The Letters of Cassiodorus
8. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP SEVERUS, VIR VENERABILIS.
[Sidenote: Compensation for damage done by troops on march.]
'None is more suitable than a member of the Priesthood to perform acts
of justice towards his flock.
'We therefore send your Holiness, by Montanarius, 1,500 solidi (L900),
for distribution among the Provincials, according to the amount of
damage which each one has sustained this year by the passage of our
army. See that the distribution is made systematically--not at
random--so that it may reach the right persons.'
9. KING THEODORIC TO FAUSTUS, PRAEPOSITUS.
[Sidenote: Allowance to a retired charioteer.]
'We always enjoy being generous. Compassion is the one virtue to which
all other virtues may honourably give way. Long ago we made the
charioteer Sabinus a monthly allowance of a solidus [twelve
shillings]. Now, as we learn from Histrius [or Historius] that this
former servant of the public pleasures is afflicted with the most
melancholy poverty, we have pleasure in adding _another_ solidus to
his monthly allowance. We are never so well pleased as when the
accounts of our expenditure show these items of charitable
disbursement.'
10. KING THEODORIC TO SPECIOSUS, VIR DEVOTUS, COMITIACUS [OFFICER OF
THE COURT].
[Sidenote: The abduction of Agapita.]
'The laws guarding the sanctity of the marriage bed[250] must be
carefully upheld.
[Footnote 250: 'Illud Humani generis procreabile Sacramentum.']
'Agapita[251] has explained to us that she was tempted away from her
husband by seducers, who promised to procure his death. From the time
of her leaving his company let all revenues which came to her under
the marriage contract (invalidated by her unfaithfulness) be given up
by her wrongful detainers[252] without any delay. It is too absurd
that men who ought to be severely punished for their wrong-doing
should even seek to make a profit out of it.'
[Footnote 251: 'Foemina spectabilis.']
[Footnote 252: 'Retentatores.' So the Gepid Prince is called the
Retentator of Sirmium (Ennodius, Panegyric. Theod. 178. Ed. Migne).]
11. KING THEODORIC TO PROVINUS (PROBINUS?), ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Gift obtained from Agapita under undue influence.]
[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a
woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The petition
of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced
by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good
reason quitted her own home. Her own petition confirms this; and she
states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church,
she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a
most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose
reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one
who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now
seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession
which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has
brought the poor woman to destitution. Alienation of property should
be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor
creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband
causelessly.
'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in
complying.'
[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores'
referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly
identify him with them.]
12. KING THEODORIC TO THE COUNT OF THE SILIQUATARII (CUSTOMS
OFFICERS), AND TO HIM WHO HAS THE CARE OF THE HARBOUR (OF PORTUS?).
[Sidenote: Prohibition of export of lard.]
'Italy ought to enjoy her own products, and it is monstrous that
anything which she produces should be wanting to her own children.
'Therefore let no lard be exported to foreign parts, but let it by
God's grace be all kept for consumption at home.
'Now take care not to incur the slightest blame in this matter. It is
a very serious fault even in trifles to disobey orders. Sin consists
in quality, not in quantity; and injustice cannot be measured. A
command, if it be despised in one part, is violated in the whole.'
13. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO[253] FRUINARITH.
[Footnote 253: The Sajo was an officer, not of very high rank,
apparently always of Gothic nationality, who was charged with
executing the King's mandates. Perhaps our word 'henchman' would be
the best translation of his title. His conventional attribute was
'devotio.' See Dahn, 'Koenige der Germanen' iii. 181-186, and my 'Italy
and her Invaders' iii. 282-284.]
[Sidenote: Dishonest conduct of Venantius.]
'We are always especially touched by the prayers of petitioners who
complain that they are forced to pay unjustly. Ulpianus in his
lamentable petition informs us that on the request of Venantius he
bound himself as a guarantor (fidei jussionis vinculo) to pay over to
the public Treasury at the time of his administration 400 solidi
(L240). With the presumption of a truculent rustic Venantius despised
his own promise, and Ulpianus has therefore been burdened with payment
of the money. We therefore order that Venantius, who has been accused
of many other crimes besides this, shall be summoned before you, and
if found to be legally liable, shall be at once, and sharply,
compelled to fulfil his promise.'
14. KING THEODORIC TO SYMMACHUS, PATRICIAN.
[Sidenote: Romulus the parricide.]
'Parricide is the most terrible and unnatural of crimes. Even the cubs
of wild beasts follow their sires; the offshoot of the vine serves the
parent stem: shall man war against him who gave him being? It is for
our little ones that we lay up wealth. Shall we not earn the love of
those for whom we would willingly incur death itself? The young stork,
that harbinger of spring, gives a signal example of filial piety,
warming and feeding its aged parents in the moulting season till they
have recovered their strength, and thus repaying the good offices
received in its earlier years. So too, when the partridge, which is
wont to hatch the young of other birds, takes her adopted brood forth
into the fields, if these hear the cry of their genuine mother they
run to her, leaving the partridge forsaken.
'Wherefore, if Romulus[254] have fouled the Roman name by laying
violent hands on his father Martinus, we look to your justice (we
chose you because we knew you would not spare the cruel) to inflict on
him legitimate revenge.'
[Footnote 254: Quaere if named from the last Emperor.]
15. KING THEODORIC TO VENANTIUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS.
[Sidenote: Promotion of Venantius to Comitiva Domesticorum Vacans.]
'We always like to promote to office the sons of distinguished
fathers. We therefore bestow on you the honour of Comes Domesticorum
(Comitiva Vacans), in memory of your glorious father. He held at the
same time the Praefecture [of Italy] and the command of the army, so
that neither the Provinces lacked his ordering, nor did his wise care
for the army fail. All was mastered by his skilled and indefatigable
prudence; he inclined the manners of the Barbarians to peace, and
governed so that all were satisfied with our rule.
'You are a zealous student of literature, illustrious by birth and
eloquent by education. Go on as you have begun, and show yourself
worthy of our choice.'
16. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: On the same subject.]
This letter adds a little to the information contained in the
preceding one, as to the career of Liberius, father of Venantius.
[Sidenote: Praises of Liberius.]
Liberius was a faithful servant of Odovacar, who adhered to his master
to the last. 'He awaited incorruptly the Divine judgments, nor did he
allow himself to seek a new King till he had first lost his old one.
On the overthrow of his lord he was bowed by no terror; he bore
unmoved the ruin of his Prince; nor did the revolution, at which even
the proud hearts of the Barbarians trembled[255], avail to move him
from his calm.
[Footnote 255: 'Quam etiam ferocitas gentilis expavit.']
'Prudently did he follow the common fortunes, in order that while
fixedly bearing the Divine judgments he might with the more
approbation find the Divine favour. We approved the faith of the man;
he came over in sadness to our allegiance as one who being overcome
changes his mind, not like one who has contrived [treacherously] that
he should be conquered. We made him Praefectus Praetorio. He
administered the finances admirably. By his economical management we
felt the increased returns, while you knew nothing of added tributes.
[Sidenote: Apportionment of Tertiae.]
'We especially like to remember how in the assignment of the [Gothic]
Thirds (in Tertiarum deputatione) he joined both the possessions and
the hearts of Goths and Romans alike. For whereas men are wont to come
into collision on account of their being neighbours, with these men
the common holding of their farms proved in practice a reason for
concord. Thus it has happened that while the two nations have been
living in common they have concurred in the same desires. Lo! a new
fact, and one wholly laudable. The friendship of the lords has been
joined with the division of the soil; amity has grown out of the loss
of the Provincials, and by the land a defender has been gained whose
occupation of part guarantees the quiet enjoyment of the whole. One
law includes them: one equal administration rules them: for it is
necessary that sweet affection should grow between those who always
keep the boundaries which have been allotted them.
'All this the Roman Republic owes to Liberius, who to two such
illustrious nations has imparted sentiments of mutual affection. See
to it, Conscript Fathers, that his offspring does not go unrewarded.'
17. TO THE POSSESSORS, DEFENSORS, AND CURIALS[256] OF THE CITY OF
TRIDENTUM (TRIENT).
[Footnote 256: Cf. iii. 9 for a similar heading.]
[Sidenote: Immunity from Tertiae enjoyed by lands granted by the
King.]
'We do not wish to be generous at the expense of others, and we
therefore declare that the _Sors_ which in our generosity we have
bestowed on Butilianus the Presbyter, is not to be reckoned in to the
tax calculations; but as many solidi as are comprehended in that gift,
so many are you to be relieved from, in the contribution of
"Tertiae."'
[That is to say, the land given by the Gothic King to Butilian was to
be itself, as a matter of course, free from Tertiae; but, in order
that this might not throw a heavier burden on the other owners in the
district, they were to be allowed to deduct the solidi of that portion
from the gross amount payable by them on behalf of the whole district.
Butilian's own immunity from Tertiae seems to be taken for granted as
a result of the King's gift to him. (See Dahn, 'Koenige der Germanen'
iii. 145.)]
18. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP GUDILA.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastics as Curiales.]
An interesting but rather obscure letter on the condition of
_Curiales_.
Apparently some ecclesiastics were claiming as slaves some men whom
the Curia of Sarsena (?) asserted to be fellow-curials of their own,
whom they therefore wanted to assist them in performing curial
obligations.
Cassiodorus argues that as the 'Sors nascendi' prevented the Curialis
from rising to the higher honours of the State, it certainly ought
also to prevent him from sinking into slavery[257]. 'Therefore we
advise you to look well to your facts, and see whether these men are
not justly claimed as Curials, in which case the Church should give
them up before the matter comes to trial. It does not look well for
the Bishop, who should be known as a lover of justice, to be publicly
vanquished in a suit of this kind.'