'Notwithstanding our greater cares for the Republic, we are willing to provide also for the amusement of our subjects. For it is the strongest possible proof of the success of our labours that the multitude knows itself to be again at leisure[230].
'The petition of the Green party in the circus informs us that they are oppressed, and that the factions of the circus are fatal to public tranquillity. We therefore order you to assume the patronage of the Green party, which our father of glorious memory paid for[231]. So let the spectators be assembled, and let them choose between Helladius and Theodorus which is fittest to be Pantomimist of the Greens, whose salary we will pay.'
Then follows a digression on pantomimes.
'If the people of Rome will beautify their City we will help them.
'Institute a strict audit (of which no one need be ashamed) of the money given by us to the different workmen for the beautification of the City. See that we are receiving money's worth for the money spent. If there is embezzlement anywhere, cause the funds so embezzled to be disgorged. We expect the Romans to help from their own resources in this patriotic work, and certainly not to intercept our contributions for the purpose.
'The wandering birds love their own nests; the beasts haste to their own lodgings in the brake; the voluptuous fish, roaming the fields of ocean, returns to its own well-known cavern. How much more should Rome be loved by her children!'
After some rather vapid praise of the eloquence and good qualities of Marcellus, Theodoric promotes him from the rank of a Private Advocate to that of an Advocatus Fisci, and gives him some excellent counsels about not pressing the claims of the Crown too far. 'We shall not enquire how many causes you have gained, but how you have gained them. Let there sometimes be a bad cause for the Fiscus, that the Sovereign may be seen to be good.'
'The concord and harmony of subjects redound to the praise of their prince.
'We desire that Festus and Symmachus (Patricians and Magnifici) should prosecute the causes for action which they say they have against Paulinus (Illustris and Patrician) in your Court. Let Paulinus bring before you any counter-claim which he may assert himself to possess. Let justice be rendered speedily. Show yourselves worthy of this high trust. It is a matter of great moment to end lawsuits between men of such eminence in the State as these.'
'To the Goths a hint of war rather than persuasion to the strife is needed, since a warlike race such as ours delights to prove its courage. In truth, he shuns no labour who hungers for the renown of valour. Therefore with the help of God, whose blessing alone brings prosperity, we design to send our army to the Gauls for the common benefit of all, that you may have an opportunity of promotion, and we the power of testing your merits; for in time of peace the courage which we admire lies hidden, and when men have no chance of showing what is in them, their relative merits are concealed. We have therefore given our Sajo[232], Nandius, instructions to warn you that, on the eighth day before the kalends of next July, you move forward to the campaign in the name of God, sufficiently equipped, according to your old custom, with horses, arms, and every requisite for war. Thus will ye at the same time show that the old valour of your sires yet dwells in your hearts, and also successfully perform your King's command. Bring forth your young men for the discipline of Mars. Let them see you do deeds which they may love to tell of to their children. For an art not learned in youth is an art missing in our riper years. The very hawk, whose food is plunder, thrusts her still weak and tender young ones out of the nest, that they may not become accustomed to soft repose. She strikes the lingerers with her wings; she forces her callow young to fly, that they may prove to be such in the future as her maternal fondness can be proud of. Do you therefore, lofty by nature, and stimulated yet more by the love of fame, study to leave such sons behind you as your fathers have left in leaving you.'
[We can hardly be wrong in referring this stirring proclamation to the year 508, when Theodoric sent troops into Gaul to save the remnants of the Visigothic Monarchy from the grasp of Clovis. The first sentence recalls the expression 'certaminis gaudia,' which Jordanes no doubt borrowed from Cassiodorus. For the simile at the end of the letter, cf. Deuteronomy xxxii. 11, 'As an eagle stirreth up her nest'.]
'It is important to preserve as well as to create. We are earnestly anxious to keep the walls of Rome in good repair, and have therefore ordered the Lucrine port[233] to furnish 25,000 tiles annually for this purpose. See that this is done, that the cavities which have been formed by the fall of stones may be roofed over with tiles, and so preserved, and that thus we may deserve the thanks of ancient kings, to whose works we have given immortal youth.'
In the time of Cassiodorus the Patrician (a man of tried integrity and pure fidelity[234]), a grant of freedom from taxation[235] was made to the Church of Vercelli. Since that time other property has been conveyed to the same Church, apparently by a soldier. An attempt is made to represent this after-acquired property as also tax-free. 'No,' says the King. 'It would be very wrong in us to recall our gift; but it is equally wrong in you to try to stretch it to something which it never included. Private persons must not make grants to the injury of our treasury. Tribute belongs to the purple, not to the military cloak[236]. Your newly acquired possessions must pay taxes along with those of other owners.'
'If we are moderating under our laws the character of foreign nations, if the Roman law is supreme over all that is in alliance with Italy, how much more doth it become the Senate of the seat of civilisation itself to have a surpassing reverence for law, that by the example of their moderation the beauty of their dignities may shine forth more eminently. For where shall we look for moderation, if violence stains Patricians? The Green party complain that they have been truculently assaulted by the Patrician Theodoric and the "Illustris and Consul Importunus," and that one life has been lost in the fray. We wish the matter to be at once brought before the Illustres Coelianus and Agapitus and examined into by them[237].
'As to their counter-complaints of rudeness against the mob, you must distinguish between deliberate insolence and the licence of the theatre. Who expects seriousness of character at the spectacles? It is not exactly a congregation of Catos that comes together at the circus. The place excuses some excesses. And besides, it is the beaten party which vents its rage in insulting cries. Do not let the Patricians complain of clamour that is really the result of a victory for their own side, which they greatly desired.'
[The mention of 'the Patrician Theodoric' is a difficulty, as we know of no namesake of the King among the Roman nobility. Perhaps we ought to read (with the Remensian MS.) 'Theodoro,' as we know from 'Anon. Valesii' 68 that there was a Theodorus, son of Basilius, who perhaps succeeded Liberius, Praef. Praetorio.]
'Most worthy of Royal attention is the rebuilding of ancient cities, an adornment in time of peace, a precaution for time of war.
'Therefore, if anyone have in his fields stones suitable for the building of the walls, let him cheerfully and promptly produce them. Even though he should be paid at a low rate, he will have his reward as a member of the community, which will benefit thereby.'
'The post (Cursus Publicus) is evidently an institution of great public utility, tending to the rapid promulgation of our decrees.
'Care must therefore be taken that the horses are not allowed to get out of condition, lest they break down under their work, and lest the journey, which should be rapid, become tediously slow.
'Also any lands formerly appropriated to the mutationes [places for changing horses] which have fallen into private hands must be reclaimed for the public service, the owners being sufficiently indemnified for their loss.'
The Senators are exhorted not to allow their menials to embroil themselves with the populace, and thus bring their good name into disgrace. Any slave accused of the murder of a free-born citizen is to be at once given up, under penalty of a fine of 10 lbs. of gold (£400), and the King's severe displeasure for the master who disobeys this command.
'And do not you, oh Senators, be too severe in marking every idle word which the mob may utter amidst the general rejoicing. If there is any insult which requires notice, bring it before the "Praefectus Urbis"—a far better and safer course than taking the law into your own hands.'
[This letter, a very interesting and sensible one, is somewhat spoilt by a characteristic Cassiodorian sentence at the end:—
'Men in old time used always to fight with their fists, whence the word pugna, "a pugnis." Afterwards iron was introduced by King Belus, and hence came bellum, "a Belo."']
Gives similar good advice to that contained in the previous letter to the Senate.
'The Circus, in which the King spends so much money, is meant to be for public delight, not for stirring up wrath. Instead of uttering howls and insults like other nations [the populace of Byzantium?], whom they have despised for doing so, let them tune their voices, so that their applause shall sound like the notes of some vast organ, and even the brute creation delight to hear it.
'Anyone uttering outrageous reproaches against any Senator will be dealt with by the Praefectus Urbis.'
'The ruler of the city ought to keep the peace, and justify my choice of him. Your highest praise is a quiet people.
'We have issued our "oracles" to the "amplissimus ordo" (Senate) and to the people, that the custom of insulting persons in the Circus is to be put under some restraint; on the other hand, any Senator who shall be provoked to kill a free-born person shall pay a fine. The games are meant to make people happy, not to stir them up to deadly rage. Helladius[238] is to come forth into the midst and afford the people pleasure [as a pantomimist], and he is to receive his monthly allowance (menstruum) with the other actors of the Green Faction. His partisans are to be allowed to sit where they please.'
[Was there not some division in the Green Faction itself concerning the merits of Helladius and his rival Theodorus?]
'Our Serenity is not going to change the arrangements which we have once made for the public good. We told Albinus and Albienus[239] to choose the most fitting person they could find as Pantomimist of the Greens. They have done so [choosing probably Helladius]. He shall have his monthly allowance, and let there be peace.'
'It should be only the surplus of the crops of any Province, beyond what is needed for the supply of its own wants, that should be exported. Station persons in the harbours to see that foreign ships do not take away produce to foreign shores until the Public Providers[240] have got all that they require.'
'This extraordinarily dry season having ruined the hopes of our harvest, it is more than ever necessary that the produce should be brought forward promptly. We are therefore exceedingly annoyed at finding that the crops which are generally sent forward by your Chancellor from the coasts of Calabria and Apulia in summer have not yet arrived, though it is near autumn and the time is at hand when the sun, entering the southern signs (which are all named from showers), will send us storm and tempest.
'What are you waiting for? Why are your ships not spreading their sails to the breeze? With a favourable wind and with bending oarsmen, are you perhaps delayed by the echeneis (Remora, or sucking-fish)? or by the shell-fish of the Indian Ocean? or by the torpedo, whose touch paralyses the hand? No; the echeneis in this case is entangling venality; the bites of the shell-fish, insatiable avarice; the torpedo, fraudulent pretence.
'The merchants are making delays in order that they may seem to have fallen on adverse weather.
'Let your Magnitude put all this to rights promptly, otherwise our famine will be imputed, not to bad seasons, but to negligence[241].'
'We wish you to take the place of the late Benedictus in the city of Pedon.
'As we never forget the services of the dead, we wish you to undertake officially the guardianship of the sons of the said Benedictus.
'We always pay back to our faithful servants more than we have received from them, and thus we do not go on the principle "equality is equity," because we think it just to make them more than an equal recompence.'
'Murder is abominable, but it is right to take into account the circumstances which may have provoked to homicide. If the slain man was trying to violate the rights of wedlock, his blood be on his own head. For even brute beasts vindicate their conjugal rights by force: how much more man, who is so deeply dishonoured by the adulterer!
'Therefore, if it be true that the man whom you slew had wronged you as a husband, we do not agree to the punishment of exile which has been inflicted upon you. Nor will we uphold the action of the Vicarius or of his Officium, who, as you say, have impounded the money paid by your fidei-jussor (guarantor) Agnellus. Also, we will protect you against the hostile assaults of Candax [next of kin to the murdered man?] in future. But your allegation as to the provocation must be fully established by legal process.'
[It may be remarked that Candac, King of the Alani in Moesia, is mentioned in the pedigree of Jordanes ('Getica,' cap. 4).]
'We are told that you are keeping in your own hands the administration of the property of your young nephew [or grandson] Hilarius against his will, and not for his good, but yours. Restore it at once. Let him dispose of it as he likes. He seems to be quite able to enter upon the lordship of his own. The eagle feeds her callow young with food which she has procured for them, till their wings grow. Then, when their flight is strong and their nails sharp, she trains them to strike their own prey. So with our young Goths: when they are fit for soldiership we cannot bear that they should be deemed incapable of managing their own concerns. "To the Goths valour makes full age. And he who is strong enough to stab his enemy to the heart should be allowed to vindicate himself from every accusation of incapacity."'
[Notwithstanding his Roman name, Hilarius is evidently a Goth.]
'We are always delighted to grant just requests.
'Filagrius (Vir Spectabilis), who has been long absent from his home on our business, seeks to return to Syracuse, but at the same time asks that his brother's sons may be kept for their education's sake at Rome. Do you attend to this petition, and do not let the lads go till we send you a second order to that effect. No one ought to murmur at being detained in Rome, which is everyone's country, the fruitful mother of eloquence, the wide temple of all virtues. Ulysses would very likely never have become famous if he had lingered on at home; but Homer's noble poem most chiefly proclaims his wisdom in this fact, that he roamed among many cities and nations.'
'War needs rehearsal and preparation. Therefore let your Illustrious Sublimity provide the inhabitants of Salona with arms, and let them practise themselves in the use of them; for the surest safeguard of the Republic is an armed defender.'
The necessity of drill and practice is shown by the early combats of bullocks, the play-huntings of puppies, the necessity of first kindling a fire with very little sticks, and so forth.
'The dignity of the Senate makes it necessary to be unusually careful who is admitted into that body. Let other orders receive middling men: the Senate must receive none but those who are of proved excellence.
'Therefore let your Illustrious Magnificence cause those enquiries to be made concerning Faustus, the grown-up son of the Illustrious Faustus, which the Senate hath ordered to be made concerning all persons who are to be enrolled in its council[243]. In thus confirming and ratifying the proceedings of the Senate we are in no degree trenching on the accustomed authority of that sacred order.'
'We are especially bound to reward merit. Everyone who does us a service makes a very good investment. You have long had what was formerly considered more precious than great dignity—near access to our person. Much as we loved you, we somewhat retarded your advance in order that you might be the more richly adorned with all virtues when you came to honour. Your birthplace, your lineage, your merit, all declare you worthy of the promotion which we now bestow upon you, declaring you for this third Indiction[244] Praefectus Urbis. You will thus have the function of presiding over the Senate, a far higher office than that of ruling the Palace or arranging private houses. The value of the object committed to a person's care increases the dignity of the post. It is much more honourable to be caretaker of a diadem than of a wine-cellar. Judge of our esteem for you by the preciousness of the body over which we are thus calling you to preside.'
[Announcing the elevation of Artemidorus to the post of Praefectus Urbis.]
'Artemidorus, though entitled from his relationship to the Emperor Zeno to expect great promotion at the Court of Constantinople, has preferred to share the fortunes and attach himself to the person of Theodoric, who has often been refreshed after the cares of State by an hour of his charming converse. Though he might have aspired to the highest dignities of the Court, he has hitherto been satisfied with the comparatively humble post of Superintendent of the Public Spectacles [as Tribunus Voluptatum?]. Now, as Praefectus Urbis, he is to preside over and become a member of your body. Welcome him.'
[On the same subject as 42 and 43, the elevation of Artemidorus to the Urban Praefecture.]
Rebukes the commonalty sharply for their recent disturbances, which defile with illicit seditions the blessings of peace, earned under God's blessing by their Prince. The newly-appointed Praefectus Urbanus, Artemidorus, long devoted to the service of Theodoric, will attest the innocence of the good, and sharply punish the errors of the bad, both by his own inherent prerogative and by a special commission entrusted to him for that purpose by the King.
'It is important to oblige our royal neighbours even in trifles, for none can tell what great matters may be aided thereby. Often what arms cannot obtain the offices of kindness bring to pass. Thus let even our unbending be for the benefit of the Republic. For our object in seeking pleasure is that we may thereby discharge the serious duties of life.
'The Lord of the Burgundians has earnestly requested that we would send him a clock which is regulated by water flowing under a modulus, and one which is marked by embracing the illumination of the immense sun[245].'
[I transcribe, and do not attempt to translate, the further description of the two machines, the order of which is now changed.]
'Primum sit, ubi stylus diei index, per umbram exiguam horas consuevit ostendere. Radius itaque immobilis, et parvus, peragens quod tam miranda magnitudo solis discurrit, et fugam solis aequiparat quod modum semper ignorat. [This must be the sundial.] Inviderent talibus, si astra sentirent: et meatum suum fortasse deflecterent, ne tali ludibrio subjacerent. Ubi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum, si has et umbra demonstrat? Ubi praedicabilis indefecta roratio, si hoc et metalla peragunt, quae situ perpetuo continentur? O artis inaestimabilis virtus quae dum se dicit ludere, naturae praevalet secreta vulgare.
'Secundum sit [the clepsydra] ubi praeter solis radios hora dignoscitur, noctes in partes dividens: quod ut nihil deberet astris, rationem coeli ad aquarum potius fluenta convertit, quorum motibus ostendit, quod coelum volvitur; et audaci praesumptione concepta, ars elementis confert quod originis conditio denegavit.'
'It will be a great gain to us that the Burgundians should daily look upon something sent by us which will appear to them little short of miraculous. Exert yourself therefore, oh Boetius, to get this thing put in hand. You have thoroughly imbued yourself with Greek philosophy[246]. You have translated Pythagoras the musician, Ptolemy the astronomer, Nicomachus the arithmetician, Euclid the geometer, Plato the theologian, Aristotle the logician, and have given back the mechanician Archimedes to his own Sicilian countrymen (who now speak Latin). You know the whole science of Mathematics, and the marvels wrought thereby. A machine [perhaps something like a modern orrery] has been made to exhibit the courses of the planets and the causes of eclipses. What a wonderful art is Mechanics! The mechanician, if we may say so, is almost Nature's comrade, opening her secrets, changing her manifestations, sporting with miracles, feigning so beautifully, that what we know to be an illusion is accepted by us as truth.'
Sends the two clocks, or rather perhaps the celestial globe and the water-clock.
'Have therefore in your country what you have often seen in Rome. It is right that we should send you presents, because you are connected with us by affinity. It is said that under you "Burgundia" looks into the most subtle things, and praises the discoveries of the ancients. Through you she lays aside her "Gentile" (barbarous) nature, and imitating the prudence of her King, rightly desires to possess the inventions of sages. Let her arrange her daily actions by the movements of God's great lights; let her nicely adjust the moments of each hour. In mere confusion passes the order of life when this accurate division of time is unknown. Men are like the beasts, if they only know the passage of the hours by the pangs of hunger, and have no greater certainty as to the flight of time than such as is afforded them by their bellies. For certainty is undoubtedly meant to be entwined in human actions.'
'By excellent ordinance of the ancients the year is named from the Consul. Let the happy year take its title from our new Consul, Felix [Consul with Secundinus, a.d. 511[247]].
'It is most suitable that Rome should gather back her children to her bosom, and in her venerable Senate should enrol a son of Gaul.
'Felix showed his excellent disposition first in this, that while still a young man he hastened to "the native land of all the virtues" [Rome]. Success followed his choice; we promoted him as he deserved. While still a young man, deprived of his father's care, he showed the rare gift of continence; he subdued avarice, the enemy of wisdom; he despised the blandishments of vice; he trampled under foot the vanities of pride.
'We have now determined to reward him with the Consulship. Do you who can with indiscriminate pleasure rejoice in both the blessings of the Republic [in the Consuls of the East and West] join your favouring vote. He who is worthy of so high an office as the Consulship may well be chosen by the judgment of both' [Emperor and King].
[An important letter, as showing the extent to which concurrent choice of Consuls was vested in Rome, or rather Ravenna, and Constantinople.]
An address on his elevation to the Consulship, touching on nearly the same topics as the preceding.
Theodoric delights in bestowing larger favours on those whom he has once honoured [a favourite topic with Cassiodorus].
Felix has come back from Gaul to the old fatherland[248]. Thus the Consulship has returned to a Transalpine family, and green laurels are seen on a brown stock.
Felix has shown an early maturity of character. He has made a wise use of his father's wealth. The honour which other men often acquire by prodigality he has acquired by saving. Cassiodorus evidently has a little fear that the new Consul may carry his parsimony too far, and tells him that this office of the Consulship is one in which liberality, almost extravagance, earns praise[249]; in which it is a kind of virtue not to love one's own possessions; and in which one gains in good opinion all that one loses in wealth.
'See the sacred City all white with your vota (?). See yourself borne upon the shoulders of all, and your name flitting through their mouths, and manifest yourself such that you may be deemed worthy of your race, worthy of the City, worthy of our choice, worthy of the Consular trabea.'
[The letter makes one suspect a certain narrowness and coldness of heart in the subject of its praise.]
Recommends Felix for the Consulship, going over again the topics mentioned in the two last letters. It appears that it was the father of Felix who emerged, after a temporary eclipse of the family fortunes, and then showed himself 'the Cato of our times, abstaining from vice himself, and forming the characters of others; imbued also with all Greek philosophy, he glutted himself with the honey of the Cecropian doctrine.'
Mention is made of the Consulship of an earlier Felix, a.d. 428, the happy renown of which still lingered in the memories of men.
The young Felix is praised for the qualities described in the two previous letters, and also for his power of conciliating the friendship of older men, especially the excellent Patrician Paulinus.
'We wish always to observe long-established rules in fiscal matters, the best guarantee against extortion. Therefore, whatever dues in the way of Siliquaticum appertained to Antiochus are now transferred to you by the present authority, and the Sajo is charged to support your claims herein; only the contention must not be mixed up with any private matters of your own.'
[The Siliquaticum was a tax of one twenty-fourth—the siliqua being the twenty-fourth of a solidus—payable on all sales in market overt by buyer and seller together.]
'We are always generous, and sometimes out of clemency we bestow our gifts on persons who have no claim upon us. How much more fitting is it then that the servants of the State should receive our gifts promptly! Wherefore, pray let your Magnificence see to it that the sixty soldiers who are keeping guard in the fastnesses of Aosta receive their annonae without delay. Think what a life of hardship the soldier leads in those frontier forts for the general peace, thus, as at the gate of the Province, shutting out the entry of the barbarous nations. He must be ever on the alert who seeks to keep out the Barbarians. For fear alone checks these men, whom honour will not keep back.'
[A singular letter to write in the name of one who was himself a Barbarian invader.]
'We have decided to send you on an embassy to the East (Constantinople). Every embassy requires a prudent man, but here there is need of especial prudence, because you will have to dispute against the most subtle persons—artificers of words, who think they can foresee every possible answer to their arguments. Do your best therefore to justify the opinion which I formed of you before full trial of your powers.'
'Let nothing lie useless which may redound to the beauty of the City. Let your Illustrious Magnificence therefore cause the blocks of marble which are everywhere lying about in ruins to be wrought up into the walls by the hands of the workmen whom I send herewith. Only take care to use only those stones which have really fallen from public buildings, as we do not wish to appropriate private property, even for the glorification of the City.'
'None is more suitable than a member of the Priesthood to perform acts of justice towards his flock.
'We therefore send your Holiness, by Montanarius, 1,500 solidi (£900), for distribution among the Provincials, according to the amount of damage which each one has sustained this year by the passage of our army. See that the distribution is made systematically—not at random—so that it may reach the right persons.'
'We always enjoy being generous. Compassion is the one virtue to which all other virtues may honourably give way. Long ago we made the charioteer Sabinus a monthly allowance of a solidus [twelve shillings]. Now, as we learn from Histrius [or Historius] that this former servant of the public pleasures is afflicted with the most melancholy poverty, we have pleasure in adding another solidus to his monthly allowance. We are never so well pleased as when the accounts of our expenditure show these items of charitable disbursement.'
'The laws guarding the sanctity of the marriage bed[250] must be carefully upheld.
'Agapita[251] has explained to us that she was tempted away from her husband by seducers, who promised to procure his death. From the time of her leaving his company let all revenues which came to her under the marriage contract (invalidated by her unfaithfulness) be given up by her wrongful detainers[252] without any delay. It is too absurd that men who ought to be severely punished for their wrong-doing should even seek to make a profit out of it.'
[Refers to the same business of Agapita, who seems to have been a woman of feeble intellect as well as an unfaithful wife.] The petition of her husband Basilius (vir Spectabilis) sets forth that, influenced by seducers, and from the levity so natural to woman, she for no good reason quitted her own home. Her own petition confirms this; and she states that, while taking refuge within the precincts of the Church, she by deed of gift bestowed on Provinus the 'Casa Areciretina,' a most preposterous gift from a poor woman to a rich man; from one whose reputation was gone to a chaste man; from a half-crazy creature to one who knew fully what he was about. This gift Agapita [and Basilius] now seek to annul. Provinus is exhorted at once to throw up a possession which cannot possibly bring him any credit, and the loss of which has brought the poor woman to destitution. Alienation of property should be the act of a person having 'solidum judicium,' which this poor creature evidently had not, or she would not have left her husband causelessly.
'This is the second time of writing. Let there be no further delay in complying.'
[Probably, therefore, Probinus really is one of the 'Retentatores' referred to in Letter 10, though this letter does not distinctly identify him with them.]