The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 26

[Sidenote: Romulus the parricide.]

'Parricide is the most terrible and unnatural of crimes. Even the cubs of wild beasts follow their sires; the offshoot of the vine serves the parent stem: shall man war against him who gave him being? It is for our little ones that we lay up wealth. Shall we not earn the love of those for whom we would willingly incur death itself? The young stork, that harbinger of spring, gives a signal example of filial piety, warming and feeding its aged parents in the moulting season till they have recovered their strength, and thus repaying the good offices received in its earlier years. So too, when the partridge, which is wont to hatch the young of other birds, takes her adopted brood forth into the fields, if these hear the cry of their genuine mother they run to her, leaving the partridge forsaken.

'Wherefore, if Romulus[254] have fouled the Roman name by laying violent hands on his father Martinus, we look to your justice (we chose you because we knew you would not spare the cruel) to inflict on him legitimate revenge.'

[Footnote 254: Quaere if named from the last Emperor.]

15. KING THEODORIC TO VENANTIUS, VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS.

[Sidenote: Promotion of Venantius to Comitiva Domesticorum Vacans.]

'We always like to promote to office the sons of distinguished fathers. We therefore bestow on you the honour of Comes Domesticorum (Comitiva Vacans), in memory of your glorious father. He held at the same time the Praefecture [of Italy] and the command of the army, so that neither the Provinces lacked his ordering, nor did his wise care for the army fail. All was mastered by his skilled and indefatigable prudence; he inclined the manners of the Barbarians to peace, and governed so that all were satisfied with our rule.

'You are a zealous student of literature, ill.u.s.trious by birth and eloquent by education. Go on as you have begun, and show yourself worthy of our choice.'

16. KING THEODORIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: On the same subject.]

This letter adds a little to the information contained in the preceding one, as to the career of Liberius, father of Venantius.

[Sidenote: Praises of Liberius.]

Liberius was a faithful servant of Odovacar, who adhered to his master to the last. 'He awaited incorruptly the Divine judgments, nor did he allow himself to seek a new King till he had first lost his old one.

On the overthrow of his lord he was bowed by no terror; he bore unmoved the ruin of his Prince; nor did the revolution, at which even the proud hearts of the Barbarians trembled[255], avail to move him from his calm.

[Footnote 255: 'Quam etiam ferocitas gentilis expavit.']

'Prudently did he follow the common fortunes, in order that while fixedly bearing the Divine judgments he might with the more approbation find the Divine favour. We approved the faith of the man; he came over in sadness to our allegiance as one who being overcome changes his mind, not like one who has contrived [treacherously] that he should be conquered. We made him Praefectus Praetorio. He administered the finances admirably. By his economical management we felt the increased returns, while you knew nothing of added tributes.

[Sidenote: Apportionment of Tertiae.]

'We especially like to remember how in the a.s.signment of the [Gothic]

Thirds (in Tertiarum deputatione) he joined both the possessions and the hearts of Goths and Romans alike. For whereas men are wont to come into collision on account of their being neighbours, with these men the common holding of their farms proved in practice a reason for concord. Thus it has happened that while the two nations have been living in common they have concurred in the same desires. Lo! a new fact, and one wholly laudable. The friendship of the lords has been joined with the division of the soil; amity has grown out of the loss of the Provincials, and by the land a defender has been gained whose occupation of part guarantees the quiet enjoyment of the whole. One law includes them: one equal administration rules them: for it is necessary that sweet affection should grow between those who always keep the boundaries which have been allotted them.

'All this the Roman Republic owes to Liberius, who to two such ill.u.s.trious nations has imparted sentiments of mutual affection. See to it, Conscript Fathers, that his offspring does not go unrewarded.'

17. TO THE POSSESSORS, DEFENSORS, AND CURIALS[256] OF THE CITY OF TRIDENTUM (TRIENT).

[Footnote 256: Cf. iii. 9 for a similar heading.]

[Sidenote: Immunity from Tertiae enjoyed by lands granted by the King.]

'We do not wish to be generous at the expense of others, and we therefore declare that the _Sors_ which in our generosity we have bestowed on Butilia.n.u.s the Presbyter, is not to be reckoned in to the tax calculations; but as many solidi as are comprehended in that gift, so many are you to be relieved from, in the contribution of "Tertiae."'

[That is to say, the land given by the Gothic King to Butilian was to be itself, as a matter of course, free from Tertiae; but, in order that this might not throw a heavier burden on the other owners in the district, they were to be allowed to deduct the solidi of that portion from the gross amount payable by them on behalf of the whole district.

Butilian's own immunity from Tertiae seems to be taken for granted as a result of the King's gift to him. (See Dahn, 'Konige der Germanen'

iii. 145.)]

18. KING THEODORIC TO BISHOP GUDILA.

[Sidenote: Ecclesiastics as Curiales.]

An interesting but rather obscure letter on the condition of _Curiales_.

Apparently some ecclesiastics were claiming as slaves some men whom the Curia of Sa.r.s.ena (?) a.s.serted to be fellow-curials of their own, whom they therefore wanted to a.s.sist them in performing curial obligations.

Ca.s.siodorus argues that as the 'Sors nascendi' prevented the Curialis from rising to the higher honours of the State, it certainly ought also to prevent him from sinking into slavery[257]. 'Therefore we advise you to look well to your facts, and see whether these men are not justly claimed as Curials, in which case the Church should give them up before the matter comes to trial. It does not look well for the Bishop, who should be known as a lover of justice, to be publicly vanquished in a suit of this kind.'

[Footnote 257: 'Quod si eos vel ad honores transire jura vetuerunt, quam videtur esse contrarium, Curialem Reipublicae, amissa turpiter libertate, servire? et usque ad conditionem pervenisse postremam quem vocavit antiquitas _Minorem Senatum_.']

[Did the alleged Curials, in such a case, wish to have their curiality or their quasi-ecclesiastical character established? Who can say?]

19. KING THEODORIC TO ALL THE GOTHS AND ROMANS, AND THOSE WHO KEEP THE HARBOURS AND MOUNTAIN-FORTRESSES (CLUSURAS).

[Sidenote: Domestic treachery and murder.]

'We hate all crime, but domestic bloodshed and treachery most of all.

Therefore we command you to act with the utmost severity of the law against the servants of Stepha.n.u.s, who have killed their master and left him unburied. They might have learned pity even from birds. Even the vulture, who lives on the corpses of other creatures, protects little birds from the attacks of the hawk. Yet men are found cruel enough to slay him who has fed them. To the gallows with them! Let _him_ become the food of the pious vulture, who has cruelly contrived the death of his provider. That is the fitting sepulchre for the man who has left his lord unburied.'

20. KING THEODORIC TO THE SAJO UNIGILIS (OR WILIGIS).

[Sidenote: Provision-ships to follow movements of Theodoric's Court.]

'Let any provision-ships [_sulcatoriae?_] which may be now lying at Ravenna be ordered round to Liguria (which in ordinary times supplies the needs of Ravenna herself).

'Our presence and that of our Court (Comitatus) attracts many spectators and pet.i.tioners to those parts, for whose maintenance an extra effort must be made.' [See Dahn, 'Konige der Germanen' iii.

282.]

21. KING THEODORIC TO JOANNES THE APPARITOR.

[Sidenote: A concession too timidly acted upon.]

'The King has conceded to the Spectabiles Spes and Domitius a certain tract of land which was laid waste by wide and muddy streams, and which neither showed a pure expanse of water nor had preserved the comeliness of solid earth, for them to reclaim and cultivate.

'The pet.i.tion of the _Actores_ of Spes sets forth that the operation is put in jeopardy by the ill-timed parsimony of Domitius, which throws back the labourers to the point from which they set out at first[258]. Therefore let Domitius be stirred up to finish his part of the work, or if he thinks that too expensive, let him throw up his share of the concession and allow his partner to work it out.'

[Footnote 258: 'c.u.m jam in soli faciem paulatim mollities siccata duresceret, celatamque longa voracitate tellurem sol insuetus afflaret.' I cannot understand these words. I suppose there was a hard cake of clay left when the water was drained off, which was baked by the sun, and that there should have been further digging to work through this stratum and get at the good soil beneath; but the wording is not very clear.]

[We find in this letter a good motto for Theodoric's reign: 'Nos quibus cordi est in melius cuncta mutare.']