The Letters of Cassiodorus
the ancient Decii. His hall is full of laurelled Fasces, and in his
line one might almost say that each one is born a Consular.
'Favour our candidate then, Conscript Fathers, and cherish him with
that care which the name of your body[620] signifies.'
[Footnote 620: _Curia_, from _cura_.]
24. KING ATHALARIC TO SENATOR [CASSIODORUS HIMSELF], PRAETORIAN
PRAEFECT (SEPT. 1, 533).
[Sidenote: Cassiodorus appointed Praetorian Praefect.]
'If you had been hitherto an obscure person we might feel some doubt
how you would bear yourself in your new office, but your long and
glorious career under our grandfather relieves us from any such
anxieties. _His_ choice of you is a thing to be not discussed but
reverently accepted. It was by him that we ourselves were chosen; and
the Divine favour so conspicuously followed him that no General whom
he selected was other than victorious, no Judge whom he appointed was
other than just. In short, one might almost deem him to have been
endowed with the gift of prophecy.
[Sidenote: His Quaestorship.]
'In your early manhood he received you into the office of Quaestor,
and soon found you to be a conscientious man, learned in the law
beyond your years[621]. You were the chief ornament of your times,
inasmuch as you, by your blameless service sustaining the weight of
that royal intellect by all the force of your eloquence, enabled him,
with his keen interest in all public affairs, to await the result with
confidence. In you he possessed a counsellor pleasant in the
transaction of business, rigid in his sense of justice, free from all
taint of avarice. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of
his benefits; and thus you reaped your reward in a wealth of public
opinion, not in gold. It was because that just Prince proved you to be
averse from all these vices that he selected you for his glorious
friendship. A wise judge, he threw upon you the weight of listening to
the arguments of contending parties; and so high was his opinion of
your tried sagacity that he at once uttered your decision as the
greatest benefit that he could confer on the litigants. How often did
he rank you among the oldest chiefs of his Council! How often was it
seen that your young beginnings were more than a match for them, who
had the experience of long years behind them! What he found to praise
in you was your excellent disposition, wide open for useful work,
tight closed against the vices of avarice. Whereas, for some reason,
it is rare to find amongst men, the hand closed and justice open.
[Footnote 621: 'Primaevum recipiens ad Quaestoris Officium, mox
reperit conscientia praeditum, et legum eruditione maturum.']
[Sidenote: His career as Master of the Offices.]
'Let us pass on to the dignity of _Magister Officiorum_, which all men
knew that you obtained, not from the reputation of wealth, but as a
testimony to your character. In this place you were always ready to
help the [successive] Quaestors; for, when pure eloquence was
required, the case was always put in your hands. The benignant
Sovereign claimed from you the fulfilment of duties which he knew that
he had not formally laid upon you; and such was the favour that he had
for you, while others laboured you received the reward of his abundant
praises[622]. For under your administration no dignity kept its exact
limits; anything that was to be honestly done by all the chiefs of the
State together, you considered to be entrusted to _your_ conscience
for its performance.
[Footnote 622: 'Et quadam gratia praejudiciali vacabat alios laborare,
ut te sententiae suae copiosa laude compleret.' One would have
expected Cassiodorus to say, 'You had the special privilege of doing
other people's work and being praised for it, while they enjoyed their
leisure;' but I hardly see how we can get this meaning out of 'vacabat
alios laborare.']
'No one found occasion to murmur anything to your disadvantage, though
you had to bear all the weight of unpopularity which comes from the
Sovereign's favour. The integrity of your life conquered those who
longed to detract from your reputation, and your enemies were obliged
to utter the praises which their hearts abhorred; for even malice
leaves manifest goodness unattacked, lest it be itself exposed to
general hatred.
[Sidenote: His friendship for Theodoric.]
'To the Monarch you showed yourself a friendly Minister and an
intimate Noble[623]. For when he had laid aside the cares of State, he
would seek in your conversation the opinions of wise men of old, that
by his own deeds he might make himself equal to the ancients[624].
Into the courses of the stars, into the gulfs of the sea, into the
marvels of springing fountains, this most acute questioner enquired,
so that by his diligent investigations into the nature of things he
seemed to be a Philosopher wearing the purple.
[Footnote 623: 'Egisti rerum domino judicem familiarem et internum
procerem.']
[Footnote 624: 'Nam cum esset publica cura vacuatus, sententias
prudentum a tuis fabulis exigebat; ut factis propriis se aequaret
antiquis.']
'It were long to narrate all your merits in the past. Let us rather
turn to the future, and show how the heir of Theodoric's Empire
proposes to pay the debts of Theodoric.
'Therefore, with the Divine help, we bestow on you from the twelfth
Indiction [Sept. 1, 533] the authority and insignia of Praetorian
Praefect. Let the Provinces, which we know to have been hitherto
wearied by the administration of dishonest men, fearlessly receive a
Judge of tried integrity.
'Though you have before you the example of your father's
Praefecture[625], renowned throughout the Italian world, we do not so
much set before you either that or any other example, as your own past
character, exhorting you to rule consistently with that. You have
always been averse from bribery; now earnestly help the victims of
injustice. We have purposely delayed your accession to this high
office that you might be the more heartily welcomed by the people, who
expected to see you clothed with it long ago. Diligently seek out
anything belonging to the titles of the Praetorian Praefecture, of
which it has been defrauded by the cupidity of others. We send you as
a light into a dark chamber, and expect that your sagacity and loyalty
will discover many hidden things.
[Footnote 625: 'Quamvis habeas paternam Praefecturam, Italico orbe
praedicatam.' This is one of the many proofs that Senator (now first
advanced to the office of Praefectus Praetorio) is the _son_ of the
Cassiodorus to whom the letter (i. 3) is addressed on his retirement
from that office.]
'We know that you will work not so much for the sake of honour as in
order to satisfy your conscience; and work so done knows no limit to
its excellence.'
25. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME (ON THE PROMOTION
OF CASSIODORUS SENATOR TO THE PRAETORIAN PRAEFECTURE).
[Sidenote: Eulogy of Cassiodorus on his appointment as Praetorian
Praefect.]
'We have loaded Senator with our benefits, Conscript Fathers, because
he abounds in virtue, is rich in excellence of character, and is
already full of the highest honours. But, in fact, we are his debtors.
How shall we repay that eloquent tongue of his, with which he set
forth the deeds of the Prince, till he himself who had wrought them
wondered at his story? In praising the reign of the wearer of the
purple, he made it acceptable to your nation. For taxes may be paid to
a tyrant; praise, such as this, is given only to a good Prince.
[Sidenote: His Gothic History.]
'Not satisfied with extolling living Kings, from whom he might hope
for a reward, he drew forth the Kings of the Goths from the dust of
ages, showing that the Amal family had been royal for seventeen
generations, and proved that the origin of the Gothic people belonged
to Roman history[626], adorning the whole subject with the flowers of
his learning gathered from wide fields of literature.
[Footnote 626: 'Tetendit se etiam in antiquam prosapiem nostram,
lectione discens, quod vix majorum notitia cana retinebat. Iste Reges
Gothorum longa oblivione celatos, latibulo vetustatis eduxit. Iste
Amalos cum generis sui claritate restituit, evidenter ostendens in
decimam septimam progeniem stirpem nos habere regalem. Originem
Gothicam historiam fecit esse Romanam, colligens quasi in unam coronam
germen floridum quod per librorum campos passim fuerat ante
dispersum.']
'In the early days of our reign what labour he gave to the settling of
our affairs! He was alone sufficient for all. The duty of making
public harangues, our own private counsels, required him. He laboured
that the Empire might rest.
[Sidenote: His official career.]
'We found him Magister; but he discharged the duties of Quaestor, and
willingly bestowed on us, the heir, the experience which he had gained
in the counsels of our grandfather.
[Sidenote: His military services.]
'And not only so, he helped the beginning of our reign both with his
arms and his pen. For when the care of our shores[627] occupied our
royal meditation, he suddenly emerged from the seclusion of his
cabinet, boldly, like his ancestors, assumed the office of
General[628], and triumphed by his character when there was no enemy
to overcome. For he maintained the Gothic warriors[629] at his own
charges, so that there should be no robbery of the Provincials on the
one hand, no too heavy burden on the exchequer on the other. Thus was
the soldier what he ought to be, the true defender, not the ravager of
his country. Then when the time for victualling the ships was over,
and the war was laid aside, he shone as an administrator rather than a
warrior, healing, without injury to the litigants, the various suits
which arose out of the sudden cessation of the contracts[630].
[Footnote 627: Probably from some expected descent of the Vandals, in
connection with the affair of Amalafrida.]
[Footnote 628: 'Par suis majoribus ducatum sumpsit intrepidus.']
[Footnote 629: 'Deputatos.']
[Footnote 630: A conjectural translation of a difficult sentence: 'Mox
autem ut tempus clausit navium commeatum, bellique cura resoluta est,
ingenium suum legum potius ductor exercuit: sanans sine damno
litigantium quod ante sub pretio comstabat esse laceratum.' I
conjecture that by the sudden stoppage of the warlike preparations
several of the contractors were in danger of being ruined, and there
was a general disposition to repudiate all purchases.]
'Such was the glory of the military command of a Metellus in Asia, of
a Cato in Spain--a glory far more durable than any that can be derived
from the varying shock of war.
[Sidenote: His religious character.]
'Yet with all these merits, how humble he has been, how modest, how
benevolent, how slow to wrath, how generous in the distribution of
that which is his own, how slow to covet the property of others! All
these virtues have been consolidated by his reading of the Divine
Book, the fear of God helping him to triumph over baser, human
motives. Thus has he been rendered humble towards all, as one imbued
with heavenly teaching.
'Him therefore, Conscript Fathers, we make, under God's blessing,
Praetorian Praefect from the twelfth Indiction [Sept. 1, 533], that he
may repress by his own loyalty the trafficking of knaves, and may use
his power for the good of the Republic, bequeathing eternal renown to
his posterity.'
BOOK X.
CONTAINING THIRTY-FIVE LETTERS WRITTEN BY CASSIODORUS:
FOUR IN THE NAME OF QUEEN AMALASUENTHA.
TWENTY-TWO IN THAT OF KING THEODAHAD.
FOUR IN THAT OF HIS WIFE GUDELINA.
FIVE IN THAT OF KING WITIGIS.
1. QUEEN AMALASUENTHA TO JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR (A.D. 534).
[Sidenote: Association of Theodahad in the Sovereignty.]