The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 51

'Your chief business, as the name of your office implies, is to govern the royal estates by the instrumentality of the _Rationales_ under you.

'This work alone, however, would have given you a jurisdiction only over slaves [those employed on the royal domains]; and as a slave is not a person in the eye of the law, it seemed unworthy of the dignity of Latium to confine your jurisdiction to these men. Some urban authority has therefore been given you in addition to that which you exercise over these boors: cases of incest, and of pollution or spoliation of graves, come before you. Thus the chast.i.ty of the living and the security of the dead are equally your care. In the Provinces you superintend the tribute-collectors (Canonicarios), you admonish the cultivators of the soil (Possessores), and you claim for the Royal Exchequer property to which no heirs are forthcoming[445].

Deposited monies also, the owners of which are lost by lapse of time, are searched out by you and brought into our Exchequer, since those who by our permission enjoy all their own property ought willingly and without sense of loss to offer us that which belongs to other men.

[Footnote 445: 'Caduca bona non sinis esse vacantia.']

'Take then the honour of _Comes Privatarum_: it also is a courtly dignity, and you will augment it by your worthy fulfilment of its functions.'

9. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF COUNT OF THE PATRIMONY, AND ITS EXCELLENCY.

[Sidenote: Office of Count of the Patrimony.]

'To our distant servants we send long papers with instructions as to their conduct; but you, admitted to our daily converse, do not need these. You are to undertake the care of our royal patrimony.

'Do not give in to all the suggestions of our servants on these domains, who are apt to think that everything is permitted them because they represent the King; but rather incline the scale against them. You will have to act much in our sight; and as the rising sun discloses the true colours of objects, so the King's constant presence reveals the Minister's character in its true light. Avoid loud and harsh tones in p.r.o.nouncing your decisions: when we hear you using these, we shall know that you are in the wrong. External acts and bodily qualities show the habit of the mind. We know a proud man by his swaggering gait, an angry one by his flashing eyes, a crafty one by his downcast look, a fickle one by his wandering gaze, at avaricious one by his hooked nails.

'Take then the office of Count of the Patrimony, and discharge it uprightly. Be expeditious in your decisions on the complaints of the tillers of the soil. Justice speedily granted is thereby greatly enhanced in value, and though it is really the suitor's right it charms him as if it were a favour.

'Attend also to the provision of suitable delicacies for our royal table. It is a great thing that amba.s.sadors coming from all parts of the world should see rare dainties at our board, and such an inexhaustible supply of provisions brought in by the crowds of our servants that they are almost ready to think the food grows again in the kitchen, whither they see the dishes carried with the broken victuals. These banqueting times are, and quite deservedly, your times for approaching us with business, when no one else is allowed to do so.'

10. FORMULA BY WHICH MEN ARE MADE PROCERES PER CODICILLOS VACANTES.

[Bestowal of Brevet-rank on persons outside the Civil Service.]

[Sidenote: Codicilli Vacantes.]

'There are cases in which men whom it is desirable for the Sovereign to honour are unable, from delicate health or slender fortunes, to enter upon an official career. For instance, a poor n.o.bleman may dread the expenses of the Consulship; a man ill.u.s.trious by his wisdom may be unable to bear the worries of a Praefecture; an eloquent tongue may shun the weight of a Quaestorship. In these cases the laws have wisely ordained that we may give such persons the rank which they merit by _Codicilli Vacantes_. It must always be understood, however, that in each dignity those who thus obtain it rank behind those who have earned it by actual service. Otherwise we should have all men flocking into these quiet posts, if the workers were not preferred to men of leisure[446].

[Footnote 446: 'Alioqui omnes ad quietas possunt currere dignitates, si laborantes minime praeferantur ociosis.']

'Take therefore, by these present codicils, the rank which you deserve, though you have not earned it by your official career.'

11. FORMULA BY WHICH THE RANK OF AN ILl.u.s.tRIS AND THE t.i.tLE OF A COMES DOMESTICORUM ARE CONFERRED, WITHOUT OFFICE.

[Sidenote: Ill.u.s.tratus Vacans.]

'The bestowal of honour, though it does not change the nature of a man, induces him to consider his own reputation more closely, and to abstain from that which may stain it[447].

[Footnote 447: 'n.o.blesse oblige.']

'Take therefore the rank (without office) of an Ill.u.s.trious Count of the Domestics[448], and enjoy that greatest luxury of worthy minds--power to attend to your own pursuits.

[Footnote 448: 'Cape igitur ... Comitivae Domesticorum Ill.u.s.tratum Vacantem.']

'For what can be sweeter than to find yourself honoured when you enter the City, and yet to be able to cultivate your own fields; to abstain from fraudful gains, and yet see your barns overflowing with the fruit of your own sweet toil?

'But even as the seed and the soil must co-operate to produce the harvest, so do we sow in you the seed of this dignity, trusting that your own goodness of heart will give the increase.'

12. FORMULA FOR THE BESTOWAL OF A COUNTSHIP OF THE FIRST ORDER, WITHOUT OFFICE.

[A similar honour to that which is conferred on an English statesman who, without receiving any place in the Ministry, is 'sworn of the Privy Council.']

[Sidenote: Comitiva Primi Ordinis.]

'It is a delightful thing to enjoy the pleasures of high rank without having to undergo the toils and annoyances of office, which often make a man loathe the very dignity which he eagerly desired.

'The rank of _Comes_ is one which is reached by Governors (Rectores) of Provinces after a year's tenure of office, and by the Counsellors of the Praefect, whose functions are so important that we look upon them as almost Quaestors.

'Their rank[449] gives the holder of it, though only a _Spectabilis_, admission to our Consistory, where he sits side by side with all the Ill.u.s.tres.

[Footnote 449: Betokened by the expression 'Ociosum cingulum.']

'We bestow it upon you, and name you a _Comes Primi Ordinis_, thereby indicating that you are to take your place at the head of all the other Spectabiles and next after the Ill.u.s.tres. See that you imitate the latter, and that you are not surpa.s.sed in excellence of character by any of those below you.'

13. FORMULA FOR BESTOWING THE [HONORARY] RANK OF MASTER OF THE BUREAU [MAGISTER SCRINII] AND COUNT OF THE FIRST ORDER, ON AN OFFICER OF THE COURTS (COMITIACUS) IN ACTIVE SERVICE.

[Sidenote: Honorary promotion for a Comitiacus.]

'Great toils and great perils are the portion of an officer of the Courts in giving effect to their sentences. It is easy for the Judge to say, "Let so and so be done;" but on the unhappy officer falls all the difficulty and all the odium of doing it. He has to track out offenders and hunt them to their very beds, to compel the contumacious to obey the law, to make the proud learn their equality before it. If he lingers over the business a.s.signed to him, the plaintiff complains; if he is energetic, the defendant calls out. The very honesty with which he addresses himself to the work is sure to make him enemies, enemies perhaps among powerful persons, who next year may be his superiors in office, and thus subjects him to all sorts of accusations which he may find it very hard to disprove. In short, if we may say it without offence to the higher dignitaries, it is far easier to discharge without censure the functions of a Judge than those of the humble officer who gives effect to his decrees.

'Wherefore, in reward for your long and faithful service, and in accordance with ancient usage, we bestow on you the rank of a Count of the First Order, and ordain that if anyone shall molest you on account of your acts done in the discharge of your duties, he shall pay a fine of so many [perhaps ten = 400] pounds of gold.'

[This letter will be found well worth studying in the original, as giving a picture of the kind of opposition met with by the men who were charged with the execution of the orders of the Rectores Provinciarum, and whose functions were themselves partly judicial, varying between those of a Master in Chancery and those of a Sheriff's officer. Throughout, the Civil Service is spoken of in military language. The officer is called _miles_, and his duty is _excubiae_.]

14. FORMULA BESTOWING RANK AS A SENATOR.

[Sidenote: Senatorial rank.]

'We desire that our Senate should grow and flourish abundantly. As a parent sees the increase of his family, as a husbandman the growth of his trees with joy, so we the growth of the Senate. We therefore desire that Graius should be included in that virtuous and praiseworthy a.s.sembly[450]. This is a new kind of grafting, in which the less n.o.ble shoot is grafted on to the n.o.bler stock. As a candle shines at night, but pales in the full sunlight, so does everyone, however ill.u.s.trious by birth or character, who is introduced into your majestic body. Open your Curia, receive our candidate. He is already predestined to the Senate upon whom we have conferred the dignity of the Laticlave.'

[Footnote 450: A conjectural translation of 'Sic nos virtutum jucundissimas laudes incinctum Graium desideramus includere.' Perhaps 'incinctum' means, 'though _not_ girded with the belt of office.'

Graium must surely be a proper name, and this doc.u.ment is therefore, strictly speaking, not a 'Formula.']

15. FORMULA OF THE VICARIUS OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[Sidenote: Vicariate of the City of Rome.]

'Though nominally only the agent of another [the Praefectus Urbi] you have powers and privileges of your own which almost ent.i.tle you to rank with the Praefects. Suitors plead before you in causes otherwise heard only before Praefects[451]; you p.r.o.nounce sentence in the name of the King[452] [not of the Praefect]; and you have jurisdiction even in capital cases. You wear the chlamys, and are not to be saluted by pa.s.sers-by except when thus arrayed, as if the law wished you to be always seen in military garb. [The chlamys was therefore at this time a strictly military dress.] In all these things the glory of the Praefecture seems to be exalted in you, as if one should say, "How great must the Praefect be, if his Vicar is thus honoured!" Like the highest dignitaries you ride in a state carriage[453]. You have jurisdiction everywhere within the fortieth milestone from the City.

You preside over the games at Praeneste, sitting in the Consul's seat.

You enter the Senate-house itself, that palace of liberty[454]. Even Senators and Consulars have to make their request to you, and may be injured by you.

[Footnote 451: 'Partes apud te sub Praetoriana advocatione confligunt'