The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 59

'If a stranger to the royal line were succeeding to the throne, you might doubt whether the friendship between him and you would endure, and might look for a reversal of the policy of his predecessors. But now the person of the King only, not his policy, is changed. We are determined to follow the revered maxims of our predecessor, and to load with even more abundant benefits those whom he most kindly defended.

'Everything was so ordered by our glorious grandfather that on his death the glad consent of Goths called us to our kingdom; and that no doubt might remain upon the matter they pledged themselves by an oath most cordially taken, to accept us as their ruler. We invite you to follow their example, and like Trajan, we, the Sovereign, in whose name all oaths are made, will also swear to you. The bearers of this letter will receive your sworn promise, and will give you ours, "by the Lord's help to observe justice and fair clemency, the nourisher of the nations; that Goths and Romans shall meet with impartial treatment at our hands; and that there shall be no other division between the two nations, except that _they_ undergo the labours of war for the common benefit, while _you_ are increased in numbers by your peaceable inhabitancy of the City of Rome[505]." Raise then your spirits, and hope for even better things and more tranquillity, under G.o.d's blessing, from our reign than from that of our predecessor.'

[Footnote 505: 'Just.i.tiam nos et aequabilem clementiam, quae populos nutrit, juvante domino, custodire et _Gothis Romanisque apud nos jus esse commune_, nec aliud inter vos esse divisum, nisi quod illi labores bellicos pro communi utilitate subeunt, vos autem civitatis Romanae habitatio quieta multiplicat.' I do not consider that the words in Italics, taken with the context, are irreconcilable with Dahn's view that the Goths were still, to a certain extent, under Gothic law.]

4. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE ROMANS SETTLED IN ITALY AND THE DALMATIAS (A.D. 526).

[Sidenote: To the Romans in Italy and Dalmatia.]

'He who hears of a change in the ruler is apt to fear that it may be a change for the worse; and a new King who makes no kind promises at his accession is supposed to be harbouring designs of severity. We therefore inform you that we have received the oaths of Goths and Romans and are ready to receive yours, which we doubt not you will willingly offer.' [The rest as in the preceding letters.]

5. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE GOTHS SETTLED IN ITALY (A.D. 526).

[Sidenote: To the Goths.]

'Gladly would we have announced to you the prolonged life of our lord and grandfather; but inasmuch as he has been withdrawn by hard fate from us who loved him, he has subst.i.tuted us, by Divine command, as heirs of his kingdom, that through us his successors in blood, he might make the benefits which he has conferred on you perpetual. And in truth we hope not only to defend but to increase the blessings wrought by him. All the Goths in the Royal City [Ravenna] have taken the oaths to us. Do you do the same by this Count whom we send to you.

'Receive then a name which ever brought prosperity to your race, the royal offshoot of the Amals, the sprout of the Balthae[506], a childhood clad in purple. Ye are they by whom, with G.o.d's help, our ancestors were borne to such a height of honour, and obtained an ever higher place amid the serried ranks of kings[507].'

[Footnote 506: 'Amalorum regalem prosapiem, Baltheum germen.' I know not how Athalaric had any blood of the Balths in his veins. The other reading, 'blatteum,' gives the same idea as the following clause, 'infantiam purpuratam.']

[Footnote 507: 'Inter tam prolixum ordinem Regum susceperunt semper augmenta.' Perhaps we should translate 'by such a long line of (Amal) kings obtained advancement for their nation;' but the meaning is not very clear.]

6. KING ATHALARIC TO LIBERIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT OF THE GAULS (A.D.

526).

[Sidenote: To the Governor of Gaul.]

'You will be grieved to hear of the death of our lord and grandfather of glorious memory, but will be comforted in learning that he is succeeded by his descendant. Thus, by G.o.d's command, did he arrange matters, a.s.sociating us as lords in the throne of his royalty, in order that he might leave his kingdom at peace, and that no revolution might trouble it after his death.'

[Invitation to take the oath, as in previous letters.]

7. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS SETTLED IN GAUL (A.D. 526).

[Sidenote: To the Gaulish subjects of Athalaric.]

'Our grandfather of glorious memory is dead, but we have succeeded him, and will faithfully repay, both on his account and our own, the loyalty of our subjects.

'So unanimous was the acclamation of our [Italian] subjects when we succeeded to the throne, that the thing seemed to be of G.o.d rather than of man.

'We now invite you to follow their example, that the Goths may give their oath to the Romans, and the Romans may confirm it by a _Sacramentum_ to the Goths, that they are unanimously devoted to our King.'

'Thus will your loyalty be made manifest, and concord and justice flourish among you.'

[There is an appearance of mutuality about this oath of allegiance as between Goths and Romans, not merely by both to Athalaric, which we have not had in the previous letters.]

8. KING ATHALARIC TO VICTORINUS, VIR VENERABILIS AND BISHOP[508] (A.D.

526).

[Footnote 508: Baronius says (vii. 121): 'Cujusnam Ecclesiae Antistes fuerit Victorinus ignoratur.' From the tone of the letter one may conjecture that Victorinus was a Bishop in Gaul.]

[Sidenote: To Bishop Victorinus.]

'Saluting you with all the veneration due to your character and office, we inform you with grief of the death of our lord and grandfather. But your sadness will be moderated when you hear that his kingdom is continued in us. Favour us with your prayers, that the King of Heaven may confirm to us the kingdom, subdue foreign nations before us, forgive us our sins, and propitiously preserve all that He was pleased to bestow on our ancestors. Let your Holiness exhort all the Provincials to concord.'

9. KING ATHALARIC TO TULUM, PATRICIAN.

[Sidenote: Praises of Tulum, who is raised to the Patriciate.]

'As our grandfather used to refresh his mind and strengthen his judgment by intercourse with you, so, _a fortiori_, may we in our tender years do the same. We therefore make you, by this present letter, Patrician, that the counsels which you give us may not seem to proceed from any unknown and obscure source.

'Greece adorned our hero [Tulum] with the chlamys and the painted silken buskin; and the Eastern peoples yearned to see him, because for some reason civic virtues are most prized in him who is believed to be of warlike disposition[509]. Contented with this repayment of honour he laboured with unwearied devotion for foreign countries (?), and with his relations (or parents) he deigned to offer his obedience to the Sovereign, who was begotten of the stock of so many Kings[510].

[Footnote 509: Probably Tulum had gone on some emba.s.sy to Constantinople.]

[Footnote 510: 'Hac igitur honoris remuneratione contentus, pro exteris partibus indefessa devotione laboravit: et praestare com suis parentibus principi dignabatur obsequium, qui tantorum regum fuerat stirpe procreatus.' This sentence is full of difficulties. What can he mean by the labour 'pro exteris partibus?' Who is the 'Princeps' whom Tulum deigns to serve: the Eastern Emperor or Theodoric? Above all, who is 'tantorum regum stirpe procreatus?' I think the turn of the sentence requires that it should be Tulum; but Dahn has evidently not so understood it, for in his Konige der Germanen (iii. 29, 30) he makes Tulum a conspicuous example of a man not of n.o.ble birth raised to high dignity, and says that the two long letters about him in the Variae contain no allusion to ill.u.s.trious descent.]

[After some very obscure sentences, in which the writer appears to be celebrating the praises of Theodoric, he turns to Tulum, of whom he has. .h.i.therto spoken in the third person, and addresses him as _you_.]

'His toil so formed your character that we have the less need to labour. With you he discussed the sure blessings of peace, the doubtful gains of war; and--rare boon from a wise King--to you, in his anxiety, he confidently opened all the secrets of his breast. You, however, responded fully to his trust. You never put him off with doubtful answers. Ever patient and truthful, you won the entire confidence of your King, and dared even, hardest of all tasks, to argue against him for his own good.

'Thus did your n.o.ble deeds justify your alliance with the Amal race [apparently he has received an Amal princess in marriage], and thus did you become worthy to be joined in common fame with Gensemund, a man whose praises the whole world should sing, a man only made son by adoption in arms to the King, yet who exhibited such fidelity to the Amals that he transferred it even to their heirs, although he was himself sought for to be crowned[511]. Therefore will his fame live for ever, so long as the Gothic name endures.

[Footnote 511: 'Exstat gentis Gothicae hujus probitatis exemplum: Gensemundus ille toto orbe cantabilis, solum armis filius factus, tanta se Amalis devotione conjunxit ut haeredibus eorum curiosum exhibuerit famulatum, quamvis ipse peteretur ad regnum.' Dahn (ii. 61 and iii. 309) and Kopke (p. 142) refer this mysterious affair of Gensemund's renunciation to the interval after the death of Thorismund (A.D. 416). But this is mere conjecture. See Italy and her Invaders iii. 8-10.]

'We look for even n.o.bler things from you, because you are allied to us by race.'

[A singularly obscure, vapid, and ill-written letter. The allusion to Gensemund seems introduced on purpose to bewilder the reader.]

10. KING ATHALARIC TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME.

[On the elevation of Tulum to the Patriciate.]

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'We are conferring new l.u.s.tre on your body by the promotion of Tulum.

A man sprung from the n.o.blest stock[512] he early undertook the duties of attendance in the King's bedchamber[513], a difficult post, where the knowledge that you share the secret counsels of royalty itself exposes you to enmity.

[Footnote 512: 'Primum, quod inter nationes eximium est, Gothorum n.o.bilissima stirpe gloriatur.']

[Footnote 513: 'Statim rudes annos ad sacri cubiculi secreta portavit.']