The Letters of Cassiodorus
can plunder. Necessity loves not a law[338], nor is it right to
command the many to observe a moderation which even the few can barely
practise.'
[Footnote 338: 'Necessitas moderamen non diligit.']
14. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO GESILA.
[Sidenote: Evasion of land-tax by Goths in Picenum and Thuscia.]
'It is a great offence to put off the burden of one's own debts upon
other people. That man ought to pay the "tributum" for a property who
receives the income of it. But some of the Goths in Picenum and the
two Tuscanies[339] are evading the payment of their proper taxes[340].
This vicious practice must be suppressed at once, lest it spread by
imitation. If anyone in a spirit of clownish stubbornness shall still
refuse to obey our commands as expressed through you, affix the proper
notice to his houses and confiscate them, that he who would not pay a
small debt may suffer a great loss[341]. None ought to be more prompt
in their payments to the exchequer than those [the Goths] who are the
receivers of our donative. The sum thus given by our liberality is
much more than they could claim as soldiers' pay. In fact _we_ pay
them a voluntary tribute by the care which we have of their fortunes.'
[Footnote 339: 'Gothi per Picenum sive Thuscias utrasque residentes.'
What are the two Thusciae?]
[Footnote 340: 'Debitas functiones.']
[Footnote 341: 'Si quis ergo jussa nostra agresti spiritu resupinatus
abjecerit, casas ejus appositis titulis fisci nostri juribus
vindicabis; ut qui juste noluit parva solvere, rationabiliter videatur
maxima perdidisse.']
15. KING THEODORIC TO BENENATUS, SENATOR.
[Sidenote: New rowers to be selected. Their qualifications.]
'Being informed by the Illustrious and Magnificent Count of the
Patrimony that twenty-one of the _Dromonarii_ [rowers in the
express-boats] have been removed by the inconvenient incident of
death, we hereby charge you to select others to fill their places. But
they must be strong men, for the toil of rowing requires powerful arms
and stout hearts to battle with the stormy waves. For what is in fact
more daring than with one's little bark to enter upon that wide and
treacherous sea, which only despair enables a man successfully to
combat?'
16. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Arigern entrusted with the charge of the City of Rome.]
'Some time ago we committed the government of our new Gaulish
Provinces to Arigern, a member of your body, that he might by his
firmness and prudence bring about a settlement in that agitated
country. This he has accomplished to our entire satisfaction, and,
practising the lessons which he learned in your midst, he has also
brought back warlike trophies from thence. We now decide to bestow
upon him the charge of the Roman order.
'He is to see that the laws are vigorously administered, and that
private revenge has no place.
'Receive, O Conscript Fathers, your honoured and venerable member back
into your bosom.'
[It seems probable that Arigern was not appointed 'Praefectus Urbis,'
because in Letter iv. 22 he is associated as Comes with Argolicus,
'Praefectus Urbis.' Was he 'Comes Urbis Romae?']
17. KING THEODORIC TO IDA, VIR SUBLIMIS AND DUX.
[Cf. the name of our own Northumbrian King.]
[Sidenote: Possessions of the Church of Narbonne to be restored to
it.]
'We do not wish to disturb anything that has been well settled by a
preceding King. Certain possessions of the Church of Narbonne, which
were secured to it by grant of the late King Alaric of exalted memory,
have been wrongfully wrested from it. Do you now restore these. As you
are illustrious in war, so be also excellent in "civilitas." The
wrong-doers will not dare to resist a man of your well-known bravery.'
18. KING THEODORIC TO ANNAS, SENATOR AND COMES.
[Sidenote: A priestly Ghoul.]
'Enquire if the story which is told us be true, namely that the
Presbyter Laurentius has been groping for fatal riches among human
corpses. An odious inversion of his functions, that he who should
preach peace to the living has been robbing the dead, and that hands
which have been touched with the oil of consecration should have been
grasping at unholy gains, instead of distributing his own honestly
acquired substance to the poor. If after diligent examination you
find that the charge is true, you must make him disgorge the gold. As
for punishment, for the sake of the honour of the priesthood we leave
that to a higher Power[342].'
[Footnote 342: 'Scelus enim, quod nos pro sacerdotali honore
relinquimus impunitum, majori pondere credimus vindicandum.' The words
seem to be purposely vague, but I think they allude to the judgment of
Heaven on the offender.]
19. KING THEODORIC TO GEMELLUS, SENATOR.
[Sidenote: The Siliquaticum not to be levied on corn, wine, and oil.]
'The Prince should try to remedy the afflictions of his subjects.
Therefore, for the present time [probably on account of the scarcity
in Gaul], we decree that the tax of Siliquaticum, which Antiquity
ordained should be levied on all buyings and sellings, shall not be
levied on corn, wine, and oil. We hope thus to stimulate trade, and to
benefit not only the Provincials, who are our chief care, but also the
merchants. Let the ship that traverses the seas not fear our harbours.
Often the sailor dreads the rapacity of the collector of customs more
than the danger of shipwreck. It shall not be so now.'
20. KING THEODORIC TO GEBERICH, SENATOR.
[Sidenote: Land taken from the Church to be restored to it.]
'If we are willing to enrich the Church by our own liberality, _a
fortiori_ will we not allow it to be despoiled of the gifts received
from pious princes in the past.
'The supplication of the Venerable Bishop Constantius informs us that
a _jugum_ [= jugerum, about two-thirds of an English acre] of land so
bestowed on the "sacrosanct" Church has been taken away from her, and
is unlawfully held by the despoiler.
'See that right is done, and that the Church has her own restored to
her without any diminution.'
21. KING THEODORIC TO GEMELLUS, SENATOR.
[Sidenote: Promptness and integrity required.]
'Be prompt in the execution of our orders. No one should think our
commands harsh, since they are excused by the necessity of the times.
[Reject the thought of all unjustly acquired gains, for] you are sure
to receive from our favour all that you seem to lose by not yielding
to temptation.'
22. KING THEODORIC TO ARGOLICUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PRAEFECT OF THE
CITY; AND
23. KING THEODORIC TO ARIGERN, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND COMES.
[Sidenote: Roman Senators accused of magic.]
These two letters relate to the affair of Basilius[343] and
Praetextatus, men of high rank in Rome. They are accused of practising
magical arts, and in the interval between the first and second letters
they escape from prison by taking advantage of the insanity of the
gaoler.
[Footnote 343: Basilius, the patron of Sidonius, was Consul in 463,
and another Basilius, perhaps the father of the accused, was Consul in
480. The person here spoken of _may_ be the same as the Basilius,
'olim regio ministerio depulsus,' whom Boethius (Phil. Cons. i. 4)
mentions as one of his accusers; but it seems more likely that in that
case this imputation of magical practices would also have been
referred to by him. The name Basilius was a somewhat common one at
this time.]
Theodoric, who says that he will not suffer any such acts of treason
against the Divine Majesty, and that it is not lawful for Christian
times to deal in magical arts, orders the recapture of the offenders,
who are to be handed over to a Quinque-viral Board, consisting of the
Patricians Symmachus, Decius, Volusianus, and Caelianus, with the
Illustrious Maximian, and by them examined; if guilty to be punished
(probably with confiscation and exile); if innocent, of course to be
discharged[344].
[Footnote 344: At the beginning of the first letter occurs the
remarkable expression 'Abscedat ritus de medio jam profanus;
conticescat _poenale murmur animarum_,' which the commentator
interprets of the ventriloquistic sounds produced by soothsayers. Cf.
Milton's Christmas Hymn:
'No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.']
[The association of the Quinque-viri with the Praefectus Urbis is a
mark of the high rank of the accused. The Praefectus Urbis could not
adjudicate on the crimes of Senators without five Assessors chosen by
lot from that body. Arigern, who was entrusted (it is not quite clear
in what capacity) with the 'Disciplina Romanae Civitatis,' is
commissioned to bring the accused to trial. Baronius says that we do
not hear whether they were ever re-captured.]
24. KING THEODORIC TO ELPIDIUS, DEACON [of Spoleto].
[Sidenote: Architectural restoration at Spoleto.]
Gives leave to pull down a _porticus_ behind the Baths of Turasius at
Spoleto, and to build some new edifice [perhaps a church] on its site
and on the site of a yard (areola) adjoining it, on condition only
that the building thus pulled down is of no public utility.
Reflections on the duty of architectural restoration.
25. KING THEODORIC TO ARGOLICUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, PRAEFECTUS URBIS.
[It is to be borne in mind that the Praefectus Urbis was the Official
President of the Senate.]
[Sidenote: Petrus to be inscribed as Senator.]
'Ambition ennobles man, and he who has aimed when young at high
honours is often stimulated to lead a worthy life by the fact of
having obtained them. We therefore look favourably on the petition of
Petrus, illustrious by descent, and in gravity of character already a
Senator, to enter the Sacred Order (the Senate); and we authorise your
Illustrious Magnificence to inscribe his name, according to ancient
custom, in the album of that body.'
[A Petrus, probably the same as the subject of this letter, was Consul
in 516.]
26. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE CITIZENS OF MARSEILLES[345].
[Footnote 345: 'Universis Massiliae constitutis.' A curious
expression.]
[Sidenote: Taxes remitted for a year.]
Confirms all privileges and immunities granted by previous Princes,
and remits the taxes (censum) for one year, a boon which they had not
dared to ask for. 'For that is perfect _pietas_, which before it is
bent by prayer, knows how to consider the weary ones.'
[Here, as in many other passages of Cassiodorus, _pietas_ shows signs
of passing into the Italian _pieta_ (= pity).]
27. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO TEZUTZAT,
AND
28. KING THEODORIC TO DUDA, SENATOR AND COMES.
[Sidenote: Petrus assaulted by the Sajo who was assigned for his
protection.]
[Duda was also a Sajo, as we see from Letter 32. Dahn ('Koenige der
Germanen' iv. 142, _n._ 3) thinks he was Comes Gothorum.]
Both letters relate to the affair of Petrus (a Vir Spectabilis, and
probably the same whose admission to the Senate is ordered by iv. 25).
This Roman nobleman, according to a usage common under Theodoric's
government, has had the Gothic Sajo Amara assigned to him as his
Defensor. Amara, by an inversion of his functions, which the letter
bitterly laments and upbraids, has turned upon his _protege_ and even
used personal violence towards him. He has drawn a sword and wounded
him in the hand; and nothing but the fact that Petrus was sheltered by
a door saved him from losing his hand altogether.
Yet, notwithstanding this assault, Amara has had the audacity to claim
from his victim 'commodi nomine,' the usual payment made by the
defended to the defender.
The first letter decrees that this shall be refunded twofold, and
assigns Tezutzat instead of Amara to the office of Defender, warning
him not to follow the evil example of his predecessor.