The Letters of Cassiodorus
[This letter appears to have been written in the early autumn of 538,
about a year after the three last letters, and also after Letters 27
and 28, which precede it in order of date, though they follow it in
this collection. For an account of the terrible famine in Italy, the
beginning of which is here described, see Procopius, De Bello Gotthico
ii. 20.]
[Sidenote: Famine in Italy.]
'Since the world is not governed by chance, but by a Divine Ruler who
does not change His purposes at random, men are alarmed, and naturally
alarmed, at the extraordinary signs in the heavens, and ask with
anxious hearts what events these may portend. The Sun, first of stars,
seems to have lost his wonted light, and appears of a bluish colour.
We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty
vigour of his heat wasted into feebleness, and the phenomena which
accompany a transitory eclipse prolonged through a whole year.
'The Moon too, even when her orb is full, is empty of her natural
splendour. Strange has been the course of the year thus far. We have
had a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer
without heat. Whence can we look for harvest, since the months which
should have been maturing the corn have been chilled by Boreas? How
can the blade open if rain, the mother of all fertility, is denied to
it? These two influences, prolonged frost and unseasonable drought,
must be adverse to all things that grow. The seasons seem to be all
jumbled up together, and the fruits, which were wont to be formed by
gentle showers, cannot be looked for from the parched earth. But as
last year was one that boasted of an exceptionally abundant harvest,
you are to collect all of its fruits that you can, and store them up
for the coming months of scarcity, for which it is well able to
provide. And that you may not be too much distressed by the signs in
the heavens of which I have spoken, return to the consideration of
Nature, and apprehend the reason of that which makes the vulgar gape
with wonder.
'The middle air is thickened by the rigour of snow and rarefied by the
beams of the Sun. This is the great Inane, roaming between the heavens
and the earth. When it happens to be pure and lighted up by the rays
of the sun it opens out its true aspect[888]; but when alien elements
are blended with it, it is stretched like a hide across the sky, and
suffers neither the true colours of the heavenly bodies to appear nor
their proper warmth to penetrate. This often happens in cloudy weather
for a time; it is only its extraordinary prolongation which has
produced these disastrous effects, causing the reaper to fear a new
frost in harvest, making the apples to harden when they should grow
ripe, souring the old age of the grape-cluster.
[Footnote 888: 'Vestros (?) veraciter pandit aspectus.']
'All this, however, though it would be wrong to construe it as an omen
of Divine wrath, cannot but have an injurious effect on the fruits of
the earth. Let it be your care to see that the scarcity of this one
year does not bring ruin on us all. Even thus was it ordained by the
first occupant of our present dignity[889], that the preceding plenty
should avail to mitigate the present penury.'
[Footnote 889: Joseph, Praetorian Praefect of Egypt under Pharaoh.]
26. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO PAULUS, VIR STRENUUS[890].
[Footnote 890: Paulas was probably a Sajo.]
[Sidenote: Remission of taxes for Province of Venetia in consequence
of the famine.]
'We are glad when we can reconcile the claims of the public service
with the suggestions of pity. The Venerable Augustin, a man
illustrious by his life and name, has brought under our notice the
lamentable petition of the Venetians, to the effect that there have
been in their Province no crops of wine, wheat, or millet, and that
they must be ruined unless the Royal pity succours them.
'In these circumstances it would be cruel to exact the customary
supplies from them, and we therefore remit the contributions of wine
and wheat for the use of the army which we had ordered from the cities
of Concordia, Aquileia, and Forojulii[891], exacting only the meat, as
shown by the accompanying letter[892].
[Footnote 891: Now Cividale in Friuli. Notice the terminations of
these names: 'ex Concordiense, Aquileiense, et Forojuliense
civitatibus' ('e,' not 'i').]
[Footnote 892: The letter here alluded to does not appear to be
preserved.]
'We shall send from hence a sufficient supply of wheat when the time
comes; and as we are told that there is a plentiful crop of wine in
Istria, you can buy there the wine that would have been furnished by
the three cities. Be sure that you ask for no fee in this matter.
This remission of taxes is absolutely gratuitous on our part.'
27. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO DATIUS[893], BISHOP OF MILAN.
[Footnote 893: Cassiodorus, like Procopius, spells this name with a
't.' Some of the ecclesiastical writers spell it with a 'c.']
[Sidenote: Relief of famine-stricken citizens of Ticinum and Dertona.]
'It is most fitting that good and holy men should be made the stewards
of the Royal bounty. We therefore request your Holiness, in accordance
with the King's commands, to open the granaries at Ticinum[894], and
Dertona[895], and sell millet thereat to the starving people at the
rate of 20 modii per solidum[896]. We are anxious that you should do
this, lest the work should fall into venal hands which would sell the
King's bounty to those who are able to provide for themselves. It is
the poor, not the rich, that we wish to help: we would pour our bounty
into empty vessels. Let not then your Holiness think this work of
compassion, unworthy of your sacred office. In order to assist you we
have sent A and B, who will simply obey the orders of your Holiness,
doing nothing of their own motion.
[Footnote 894: Pavia.]
[Footnote 895: Tortona.]
[Footnote 896: Twelve shillings for twenty pecks, or about nineteen
shillings and twopence a quarter; not a very low price, one would
think, for such a grain as millet.
Datius is ordered to sell _tertiam portionem_ of this millet. Probably
this expression has the same meaning as the 'tertia illatio' of xi.
37.
In the similar letter, x. 27, 'tertia portio' (whether of wheat or
millet is not stated) is to be sold at 25 modii per solidum.]
'Send us an account of the solidi received in payment for the said
millet, that they may be stored up with our Treasurer[897], in order
to replace the before-mentioned grain, and thus provide a reserve for
future times of scarcity; like a garment taken to pieces that it may
be made up again as good as new.'
[Footnote 897: 'Arcarius.']
[It is not very easy to assign a date to this letter. The mention of
the famine would incline us to assign it to 538, as that seems to have
been the year when the full force of the famine was felt in Italy (see
Procopius, De Bello Gotthico ii. 20, where 538 and 539 seem to be
marked as the two great famine years). But very early in 538 the
Bishop of Milan, the same Datius to whom this letter is addressed,
visited Rome to entreat Belisarius to send a small garrison to occupy
Milan, which had already revolted, or was on the verge of revolting,
from the Gothic King. As soon as the siege of Rome was raised
Belisarius complied with this request, and sent 1,000 men, under
Mundilas, to escort Datius back to Milan. This expedition set forth
probably in April 538, and as soon as it arrived at Milan that city
openly proclaimed its defection from Witigis and its allegiance to the
Emperor. It was soon besieged by Uraias, nephew of Witigis, by whom in
the following year (539) it was taken. The city, we are informed, was
rased to the ground, and Bishop Datius escaped to Constantinople.
Evidently we have here a continuous chain of events, which makes it
impossible for us to date this letter in 538 or any subsequent year.
We ought probably therefore to assign it to the autumn of 537, and to
look upon it as an attempt (unsuccessful, as it proved) to retain
Datius and the citizens of Milan on the side of the Goths. We know
from the Twenty-second Letter of this book that signs of scarcity had
already shown themselves in Italy by the 1st September, 537; and in an
interesting passage of the 'Historia Miscella' (Book xvi.), famine in
Liguria, the year 537, and the name of Datius are all combined.
'Praeter belli instantiam angebatur insuper Roma famis penuria: tanta
siquidem per universum mundum eo anno [the year of the siege of Rome],
_maxime apud Liguriam_ fames excreverat, ut _sicut vir sanctissimus
Datius Mediolanensis antistes retulit_, pleraeque matres infelicium
natorum membra comederent.' I owe this reference to Baronius.]
28. AN EDICT [ADDRESSED TO THE LIGURIANS].
[Sidenote: Relief of inhabitants of Liguria.]
'Divine Providence uses adversity as a means of testing our
characters. Famine has afflicted the Provinces, but the result of it
has been that they have proved more fully than before the bounty of
their King. Rejoice herein, oh ye Ligurians! For when, as you will
remember, on a previous occasion the savage temper of your neighbours
was aroused, and Aemilia and your Liguria were shaken by an incursion
of the Burgundians, who waged a sneaking campaign by reason of their
nearness to your territory, suddenly the renown of the insulted
Empire[898] arose like the sun in his strength. The enemy mourned the
ruin which was caused by his own presumption, when he learned that
that man was Ruler of the Gothic race whose rare valour he had
experienced when he was still a private soldier[899]. How often did
the Burgundian wish that he had never left his own frontiers to be
compelled to fight with such an adversary as our Sovereign; for though
he found with relief that he escaped his actual presence in the field,
none the less did his rashness bring him in contact with the good
fortune of his arms. For when with redoubled fortitude[900] the Goths
turned to the prosecution of the war, with such successfully combined
operations did they strike the bands of the rebels, that you would
have thought those were all armed men, these were all
defenceless[901]. Such was the just judgment of God, that the robber
should perish in those very plains which he had presumed to desolate.
Exult now, oh Province, adorned with the carcases of thine
adversaries! rejoice, oh Liguria, at the heap of dead bodies! If the
harvest of corn is denied thee, the harvest of dead enemies shall not
be wanting. Tribute thou mayest not be able to offer to thy King, but
the triumphs which are won in thy land thou canst offer with pride.
[Footnote 898: Literally, 'of the present Empire:' 'subito praesentis
Imperii tanquam solis ortus fama radiavit.' I avoid the word
'present,' because of its ambiguity. Observe the use of 'Imperii'
applied to the Gothic Kingdom.]
[Footnote 899: 'Quando illum cognovit nominatae (?) gentis esse
Rectorem, quem sub militis nomine probaverat esse singularem.' This
evident allusion to Witigis obliges us to place the date of this
Burgundian invasion not much earlier than the summer of 536, when
Witigis was raised to the throne. Apparently the Burgundians were
already in Italy when they heard the news of that event.]
[Footnote 900: 'Ut Gothi ad belli studium gemina se fortitudine
contulerunt.' These words perhaps allude to the necessity of fighting
two enemies at once, Belisarius and the Burgundians; or perhaps to the
existence of two Gothic armies, whose combined operations are
indicated by the following words, 'prospera concertatione.']
[Footnote 901: 'Quasi inde nudos hinc stare contigisset armatos.'
'Hinc' and 'inde' refer to geographical position, not to the order of
the words in the sentence.]