The Letters of Cassiodorus
found in you anything to blame.
[Footnote 535: 'Dudum te forensibus negociis insudantem, _oculus
imperialis_ aspexit'--an expression which goes very near to styling
Theodoric Imperator.]
'Receive then now the dignity of Quaestor for this sixth Indiction
(Sept. 1, 527), and judge in the Courts where hitherto you have
pleaded.
'You are called Felix; act so as always to merit that name; for it is
absurd to have a name which denotes one thing and to display the
opposite in one's character. We think we have now said enough for a
man of your good conscience. Many admonitions seem to imply a doubt of
the character of him who receives them.' [A maxim often forgotten by
Cassiodorus.]
19. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[On the promotion of Felix.]
[Sidenote: The same subject.]
'As the sky with stars, or the meadow with flowers, so do we wish the
Senate to be resplendent with the men of eminence whom we introduce
into it. It is itself a seminary of Senators; but our favour and the
dignities of our Court also rear them.
'The Quaestorship is the true mother of the senatorial dignity, since
who can be fitter to take his seat in the Curia than he who has shared
the counsels of his Sovereign?
'You know the eloquence of our candidate [Felix], his early triumphs,
his modesty, his fidelity. To leave such a man unpromoted were a
public loss; and he will always love the laws by the practice of which
he has risen to eminence.
'Nor is he the first of his race to earn rhetorical distinction. His
father shone so brilliantly in the Forum of Milan, that he bloomed
forth with undying fruits from the soil of Cicero[536]. He stood
against Magnus Olybrius, he was found equal in fluency to
Eugenius[537] and many others whom Rome knew as foremost in their
art. If the transmission of material wealth by long descent makes men
noble, how much more should the inheritance of the treasures of the
intellect give nobility.'
[Footnote 536: 'Pater ita in Mediolanensi foro resplenduit, ut aeterno
fructu e Tulliano cespite pullularet.']
[Footnote 537: 'Is palmarum Eugenetis linguae ubertate suffecit.'
Possibly this is the Magister Officiorum of Var. i. 12, and the person
to whom is addressed a letter of Ennodius (iv. 26). The form
Eugenetis, instead of Eugenii, belongs to the debased Latinity of the
age.]
20. KING ATHALARIC TO ALBIENUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PRAEFECTUS
PRAETORIO[538] (527).
[Footnote 538: In Nivellius' edition the title of this office is given
as _Praepositus_.]
[Sidenote: Albienus made Praetorian Praefect.]
'Your predecessor has been the model of a bad governor. As the North
wind clears the face of the sky from the rain and clouds brought by
the South wind, so do we look to you to repair the evils wrought by
his misgovernment. In all things your best maxim will be to do exactly
the opposite of what he did. He made himself hateful by his unjust
prosecutions: do you become popular by your righteous deeds. He was
rapacious: be you moderate. Soothe and relieve the harassed people
entrusted to your charge. Receive for this sixth Indiction [Sept. 1,
527-528] the fasces of the Praefecture, and let the office of
Praetorian Praefect return to its ancient fame, an object of praise to
the whole world[539]. This office dates from Joseph, and rightly is he
who holds it called by our laws Father of the Provinces, Father of the
Empire.
[Footnote 539: 'Redeat ad nomen antiquum Praefectura illa Praetorii,
toto orbe laudabilis.' Is it possible that there had been some attempt
to change the _title_ of the Praefect, which accounts for the
_Praepositus_ which in some MSS. we find in the heading of this
letter?]
'See that you avoid all unjust exactions. We cannot bear that our
Treasury should be filled by unrighteous means.
'Your descent from a father who has held the same high office, and
your intimate knowledge of the _Dicta prudentum_, warrant us in
believing that you will make a good judge.'
[I have not been able to find any hint of the name of the Praefectus
Praetorio for 526-527, so bitterly condemned in this letter. As he may
have held office for some years, his misgovernment may have been
connected with the death of Boethius (524). Can we connect him with
the Trigguilla 'Regiae Praepositus Domus' whose injustice is denounced
by Boethius ('Phil. Cons.' i. 4)?]
21. KING ATHALARIC TO CYPRIAN, PATRICIAN.
22. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.
[Sidenote: Cyprian's elevation to the Patriciate.]
In these two letters the high character and distinguished services of
Cyprian are commemorated. 'Under Theodoric he distinguished himself
both in war and peace. At the time of the war of Sirmium he was
conspicuous both in his resistance to the fiery onslaught of the
Bulgarians and in his active pursuit of them when their ranks were
broken[540]. He then filled, with great credit to himself, the office
of Referendarius[541]. Great was the responsibility of exercising
peaceful as well as warlike offices under such a master as Theodoric.
In fact the training for one was helpful for the other, since it
required a soldier's courage and promptness to be always ready with a
truthful and accurate reply to that keen, firm-minded ruler of
men[542].
[Footnote 540: 'Vidit te adhuc gentilis' (still under the dominion of
the Gepidae) 'Danubius bellatorem: non te terruit Bulgarorum globus,
qui etiam nostris erat praesumptione certaminis obstaturus. Peculiare
tibi fuit et renitentes Barbaros aggredi, et conversos terrore
sectari. Sic victoriam Gothorum non tam numero quam labore juvisti.']
[Footnote 541: For a description of his services in this function, see
Var. v. 40.]
[Footnote 542: This is evidently the meaning; but something seems to
have dropped out of the text.]
'Thence he was promoted to the dignity of Count of the Sacred
Largesses, a post well suited to his pure, self-restrained
character[543]. He is now growing old in body, but ever young in fame,
and the King heartily wishes him increase of years to enjoy his
renown.
[Footnote 543: 'Hoc est laborum tuorum aptissimum munus: quam sic
casta sic moderata mente peregisti ut majora tibi deberi faceres,
quamvis eam in magna praemia suscepisses.']
'Rightly, too, is there now conferred upon him the dignity of
_Patricius_, since he is the father of such noble sons, men whose
childhood was passed in the palace under the very eye of Theodoric
(thus like young eagles already learning to gaze upon the sun), and
who now cultivate the friendship of the Goths, learn from them all
martial exercises, speak their language, and thus give evident tokens
of their future fidelity to the Gothic nation[544].
[Footnote 544: 'Relucent etiam gratia gentili, nec cessant armorum
imbui fortibus institutis. _Pueri stirpis Romanae nostra lingua
loquuntur; eximie indicantes exhibere se nobis futuram fidem, quorum
jam videntur affectasse sermonem.... Variis linguis loquuntur
egregie_, maturis viris communione miscentur.']
'The Senate is therefore exhorted to welcome its thus promoted
colleague, who at each accession of rank has shown himself yet
worthier of his high place, and whom grandfather and grandson have
both delighted to honour. Thus will it renew the glories of the Decii
and the Corvini, who were its sons in the days of old.'
[The subject of these letters is indisputably the same Cyprian whom
the 'Anonymus Valesii' speaks of as suborning false witnesses against
Albinus and Boethius, and of whom the latter says ('Phil. Cons.' i.
4): 'Ne Albinum, Consularem virum praejudicatae accusationis poena
corriperet, odiis me Cypriani delatoris opposui.' Compare the remarks
made on Letters 16 and 17; and remember that this letter was composed
three years after the death of Boethius, when Theodoric also was dead,
and his daughter was only too willing to retrace his steps, in all
that concerned the severities of the latter years of his reign. For
the pedigree of Cyprian see p. 363.]
23. KING ATHALARIC TO BERGANTINUS, VIR ILLUSTRIS AND COMES PATRIMONII.
[Sidenote: Gifts to Theodahad.]
'Kings should always be generous, but especially to those of their own
family.
'Therefore we desire your Greatness to transfer the farms herein
described, to the exalted and most honourable Theodahad, weighing out
to him so many solidi, out of that which was formerly the patrimony of
his magnificent Mother; and we guarantee to him the absolute ownership
of such farms, free from any claims to the inheritance on our
part[545].
[Footnote 545: 'Atque ideo illustrem magnitudinem tuam praecelso atque
amplissimo viro Theodahado massas subter annexas, tot solidos
pensitantes, ex patrimonio quondam magnificae foeminae matris ipsius,
praecipimus reformari, ejus feliciter dominio plenissime vendicandas,
cujus successionis integrum jus in ea qua praecipimus parte largimur.'
According to Dahn (Koenige der Germanen iv. 60-61), these lands had
been given in her lifetime by Theodahad's mother to the King, and are
now begged for by Theodahad. But why 'tot solidos pensitantes?' Why
should Theodahad receive both land and money? There seems no authority
for translating 'pensitantes' receiving. Probably the solidi thus paid
to him are mesne rents received by the King and accounted for to
Theodahad. On the whole affair cf. Procopius, De Bello Gotthico i. 4.]
'We trust to his sincerity and good faith, that in the future he will
deserve the remainder of the above-mentioned patrimony, with the
addition of the whole quantity[546].
[Footnote 546: 'De cujus fide ac synceritate praesumimus, ut sequenti
tempore reliqua supra memorati patrimonii cum omni adjecta quantitate
mereatur.' This sentence is to me quite unintelligible.]
'What can we deny to such a man, whose obedience might claim a higher
reward even were he not our cousin--a man who is not puffed up by any
pride of his noble birth, humble in his modesty, always uniform in his
prudence? Therefore instruct the Cartarii of your office to make over
the aforesaid farms to his Actores without delay[547].'
[Footnote 547: Cf. the formalities connected with Odovacar's deed of
gift to Pierius (Marini, Pap. Diplom. 82, 83), quoted in Italy and her
Invaders iii. 165.]
24. KING ATHALARIC TO THE CLERGY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical immunities.]
'For the gift of kingly power we owe an infinite debt to God, whose
ministers ye are.
'Ye state in your tearful memorial to us that it has been an ordinance
of long custom that anyone who has a suit of any kind against a
servant of the sacrosanct Roman Church should first address himself to
the chief Priest of that City, lest haply your clergy, being profaned
by the litigation of the Forum, should be occupied in secular rather
than religious matters. And you add that one of your Deacons has, to
the disgrace of religion, been so sharply handled by legal process
that the Sajo[548] has dared actually to take him into his own
custody.
[Footnote 548: In the text, 'Sajus.']
'This dishonour to the Ministers of holy things is highly displeasing
to our inborn reverence, yet we are glad that it gives us the
opportunity of paying part of our debt to Heaven.
'Therefore, considering the honour of the Apostolic See, and wishing
to meet the desires of the petitioners, we by the authority of this
letter decree in regular course[549]:
[Footnote 549: 'Praesenti auctoritate moderato ordine definimus.' Dahn
interprets 'moderato ordine,' 'not so absolutely as the Roman clergy
desires.' Is not this to attribute rather too much force to the
conventional language of Cassiodorus?]
'That if anyone shall think he has a good cause for going to law with
a person belonging to the Roman clergy, he shall first present himself