The Letters of Cassiodorus
of Romulus, and administer the laws of Rome. Other honours await you
if you behave worthily in this office, and above all, if you win the
applause of the Senate.'
[Footnote 437: 'Carpento veheris per nobilem plebem.']
[Footnote 438: i.e. probably, 'that you are not bribed by
monopolists.' Perhaps there is a reference to the _Annona Publica_.]
[Footnote 439: 'Tanta est enim vis gloriosae veritatis, ut etiam in
rebus scenicis aequitas desideretur.']
5. FORMULA OF THE QUAESTORSHIP.
[This letter is particularly interesting, from the fact that it
describes Cassiodorus' own office, that which he filled during many
years of the reign of Theodoric, and in virtue of which he wrote the
greater part of his 'Various Letters.']
[Sidenote: Quaestorship.]
'No Minister has more reason to glory in his office than the Quaestor,
since it brings him into constant and intimate communication with
Ourselves. The Quaestor has to learn our inmost thoughts, that he may
utter them to our subjects. Whenever we are in doubt as to any matter
we ask our Quaestor, who is the treasure-house of public fame, the
cupboard of laws; who has to be always ready for a sudden call, and
must exercise the wonderful powers which, as Cicero has pointed out,
are inherent in the art of an orator. He should so paint the delights
of virtue and the terrors of vice, that his eloquence should almost
make the sword of the magistrate needless.
'What manner of man ought the Quaestor to be, who reflects the very
image of his Sovereign? If, as is often our custom, we chance to
listen to a suit, what authority must there be in his tongue who has
to speak the King's words in the King's own presence? He must have
knowledge of the law, wariness in speech, firmness of purpose, that
neither gifts nor threats may cause him to swerve from justice. For in
the interests of Equity we suffer even ourselves to be contradicted,
since we too are bound to obey her. Let your learning be such that you
may set forth every subject on which you have to treat, with suitable
embellishments.
'Moved therefore by the fame of your wisdom and eloquence, we bestow
upon you, by God's grace, the dignity of the Quaestorship, which is
the glory of letters, the temple of _civilitas_, the mother of all the
dignities, the home of continence, the seat of all the virtues.
'To you the Provinces transmit their prayers. From you the Senate
seeks the aid of law. You are expected to suffice for the needs of all
who seek from us the remedies of the law. But when you have done all
this, be not elated with your success, be not gnawed with envy,
rejoice not at the calamities of others; for what is hateful in the
Sovereign cannot be becoming in the Quaestor.
'Exercise the power of the Prince in the condition of a subject; and
may you render a good account to the Judges at the end of your term of
office.'
6. FORMULA OF THE MAGISTERIAL DIGNITY, AND ITS EXCELLENCY (MAGISTER
OFFICIORUM).
[The dignity and powers of the Master of the Offices were continually
rising throughout the Fourth and Fifth Centuries at the cost of the
Praetorian Praefect, many of whose functions were transferred to the
Master.]
[Sidenote: Mastership of the Offices.]
'The Master's is a name of dignity. To him belongs the discipline of
the Palace; he calms the stormy ranks of the insolent Scholares [the
household troops, 10,000 in number, in the palace of the Eastern
Emperor, according to Lydus (ii. 24)]. He introduces the Senators to
our presence, cheers them when they tremble, calms them when they are
speaking, sometimes inserts a word or two of his own, that all may be
laid in an orderly manner before us. It rests with him to fix a day
for the admission of a suitor to our _Aulicum Consistorium_, and to
fulfil his promise. The opportune velocity of the post-horses [the
care of the _Cursus Publicus_] is diligently watched over by him[440].
[Footnote 440: According to Lydus (ii. 10), the Cursus Publicus was
transferred from the Praefect to the Master, and afterwards, in part,
retransferred to the Praefect.]
'The ambassadors of foreign powers are introduced by him, and their
_evectiones_ [free passes by the postal-service] are received from his
hands[441].
[Footnote 441: 'Per eum nominis nostri destinatur evectio.' The above
is a conjectural translation.]
'To an officer with these great functions Antiquity gave great
prerogatives: that no Provincial Governor should assume office without
his consent, and that appeals should come to him from their decisions.
He has no charge of collecting money, only of spending it. It is his
to appoint _peraequatores_[442] of provisions in the capital, and a
Judge to attend to this matter. He also superintends the pleasures of
the people, and is bound to keep them from sedition by a generous
exhibition of shows. The members of his staff, when they have served
their full time, are adorned with the title of _Princeps_, and take
their places at the head of the Praetorian cohorts and those of the
Urban Praefecture [the officials serving in the bureaux of those two
Praefects]--a mark of favour which almost amounts to injustice, since
he who serves in one office (the Master's) is thereby put at the head
of all those who have been serving in another (the Praefect's)[443].'
[Footnote 442: Are these Superintendents of the Markets, charged with
the regulation of prices?]
[Footnote 443: 'Miroque modo inter Praetorianas cohortes et Urbanae
Praefecturae milites videantur invenisse primatum, a quibus tibi
humile solvebatur obsequium. Sic in favore magni honoris injustitia
quaedam a legibus venit, dum alienis excubiis praeponitur, qui alibi
militasse declaratur.']
[We learn from Lydus how intense was the jealousy of the grasping and
aspiring _Magistriani_ felt by the Praefect's subordinates; and we may
infer from this passage that Cassiodorus thought that there was some
justification for this feeling.]
'The assistant (Adjutor) of the Magister is also present at our
audiences, a distinguished honour for his chief.
'Take therefore this illustrious office and discharge it worthily,
that, in all which you do, you may show yourself a true Magister. If
_you_ should in anywise go astray (which God forbid), where should
morality be found upon earth?'
7. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF COMES SACRARUM LARGITIONUM.
[Sidenote: Office of Count of Sacred Largesses.]
'Yours is the high and pleasing office of administering the bounty of
your Sovereign[444]. Through you we dispense our favours and relieve
needy suppliants on New Year's Day. It is your business to see that
our face is imprinted on our coins, a reminder to our subjects of our
ceaseless care on their behalf, and a memorial of our reign to future
ages.
[Footnote 444: 'Regalibus magna profecti felicitas _militare_
donis.... Laetitia publica _militia_ tua est.' Observe the continued
use of military terms for what we call the Civil Service.]
'To this your regular office we also add the place of _Primicerius_
[_Primicerius Notariorum_?], so that you are the channel through which
honours as well as largesses flow. Not only the Judges of the
Provinces are subject to you, even the _Proceres Chartarum_ (?) have
not their offices assured to them till you have confirmed the
instrument. You have also the care of the royal robes. The sea-coasts
and their products, and therefore merchants, are under your sway. The
commerce of salt, that precious mineral, rightly classed with silken
robes and pearls, is placed under your superintendence.
'Take therefore these two dignities, the Comitiva Sacrarum Largitionum
and the Primiceriatus. If some of the ancient privileges of your
office have been retrenched [some functions, probably, taken from the
Comes Sacrarum Largitionum and assigned to the Comes Patrimonii],
comfort yourself with the thought that you have two dignities instead
of one.'
8. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF COMES PRIVATARUM, AND ITS EXCELLENCY.
[Sidenote: Office of Count of Private Domains.]
'Your chief business, as the name of your office implies, is to govern
the royal estates by the instrumentality of the _Rationales_ under
you.
'This work alone, however, would have given you a jurisdiction only
over slaves [those employed on the royal domains]; and as a slave is
not a person in the eye of the law, it seemed unworthy of the dignity
of Latium to confine your jurisdiction to these men. Some urban
authority has therefore been given you in addition to that which you
exercise over these boors: cases of incest, and of pollution or
spoliation of graves, come before you. Thus the chastity of the
living and the security of the dead are equally your care. In the
Provinces you superintend the tribute-collectors (Canonicarios), you
admonish the cultivators of the soil (Possessores), and you claim for
the Royal Exchequer property to which no heirs are forthcoming[445].
Deposited monies also, the owners of which are lost by lapse of time,
are searched out by you and brought into our Exchequer, since those
who by our permission enjoy all their own property ought willingly and
without sense of loss to offer us that which belongs to other men.
[Footnote 445: 'Caduca bona non sinis esse vacantia.']
'Take then the honour of _Comes Privatarum_: it also is a courtly
dignity, and you will augment it by your worthy fulfilment of its
functions.'
9. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF COUNT OF THE PATRIMONY, AND ITS
EXCELLENCY.
[Sidenote: Office of Count of the Patrimony.]
'To our distant servants we send long papers with instructions as to
their conduct; but you, admitted to our daily converse, do not need
these. You are to undertake the care of our royal patrimony.
'Do not give in to all the suggestions of our servants on these
domains, who are apt to think that everything is permitted them
because they represent the King; but rather incline the scale against
them. You will have to act much in our sight; and as the rising sun
discloses the true colours of objects, so the King's constant presence
reveals the Minister's character in its true light. Avoid loud and
harsh tones in pronouncing your decisions: when we hear you using
these, we shall know that you are in the wrong. External acts and
bodily qualities show the habit of the mind. We know a proud man by
his swaggering gait, an angry one by his flashing eyes, a crafty one
by his downcast look, a fickle one by his wandering gaze, at
avaricious one by his hooked nails.
'Take then the office of Count of the Patrimony, and discharge it
uprightly. Be expeditious in your decisions on the complaints of the
tillers of the soil. Justice speedily granted is thereby greatly
enhanced in value, and though it is really the suitor's right it
charms him as if it were a favour.
'Attend also to the provision of suitable delicacies for our royal
table. It is a great thing that ambassadors coming from all parts of
the world should see rare dainties at our board, and such an
inexhaustible supply of provisions brought in by the crowds of our
servants that they are almost ready to think the food grows again in
the kitchen, whither they see the dishes carried with the broken
victuals. These banqueting times are, and quite deservedly, your times
for approaching us with business, when no one else is allowed to do
so.'
10. FORMULA BY WHICH MEN ARE MADE PROCERES PER CODICILLOS VACANTES.
[Bestowal of Brevet-rank on persons outside the Civil Service.]
[Sidenote: Codicilli Vacantes.]
'There are cases in which men whom it is desirable for the Sovereign
to honour are unable, from delicate health or slender fortunes, to
enter upon an official career. For instance, a poor nobleman may dread
the expenses of the Consulship; a man illustrious by his wisdom may be