The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 43

(Marcellinus Comes, sub anno).]

'Go nearer: you will see as it were rivers of dust flowing, and glowing streams of barren sand moving over the country. You see and wonder: the furrows of the fields are suddenly lifted to a level with the tops of the trees; the country, which but now was dressed in a robe of gladsome greenness, is laid waste by sudden and mournful heat.

And yet, even those sandy tracts of pumice-stone which the mountain vomits forth, dry and burnt up as they appear, have their promise of fertility. There are germs within them which will one day spring to life, and re-clothe the mountain side which they have wasted.

'How strange that one mountain alone should thus terrify the whole world! Other mountains may be seen with silently glowing summits; this alone announces itself to distant lands by darkened skies and changed air. So it still goes on, shedding its dusty dews over the land; ever parting with its substance, yet a mountain still undiminished in height and amplitude. Who that sees those mighty blocks in the plain would believe that they had boiled over from the depths of that distant hill, that they had been tossed like straws upon the wind by the angry spirit of the mountain?

'Therefore let your Prudence so manage the enquiry that those who have really suffered damage shall be relieved, while no room is left for fraud.'

51. KING THEODORIC TO SYMMACHUS, PATRICIAN[368].

[Footnote 368: The father-in-law of Boethius.]

[Sidenote: Commends the public spirit of Symmachus, as shown in the restoration of Pompey's theatre.]

Commends him for the diligence and skill with which he has decorated Rome with new buildings--especially in the suburbs, which no one would distinguish from the City except for the occasional glimpses of pleasant fields; and still more for his restoration of the ma.s.sive ruins of past days[369], chiefly the theatre of Pompeius.

[Footnote 369: We have here a striking description of the ma.s.sive strength of the public buildings of Rome: '[Videmus] caveas illas saxis pendentibus apsidatas ita juncturis absconditis in formas pulcherrimas convenisse, ut cryptas magis excelsi montis crederes quam aliquid fabricatum esse judicares.']

As the letter is addressed to a learned man, it seems a suitable opportunity to explain why Antiquity reared this mighty pile.

Accordingly a very long digression follows on the origin, progress, and decline of Tragedy, Comedy, and Pantomime.

It is remarked incidentally that Pompeius seems to have derived his appellation _Magnus_ chiefly from the building of this wonderful theatre.

The expense which Symmachus has been put to in these vast works is to be refunded to him by the _Praepositus Sacri Cubiculi_, that he may still have the glory of the work, but that the King may have done his due part in preserving the memorials of Antiquity.

BOOK V.

CONTAINING FORTY-FOUR LETTERS WRITTEN BY Ca.s.sIODORUS IN THE NAME OF THEODORIC.

1. KING THEODORIC TO THE KING OF THE VANDALS[370].

[Footnote 370: No doubt Thrasamund, who married Theodoric's sister. He reigned from 496 to 523.]

[Sidenote: The King of the Vandals is thanked for his presents.]

'The swords which you have sent us are most beautiful: so sharp that they will cut other weapons; so bright that they reflect with a sort of iron light[371] the face of the beholder; with the two blades descending to their edges with such absolute equality of slope, that you would fancy them the result of the furnace rather than of the whetstone[372]; in the middle, between the blades, channels carved which are filled in with beautiful enamel of various colours[373].

[Footnote 371: 'Ut speculum quoddam virorum faciat ferream lucem.']

[Footnote 372: 'Quarum margines in acutum tali aequalitate descendunt, ut non limis compositae, sed igneis fornacibus credantur effusae.']

[Footnote 373: 'Harum media pulchris alveis excavata, quibusdam videntur crispari posse vermiculis, ubi tanta varietatis umbra concludit, ut intextum magis credas variis coloribus lucidum metallum.']

'Along with these arms you have also sent us musical instruments of ebony, and slave boys of beautiful whiteness.

'We thank you heartily, send by A and B, our amba.s.sadors, presents of equal value; and hope that mutual concord will always unite our States.'

2. KING THEODORIC TO THE HAESTI.

[Sidenote: The Haesti, dwellers by the Baltic. Their present of amber.]

[These are the Aestii of Tacitus, dwelling in or on the south border of the country which is still called Esthonia. Tacitus also mentions their quest of amber[374].]

[Footnote 374: Germ. 45: 'Ergo jam dextro Suevici maris litore Aestiorum gentes alluuntur, quibus ritus habitusque Suevorum, lingua Britannicae propior.... Sed et mare scrutantur ac soli omnium sucinum quod ipsi glesum vocant, inter vada atque in ipso littore legunt.'

Then follows an account of the nature of amber, and a history of its supposed origin, from which Ca.s.siodorus has borrowed in this letter.]

'It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame, and have sent amba.s.sadors who have pressed through so many strange nations to seek our friendship.

'We have received the amber which you have sent us. You say that you gather this lightest of all substances from the sh.o.r.es of the ocean, but how it comes thither you know not. But, as an author named Cornelius [Tacitus] informs us, it is gathered in the innermost islands of the ocean, being formed originally of the juice of a tree (whence its name _succinum_[375]), and gradually hardened by the heat of the sun.

[Footnote 375: Ca.s.siodorus apparently spells this word with two c's.

The more usual spelling is with one.]

'Thus it becomes an exuded metal, a transparent softness, sometimes blushing with the colour of saffron, sometimes glowing with flame-like clearness[376]. Then, gliding down to the margin of the sea, and further purified by the rolling of the tides, it is at length transported to your sh.o.r.es to be cast up upon them. We have thought it better to point this out to you, lest you should imagine that your supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge.

[Footnote 376: 'Modo croceo colore rubens, modo flammea claritate pinguescens.']

'We send you some presents by our amba.s.sadors, and shall be glad to receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened up, and to show you future favours.'

[The collection of amber is also noticed by Pliny ('Nat. Hist.' 37.

2). It is interesting to observe that he there, on the authority of Pytheas, attributes to the Guttones dwelling on the Baltic sh.o.r.e the collection of amber, and its sale to the Teutones. These Guttones were, if we are right in accepting Jordanes' account of the Gothic migrations, themselves ancestors of the Ostrogoths.]

3. KING THEODORIC TO HONORATUS, VIR ILl.u.s.tRIS, QUAESTOR.

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

[Sidenote: Honoratus, brother of Decoratus, is made Quaestor.]

The usual pair of letters on the promotion of Honoratus to the Quaestorship. He succeeds his brother Decoratus, whose early death Theodoric regrets. The date of the letters is the Third Indiction, September 1, 509.

The writer remarks on the prophetic instinct[377] of the parents, who named these two sons, destined to future eminence, Decoratus and Honoratus. Decoratus was originally an advocate at Rome. His services were often sought by men of Consular rank, and before his admission to the Senate he had had a Patrician for his client in a very celebrated case[378].

[Footnote 377: We have here a remark on unconscious prophecies: 'Loqui datur quod nos sensisse nescimus: sed post casum reminiscimur, quod ignorantes veraciter dixeramus.']

[Footnote 378: 'Inferior gradu praestabat viris consularibus se patronum et c.u.m honoribus vestris impar haberetur, Patricius ei dictus est in celeberrima cognitione susceptus.' The last part of this sentence is very obscure.]

When he became Quaestor he distinguished himself by his excellent qualities. 'He stood beside us, under the light of our Genius, bold but reverent; silent at the right time, fluent when there was need of fluency. He kept our secrets as if he had forgotten them; he remembered every detail of our orders as if he had written them down.

Thus was he ever an eminent lightener of our labours[379].'

[Footnote 379: Decoratus is called by Boethius, who was his colleague in some office, 'a wretched buffoon and informer' (nequissimus scurra et delator. Cons. Phil. iii. 4). But Ennodius addresses him in friendly and cordial language (Epist. iv. 17). His epitaph, which mentions his Spoletan origin, is of course laudatory:

'Nam fessis tribuit requiem, miseros que levavit, Just.i.tiae cultor, largus et hospes erat.'