The Letters of Cassiodorus
Neapolis and Nola, who may examine the ravaged lands for themselves,
and proportion the relief granted, to the amount of damage done in
each case.
'That Province is visited at intervals by this terrible calamity, as
if to mar its otherwise perfect happiness. There is one favourable
feature in the visitation. It does not come wholly unawares. For some
time before, the mountain groans with the strife of Nature going on
inside it, and it seems as if an angry spirit within would terrify all
the neighbourhood by his mighty roar. Then the air is darkened by its
foul exhalations; hot ashes scudding along the sea, a shower of drops
of dust upon the land, tell to all Italy, to the transmarine
Provinces, to the world, from what calamity Campania is
suffering[367].
[Footnote 367: In the eruption of 472 (apparently the last great
eruption previous to 512), the ashes were carried as far as Byzantium,
the inhabitants of which city instituted a yearly religious service in
memory of the event: 'Vesuvius mons Campaniae torridus intestinis
ignibus aestuans exusta evomuit viscera, nocturnisque in die tenebris
incumbentibus, _omnem Europae faciem minuto contexit pulvere_. Hujus
metuendi memoriam cineris Byzantii annue celebrant VIII Idus
Novembris.' The eruption was accompanied by widespread earthquake: 'In
Asia aliquantae civitates vel oppida terrae motu collapsa sunt'
(Marcellinus Comes, sub anno).]
'Go nearer: you will see as it were rivers of dust flowing, and
glowing streams of barren sand moving over the country. You see and
wonder: the furrows of the fields are suddenly lifted to a level with
the tops of the trees; the country, which but now was dressed in a
robe of gladsome greenness, is laid waste by sudden and mournful heat.
And yet, even those sandy tracts of pumice-stone which the mountain
vomits forth, dry and burnt up as they appear, have their promise of
fertility. There are germs within them which will one day spring to
life, and re-clothe the mountain side which they have wasted.
'How strange that one mountain alone should thus terrify the whole
world! Other mountains may be seen with silently glowing summits; this
alone announces itself to distant lands by darkened skies and changed
air. So it still goes on, shedding its dusty dews over the land; ever
parting with its substance, yet a mountain still undiminished in
height and amplitude. Who that sees those mighty blocks in the plain
would believe that they had boiled over from the depths of that
distant hill, that they had been tossed like straws upon the wind by
the angry spirit of the mountain?
'Therefore let your Prudence so manage the enquiry that those who have
really suffered damage shall be relieved, while no room is left for
fraud.'
51. KING THEODORIC TO SYMMACHUS, PATRICIAN[368].
[Footnote 368: The father-in-law of Boethius.]
[Sidenote: Commends the public spirit of Symmachus, as shown in the
restoration of Pompey's theatre.]
Commends him for the diligence and skill with which he has decorated
Rome with new buildings--especially in the suburbs, which no one would
distinguish from the City except for the occasional glimpses of
pleasant fields; and still more for his restoration of the massive
ruins of past days[369], chiefly the theatre of Pompeius.
[Footnote 369: We have here a striking description of the massive
strength of the public buildings of Rome: '[Videmus] caveas illas
saxis pendentibus apsidatas ita juncturis absconditis in formas
pulcherrimas convenisse, ut cryptas magis excelsi montis crederes quam
aliquid fabricatum esse judicares.']
As the letter is addressed to a learned man, it seems a suitable
opportunity to explain why Antiquity reared this mighty pile.
Accordingly a very long digression follows on the origin, progress,
and decline of Tragedy, Comedy, and Pantomime.
It is remarked incidentally that Pompeius seems to have derived his
appellation _Magnus_ chiefly from the building of this wonderful
theatre.
The expense which Symmachus has been put to in these vast works is to
be refunded to him by the _Praepositus Sacri Cubiculi_, that he may
still have the glory of the work, but that the King may have done his
due part in preserving the memorials of Antiquity.
BOOK V.
CONTAINING FORTY-FOUR LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS IN THE NAME OF
THEODORIC.
1. KING THEODORIC TO THE KING OF THE VANDALS[370].
[Footnote 370: No doubt Thrasamund, who married Theodoric's sister. He
reigned from 496 to 523.]
[Sidenote: The King of the Vandals is thanked for his presents.]
'The swords which you have sent us are most beautiful: so sharp that
they will cut other weapons; so bright that they reflect with a sort
of iron light[371] the face of the beholder; with the two blades
descending to their edges with such absolute equality of slope, that
you would fancy them the result of the furnace rather than of the
whetstone[372]; in the middle, between the blades, channels carved
which are filled in with beautiful enamel of various colours[373].
[Footnote 371: 'Ut speculum quoddam virorum faciat ferream lucem.']
[Footnote 372: 'Quarum margines in acutum tali aequalitate descendunt,
ut non limis compositae, sed igneis fornacibus credantur effusae.']
[Footnote 373: 'Harum media pulchris alveis excavata, quibusdam
videntur crispari posse vermiculis, ubi tanta varietatis umbra
concludit, ut intextum magis credas variis coloribus lucidum
metallum.']
'Along with these arms you have also sent us musical instruments of
ebony, and slave boys of beautiful whiteness.
'We thank you heartily, send by A and B, our ambassadors, presents of
equal value; and hope that mutual concord will always unite our
States.'
2. KING THEODORIC TO THE HAESTI.
[Sidenote: The Haesti, dwellers by the Baltic. Their present of
amber.]
[These are the Aestii of Tacitus, dwelling in or on the south border
of the country which is still called Esthonia. Tacitus also mentions
their quest of amber[374].]
[Footnote 374: Germ. 45: 'Ergo jam dextro Suevici maris litore
Aestiorum gentes alluuntur, quibus ritus habitusque Suevorum, lingua
Britannicae propior.... Sed et mare scrutantur ac soli omnium sucinum
quod ipsi glesum vocant, inter vada atque in ipso littore legunt.'
Then follows an account of the nature of amber, and a history of its
supposed origin, from which Cassiodorus has borrowed in this letter.]
'It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame, and
have sent ambassadors who have pressed through so many strange nations
to seek our friendship.
'We have received the amber which you have sent us. You say that you
gather this lightest of all substances from the shores of the ocean,
but how it comes thither you know not. But, as an author named
Cornelius [Tacitus] informs us, it is gathered in the innermost
islands of the ocean, being formed originally of the juice of a tree
(whence its name _succinum_[375]), and gradually hardened by the heat
of the sun.
[Footnote 375: Cassiodorus apparently spells this word with two c's.
The more usual spelling is with one.]
'Thus it becomes an exuded metal, a transparent softness, sometimes
blushing with the colour of saffron, sometimes glowing with flame-like
clearness[376]. Then, gliding down to the margin of the sea, and
further purified by the rolling of the tides, it is at length
transported to your shores to be cast up upon them. We have thought it
better to point this out to you, lest you should imagine that your
supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge.
[Footnote 376: 'Modo croceo colore rubens, modo flammea claritate
pinguescens.']
'We send you some presents by our ambassadors, and shall be glad to
receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened
up, and to show you future favours.'
[The collection of amber is also noticed by Pliny ('Nat. Hist.' 37.
2). It is interesting to observe that he there, on the authority of
Pytheas, attributes to the Guttones dwelling on the Baltic shore the
collection of amber, and its sale to the Teutones. These Guttones
were, if we are right in accepting Jordanes' account of the Gothic
migrations, themselves ancestors of the Ostrogoths.]
3. KING THEODORIC TO HONORATUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS, QUAESTOR.
4. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Honoratus, brother of Decoratus, is made Quaestor.]
The usual pair of letters on the promotion of Honoratus to the
Quaestorship. He succeeds his brother Decoratus, whose early death
Theodoric regrets. The date of the letters is the Third Indiction,
September 1, 509.
The writer remarks on the prophetic instinct[377] of the parents, who
named these two sons, destined to future eminence, Decoratus and
Honoratus. Decoratus was originally an advocate at Rome. His services
were often sought by men of Consular rank, and before his admission to
the Senate he had had a Patrician for his client in a very celebrated
case[378].
[Footnote 377: We have here a remark on unconscious prophecies: 'Loqui
datur quod nos sensisse nescimus: sed post casum reminiscimur, quod
ignorantes veraciter dixeramus.']
[Footnote 378: 'Inferior gradu praestabat viris consularibus se
patronum et cum honoribus vestris impar haberetur, Patricius ei dictus
est in celeberrima cognitione susceptus.' The last part of this
sentence is very obscure.]
When he became Quaestor he distinguished himself by his excellent
qualities. 'He stood beside us, under the light of our Genius, bold
but reverent; silent at the right time, fluent when there was need of
fluency. He kept our secrets as if he had forgotten them; he
remembered every detail of our orders as if he had written them down.
Thus was he ever an eminent lightener of our labours[379].'
[Footnote 379: Decoratus is called by Boethius, who was his colleague
in some office, 'a wretched buffoon and informer' (nequissimus scurra
et delator. Cons. Phil. iii. 4). But Ennodius addresses him in
friendly and cordial language (Epist. iv. 17). His epitaph, which
mentions his Spoletan origin, is of course laudatory:
'Nam fessis tribuit requiem, miseros que levavit,
Justitiae cultor, largus et hospes erat.'
(Quoted in the notes to Ennodius in Migne's Patrologia.)]
The past career of the younger brother, Honoratus, who has been
advocate at Spoleto, and has had to contend with the corrupt
tendencies of Provincial judges, full of their little importance, and
removed from the wholesome control which the opinion of the Senate
exercised upon them at Rome, is then sketched; and the hope is
expressed that, in the words of the Virgilian quotation[380], this
bough upon the family tree will be found as goodly as that which it
has untimely lost.
[Footnote 380: 'Primo avulso non deficit alter' (Aen. vi. 143).]
[Sidenote: Duties of the Quaestorship.]
The letter to the Senate has an interesting passage on the duties and
responsibilities of the Quaestor.
'It is only men whom we consider to be of the highest learning that we
raise to the dignity of the Quaestorship, such men as are fitted to be
interpreters of the laws and sharers of our counsels. This is an
honour which neither riches nor high birth by itself can procure, only
learning joined with prudence. In granting all other dignities we
confer favours, but from the holder of this we ever receive them. He
is favoured to have a share in our anxieties; he enters in by the
door of our thoughts; he is intimately acquainted with the breast in
which the cares of the whole State are weighed. Think what judgment
you ought to form of a man who is partaker of such a confidence. From
him we require skill in the laws; to him flow together all the prayers
of all suitors, and (a thing more precious than any treasure) to him