom, as the representative of public order, daily precautions are taken[651], should in return love that people above all others whose loyalty gives him a right to rule the world[652].
[Footnote 651: 'Qui maximo labore defenditur, cujus per dies singulos civilitas custoditur.']
[Footnote 652: 'Ut illos diligat super omnia, per quos habere probatur universa.']
'Oh! let there be nothing in you in our days which may justly move our indignation. Still show forth your older loyalty. It is not fitting that the Roman people should be fickle, or crafty, or full of seditions.
'Let no fond suspicions, no shadow of fear sway you. You have a Sovereign who only longs to find opportunities to love you. Meet with hostile arms your enemies, not your own defenders.
'You ought to have invited, not to have shut out the succour which we sent you. Evidently you have been misled by counsellors who care not for the public weal. Return to your own better minds.
'Was it some new and strange nation whose faces forsooth thus terrified you? No: the very men whom hitherto you have called your kinsmen, the men who in their anxiety for your safety have left their homes and families in order to defend you. Strange return on your part for their devotion!
'As for you, you should know this, that night and day our one ceaseless desire is to perfect, with God's help, the security which was fostered in the times of our relations [Theodoric and Amalasuentha]. Where, indeed, would our credit as a Sovereign be if anything happened to your hurt? Dismiss all such thoughts from your minds. If any have been unjustly cast down, we will raise him up again. We have sent you some verbal messages by the bearer of this letter, and hope that from henceforth we may rely on your constant obedience.'
15. KING THEODAHAD TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: Letter of introduction for an ecclesiastic.]
'It is always a delight to us to have an opportunity of directing our letters of salutation[653] to your Piety, since he is filled with happy joy who converses with you with sincere heart. I therefore recommend to your Clemency the bearer of this letter, who comes on the affairs of the Church of Ravenna. There can be no doubt that if you grant his request you will earn a just reward.'
[Footnote 653: 'Salutiferos apices.']
16. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Assurances of good-will. Oath of concord.]
'It is worthy of a ruler to do good of his own freewill, not under compulsion. By God's favour we can do anything, but we choose to do only things that are praiseworthy. Recognise now, oh prudent counsellors, that clemency of mine which ye might always have reckoned upon. Ye feared that I was your enemy; far from that, I cannot even bear that ye should be racked by the fear of evil[654]. And therefore, though I change no purpose of mine, since I never had thoughts of evil towards you, I have ordained that A and B, the bearers of this letter, should take unto you the oaths which you solicited[655]. I do this thing for God's sake, not for man's; for how could I, who have run through the story of ancient realms in Holy Writ, wish to do anything else but that which is well-pleasing to God, who will assuredly recompense me according to my works. Henceforward, then, serve me loyally, and in the full security which you have thus acquired: yea, your love will be now the repayment of a debt rather than a freewill offering.'
[Footnote 654: 'Ecce nec sollicitos patimur, quibus infensi esse putabamur.']
[Footnote 655: 'Postulata siquidem sacramenta vobis, ab Illo atque Illo praestari nostra decrevit auctoritas.']
17. KING THEODAHAD TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'Since your security is our highest ornament, and since our love wishes to remove every shade of anxiety from your minds, we have ordered A and B to take oaths to you in our name, whereby you may know the mind of your King towards you. Though this act might seem not to consort with our dignity, we willingly perform it for your sakes, and add the sanction of an oath, though we have learned from the Sacred Scriptures that a mere promise ought to be kept. Now it is for you to show your devotion, and with assiduous prayers to implore of the Majesty on high that the tranquil times which we long that you may enjoy may be granted by the gift of Heaven.'
18. KING THEODAHAD TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: A Gothic garrison for Rome.]
'Anxious that what we are devising for your safety should not be misinterpreted by bitter suspicion, we do you to wit that the army which is marching to Rome is intended for your defence, in order that they who covet your possessions may by Divine help be resisted by the arms of the Goths. If the shepherd is bound to watch over his flock, the father of the family to see that no crafty deceiver enters therein, with what anxious care ought not we to defend the City of Rome, which by universal consent is unequalled in the world[656]. So precious a possession must not be staked upon any throw. But that the defence of the City may be in no wise burdensome to you, we have ordered that the soldiers shall pay at the ordinary market rate for the provisions which they require; and we have desired Vacco, the steward of our house, to superintend these purchases. He is a man of valour and integrity, whose character will secure him the obedience of the troops, and enable him to prevent any excesses.
[Footnote 656: 'Quâ nos convenit cautelâ Romam defendere, quam constat in mundo simile nihil habere?']
'As for the soldiers, we have told them to take up their quarters in fitting places [outside the City?], that without there may be armed defence, within for you, tranquil order[657].
[Footnote 657: 'Quos tamen locis aptis praecipimus immorari, ut foris sit armata defensio, intus vobis tranquilla civilitas.']
'God forbid that in our days that City should seem to be protected by walls, the very name of which hath been of old a terror to the nations[658]. We hope for this from the aid of Heaven, that she who hath always been free may never be stained by the insult of any blockade[659].
[Footnote 658: 'Absit enim ut nostris temporibus Urbs illa muris videatur protegi, quam constat gentibus vel sola opinione fuisse terrori.']
[Footnote 659: 'Ut quae semper fuit libera, nullius inclusionis decoloretur injuria.']
19. KING THEODAHAD TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: Embassy of Peter.]
'We thank the Divine Being, who loves to see Kings at peace with one another, that you expressed such joy at our elevation to the throne. Continue to set to the world this example of benignity; continue to show your interest in one who recommends himself by his pure affection for you. For you do not seek to pick shabby quarrels with other Sovereigns; you do not delight in unjust contests, which are contrary to sound morality[660], since you seek for nothing but what may increase the good opinion which men have of you. How could you throw away that peace which it is the glory of your Piety to have imposed even on angry nations[661]?
[Footnote 660: 'Non enim rixas viles per regna requiritis: non vos injusta certamina quae sunt bonis moribus inimica, delectant.' No doubt this was meant to be taken as a hint of the censure which it professes to deny.]
[Footnote 661: 'Pacem quam et iracundis gentibus consuevistis imponere.' An allusion, perhaps, to the peace concluded with Persia.]
'Even you, glorious Sovereigns! [Justinian and Theodora] gain somewhat when all other realms revere you. It is a common thing for the ruler to be praised in his own land, but to receive the unforced praise of foreign lands, that is indeed desirable. You are loved, most pious Emperor, in your own dominions; but how much grander a thing to be yet more loved in the regions of Italy, from whence the glory of the Roman name was diffused over the whole world! It behoves you therefore to continue that peaceful disposition which you showed towards us at the commencement of our reign.
'We have desired the most blessed Pope and the most honourable Senate of the City of Rome to give their answers to the eloquent and worthy Peter, your ambassador, with as little delay as possible; and we have joined with him that venerable person our ambassador[662], that you may know our mind from our own messenger.'
[Footnote 662: The name of 'virum illum venerabilem' is not given, but we learn from Procopius (De Bello Gotthico i. 6) that it was Rusticus, a priest, a Roman, and an intimate friend of Theodahad.]
20. QUEEN GUDELINA[663] TO THEODORA AUGUSTA.
[Footnote 663: Wife of Theodahad.]
[Sidenote: Embassy of Rusticus.]
'I have received with thanks the earnestly-desired letters of your Piety, and reverently prize the report of your spoken words as better than all gifts. You exhort us first of all to impart to your hearing whatever requests we wish to make to your triumphant lord and consort[664]. Backed by such patronage as yours, how can there be any doubt as to the success of our petitions? It is an addition to our joy that your Serenity has chosen such a man for your ambassador, one whom it is equally fitting for your glory to send and for our obedience to receive[665]. There can be no doubt that it is by constant observation of your character that his own has become so excellent, since it is by good maxims that the mind of man is cleansed from impurity[666]. According to the warning of your Reverence we have given orders that both Pope and Senate shall give their answers to your messengers quickly, so that there may be no delay.
[Footnote 664: 'Hortamini enim ut quidquid expetendum a triumphali principe domino jugali nostro (?) credimus vestris ante sensibus ingeramus.' It seems to me that the sense requires vestro instead of nostro, and I have translated accordingly. (Dahn also makes this correction.)]
[Footnote 665: 'Et vestra decet obsequia retinere.' Here 'nostra' seems to give a better sense than 'vestra.']
[Footnote 666: 'Dubium enim non est illam mores dare cui observatur assidue, dum constat defaecari animum bonis praeceptionibus institutum.' Rather hazardous praise to address to a Theodora.]
[Sidenote: Possible reference to death of Amalasuentha.]
'For moreover, concerning that person about whom something came to our ears with tickling speech, know that that has been ordained which we believed would suit your intentions[667]; for it is our desire that by the interposition of our good offices your will should be law as much in our kingdom as in your empire[668].
[Footnote 667: 'Nam et de illâ personâ, de quâ ad nos aliquid verbo titillante pervenit, hoc ordinatum esse cognoscite, quod vestris credidimus animis convenire.']
[Footnote 668: These mysterious sentences, according to Gibbon, cap. xli. n. 56 (following Buat), refer to Amalasuentha, and thus lend probability to the story in the Anecdote of Procopius that Theodora, out of jealousy, intrigued with Theodahad to have Amalasuentha put to death. But whatever may be the truth of that story, this sentence can hardly by any possibility refer to it. For (1) it is clear that this letter was written at the same time as Theodahad's, which precedes it, therefore after the arrival of Peter in Italy. But Procopius is clear that Amalasuentha was put to death before Peter had crossed the Hadriatic, whereas this event, whatever it be, is evidently a piece of news which Gudelina has to communicate to Theodora. (2) This letter, though purporting to be from Gudelina, is confessedly written by Cassiodorus, and published by him at the end of his official career. It is hardly conceivable that he would deliberately publish to the world his connection with the murder of Theodoric's daughter and his own friend and benefactress. It is remarkable, on the contrary, how complete (but for this passage) is the silence of the Variae as to Amalasuentha's deposition and death: as if Cassiodorus had said, 'If you do anything to harm her, you may get other apologists for your deeds; I will be no champion of such wickedness.' It is scarcely necessary to remark that there is nothing in the wording of the sentence 'de illa persona,' &c. which makes it more applicable to a woman than to a man. As Peter's embassy was ostensibly connected with ecclesiastical affairs, there is perhaps an allusion in this sentence to some scheme of Theodora's with reference to the Papacy. It is possible that she may have been already working for the election of Vigilius to the chair of St. Peter, and therefore that he is meant by 'illa persona.']
'We therefore inform you that we had caused our messenger [Rusticus the priest] to be despatched by the Pope before your ambassador could possibly have left Rome. So saluting you with all the veneration which is your due, we assign the office of ambassador to a man eminent both by his character and learning, and venerable by reason of his office; since we believe that those persons are acceptable to you whom we have thought suitable to be entrusted with the Divine ministry.'
21. QUEEN GUDELINA TO THEODORA, AUGUSTA.
[Sidenote: Soliciting Theodora's friendship.]
'Oh, wisest of Augustas, both I and my wedded lord earnestly desire your friendship. The love of so great a lady seems to raise me higher than royalty. Shed on us the lustre of your glory, for one light loses nothing by imparting some of its brilliancy to another. With affectionate presumption I commend myself to the favour of the Emperor and yourself, desiring that, as is fitting, there should be no discord between the two Roman realms[669].'
[Footnote 669: 'Nullam inter Romana regna decet esse discordiam.']
22. KING THEODAHAD TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN[670].
[Footnote 670: This letter seems as if it was written on precisely the same occasion as x. 19. Again Peter is sent back, and with him a 'venerable man' to represent Theodahad. We learn from Procopius (i. 6) that Theodahad, in his fear of war, recalled Peter when he had already got as far as Albano, and gave him another set of propositions for Justinian. It seems possible that these fresh letters (22 and 23) from Theodahad and his Queen were given him when he set out the second time.]
[Sidenote: Entreaties for peace.]
'Our own ambassadors, and that most excellent person Peter, whom your Piety despatched to us, will both have informed you how earnestly we desire concord with your august Serenity. We now send two more ambassadors charged with the same commission. We certainly with all sincerity plead for peace who have no cause of quarrel with you. Consider also, oh learned Sovereigns, and consult the archives of your great grandfather[671], that you may see how large a part of their own rights your predecessors were willing to relinquish for the sake of an alliance with our ancestors[672]. Think how fortunate you are in having that friendship willingly offered to you for which they had humbly to sue. Yet, we may say it without arrogance, we know ourselves to be better than those ancestors of ours with whom the treaty was made[673]. We send you on this embassy a venerable man, made illustrious by his priestly office, and conspicuous by the renown of his learning. We pray the Divine goodness to bring our wishes to pass; and as not even a series of letters can contain all that we have to say, we have given some verbal messages to be conveyed to your sacred ears, that you may not be wearied by the reading of too diffuse a letter.'
[Footnote 671: Zeno (not of course an ancestor in natural relationship, but predecessor in the third degree).]
[Footnote 672: 'Considerate etiam, principes docti, et abavi vestri historica monumenta recolite, quantum decessores vestri studuerint de suo jure relinquere ut eis parentum nostrorum foedera provenirent.']
[Footnote 673: 'Nunc illi vestram gratiam ultro quaerunt, qui suis parentibus meliores se esse cognoscunt.' Dahn remarks that Theodahad's asserted superiority to Theodoric probably consisted in his philosophical culture.]
23. QUEEN GUDELINA TO THEODORA, AUGUSTA[674].
[Footnote 674: See note on the preceding letter.]
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'We learn with satisfaction from that most eloquent man Peter, that what has happened in this State is acceptable to you[675]. You show your love of justice when, all suspicion by God's providence having been wiped away, you desire that there should be lasting agreement between us. Let there then be definite promises on both sides, and lasting concord as the result. We therefore send that venerable man to secure the peace of our most serene husband with yours in the sight of all men. If there be anything in the Emperor's terms so hard that it ought not to be imposed on us, we trust to your wise moderation to mitigate the same, that the love which we have begun to feel towards your kingdom be not chilled by harsh terms of peace.
[Footnote 675: 'Ut per eum disceremus acceptum vobis esse quod in hac republicâ constat evenisse.' At first sight this seems to refer to the death of Amalasuentha or to the accession of Theodahad. Dahn thinks that those events have been disposed of in previous letters. Perhaps it is a general expression for 'the whole course of recent events in Italy.' Though upon the whole rejecting the story of Theodora's complicity in the death of Amalasuentha, I am bound to admit that this passage lends a certain amount of probability to the charge. At the same time, the words in the next sentence, 'per divinam providentiam omni suspicione detersâ,' are susceptible of an honourable meaning, even if the death of Amalasuentha be alluded to. 'You and your husband accused us of that crime. Now by God's providence we have been able to show that we were guiltless of it [that it was done without our privity by the relations of the three Gothic nobles whom she had put to death]. Nothing therefore remains to hinder peace between us.']
'Claim this palm of concord between the two States as your own especial crown, that as the Emperor is renowned for his successful wars, so you may receive the praises of all men for this accomplished peace. Let the bearer of these letters see you often and confidentially. We hope for just, not onerous, conditions of peace, although in truth nothing seems impossible to us if we know that it is asked for by such a glorious person as yourself.'
24. QUEEN GUDELINA TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN[676].
[Footnote 676: Apparently sent at the same time as the two preceding letters.]
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
A short letter of compliments to the Emperor, and earnest desire for the preservation of peace. Peter and 'ille vir venerabilis' are still the messengers.
25. KING THEODAHAD TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'The august page written by your Serenity, and brought to us by the venerable presbyter Heracleanus, has gleamed upon us, bringing us the grace of your salutation. Oh, what a great benefit for us is this sweet converse with so mighty a prince!
'May we ever hear of your safety, and of the increase of the happiness of your kingdom. We have no other wish but this. According to your desire we have addressed letters to the Pope of the City of Rome[677], telling him to reply to the letter brought by the present messenger with the least possible delay, since anyone who comes from you should be attended to with utmost celerity. We hope for many future opportunities of thus obeying your desires and earning your love in return.'
[Footnote 677: Negotiations were evidently still going on between the Emperor and the Pope, probably with reference to the election of Anthimus, who, though accused of Monophysitism, had been made Patriarch of Constantinople in 535 by Theodora's influence, and whom the Pope apparently refused to recognise. He was afterwards deposed by Pope Agapetus when he visited Constantinople.]
26. KING THEODAHAD TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: A monastery too heavily taxed.]
'Richer than all other gifts bestowed by your Serenity is this, when you exhort us to do that which will profit for our own salvation and recommend us to the Divine Power. We hear that it has been brought to the knowledge of your Glory that a monastery of God's servants is too heavily oppressed with tribute, and we point out that this is owing to an inundation which has smitten their land with the curse of barrenness. However, we have given orders to the most eminent Senator[678] to appoint a careful inspector to visit the farm in question, weigh the matter carefully, and make such reasonable reduction as may leave a sufficient profit to the owners of the soil. We consider that anything which we thus concede to the desire of your Mildness will be to us the most precious of all gains.
[Footnote 678: Cassiodorus.]
[Sidenote: Alleged losses of a convert from Arianism.]
'In the matter of Veranilda, too, about which your Serenity has deigned to admonish me, though it happened long ago under the reign of my relations, I thought it right to make good her loss by my own generosity, that she might not repent her change of religion[679]. For seeing that the Deity suffers many religions, we should not seek to impose one on all our subjects. He who tries to do otherwise flies in the face of the Divine commands. Your Piety, therefore, fittingly invites me to these acts of obedience to God.'
[Footnote 679: Apparently Veranilda had in the reign of Theodoric become a convert from Arianism to Orthodoxy, and had suffered some pecuniary losses in consequence, which Theodahad now proposes to make up to her. See Dahn, Könige der Germanen iii. 199, n. 4.]
27. KING THEODAHAD TO SENATOR[680], PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO.
[Footnote 680: Cassiodorus.]
[Sidenote: Corn distributions in Liguria and Venetia.]
'In succouring his subjects, the payers of tribute, the King does not seem to give, so much as to restore what he has received. The cultivator of the soil is abandoned to future famine, unless he is helped in the day of his necessity. Therefore let the corn which has been received by the government from industrious Liguria and loyal Venetia, though it has been taken from their fields, be born again to them in our granaries, since it is too outrageous that the cultivator should starve while our barns are full. Therefore let your Illustrious Greatness (whose office is said to have been instituted for the express purpose of feeding the people from the accumulated stores of the State[681]) sell to the impoverished Ligurians the third part of the grain warehoused at Ticinum and Dertona, at the rate of 25 modii to the solidus[682]. Similarly distribute the third part of the stores in the warehouses of Tarvisium and Tridentum to the Venetians, at the same rate, that pitying Heaven, seeing men's bounty to one another, may give us fruitful harvests. Take care that this distribution is so managed that our indulgence shall reach those persons chiefly, who are least able to depend on their own resources.'
[Footnote 681: 'Quorum dignitas ad hoc legitur instituta, ut de repositis copiis populum saturare possetis.' Probably an allusion to Joseph, whom Cassiodorus celebrates as the first Praefectus Praetorio.]
[Footnote 682: Six bushels for twelve shillings, or sixteen shillings a quarter.]
28. KING THEODAHAD TO SENATOR[683], PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO.
[Footnote 683: Cassiodorus.]
[Sidenote: Grant of monopolies.]
'The King ought to confirm whatever has been wisely ordered by the Judges, especially those who are known to be above suspicion of bribery.
'Therefore we confirm in their offices[684] the stewards[685], purveyors[686] of wheat, wine, and cheese, the meat sellers, vintners, farmers of the revenue derived from granaries and taverns[687], hay merchants, and general provision dealers[688], who belong to the City of Rome or the royal residence of Ravenna[689]; also those who hold public charges of this description along the river banks of Ticinum or Placentia[690], or in any other places, whom we know to have been appointed by you, whose judgments we willingly embrace and desire to hold fast exactly as if they were our own; nor will we allow the malice of any to prevail against those persons who by your choice have assumed these public functions. If therefore they acquit themselves to your satisfaction, they shall hold their office for five years without fear of disturbance during that period. On account of the present barrenness of the land you should cause them to fix such prices for the different kinds of grain as shall seem reasonable to your Eminence[691].
[Footnote 684: The sentence is so long that Cassiodorus seems to have forgotten its construction, and these important words are in fact omitted.]
[Footnote 685: 'Arcarios.']
[Footnote 686: 'Prorogatores.']
[Footnote 687: 'Capitularios horreariorum et tabernariorum.']
[Footnote 688: 'Cellaritas.']
[Footnote 689: 'Mansionem Ravennatem.']
[Footnote 690: 'Ripam Ticinensem vel Placentinam.']
[Footnote 691: Here follows, 'Ut hi quibus commissum est exercere singulos apparatus de injusto gravamine non querantur,' which I do not venture to translate, as I am not sure whether it relates to buyers or sellers.]
'As human ambition requires to be checked by fear of punishment, anyone who by petitioning or canvassing seeks to obtain the place of one of these lawfully appointed purveyors shall be visited with a fine of 30 lbs. of gold[692], to be exacted from him by you. If unable to pay this fine he shall suffer corporal punishment and be noted as infamous. Nothing can be considered safe or stable if men are to be perpetually exposed to the snares of envious competitors like these. Your Greatness is to bring this law to the knowledge of all men.'
[Footnote 692: £1,200.]
[It is clear that this letter refers to an office greatly coveted, and one in which there was a possibility of making great gains, but also one in which, owing to the regulation of prices by the government, there might be temporary losses; to guard against which it was considered reasonable that the holder should be guaranteed in his office for five years.
The office is the supply of the staple articles of food to the King's household at Rome and Ravenna, and to the garrisons probably of Pavia and Piacenza and the neighbouring country. Did this right carry with it an absolute monopoly as far as the other inhabitants of those places are concerned? This seems probable; but I do not know that we can positively state it.
The term used, 'Arcarii,' is applied in the Theodosian Code (xii. 6, 14) to the bailiffs by whom the rents on the Imperial domain were collected. Here it has manifestly altered its meaning.]
29. KING THEODAHAD TO COUNT WINUSIAD.
[Sidenote: An old soldier receives furlough for a visit to the baths of Bormio.]
'Your noble birth and tried fidelity induced us to commit to you the government of the City of Ticinum, which you had defended in war: but now, being deluged with a sudden inundation of muddy gout[693], you ask leave to resort to the waters of Bormio, which by their drying influences are of healing power for this malady.
[Footnote 693: 'Limosae podagrae subitâ inundatione complutus.']
'We permit, nay earnestly encourage, you to undertake this journey; for we cannot bear that one of our warriors should fall a victim to the tyranny of this cruel disease, which, like the Barbarians, when it has once claimed by force hospitality in the owner's body, ever after defends its right thereto by cruelty. It seeks out all the hollow places of the system, makes stones out of its moisture, and deposits them there, destroying all the beautiful arrangements of Nature for free and easy movement. It loosens what ought to be tight, it contracts the nerves, and so shortens the limbs that a tall man finds all the comeliness of his stature taken from him while he is still unmutilated. It is in truth a living death; and when the excruciating torment is gone, it leaves an almost worse legacy behind it--inability to move. Even debtors in the torture chamber have the weights sometimes removed from their feet; but this cruel malady, when it has once taken hold of a man, seems never to relinquish possession. A disease of this kind, bringing with it weakness and helplessness, is especially terrible to a warrior, who after overcoming the foes that came against him in battle, finds himself thus struck down by an enemy within.
'Go then, in Heaven's name, to the healing springs. We cannot bear the thought that you the warrior should be carried on men's shoulders, instead of bestriding your war-horse. We have painted all these evils in somewhat exaggerated style in order to stir you up to seek an early cure.
'Use then these waters, soothing to the taste, and in the hot bath able to dry up the gouty humours. God has given us this ally wherewith to overcome that enemy of the human race; and under its double influence, within and without, the malady, which ten years of regimen and endless medicines cannot lessen, is put to flight by remedies which are in themselves delightful.
'May God grant that this far-famed place may restore your body to health[694].'
[Footnote 694: The nature-heated springs of Bormio are still resorted to; and some pedestrian travellers, who have crossed the Stelvio from Trafoi, have a grateful remembrance of their soothing waters.]
30. KING THEODAHAD TO HONORIUS, PRAEFECT OF THE CITY.
[Sidenote: The elephants in the Via Sacra.]
'We regret to learn from your report that the brazen elephants placed in the Via Sacra[695] (so called from the many superstitions to which it was consecrated of old) are falling into ruins.
[Footnote 695: I have not found any other mention of these brazen elephants. Nardini (Roma Antica i. 295) cites this passage, and illustrates it by quotations from Suetonius, Pliny, and the Historia Augusta, showing that it was the custom to erect to Emperors and Empresses statues of elephants drawing triumphal chariots.]
'This is to be much regretted, that whereas these animals live in the flesh more than a thousand years, their brazen effigies should be so soon crumbling away. See therefore that their gaping limbs be strengthened by iron hooks, and that their drooping bellies be fortified by masonry placed underneath them.
[Sidenote: Natural history of the elephant.]
'The living elephant, when it is prostrate on the ground, as it often is when helping men to fell trees, cannot get up again unaided. This is because it has no joints in its feet; and accordingly you see numbers of them lying as if dead till men come to help them up again. Thus this creature, so terrible by its size, is really not equally endowed by Nature with the tiny ant.
'That the elephant surpasses all other animals in intelligence is proved by the adoration which it renders to Him whom it understands to be the Almighty Ruler of all. Moreover it pays to good princes a homage which it refuses to tyrants.
'It uses its proboscis[696], that nosëd hand which Nature has given it to compensate for its very short neck, for the benefit of its master, accepting the presents which will be profitable to him. It always walks cautiously, mindful of that fatal fall [into the hunter's pit] which was the beginning of its captivity. At its master's bidding it exhales its breath, which is said to be a remedy for the human headache.
[Footnote 696: Cassiodorus calls it 'promuscis.']
'When it comes to water it sucks up in its trunk a vast quantity, which at the word of command it squirts forth like a shower. If anyone have treated it with contempt, it pours forth such a stream of dirty water over him that one would think a river had entered his house. For this beast has a wonderfully long memory, both of injury and of kindness. Its eyes are small, but move solemnly. There is a sort of kingly dignity in its appearance, and while it recognises with pleasure all that is honourable, it seems to despise scurrilous jests. Its skin is furrowed by deep channels, like that of the victims of the foreign disease named after it[697], elephantiasis. It is on account of the impenetrability of this hide that the Persian Kings used the elephant in war.
[Footnote 697: 'A quâ transportaneorum (?) nefanda passio nomen accepit.']
'It is most desirable that we should preserve the images of these creatures, and that our citizens should thus be familiarised with the sight of the denizens of foreign lands. Do not therefore permit them to perish, since it is for the glory of Rome to collect all specimens of the process by which the art of workmen hath imitated the productions of wealthy Nature in all parts of the world.'
[This letter traverses the same ground as Pliny's 'Historia Naturalis' viii. 1-11, but supplies some new facts. Pliny makes the elephant live to the age of 200 or even 300 years. Cassiodorus boldly says 'more than a thousand.' The curious story of the elephant's religion is given with more detail by Pliny; but he knows nothing of the political sagacity which enables it to discern between a good king and a tyrant. Pliny mentions the fact that the elephant's breath is a cure for headache, but adds, 'especially if he sneeze[698].'
[Footnote 698: Hist. Nat. xxviii. 8.]
Upon the whole, though Cassiodorus had probably read Pliny's description, his own must be pronounced original.
This marvellous letter is the last that we have, written in the name of Theodahad.]
31. KING WITIGIS[699] TO ALL THE GOTHS.
[Footnote 699: Spelt 'Vitigis' by Cassiodorus.]
[Sidenote: Elevation of Witigis.]
'Though every advance in station is to be accounted among the good gifts of the Divinity, especially is the kingly dignity to be looked upon as coming by His ordinance through Whom kings reign and subjects obey. Wherefore, with liveliest satisfaction returning thanks to our Maker Christ, we inform you that our kinsmen[700] the Goths, amid a fence of circling swords, raising us in ancestral fashion upon a shield, have by Divine guidance bestowed on us the kingly dignity, thus making arms the emblem of honour to one who has earned all his renown in war. For know that not in the corner of a presence-chamber, but in wide-spreading plains I have been chosen King; and that not the dainty discourse of flatterers, but the blare of trumpets announced my elevation, that the Gothic people, roused by the sound to a kindling of their inborn valour, might once more gaze upon a Soldier King.
[Footnote 700: 'Parentes nostros Gothos.']
'Too long indeed have these brave men, bred up amid the shock of battle, borne with a Sovereign who was untried in war; too long have they laboured to uphold his dubious fame, though they might presume upon their own well-known valour[701]. For it is inevitable that the character of the ruler should in some degree influence the reputation of the whole people.
[Footnote 701: 'Ut de ejus fama laboraret quamvis de propria virtute praesumeret.' I have translated as if 'laboraret' and 'praesumeret' were in the plural, and even so, find it difficult to get a satisfactory meaning out of these words.]
'But, as ye have heard, called forth by the dangers of my kindred, I was ready to undergo with them one common fate; but they would not suffer me to continue a mere General, feeling that they needed a veteran King. Wherefore now accept first the Divine decree, and then the judgment of the Goths, since it is your unanimous wish which makes me King. Lay aside then the fear of disaster: cast off the suspicion of further losses: fear no rude strokes of fate under our dominion. We who have ridden so oft to war have learned to love valiant men. Associated in all things with your labours, I have been myself a witness to the brave deeds of each of you, and need no other evidence of your worth. By no fraudulent variations between my public and private negotiations shall the might of the Gothic arms be broken[702]. Everything that we do shall have respect to the welfare of our whole people: in private we will not even love. We promise to follow those courses which shall adorn the royal name. Finally, we undertake that our rule shall in all things be such as becomes a Gothic King, the successor of the renowned Theodoric--that man who was so rarely and so nobly qualified by Nature for the cares of royalty; that man of whom it may be truly said that every other Sovereign is illustrious in so far as he loves his counsels. Therefore he who succeeds in imitating the deeds of Theodoric ought to be considered as belonging to his line. Thus then, manifest your anxious care for the welfare of our kingdom, while your hearts are at ease, through God's goodness, as to our internal security.'
[Footnote 702: 'Arma Gothorum nullâ promissionum mearum varietate frangenda sunt.' An evident allusion to the treacherous and unpatriotic diplomacy of Theodahad, as described by Procopius.]
32. KING WITIGIS TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: Overtures for peace with the Empire.]
'How much, oh most clement Emperor, we long for the sweetness of your favour, may be understood from this fact alone, that after such serious injuries and such grievous bloodshed as you have inflicted on us, we still come forward to ask for peace with you, as if none of your servants had ever wronged us. We have suffered such things as might move the indignation even of our enemies, who must know that they have attacked us without our guilt, have hated us without our fault, have despoiled us without our owing them anything. Nor can it be said that the blow has been so slight that no account need be taken of it, since it has been struck not in the Provinces alone but in Rome [or Italy] herself, the Capital of the World[703]. Think how great must be our pain at this, which nevertheless we banish from memory in order that we may obtain justice at your hands. Such disturbance has been made as the whole world speaks of[704] [and condemns], and it deserves to be so composed by you that all men may admire your spirit of equity.
[Footnote 703: 'Non in provinciis tantum sed in ipso rerum capite probatur inflictum.']
[Footnote 704: 'Talis res effecta est quam mundus loquatur.' The commentator Fornerius absurdly understands this of Mundus, the general of Justinian in Dalmatia, who had already fallen in battle before the accession of Witigis.]
'If vengeance on King Theodahad be the thing required, I [who have put him to death] merit your love. If you desire to honour the blessed memory of Queen Amalasuentha, think of her daughter[705], who has reached [by our means] that royal station to which your soldiers might well have striven to exalt her, in order that all the nations might see how faithful you remained to the old friendship.
[Footnote 705: Matasuentha, now wife of Witigis.]
'This fact too ought to influence you, that by the ordering of Providence we were permitted to make your acquaintance before our accession to the throne, that the remembrance of our favourable reception at your Court, and the sight of your person in that splendid position, might move us to love and reverence.
'Even now you can undo all that has been misdone, since the continual expectation of favours to come, makes perseverance in affection easy[706]. Therefore, soliciting your Clemency with all due respect, we inform you that we have appointed A and B our ambassadors to the Wisdom of your Serenity, that you may, according to your custom, duly weigh all these considerations, that the two Republics may persevere in restored harmony, and that all which hath been settled in past times by Sovereigns of blessed memory may, by God's help, be increased and made more prosperous under your dominion.
[Footnote 706: 'Quando non est difficile illum in affectu retinere, qui gratiam constat desideranter expetere.' Very nearly, but not quite, the modern proverb which says that gratitude is 'a lively sense of favours to come.']
'The rest of their commission will be more fully explained to your Serenity by the aforesaid ambassadors.'
33. KING WITIGIS TO THE MASTER OF THE OFFICES [AT CONSTANTINOPLE].
[Sidenote: Embassy to Constantinople.]
'In sending our two ambassadors to the most serene Emperor, it is fitting also to send letters of salutation[707] to your Greatness. May your prudence support our reasonable requests with the Emperor. You can easily correct those things [the war against the Gothic people] which you ought never to have allowed to take place; and all things can now be arranged in the most friendly manner, since a reconciliation between men who have fought out their quarrel is often the surest ground of friendship. An unknown man might possibly have been shunned by you; but I, who have seen the magnificence of your Republic, who have known the hearts of so many of your noble statesmen, have no desire to quarrel with your most pious Emperor, if he will only cherish thoughts of justice towards me. If another [Theodahad] deserved the anger of the Emperor, I ought to be looked upon with the highest favour, who have executed vengeance on that hateful predecessor. I have carried your intentions into effect, and therefore I deserve reward, not punishment. Let all hatred be buried in the grave of the sinner; and even if you think nothing of our deservings, think of the liberty of the Romans, which is everywhere suffering amid the clash of arms. A few words to a man of your wisdom are sufficient.'
[Footnote 707: 'Salutiferos apices.' See x. 15.]
34. KING WITIGIS TO HIS BISHOPS.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'If we owe honour to Priests even when unknown to us, how much more so to you whom we have seen and spoken to, and with whom we have had frequent and familiar intercourse.
'By the ambassadors who are bearing our letters to the most serene Emperor we send a message of reverence to your Holiness, hoping that you will pray for us and set them forward on their journey with all necessary assistance, since you are bound to wish well to those whom you know to be united to you by the ties of religion.'
35. KING WITIGIS TO THE PRAEFECT OF THESSALONICA.
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'We are sending two ambassadors to the most serene Emperor, who will salute your Greatness. We earnestly hope that your Excellency will speed them on their journey.'
XI. PREFACE
'The necessity for a Preface often arises from some contrariety in an Author's position which prevents him from writing as he would wish to write. It is admitted that it is not fair to expect the same degree of excellence from a busy man which we may reasonably look for in a man of leisure. But a man in high official position cannot be a man of leisure. It would be the highest disgrace to him if he were, since even his so-called privy-chamber[708] resounds with the noise of clamorous litigants.
[Footnote 708: 'Secretum.']
'I can well understand that a man of few occupations will object against me, here that a word has been thrown out with ill-considered haste, there that a commonplace sentiment has not been dressed up in sufficiently ornamental language, or there that I have not complied with the rules of the Ancients by making my persons speak "in character." But the busy man, hurried from one cause to another, and constantly under the necessity of dictating to one man and replying to another, will not make these objections, because the consciousness of his own literary perils will make him tender in his judgments. And yet there is something even in the pressure of business which sometimes promotes briskness of mind, since the art of speaking is one which is placed very much in our own power[709].
[Footnote 709: Here follows a sentence which I do not understand: 'Remanet itaque ad excusandum brevitas insperata librorum, quam nemo purgat diutius, nisi qui bene creditur esse dicturus.']
'If anyone objects that I, placed in the height of the Praetorian dignity, should have dictated so few decisions of a legal kind, let him know that this was the result of my associating with myself that most prudent man Felix[710], whose advice I have followed in every case. He is a man of absolute purity of character, of surpassing knowledge of the law, of distinguished accuracy of speech; a young man with the gravity of age, a sweet pleader, a measured orator; one who by his graceful discharge of his official duties has earned the favourable opinion of the public.
[Footnote 710: This can hardly be the Consul of A.D. 511, since he is called in the next sentence 'senilis juvenis.']
'Had it not been for his help, overwhelmed by so great a multitude of causes, I must either have been found unequal to the burden, or else perchance have seemed arrogant [in my disregard of previously settled decisions]. But, what was more important still, relieved by his labours from this duty, I was able to give such attention to the higher affairs of the State, that I could not fail to win approbation even in those arduous duties.
'I have therefore subjoined two books, in which I myself speak in my capacity as Praefect, to the ten in which I have spoken by the mouth of the King; for it seemed absurd to me to be silent in my newly-acquired dignity, who had so often spoken on behalf of others.
'Then, after these twelve books had been brought to their long-desired end, my friends compelled me to discuss the substance and the powers of the Soul, that I might say something about that faculty through which I had already said so much[711].
[Footnote 711: 'De Animae substantiâ vel de virtutibus ejus amici me disserere coëgerunt: ut per quam multa diximus, de ipsa quoque dicere videremur.']
'Now then, learned men! view these letters with indulgence. If there be no eloquence in them, attribute it to my many occupations, which have prevented my reading as much as I would gladly have done. Cicero, that fountain of eloquence, when he was one day asked to speak, excused himself on the ground that he had read nothing the day before. The barn must be constantly refilled if it is not to become empty. All that is good in our minds is the fruit of study, and soon withers if it be separated from reading, which is the parent stem. Great indulgence therefore should be shown to us if we have often had to write when we were busy, to be read by others when we had no leisure to read, ourselves. And now enough of excuses, lest too elaborate a defence should rather injure our cause.'
Book XI
CONTAINING THIRTY-NINE LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN HIS OWN NAME AS PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO, AND ONE ON BEHALF OF THE ROMAN SENATE.
1. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME (A.D. 534)[712].
[Footnote 712: This letter, which was not composed immediately after Cassiodorus' accession to office, most have been written after the death of the Frankish King Theodoric, which occurred, according to Clinton, early in 534, and before October 2 of the same year, the date of the death of Athalaric. Notwithstanding the obscurity of many of the allusions in it, this document is one of our best authorities for the history of Amalasuentha's regency, and is therefore translated almost verbatim.]
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus on his promotion to the Praefecture.]
'If I can only be sure that my advancement is acceptable to you, Conscript Fathers, I shall not doubt of its being approved by God and popular with all good men.
'It is in the nature of things to love a colleague, and you are in fact exalting your own honour when you approve of a dignity given to a Senator[713].
[Footnote 713: Partly a pun on his name, partly an allusion to his rank.]
'After our Sovereigns there is none to whom I so much desire to commend myself as you. To me honour will ever be the sole test of advantage. Justice, like a handmaid, will wait upon my actions; and the power, which I have not myself bought from our virtuous Sovereign, I in my turn shall sell to no man. You have heard, noble Sirs, the panegyrics[714] passed upon me at my entrance into office. These praises I will not dare to call false, but I will say that they lay upon me a heavy responsibility to show that they are not unmerited.
[Footnote 714: The letter written by Cassiodorus himself, in the name of Athalaric, to announce his elevation to the Praefecture (Var. ix. 25).]
'Happy fortune of our time in which, while the Sovereign himself takes holiday, the love of his mother rules and covers us all with the robe of her universal charity! Happy for the young Ruler, who in this difficult position learns first to triumph over his impetuous impulses, and attains in the springtime of his life that self-control which hoary age with difficulty acquires!
[Sidenote: Praises of Amalasuentha.]
'As for the Mother whom he so dutifully obeys, her most fittingly do all kingdoms venerate, whom to behold is to adore, to listen to is to witness a miracle. Of what language is she not a perfect mistress? She is skilled in the niceties of Attic eloquence; she shines in the majesty of Roman speech; she glories in the wealth of the language of her fathers. She is equally marvellous in all these, and in each the orator in his own especial tongue feels himself surpassed by her. A great safeguard and a great excellence is this in the ruler of so many nationalities. None needs an interpreter with his accomplished mistress. No ambassador need wait, or hear his words slowly filtered through the mind of a go-between. Everyone feels that his own words are listened to, and receives his answer from her lips in the language of his forefathers.
'To these accomplishments, as a splendid diadem, is added that priceless knowledge of Literature, by which the treasures of ancient learning are appropriated, and the dignity of the throne is ever enhanced.
'Yet, while she rejoices in such perfect mastery of language, on public occasions she is so taciturn that she might be supposed to be indolent. With a few words she unties the knots of entangled litigations, she calmly arranges hot disputes, she silently promotes the public welfare. You do not hear her announce beforehand what will be her course of action in public; but with marvellous skill she attains, by feigning, those points which she knows require to be rapidly gained[715].
[Footnote 715: 'Et temperamento mirabili dissimulando peragit quod accelerandum esse cognoscit.']
[Sidenote: Comparison to Placidia.]
'What case like this can be produced from the annals of revered Antiquity? Placidia's care for her purple-clad son has often been celebrated; but by Placidia's lax administration of the Empire its boundaries were unbecomingly retrenched. She gained for him a wife and for herself a daughter-in-law[716] by the loss of Illyricum; and thus the union of Sovereigns was bought by a lamentable division of the Provinces[717]. The discipline of the soldiers was relaxed by too long peace; and, in short, Valentinian, under the guardianship of his mother, lost more than he could have done if he had been a helpless orphan.
[Footnote 716: 'Eudoxia.']
[Footnote 717: 'Nurum denique sibi amissione Illyrici comparavit: factaque est conjunctio Regnantis, divisio dolenda provinciis.' On this alleged loss of Illyricum by the Western Empire, see Gibbon, cap. xxxiii. note 6. One may doubt, however, whether Cassiodorus has been correctly informed concerning it. Noricum and Pannonia at the time of Valentinian's marriage must have been entirely in the possession of the Huns; and on the dissolution of their monarchy Noricum at any rate seems to be connected with the Western rather than the Eastern Empire. As for Dalmatia, or the Province (as distinct from the Praefecture) of Illyricum, the retirement thither of the Emperor Nepos in 475, and the previous history of his uncle Marcellinus, point towards the conclusion that this Province was then considered as belonging de jure to the Caesar of Rome rather than to him of Constantinople.]
[Sidenote: Relations with the East.]
'But under this Lady, who can count as many Kings as ancestors in her pedigree, our army by Divine help is a terror to foreign nations. Being kept in a prudent equipoise it is neither worn away by continual fighting nor enervated by unbroken peace. In the very beginnings of the reign, when a new ruler's precarious power is apt to be most assailed, contrary to the wish of the Eastern Emperor she made the Danube a Roman stream. Well known is all that the invaders suffered, of which I therefore omit further mention, that the shame of defeat may not be too closely associated with the thought of the Emperor, our ally. Still, what he thought of your part of the Empire is clear from this, that he conceded to our attack that peace which he has refused to the abject entreaties of others. Add this fact, that though we have rarely sought him he has honoured us with so many embassies, and that thus his unique majesty has bowed down the stately head of the Orient to exalt the lords of Italy[718].
[Footnote 718: 'Et singularis illa potentia, ut Italicos Dominos, erigeret, reverentiam Eoi culminis ordinavit.' This somewhat favours the notion that Theodoric and his successors called themselves Kings of Italy.]
[Sidenote: Expedition against the Franks.]
'The Franks also, overmighty by their victories over so many barbarous tribes--by what a great expedition were they harassed! Attacked, they dreaded a contest with our soldiers; they who had leaped unawares upon so many nations and forced them into battle. But though that haughty race declined the offered conflict, they could not prevent the death of their own King. For Theodoric[719], he who had so often availed himself of the name of our glorious King as an occasion for triumph, now fell vanquished in the struggle with disease--a stroke of Divine Providence surely, to prevent us from staining ourselves with the blood of our kindred, and yet to grant some revenge to the army which had been justly called out to war. Hail! thou Gothic array, happy above all other happiness, who strikest at the life of a Royal foe, yet leavest us not the poorer by the life of one of the least of our soldiers[720].
[Footnote 719: Theodoric I, son of Clovis, King of the Franks, reigning at Metz, died, as before stated, in 534.]
[Footnote 720: 'Et nobis nec unius ultimi facta subducis (?).']
[Sidenote: League with the Burgundians.]
'The Burgundian too, in order to receive his own again, crouched in devotion, giving up his whole self that he might receive a trifle. For he chose to obey with unimpaired territories, rather than to resist with these cut short; and thus, by laying aside his arms, he most effectually defended his kingdom, recovering by his prayers what he had lost by the sword[721].
[Footnote 721: 'Burgundio quinetiam, ut sua reciperet, devotus effectus est: reddens se totum dum accepisset exiguum. Elegit quippe integer obedire, quam imminutus obsistere: tutius tunc defendit regnum quando arma deposuit. Recuperavit enim prece, quod amisit in acie.' The meaning of these mysterious words, as interpreted by Binding (268-270) and Jahn (ii. 252), is that Godomar, King of the Burgundians, received back from Amalasuentha (probably about 530, or a little later) the territory between the Durance and the Isere, which Theodoric had wrested from his brother in 523. The occasion of this cession was probably some league of mutual defence against the Franks, which Cassiodorus could without dishonesty represent as a kind of vassalage of Burgundy to Ostrogothia. If so, it availed Godomar little, as his territories were overrun by the Frankish Kings in 532, and the conquest of them was apparently completed by 534 (Jahn ii. 68-78).]
'Happy Princess, whose enemies either fall by the hand of God, or else by your bounty are united with your Empire! Rejoice, Goths and Romans alike, and hail this marvel, a being who unites the excellences of both the sexes! As woman she has given birth to your illustrious King, while with manly fortitude of mind she has maintained the bounds of your Empire.
'And now, if leaving the realm of war we enter the inner courts of her moral goodness, a hundred tongues will not suffice to sound forth all her praises. Her justice is as great as her goodwill, but even greater is her kindness than her power. You, Senators, know the heavenly goodness which she has shown to your order, restoring those who had met with affliction to a higher state than that from which they had fallen[722], and exalting to honour those who were still uninjured.
[Footnote 722: 'Afflictos statu meliore restituit.' An allusion, probably, to her kindness to the families of Boethius and Symmachus.]
'Look at the case of the Patrician Liberius[723], Praefect of the Gauls--a man of charming manners, of distinguished merit, a soldier with honourable scars--who even while absent in his Praefecture has received the fasces and a patrimony from her.
[Footnote 723: No doubt the same Liberius who nobly defended the character of Amalasuentha at the Court of Justinian (Procopius, De Bello Gotthico i. 4). Apparently he was made Consul, but his name does not appear in the Fasti at this time.]
'What can I say of her strength of mind and tenacity of purpose, in which she excels even philosophers? I speak of this from my own experience. You know, oh Conscript Fathers, what influences were arrayed against me[724]. Neither gold nor the prayers of great men availed: all things were tried, and tried in vain, to prove the glorious constancy of that wisest Lady.
[Footnote 724: Probably to prevent his obtaining the Praefecture.]
[Sidenote: Virtues of the Amal Kings.]
'And here the rules of rhetoric would require me to compare her with a long line of Empresses in the past. But if men cannot vie with her glory, what is the use of adducing female examples? If we look at the Royal Cohort of her ancestors, we shall see that she, like a pure mirror, reflects all their excellences. For Amal[725] was conspicuous for his good fortune, Ostrogotha for his patience, Athal for mildness, Munitarius [Winithar] for justice, Unimund for beauty, Thorismuth for chastity, Unalamer [Walamir] for faith, Theudimer for warmth of heart[726], and Theodoric, the renowned father of Amalasuentha, as ye have all seen, for patience. Each of these would recognise in her his own special attribute, but all would acknowledge that in these very attributes they are excelled by her.
[Footnote 725: This and the following names belong to the ancestors of Amalasuentha, and are found with slight variations in the treatise of Jordanes on the History of the Goths, which was founded on a similar treatise by Cassiodorus.]
[Footnote 726: 'Pietate Theudimer.']
'You will now perhaps expect me to praise our young King, but in extolling the author of his being, I have abundantly extolled him, her offspring. You will remember that excellent saying of the eloquent Symmachus, "I hesitate to praise the beginning of his career because I am confidently hoping for his advance in virtue[727]." Come to my help, Conscript Fathers, and render to your Lords and mine your united thanks for my promotion.'
[Footnote 727: 'Specto feliciter virtutis ejus augmenta, qui differo laudare principia.' The annotator says that these words are not to be found in the extant writings of Symmachus [the orator]. It was probably the younger Symmachus, the father-in-law of Boethius, who uttered them. At this time Athalaric was killing himself by his debaucheries.]
2. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO POPE JOHN[728].
[Footnote 728: Pope John II (a Roman, son of Projectus, and originally named Mercurius) succeeded Boniface II Jan. 1, 533. His pontificate lasted till May 26, 535. His successor was Agapetus. This letter appears to have been written at a time of scarcity in Rome.]
[Sidenote: Salutations to the Pope.]
'Your prayers are assuredly the cause of our promotion. Your fastings have procured plenty for the citizens. Saluting you therefore with all due reverence, we pray you to continue your prayers for long life to our rulers, for peace and plenty to the State, and for an increase of heavenly wisdom to me. Let the Judge in public life be such as the Catholic Church has trained her son to be. I am indeed a Judge of the Palace, but I shall not cease to be your disciple[729]. Cast not off upon me the whole care of this City, which you watch over with a father's love, but take thought both for its bodily and spiritual wants, and admonish me whenever you think I am erring. Your See is an object of admiration through all lands, and your charity is world-wide; but yet you have also an especial, local love for the sheep of your own flock.
[Footnote 729: 'Sum quidem Judex Palatinus, sed vester non desinam esse discipulus.']
'Rome has in her own borders those shrines of martyrdom[730] of the Apostles [Peter and Paul] which the whole world longs to behold. With such patrons, if only your prayers ascend, we need fear no evil.'
[Footnote 730: 'Confessiones.']
3. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO DIVERS BISHOPS.
[Sidenote: Salutations to the Bishops.]
'Fathers after the flesh delight in the advancement of their sons. Even so do ye, my spiritual fathers, diligently pray to the Holy Trinity that He may make my candle to give light to all that are in the house; yea, and that He may so purge and enlighten mine own conscience that I may not, while an accurate Judge over other men, be a deceiver of mine own self.
'I beg of you to declare a fast, and supplicate the Lord that He will prolong the life of our Sovereigns[731], for the happiness of the realm; that He will defend our State from the assaults of its enemies, will give us all tranquillity in our time, and will deign to make me worthy of your love.
[Footnote 731: This was written, no doubt, when Athalaric was on his deathbed.]
'Watch narrowly the acts of the subordinates whom I send among you, and inform me of anything which they do amiss. I cannot be held responsible for deeds of which I know nothing. And if they take bribes they at least cannot justify themselves by saying that they have first had to pay money for their offices.
'Continue to afford your wonted solace to the widow and orphan; yet beware that your pity does not lead you to seek to set aside the laws even for these. Oh, most holy men, banish to the home of all other unclean spirits violence, avarice, hatred, rapine; and root out from among your people luxury, which is the depopulator of the human race. Let the Bishop teach, that the Judge may have a maiden assize[732]. If only your preaching he continued, the penal course of law must necessarily come to an end.
[Footnote 732: 'Episcopus doceat, ne judex possit invenire quod puniat.']
'I therefore commend my dignity to your prayers, and end my letter with a salutation of love and honour to your Holinesses.'
4. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO HIS DEPUTY[733] AMBROSIUS, AN ILLUSTRIS.
[Footnote 733: 'Agenti vices.' Bethmann Hollweg (Gerichtsverfassung des sinkenden römischen Reichs, pp. 49-50) remarks: 'The relation of the Vices Magistratuum agentes does not belong to the Jurisdictio mandata. They are lieutenants (Stellvertreter) who are substituted provisionally in the room of an ordinary official of the Empire or of a Province, on account of his being temporarily disqualified or suspended from office by the Emperor or Praetorian Praefect. The municipal magistrates were also represented by vices agentes. But the extant authorities give us no very clear information as to their position.' Unfortunately this letter, relating to a vices agens of the Praetorian Praefect himself, does not add much to our information.]
[Sidenote: Functions of the Praefect's Deputy.]
'We have formed a high opinion of you from long observation of your career as an Advocate, and feel sure that you will justify that opinion by your conduct in the office to which we are now calling you. The Forum has long resounded to your eloquence: now your turn is come to sit upon the magistrate's bench. Hitherto you have assisted the officers of the court: now you are yourself called upon to play the part of a Judge. Even when you are absent from me, you will be deemed to be sitting by my side; but whatever credit you may earn when hearing a case by yourself will be reckoned to you alone.
'We therefore ordain that the official staff which waits upon our orders shall be at your disposal, to carry your decisions into effect, and to see that none treat them with contempt.
'If you shall think it necessary to hand over any [insolvent] persons to those who have become security for them, assume that right with confidence, because that will most effectually relieve my mind when I shall learn that this matter has been finally disposed of by you[734]. For if I were present you might give me words only; but now in my absence you owe me, rather, deeds.
[Footnote 734: I suggest this with hesitation as the translation of a difficult sentence: 'Si quos etiam fidejussoribus committere necessarium aestimaveris, confidenter assume: quia illud magis relevare potest animum nostrum, si aliquid per vos cognoscimus impletum.' Cassiodorus seems to be urging his deputy not to shrink from the exercise of even the most stringent rights inherent in his office, in order that causes may be terminated without reference to him. But is there authority for such a translation of the words 'fidejussoribus committere?']
'Think, then, of all that is involved in your high office. Let your toil procure me rest from all men. Avoid the rocks on either side of you. These warnings come rather from my over-particularity[735] than from any distrust of you, for I believe that with God's help you will order all things as shall be best for our fame and for the Republic.'
[Footnote 735: 'Curiositas.']
5. THE SAME TO THE SAME.
[On the occasion of a scarcity in Rome, either existing or dreaded. See the letter to Pope John II (xi. 2).]
[Sidenote: Grain distributions for Rome.]
'I am sure that you will rejoice with me if the needs of the Roman people can be satisfied by our means, and thus we can testify our gratitude for the hospitality which we have both received from that City. To this end have we endured the discomforts of travel, for this purpose have we racked our brains with anxious thought, that that people, which tasted such delights of old in the happy days of its former rulers, may now see its necessities relieved and again enjoy its former prosperity.
'Their poverty and hunger we make our own. Therefore, with all speed, let stores of grain in good condition be at once collected, so that the bread cooked therefrom may be a delight and not a horror. Let just weight be given. Flee all thought of unholy profit from this source. My own soul is wounded if anyone dares to transgress in this matter of the food-supply of the people. Not favour nor popular applause is my aim; but to be permitted, by God's help, to accomplish my own heart's desire.
'I love all my fellow-countrymen, but the Roman citizens deserve more than ordinary love from me. Theirs is a City adorned with so many illustrious Senators, blest with such a noble commonalty, a City so well fitted to celebrate the victories of our glorious rulers. When the question of my promotion hung in suspense, it was the good wishes of these citizens which turned the scale in my favour with the lords of the world[736], who complied with the universal desire of the Roman people. Come, then; so act that this goodwill of theirs to me may continue. Let us all beseech the mercy of the Most High to bless us with an abundant harvest; and let us resolve that, if we are thus favoured, no negligence of ours shall diminish, no venality divert from its proper recipients, the bounty of Heaven[737].'
[Footnote 736: Athalaric and Amalasuentha.]
[Footnote 737: In the last sentence but one, 'Fidem meam promitto: sed cum ipsis Divinitatis dona sustineo, cautelam offero,' I would suggest ipsius for 'ipsis,' making cum = 'when,' not 'with.' There does not seem to be any antecedent plural to which 'ipsis' can refer.]
6. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOANNES, CANCELLARIUS.
[An interesting letter, as showing the lowly original of the office from whence have sprung the mediaeval and modern Chancellors.]
[Sidenote: Functions of the Cancellarius.]
'Your rare merit causes you to enjoy a position beyond that which of right belongs to you in the official hierarchy[738]. Those who are above you cheerfully manifest to you a deference which you might be required to show to them; and thus you, while keeping your inferiors in their proper place, take without presumption precedence of many of your superiors.
[Footnote 738: 'Transgressio matriculae actio tua est.']
'This laudable prejudice has assigned to you, from the twelfth Indiction[739], the dignity of Cancellarius[740].
[Footnote 739: September 1, 533.]
[Footnote 740: 'Hoc igitur laudabili praejudicium a duodecima Indictione cancellorum tibi decus attribuit.']
'Guard then the secrets of our Consistory with incorruptible fidelity. Through your intervention the petitioner for justice has to approach me. On your acts depends in great measure the opinion which men shall form of me; for as a house is judged by its front towards the street, and men by the trimness or shabbiness of their raiment, so are we high officials judged by the demeanour of our subordinates who represent us to the crowd. Therefore, if such officials do anything which redounds to their master's dishonour, they put themselves altogether outside the pale of his clemency.
'Remember your title, Cancellarius. Ensconced behind the lattice-work (cancelli) of your compartment, keeping guard behind those windowed doors, however studiously you may conceal yourself, it is inevitable that you be the observed of all observers[741]. If you step forth, my glances range all over you: if you return to your shelter, the eyes of the litigants are upon you. This is where Antiquity ruled that you should be placed, in order that your actions should be visible to all.
[Footnote 741: 'Respice quo nomine nuncuperis. Latere non potest quod inter cancellos egeris. Tenes quippe lucidas fores, claustra patentia, fenestratas januas; et quamvis studiose claudas, necesse est ut te cunctis aperias.']
'Attend now to this advice which I have given you, and let it not merely filter through your mind, like water through a pipe, but let it sink down into your heart, and, safely stored up there, let it influence the actions of your life.'
7. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: Duties of the Collectors of Taxes.]
'It is an excellent thing that the yearly taxes should be regularly paid. What confidence does the consciousness of this give to the taxpayer, who can march boldly through the Forum, feeling that he owes nothing to anybody and need not fear the face of any official! One can only enjoy an estate if one has no fear of the process-server making his appearance upon it.
'Therefore, in the Diocese of your Excellency[742], we desire you and your staff at the beginning of this twelfth Indiction[743], with all proper gentleness, to impress upon the cultivator of the soil that he must pay his land-tax[744] and end those long arrears, which were introduced not for the assistance of the taxpayer, but for the corrupt profit of the tax-collector. For the officials who in this way professed to relieve the burdens of the people, really imposed upon them a heavier and more hateful weight in the shape of douceurs[745] to themselves.
[Footnote 742: 'Dicationis tuae.' A peculiar and untranslatable form of respect.]
[Footnote 743: September 1, 533.]
[Footnote 744: 'Trina illatio' (See Var. ii. 24). So called because it was collected three times in the year. See Dahn, Könige der Germanen iii. 140; and Sartorius, Regierung der Ostg. 200. The latter seems however to confuse it with the 'tertiae,' from which Dahn very properly distinguishes it.]
[Footnote 745: 'Nundinationes.']
'Let then this hateful swindling be henceforth banished. Let the cultivator pay nothing more than his lawful debt to the Treasury, and let him pay it at the appointed time, thus removing the confusion in which the slowness of collection has involved our accounts.
'Make up, therefore, the abstracts of accounts[746] at the stated times, and forward them to the proper bureaux[747], according to old law and the authority of this present edict; and if you neglect any of these injunctions, know that you do so at your peril. To quicken your diligence we have appointed A and B, persons of tried merit in the past, to supervise the proceedings of yourself and your staff, that this double check may prevent the possibility of negligence.
[Footnote 746: 'Breves.']
[Footnote 747: 'Scrinia.']
'Act then with justice if you wish to receive further promotion. Only those gains are to be sought for which the cultivator gladly offers and which the public servant can securely accept. If you take bribes you will be miserable ever after, through fear of discovery; but if you act uprightly, you will have in me a willing spectator and rewarder of your merits. I am most anxious to be your friend; do not force me against my will to become your enemy.'
8. EDICT PUBLISHED THROUGH THE PROVINCES BY SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT.
[Sidenote: Edict announcing Cassiodorus' principles of administration.]
'The custom of the ancients was for a new ruler to promulgate a new set of laws to his subjects, but now it is sufficient praise to a conscientious ruler that he adheres to the legislation of Antiquity.
'Do you all study to perform good actions, and shrink from deeds of lawlessness and sedition, and you will have nothing to fear from your Governors. I know that some fear, however irrational, is felt in the presence of the Judge; but as far as my purpose can avail, with the help of God and the rulers of the State[748], I can promise you that all things shall be done with justice and moderation.
[Footnote 748: 'Juvante Deo, rerumque Dominis regnantibus.']
'Venality, that greatest stain upon a Judge's character, will be unknown in me; for I should think scorn to sell the words that go out of my lips, like clothes in the market-place.
'In exercising the right of pre-emption we shall be solely guided by the wants of the State, buying nothing at a forced price in order to sell it again[749].
[Footnote 749: 'Sperari a vobis aliquid sola specierum indigentia faciet, non malitiosa venalitas ... nec ad taxationem trahimus quae necessaria non habentur.']
'Be cheerful and of good courage, therefore, with reference to the new administration. No soldier or civil servant shall harass you for his own pleasure. No tax-collector shall load you with burdens of his own imposition. We are determined to keep not only our own hands clean, but also those of our officials. Otherwise, vainly does a good Judge guard himself from receiving money, if he leaves to the many under him licence to receive it on their own account. But we, both by precept and example, show that we aim at the public good, not at private and fraudulent gains.
'We know what prayers you put up for us, how anxiously you watched for our elevation, and we are determined that you shall not be disappointed. Our Praetorium, which no base action has ever denied, shall be open to all. No servile throng shall lord it over you. You shall come straight to us, making your requests known to us through no hired interpreter, and none shall leave our presence poorer than he entered it. With God's help we trust we shall so act as to conform to the instructions which we have received from our Sovereign[750]; and we trust that you, by your loyalty, will enable us to be rather the Father of our Provinces than their Judge. You have patiently obeyed governors who fleeced you; how much more ought you to obey one who, as you know, loves you mightily! Pay the regular fees to the officials who are labouring in your midst; for there is no such excuse for high-handed oppression as the fact that a man is not receiving his covenanted salary. Obey the rule of reason, and you will not have to fear the armed man's wrath.
[Footnote 750: 'Quemadmodum a rerum Dominis mandata suscepimus.']
'We wish that you should enjoy the privileges conceded to you by former rulers without any encroachment by violent men.
'And now be of good heart; I pledge myself for your righteous government. Had I been present with you face to face, ye could not have seen my mind; but ye can read it in this letter, which is the mirror of my heart, the true image of my will, and ye can see that it desires only your prosperity.'
9. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.
[Sidenote: Exhortation to the Judges to govern in conformity with the Edict.]
'Knowing that past suffering makes men anxious and timid as to the future, we have put forth an edict [the preceding document] in order to reassure the minds of the Provincials, and to deliver them from the torment of ever-present fear.
'Therefore we call upon your Excellency[751] to cause this edict to be exposed in all the places which are most resorted to. Thus let the love and devotion of all classes be excited towards our happy Sovereigns[752], that as our thoughts towards the people are entirely thoughts of goodwill, so their dispositions towards the rulers who govern them in righteousness may be only loyal[753].
[Footnote 751: 'Dicatio tua.']
[Footnote 752: 'Circa Dominos felices.']
[Footnote 753: 'Ita se et illi devotos debent pie regnantibus exhibere.' Compare again Claudian's words:
'Nunquam libertas gratior exstat, Quam sum rege pio.']
'It now rests with you, by your just government of the Provincials, to carry our promises into effect.
'Remember that the official staff standing by, is a witness of the acts of every one of you; and so comport yourselves, that both they and all others may see that you in your own conduct obey the laws which you administer.
'Be more anxious to remedy the poverty of the Provincials than to inflict punishment upon them. So act that when you are giving an account of your stewardship your year of office may be felt to have been all too short[754]. If you have acted justly, and earned the goodwill of your Provincials, you will have no need of gifts to stave off accusations.
[Footnote 754: 'Sic agite ut cum justitia probata quaeritur, annus vester brevis esse videatur.']
'We do not appoint any spies upon your actions, and we pray you so to act that this most humiliating expedient may not be necessary.
'If you meet with any who pertinaciously set themselves up against the authority of your fasces, send us at once a messenger with your report; or, if you cannot spare such an one, send the report alone, as you have authority to use the public postal-service[755]. Thus all excuse for remissness on your part is taken away, since you can either wield your power or explain to us the hindrances which beset you.'
[Footnote 755: 'Quando et evectiones publicas accepistis et nobis gratum sit audire de talibus.']
10. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO BEATUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS AND CANCELLARIUS.
[Sidenote: Davus is invalided to the Mons Lactarius.]
'Our lord the King[756] (whose prayer it is that he may ever rejoice in the welfare of all his subjects), when he reflected upon the impaired health of his servant Davus[757], ordered him to seek to the healing properties of the Mons Lactarius[758], for the cure which medical aid seemed powerless to bestow. A frequent cough resounded from his panting chest, his limbs were becoming emaciated, and the food which he took seemed to have lost all power to nourish his frame. Persons in this state can neither feed nor endure to fast, and their bodies seem like leaky casks, from which all strength must soon dribble away.
[Footnote 756: 'Rerum Domini clementia.']
[Footnote 757: Or David, according to some MSS.]
[Footnote 758: This is no doubt the mountain on whose skirts was fought the decisive battle between Narses and Teias in 553, now known as Monte Lettere. It is a spur of the range reaching from Sorrento to Salerno, which attains its highest elevation in Monte San Angelo (4,690 feet high). It rises opposite to Mount Vesuvius on the south-east, the ruins of Pompeii and the valley of the Sarno (formerly the Draco) lying between the two.]
[Sidenote: The milk-cure, a remedy for consumption.]
'As an antidote to this cruel malady Heaven has given us the Mons Lactarius, where the salubrious air working together with the fatness of the soil has produced a herbage of extraordinary sweetness. The cows which are fed on this herbage give a milk which seems to be the only remedy for consumptive patients who have been quite given over by their physicians. As sleep refreshes the weary limbs of toil, so does this milk fill up the wasted limbs and restore the vanished strength. Strange is it to see the herds feeding on this abundant pasture. They look as if it did not profit them at all. Thin and scraggy, as they wander through the thickets they look like the patients who seek their aid; yet their milk is so thick that it sticks to the milker's fingers.
'Do you therefore supply the invalid when he arrives, with the appointed rations and pecuniary allowance, that he may be suitably maintained in that place while he is recreating his exhausted energies with the food of infancy.
'And, oh! all ye who are suffering under the like grievous malady, lift up your hearts. There is hope for you. By no bitter antidote, but by a delicious draught, you shall imbibe life--life, in itself the sweetest of all things.'
11. EDICT CONCERNING PRICES TO BE MAINTAINED AT RAVENNA.
[Sidenote: Prices at Ravenna.]
'The price at which provisions are sold ought to follow, in a reasonable way, the circumstances of the times, that there may be neither cheapness in a dear season, nor dearness in a cheap one, and that the grumblings of both buyers and sellers may be avoided, by fairness being observed towards both.
'Therefore, after careful consideration, we have fixed in the subjoined schedule the prices of the various articles of produce, which prices are to remain free from all ambiguity.
'If any vendor does not observe the prices named in the present edict, he will be liable to a fine of six solidi (£3 12s.) for each violation of the law, and may be visited by corporal punishment[759].'
[Footnote 759: 'Per singulos excessus sex solidorum mulctam a se noverit exigendam et fustuario posse subjacere supplicio.']
[The schedule mentioned in this letter is unfortunately not preserved. Few documents that Cassiodorus could have handed down to posterity would have been more valuable. If we could have compared it with the celebrated Edict of Stratonicea (cir. A.D. 301), we should have seen what changes had been wrought in the value of the precious metals and the distribution of wealth during the two centuries of disturbance and barbaric invasion which had elapsed since the reign of Diocletian. But, unfortunately, Cassiodorus believed that his rhetoric and his natural history would be more interesting to us than these vulgar facts.]
12. EDICT CONCERNING PRICES ALONG THE FLAMINIAN WAY.
[Sidenote: Prices per Viam Flaminiam.]
'If prices need to be fixed for the leisurely inhabitant of a town, much more for the traveller, whose journey may otherwise become a burden instead of a pleasure. Let strangers therefore find that they are entertained by you at fixed prices. To fawn upon them with feigned politeness and then terrify them with enormous charges is the act of a highway robber. Do you not know how much better moderate prices would suit your own purpose? Travellers would gladly flock to your accommodation-houses[760] if they found that you treated them fairly.
[Footnote 760: This is, I believe, the expression used in some of the Australian colonies for what Cassiodorus calls commoda vestra.]
'Let no one think that because he is a long way off, his extortion will escape notice, for people are arriving here every day with tales of your rapacity.
'An official despatched for the purpose will, after deliberation with the citizens and Bishops of each place, decide what prices are to be charged there; and then whosoever dares to ask higher prices will have to pay a fine of six solidi (£3 12s.) and will be afflicted by the laceration of his body.
'Honest gains at the expense of your fellow-citizens ought to suffice for all of you. One would think that the highways were beset with brigands.'
13. THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
[Sidenote: Supplications of the Senate to Justinian.]
'It seems a right and proper thing that we should address our prayers for the safety of the Roman Republic to a dutiful Sovereign[761], who can only desire what will benefit our freedom. We therefore beseech you, most clement Emperor, and from the bosom of the Curia we stretch forth our two hands to you in prayer, that you will grant a most enduring peace to our King. Spurn not us, who ever seemed certain of your love. It is in truth the Roman name that you are commending, if you grant gracious terms to our lords. May your league with them assure the peace of Italy; and if our prayers be not sufficient to accomplish this thing, imagine that you hear our country break forth with these words of supplication: "If ever I was acceptable to thee, love, oh most dutiful Sovereign, love my defenders! They who rule me ought to be in harmony with thee, lest otherwise they begin to do such deeds towards me as thou least of all men wouldest desire. Be not to me a cause of death, thou who hast ever ministered unto me the joys of life. Lo, while at peace with thee I have doubled the number of my children, I have been decked with the glory of my citizens. If thou sufferest me to be wounded, where is thy dutiful name of Son? What couldest even thou do more for me [than these rulers], seeing that my religion and thine thus flourish under their rule?
[Footnote 761: 'Pio Principi.']
'"My Senate grows in honour and is incessantly increasing in wealth. Do not dissipate in quarrels what thou oughtest rather to defend with the sword. I have had many Kings; but none so trained in letters as this one. I have had foreseeing statesmen, but none so powerful in learning and religion. I love the Amal, bred up as he has been at my knees, a strong man, one who has been formed by my conversation, dear to the Romans by his prudence, venerable to the nations by his valour. Join rather thy prayers to his; share with him thy counsels: so that any prosperity which I may earn may redound to thy glory. Do not woo me in the only fashion in which I may not be won. Thine am I already in love, if thou sendest none of thy soldiers to lacerate my limbs. For if Africa has deserved through thee to recover freedom, it were hard that I should from the same hand lose that freedom which I have ever possessed. Control the emotions of anger, oh illustrious conqueror! The claims urged upon thee by the general voice of the people ought to outweigh the offence which the ingratitude of any private individual may have occasioned to thy heart."
'Thus Rome speaks while, through her Senators, she makes supplications to you. And if that be not enough, let the sacred petition of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul be also taken into your account. For surely they, who are proved to have so often defended the peace of Rome from her enemies, deserve that your Sovereignty should yield everything to their merits. The venerable man, our most pious King's ambassador to your Clemency, will further set forth our prayers.'
[It is not easy to fix the exact occasion on which this petition was likely to be sent from the Senate to the Emperor. The allusion to the conquest of Africa shows that it was after the Vandal War, which ended in March, 534. On the other hand, the language put into the mouth of the Senate implies that the Imperial troops had not yet landed in Italy or Sicily, and the petition is therefore of an earlier date than the summer of 535. During the whole of these fourteen months the relations between Empire and Kingdom were more or less strained, the causes of complaint on the part of Constantinople beginning with the occupation of Lilybaeum and ending with the murder of Amalasuentha. I fear that the nattering portrait drawn of 'the Amal' can apply to no one but Theodahad, the terms used being hopelessly inapplicable to a boy like Athalaric. Who then are 'our lords' ('nostri Domini'), in whose name peace is besought. The best that we can hope, for the sake of the reputation of Cassiodorus, is that they are Amalasuentha and Theodahad, the letter being written between October 2, 534 (when Athalaric died), and April 30, 535 (when Amalasuentha was imprisoned). Upon the whole this seems the most probable conclusion. If written after Amalasuentha's death, in the few months or weeks which intervened between that event and the landing of Belisarius in Sicily, the language employed reflects deep discredit on the writer. In that case, 'nostri Domini' must mean Theodahad and Gudelina.]
14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO GAUDIOSUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE PROVINCE OF LIGURIA.
[Sidenote: Praises of Como. Relief of its inhabitants.]
'The City of Como[762] is visited by so many travellers that the cultivators of the soil declare that they are quite worn out with requisitions for post-horses[763]. Wherefore we direct that by Royal indulgence they be favoured in this matter[764], that this city, so beautifully situated, do not become a solitude for want of inhabitants.
[Footnote 762: Thus called by Cassiodorus; not Comum.]
[Footnote 763: 'Se possessores paraveredorum assiduitate suggerunt esse fatigatos.']
[Footnote 764: 'Quibus indultu Regali beneficium praecipimus jugiter custodiri.' These words do not make it clear how the inhabitants were relieved by the Royal decree; but it was probably by some gift of money like that which is announced in the next letter.]
'Como, with its precipitous mountains and its vast expanse of lake, seems placed there for the defence of the Province of Liguria; and yet, again, it is so beautiful that one would think it was created for pleasure only. To the south lies a fertile plain with easy roads for the transport of provisions; on the north a lake sixty miles long, abounding in fish, soothing the mind with delicious recreation.
'Rightly is it called Como, because it is adorned (compta) with such gifts. The lake lies in a shell-like valley, with white margins. Above rises a diadem of lofty mountains, their slopes studded with bright villas[765], a girdle of olives below, vineyards above, while a crest of thick chestnut-woods adorns the very summit of the hills. Streams of snowy clearness dash from the hill-sides into the lake. On the eastern side these unite to form the river Addua, so called because it contains the added volume of two streams. It plunges into the lake with such force that it keeps its own colour[766] (dark among the whiter waters) and its own name far along the northern shore[767], a phenomenon often seen with rivers flowing into the ocean, but surely marvellous with one flowing into an inland lake. And so swift is its course as it moves through the alien waves, that you might fancy it a river flowing over the solid plains.
[Footnote 765: 'Praetoriorum luminibus decenter ornata.']
[Footnote 766: So Claudian (De VI Consolata Honorii 196), 'et Addua visu caerulus.']
[Footnote 767: 'Ut nomen retinens et colorem in Septentrionem obesiore alvei ventre generetur.']
'So delightful a region makes men delicate and averse to labour. Therefore the inhabitants deserve especial consideration, and for this reason we wish them to enjoy perpetually the royal bounty.'
15. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE LIGURIANS.
[Announcing the despatch of money to relieve the necessities of the Province, possibly after some incursions of the Franks. This would fit in pretty well with the mention of Astensis Civitas as having suffered the most.]
[Sidenote: Relief of the necessities of Liguria.]
'It is the privilege of a King to increase the happiness of his subjects. Not to postpone your joy by too long a preface, I will come to the point at once, and inform you that our most glorious Lords, taking the necessities of their loyal Liguria into account, have sent 100 lbs. of gold [£4,000] by the hands of A and B, officers of the Royal Bedchamber. You are to say how the money is to be spent, indicating the persons who are in the greatest necessity; but as we are informed that the city of Asti has been more heavily weighted than others, it is our wish that it should be chiefly helped by this disbursement. Now, do you who are tributaries, reflect upon the clemency of your lords, who are inverting the usual order of things, and paying out to you from the Treasury what they are accustomed to receive. Let us know at once how much you think each taxpayer ought to receive, that we may deduct it from his first instalment of land-tax [768].
[Footnote 768: 'Sed ut beneficia Dominorum subtractis exactionum, incommodis augeantur, celerius relatio vestra nos instruat, quid unicuique de hac summâ relaxandum esse judicetis, ut tantum de primâ illatione faciamus suspendi quantum ad nos notitia directa vulgaverit.' The meaning of Cassiodorus seems quite clear, though it is not easy to understand how far the actual gift of money was supplemented by, or independent of, remission of land-tax.]
'And put up your prayers for your most affectionate Sovereigns, that they may receive back again from Heaven the favour which they are conferring on you.'
16. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE LIGURIANS.
[Sidenote: Oppressions practised on the Ligurians to be remedied.]
'In thanking me so earnestly for a recent benefit [probably the present mentioned in the preceding letter] you invited me to further favours, and the implied promise which I then gave you I now fulfil.
'You complain that you are burdened with unjust weights and measures, and I therefore declare that this iniquity shall cease, and that no tax-collector or tithe-collector[769], shall dare to use too long a measure or too heavy a weight [in the collection of the King's revenue].
[Footnote 769: 'Exactores atque susceptores.' For the latter office, see Cod. Theod. xii. 6.]
'Also that their accounts shall be promptly balanced, and that any overcharge that may be detected shall be at once repaid.
'Now then, your minds being freed from anxiety on this score, turn your attention to the supply of the wants of our most flourishing army, and show your zeal for the public good, since we have satisfied you that it is not for private and fraudulent gains that you are to pay your contributions.'
17. ON THE PROMOTIONS IN THE OFFICIAL STAFF OF THE PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, MADE ON CHRISTMAS DAY[770].
[Footnote 770: This letter was probably addressed to the Princeps, the highest person in the whole Officium, as it contains the words 'unus quisque ... tuâ designatione vulgetur.']
[Sidenote: Promotions in Officium of Praefectus Praetorio.]
'On this day of general rejoicing, when by the kindness of Heaven the way of salvation was opened to all mankind, we wish that the members of our staff should also be glad. For to rejoice, ourselves, when those around us are mourning, is a kind of sacrilege. Hence some philosophers have held that the whole human race is one being, the various members of which are constrained to share one another's feelings of joy or sadness. Therefore let every official in our staff according to his grade[771] get promotion on this day, not only rising himself, but creating a vacancy which enables those below him to rise also.'
[Footnote 771: 'Juxta matriculae seriem.']
[All the Letters from 18 to 35 are documents, for the most part very short ones, relating to these promotions.
For an explanation of the terms used in these letters, and of the whole subject of the staff of the Praetorian Praefect, see chapter iv. of the Introduction.]
In Letter 18, Antianus, who is vacating the office of CORNICULARIUS, receives the rank of Spectabilis, and has a place assigned him among the Tribuni and Notarii, where he may 'adore the presence of his Sovereign[772]'.
[Footnote 772: 'Inter Tribunos et Notarios ad adorandos aspectus properet Principales.']
In Letter 19 the successor of Antianus in the office of CORNICULARIUS receives his appointment.
In Letter 20 the retiring PRIMISCRINIUS also receives the rank of Spectabilis, and takes his place among the Tribuni and Notarii, 'to adore the Purple of Royalty.'
In Letter 21 Andreas is rewarded for his faithful service on the Praetorian staff[773], by being promoted to the office of PRIMISCRINIUS.
[Footnote 773: 'Qui Praetorianis fascibus inculpabiliter noscitur obsecutus.']
In Letter 22 Catellus, who stands next in grade for this promotion[774], obtains the post of SCRINIARIUS ACTORUM.
[Footnote 774: 'Quem matriculae series fecit accedere.']
In Letter 23 Constantinian, to whose virtues Cassiodorus himself bears witness, receives the charge of letters relating to the collection of Land-Tax (CURA EPISTOLARUM CANONICARUM).
In Letter 24 Lucillus is appointed a clerk in the War-Office (SCRINIARIUS CURAE MILITARIS).
In Letter 25 Patricius is appointed chief of the shorthand writers (PRIMICERIUS EXCEPTORUM).
In Letter 26 Justus obtains a place as member of the Sixth Schola (SEXTUS SCHOLARIS[775]).
[Footnote 775: I am unable to suggest any explanation of this title.]
In Letter 27 Joannes, whom we saw in the Sixth Letter of this Book entrusted with the duties of Cancellarius, is rewarded for his faithful discharge of those duties by receiving the place of PRAEROGATIVARIUS[776].
[Footnote 776: I have not found any explanation of this title, which is apparently unknown to the Notitia, to Lydus, and to the Theodosian Code.]
In Letter 28 Cheliodorus[777] is appointed to the place of COMMENTARIENSIS (Magistrates' clerk).
[Footnote 777: Note the corrupt form of the name Heliodorus.]
In Letter 29 Cart(h)erius is promoted to the office of REGERENDARIUS (Secretary of the Post-Office), in the hope that this promotion will render him yet more earnest in the discharge of his Praetorian labours.
In Letter 30 Ursus is appointed PRIMICERIUS DEPUTATORUM, and Beatus (probably the Cancellarius addressed in Letter 10) is made PRIMICERIUS AUGUSTALIUM.
In Letter 31 Urbicus, on vacating the post of PRIMICERIUS SINGULARIORUM (Chief of the King's Messengers), is placed among the Body-guards (Domestici et Protectores), where he may adore the Royal Purple, that, being made illustrious by gazing on the Sovereign, he may rejoice in his liberation from official harassment.
[As the Singularii did not form part of the learned staff (Militia Litterata), their chief on retiring receives a guardsman's place, but still one which gives him access to royalty.]
In Letter 32 Pierius receives the post of PRIMICERIUS SINGULARIORUM which is thus vacated.
[Sidenote: Delegatoria.]
In Letter 33 Cassiodorus, expanding the proverb 'Bis dat qui cito dat,' agrees that the Delegatoria[778] (or Delegatiorius), the letter conferring on the receiver the right to receive the increase of rations due to his promotion, should not be long delayed.
[Footnote 778: We get this sense of Delegatio in Cod. Theod. vii. 4. 35: 'Annonas omnes, quae universis officiis atque Sacri Palatii Ministeriis et Sacris Scriniis ceterisque cunctarum adminiculis dignitatum adsolent delegari.']
In Letter 34 Antianus, the retired Cornicularius of Letter 18, receives a somewhat evasive answer to a petition which apparently affected the rights of those below him in the official hierarchy[779].
[Footnote 779: In this letter occurs a sentence of tantalising obscurity: 'Sola nos Alpha complectitur ubi ea littera non timetur.']
In Letter 35 we have an example of the Delegatoria alluded to in Letter 33. It is concerned with a PRINCEPS, apparently the Princeps of the AGENTES IN REBUS; and, after extolling the zeal and alacrity of those officers, who are constantly intent on enforcing obedience to the Imperial decrees and reverence for the authority of the Praetorian Praefect, he observes that it would be impiety to delay the reward of such labour.
'Therefore let your Experience[780] pay, out of the third instalment of land-tax[781] from such and such a Province, those monies which the wisdom of Antiquity directed should be paid to the Princeps Augustorum[782]. Let this be done at once to those who are chargeable on the accounts of the thirteenth Indiction (Sept. 1, 534--Sept. 1, 535). Let there be no venal delays. Behave to the out-going public servant as you would wish that others should behave to you on your retirement from office. All men should honour the veteran, but especially they who are still toiling in the public service.'
[Footnote 780: It is not clear to whom the letter is addressed.]
[Footnote 781: 'Ex illatione tertiâ.']
[Footnote 782: The marginal note says: 'i.e. Agentium in Rebus.']
36. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANAT(H)OLIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF THE PROVINCE OF SAMNIUM.
[Sidenote: The retirement of a Cornicularius on a superannuation allowance justified on astronomical grounds.]
'As all things else come to an end, so it is right that the laborious life of a civil servant should have its appointed term.
'The heavenly bodies have their prescribed time in which to complete their journeyings. Saturn in thirty years wanders over his appointed portion of space. Jupiter in twelve years finishes the survey of his kingdom. Mars, with fiery rapidity, completes his course in eighteen months. The Sun in one year goes through all the signs of the Zodiac. Venus accomplishes her circuit in fifteen months; the rapid Mercury in thirteen months. The Moon, peculiar in her nearer neighbourhood, traverses in thirty days the space which it takes the Sun a year to journey over[783].
[Footnote 783: As might be expected from an observer who did not understand the earth's motion in its orbit, the periods assigned to the inferior planets in this paragraph are all wrong, while those assigned to the superior planets are pretty nearly right.
Periods according to Cassiodorus. True Periods.
Saturn 30 years 29 years 174 days. Jupiter 12 " 11 " 317 " Mars 1 year 182 days 1 year 321 " Venus 1 " 91 " 224 " Mercury 1 " 30 " 88 "]
'All these bodies, which, as philosophers say, shall only perish with the world, have an appointed end to their journeyings. But they complete their course that they may begin it again: the human race serves that it may rest from its ended labours. Therefore, since the Cornicularius in my Court has completed his term of office, you are to pay him without any deduction this 1st September 700 solidi (£420) from the revenues of the Province of Samnium, taking them out of the third instalment of land-tax[784]. He commanded the wings of the army of the Praefect's assistants, from whence he derived his name[785]. When he handed us the inkstand, we wrote, unbribed, those decrees which men would have paid a great price to obtain[786]. We gratified him whom the laws favoured, we frowned on him who had not justice on his side. No litigant had cause to regret his success, since it came to him unbought. You know all this that we are saying to be true, for our business was all transacted in the office, not in the bedchamber. What we did, the whole troop of civil servants knew[787]. We were private persons in our power of harming, Judges in our power of doing good. Our words might be stern, our deeds were kindly. We frowned though mollified; we threatened though intending no evil; and we struck terror that we might not have to strike. You have had in me, as you were wont to say, a most clean-handed Judge: I shall leave behind in you my most uncorrupted witnesses.'
[Footnote 784: 'Per illam Indictionem de Samnii provinciâ ex illatione tertiâ sine ambiguitate contrade.']
[Footnote 785: 'Praefuit enim Cornibus Secretarii Praetoriani, unde ei nomen est derivatum.']
[Footnote 786: 'Eo ministrante caliculum scripsimus inempti quod magnis pretiis optabatur impleri.']
[Footnote 787: 'Quod egimus cohortes noverunt.' Observe the military character of the service, 'cohortes.']
37. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS LUCINUS, CANCELLARIUS OF CAMPANIA.
[Sidenote: Payment of retiring Primiscrinius.]
'It was well ordered by Antiquity that the servants of the Public should receive a due reward for their labours; and who of all these are more deserving than the officers of the Praetorian Praefect (Praetoriani). Theirs is the difficult task of waiting on the necessities of the army. They must demand accounts, often minute and intricate, from great officers whom they dare not offend. They must collect the stores of food for the Roman people from the Provincials without giving them cause for complaint[788]. Their acts constitute our true glory; and in the formation of their characters, work, hard work, that stern and anxious pedagogue[789], is better than all literary or philosophic training.
[Footnote 788: 'Eorum est etiam sudoribus applicandum, quod victuales expensae longe quidem positae, sed tamquam in urbe Regiâ natae [I do not quite understand this antithesis] sine querelâ Provincialium congregantur.']
[Footnote 789: 'Labores, violenti magistri, solliciti paedagogi, per quos cautior quis efficitur dum incurri pericula formidantur.']
'Such men ought assuredly to receive their stipulated rewards; and therefore we order you to pay regularly so many solidi of the third instalment, from the land-tax of the Province of Campania[790], to such and such a person, who has now just completed his term of service as Primiscrinius.'
[Footnote 790: 'Ex canone provinciae Campaniae tertiae illationis tot solidos solenniter te dare censemus.']
38. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO JOANNES, CANONICARIUS[791] OF THUSCIA.
[Footnote 791: Tax-collector.]
[Sidenote: Praises of paper.]
'Rightly did Antiquity ordain that a large store of paper should be laid in by our Bureaux (Scrinia), that litigants might receive the decision of the Judge clearly written, without delay, and without avaricious and impudent charges for the paper which bore it[792].
[Footnote 792: Lydus (De Magistratibus iii. 14) makes a similar remark, but says that in his time the copying clerks (Exceptarii, or Exceptores) supplied disgracefully bad paper made of grass, and charged a fee for doing so.]
'A wonderful product in truth is this wherewith ingenious Memphis has supplied all the offices in the world. The plants of Nile arise, a wood without leaves or branches, a harvest of the waters, the fair tresses of the marshes, plants full of emptiness, spongy, thirsty, having all their strength in their outer rind, tall and light, the fairest fruit of a foul inundation.
'Before Paper was discovered, all the sayings of the wise, all the thoughts of the ancients, were in danger of perishing. Who could write fluently or pleasantly on the rough bark of trees, though it is from that practice that we call a book Liber? While the scribe was laboriously cutting his letters on the sordid material, his very thought grew cold: a rude contrivance assuredly, and only fit for the beginnings of the world.
'Then was paper discovered, and therewith was eloquence made possible. Paper, so smooth and so continuous, the snowy entrails of a green herb; paper which can be spread out to such a vast extent, and yet be folded up into such a little space; paper, on whose white expanse the black characters look beautiful; paper which keeps the sweet harvest of the mind, and restores it to the reader whenever he chooses to consult it; paper which is the faithful witness of all human actions, eloquent of the past, a sworn foe to oblivion.
'Therefore for this thirteenth Indiction[793] pay so many solidi from the land-tax of the Tuscan Province to our Bureau, that it may be able to keep in perpetuity a faithful record of all its transactions.'
[Footnote 793: Sept. 1, 534. The reading 'de tertiae decimae Indictionis rationibus' seems required by the sense, instead of 'tertiam de decimae Indictionis rationibus.' It is quite clear that Cassiodorus was not Praetorian Praefect at the tenth Indiction.]
39. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE CLARISSIMUS VITALIAN, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.
[Sidenote: Payment by Province of Bruttii of commuted cattle-tax.]
'The vast numbers of the Roman people in old time are evidenced by the extensive Provinces from which their food supply was drawn, as well as by the wide circuit of their walls, the massive structure of their amphitheatre, the marvellous bigness of their public baths, and the enormous multitude of mills, which could only have been made for use, not for ornament.
'It was to feed this population, that mountainous Lucania paid her tribute of swine, that fertile Bruttii furnished her droves of oxen. It was a glorious privilege for them thus to feed the Roman people: yet the length of roads over which the animals had to be driven made the tribute unnecessarily burdensome, since every mile reduced their weight, and the herdsman could not possibly obtain credit at the journey's end for the same number of pounds of flesh which he possessed at its beginning. For this reason the tribute was commuted into a money payment, one which no journeyings can diminish and no toil can wound. The Provinces should understand and respond to this favourable change, and not show themselves more slack than their ancestors were, under far more burdensome conditions. Your Diligence has now collected both these taxes[794] at the appointed periods; and I am glad of it, that my countrymen, who have served alien magistrates with praiseworthy diligence, might not seem negligent under my rule. These Provinces, which I, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather have benefited as private persons, I have endeavoured to help yet more earnestly while I bore the majesty of the fasces, that they who have rejoiced in my exaltation might see that I still retained my love for our common country. Let them pay the tax then, not from fear but from love. I have prevailed on the royal generosity to limit its amount; for whereas it used to be 1,200 solidi [£720] annually, it is henceforward to be 1,000 [£600][795].'
[Footnote 794: 'Ambos titulos.']
[Footnote 795: This sum seems ridiculously small for the Province of Bruttii. Can it be the sum assessed on each district?]
40. AN INDULGENCE [OR AMNESTY TO PRISONERS ON SOME GREAT FESTIVAL OF THE CHURCH, PROBABLY EASTER].
[Sidenote: General Amnesty.]
'All the year we are bound to tread in the path of Justice, but on this day we secure our approach to the Redeemer by the path of Forgiveness. Therefore we forswear punishments of all kinds, we condemn the torture, and thus feel ourselves, in forgiving, to be more truly than ever a Judge.
'Hail to thee, O Clemency[796], patroness of the human race! thou reignest in the heavens and on the earth: and most fitting is it that, at sacred seasons like this, thou shouldest be supreme.
[Footnote 796: 'Indulgentia.']
'Therefore, O Lictor, thou who art allowed to do with impunity the very thing for which other men are punished, put up thy axe; let it be henceforth bright, not bloody. Let the chains which have been so often wet with tears now grow rusty. The prison--that house of Pluto, in which men suffer a living death, from its foul odours, from the sound of groaning which assails their ears, from the long fastings which destroy their taste, from the heavy weights which weary their hands, from the endless darkness which makes their eyes grow dim--let the prison now be filled with emptiness. Never is it so popular as when it is seen to be deserted.
'And you, its denizens, who are thus in a manner transplanted to Heaven from Hell, avoid the evil courses which made you acquainted with its horrors. Even animals shun the things which they have once found harmful. Cattle which have once fallen into a pit seek not again the same road. The bird once snared shuns bird-lime. The pike buries himself in deep sand, that he may escape the drag-net, and when it has scraped his back leaps nimbly into the waves and expresses by his gambols his joy for his deliverance. When the wrasse[797] finds that he is caught in an osier trap, he moves himself slowly backwards till he can leave his tail protruding, that one of his fellows, perceiving his capture, may pull him out from his prison.
[Footnote 797: 'Scarus.']
'So too the Sauri (?), a clever race of fish, named from their speed, when they have swum into a net, tie themselves together into a sort of rope; and then, tugging backwards with all their might, seek to liberate their fellow-prisoners.
'Many facts of the same kind would be discovered on enquiry. But my discourse must return to thee, O Gaoler. Thou wilt be miserable in the general joy, because thou art wont to derive thy gladness from the affliction of many. But as some consolation for thy groans, we leave to thee those prisoners whom the Law, for very pity's sake, cannot set free--the men found guilty of outrageous crimes, whose liberation would make barbarous deeds frequent. Over these thou mayest still exert thy power.'