The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 61

[On the election of Pope Felix III, 526.]

[As this letter has an important bearing on the royal rights in connection with Papal elections, it is translated in full.]

[Sidenote: Election of Pope Felix III (or IV).]

'We profess that we hear with great satisfaction that you have responded to the judgment of our glorious lord and grandfather in your election of a Bishop. It was right in sooth to obey the will of a good Sovereign, who, handling the matter with wise deliberation, although it had reference to a form of faith alien from his own[526], thought fit to select such a Pontiff as could rightfully be displeasing to none. You may thus recognise that his one chief desire was that Religion might flourish by good priests being supplied to all the churches.

[Footnote 526: 'Qui sapienti deliberatione pertractans quamvis in aliena religione.']

'You have received then a man both admirably endowed with Divine grace and approved by royal scrutiny. Let no one any longer be involved in the old contention. There is no disgrace in being conquered when the King's power has helped the winning side. That man makes him [the successful candidate] his own, who manifests to him pure affection.

For what cause for regret can there be, when you find in this man, those very qualities which you looked for in the other when you embraced his party?

'These are family quarrels[527], a battle without cold steel, a contest without hatred: by shouts, not wounds, a matter like this is decided.

[Footnote 527: The words of Ca.s.siodorus are, 'crinea sunt ista certamina.' No one seems able to suggest a meaning for _crinea_. The editors propose to read _civica_, which however is very flat, and not exactly in Ca.s.siodorus' manner. I suspect some recondite cla.s.sical allusion, which has been missed by the transcribers, has led to the corruption of the text.]

'For even though the person who is desired be taken from you, yet naught is lost by the faithful, since the longed-for priesthood is possessed by them. [They have a Pope, if not just the Pope whom they wished for.] Wherefore on the return of your Legate, the Ill.u.s.trious Publia.n.u.s, we have thought it right to send to your a.s.sembly these letters of salutation. For we taste one of our highest pleasures when we exchange words with our n.o.bles; and we doubt not that this is very sweet to you also, when you reflect that what you did by our grandsire's order is personally agreeable to ourselves.'

[For remarks on this important letter see Dahn's 'Konige der Germanen'

iii. 239. He makes it a simple appointment of the Pope by the bare will of Theodoric, afterwards confirmed by Athalaric. To me it seems more probable that there had been a contest, threatening the election of an antipope (as in 498 in the case of Symmachus and Laurentius), and that the matter had been, as on that occasion, referred to the arbitration of Theodoric.]

16. KING ATHALARIC TO OPILIO, COUNT OF THE SACRED LARGESSES (527).

[Sidenote: Opilio appointed Comes Sacrarum Largitionum.]

'It is generally necessary to weigh carefully the merits of a new aspirant to the honours of the Court (aulicas dignitates); but in your case the merits of your family render this examination needless. Both your father and brother held the same office[528] which we are now entrusting to you, and one may say that this dignity has taken up its abode in your house.

[Footnote 528: 'Pater his fascibus praefuit sed et frater eadem resplenduit claritate.']

'You learned the duties of a subordinate in the office under your brother; and often did he, leaning upon you as on a staff, take a little needful repose, knowing that all things would be attended to by you. The crowds of suppliants who resorted to him with their grievances, shared the confidence which the people had in you, and saw that you were already a.s.suming the character of a good judge.

'Most useful also were your services to the throne at the commencement of the new reign, when men's minds were in trouble as to what should happen next. You bore the news of our accession to the Ligurians, and so strengthened them by your wise address that the error into which they had been betrayed by the sun-setting was turned into joy at the rising of our empire[529].'

[Footnote 529: 'Nam c.u.m ... auspicia nostra Liguribus felix port.i.tor nuntiasti, et sapientiae tuae allocutione firmasti, in errorem _quem de occasu conceperant_, ortum nostri imperii in gaudia commutabant.'

Does this obscure pa.s.sage indicate some revolutionary movements in Liguria after the death of Theodoric, perhaps fomented by the Frankish neighbours of Italy?]

'We therefore confer upon you the dignity of Count of the Sacred Largesses from this sixth Indiction (Sept. 1, 527). Enjoy all the privileges and emoluments which belonged to your predecessors. G.o.d forbid that those whose own actions are right should be shaken by any machinations of calumny. There was a time when even Judges were hara.s.sed by informers (delatores); but that time is over. Lay aside then all fear, you who have no errors to reproach yourself with, and freely enjoy the advantages of your dignity. Imitate your brother: even though a little way behind him you will still be before most holders of the office. He was a man of the highest authority and of proved constancy, and the highest testimony to his merits was afforded by the fact that even under a successor who was hostile to him the whole official staff of the palace was loud in his praises[530].'

[Footnote 530: 'Quando sub ingrato successore palatinum officium praeconia ejus tacere non potuit.']

[This letter is of great importance, as containing indirectly the expression of Ca.s.siodorus' opinion on the trial of Boethius, and the tendency of that opinion seems to be against him and in favour of his accusers. Comparing this letter with v. 40, addressed to Cyprian, Cornes Sacrarum Largitionum and _son of Opilio_, we may with something like certainty construct this genealogical table:

OPILIO, C.S.L. (? son of the Consul of 453).

_________________|_________________ | | CYPRIAN, OPILIO, C.S.L. 524. C.S.L. 527.

Now Cyprian, whose ready wit and ingenious eloquence had rendered him a favourite with Theodoric, is represented to us in the 'Philosophiae Consolatio' of Boethius (I. iv.) and in the 'Anonymus Valesii' (85) as the informer by whom Albinus and Boethius were accused of high treason. Opilio too (no doubt the same as the receiver of this letter) is described by Boethius (loc. cit.) as a man who on account of his numberless frauds had been ordered by the King to go into banishment, had taken refuge at the altar, and had been sternly bidden to leave Ravenna before a given day, and then had purchased pardon by coming forward as a _delator_ against Boethius.

Against all this pa.s.sionate invective it is fair to set this remarkable letter of Ca.s.siodorus, written it is true in the young King's name and presenting the Court view of these transactions, but still written after the death of Theodoric, and perhaps republished by Ca.s.siodorus in the 'Variarum' after the downfall of the Gothic Monarchy. In any case the allusions to _delatores_ in this letter, considering the history of Opilio and his brother, are extraordinary.]

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

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

This letter, though it does not mention the name of Opilio, is evidently written on his promotion to the office of Comes Sacrarum Largitionum. It enumerates his good qualities, and declares that it is marvellous and almost fortunate for Athalaric that so suitable a candidate should not have been promoted in the reign of his grandfather. The father of Opilio was a man of n.o.ble character and robust body, who distinguished himself by his abstinence from the vices of the times and his preference for dignified repose in the stormy period of Odovacar[531].

[Footnote 531: 'Adjectis saeculi vitiis, ditatus claris honoribus.'

The text is evidently corrupt. 'Abjectis' seems to be required; but some MSS. instead of 'vitiis' read 'Odovacris.' In any case Odovacar's government is evidently alluded to. Cf. the words used of the same man in the letter announcing the elevation of his other son, Cyprian (v.

41): 'Nam pater huic, sicut meministis, Opilio fuit, vir quidem _abjectis temporibus_ ad excubias tamen Palatinas electus.']

'He was reputed an excellent man in those times, when the Sovereign was not a man of honour[532]. But why go back to his parentage, when his brother has set so n.o.ble an example. The friendship, the rivalry in virtue of these two brothers, is worthy of the good old times. Both are true to their friends; both are devoid of avarice. Both have kept their loyalty to their King unspotted, and no marvel, since they have first shown themselves true to their friends and colleagues.

[Footnote 532: 'His temporibus habitus est eximius, c.u.m princeps non esset erectus.']

'Distinguished by these virtues, our candidate has been fittingly allied by marriage with the n.o.ble family of Basilius[533].

[Footnote 533: This is probably the Basilius who was concerned in the accusation of Boethius (Phil. Cons. I. iv.); possibly the Consul of 541, who fled to Constantinople when Totila took Rome in 546 (Procop.

De Bello Gotthico iii. 20, and Anastasius Lib. Pontif. apud Murator.

iii. 132); and perhaps the Basilius whom we find in trouble in Variarum iv. 22, 23: scarcely the Basilius of Variarum ii. 10, 11.]

'He has managed his private affairs so as to avoid the two extremes of parsimony and extravagance. He has become popular with the Goths by his manner of life, and with the Romans by his righteous judgments[534]; and has been over and over again chosen as a referee (Judex privatus), thus showing the high opinion in which his integrity is held.

[Footnote 534: 'Gentiles victu (?), Romanos sibi judiciis obligabat.']

'The Conscript Fathers are exhorted to endorse the favourable judgment of the King, by welcoming the new Count of Sacred Largesses into their body.'

[In view of these letters I do not understand what Gibbon means by saying (cap. x.x.xix. _n._ 95), 'The characters of the two delators, Basilius ('Var.' ii. 10, 11; iv. 22) and Opilio (v. 41; viii. 16), are ill.u.s.trated, not much to their honour, in the Epistles of Ca.s.siodorus.' This is quite true of Basilius, if the person alluded to in the references given by Gibbon be the same as the informer against Boethius, of which there may be a doubt; but Opilio is mentioned, as we see, with the highest honour by Ca.s.siodorus. So, too, is Decoratus, whom in the same note Gibbon too hastily stigmatises as 'the worthless colleague of Boethius.']

18. KING ATHALARIC TO FELIX, QUAESTOR (527).

[This cannot be the same as the Consul of 511, nor even his son; for that Felix was of Gaulish extraction, and came from beyond the Alps.]

[Sidenote: Promotion of Felix to the Quaestorship.]

'It is desirable that those who are appointed as Judges should know something of law, and most unfitting that he whom so many officials (_milites_) obey should be seen to be dependent for his law on some one of his subordinates.

'You long ago, when engaged in civil causes as an Advocate, were marked out by your Sovereign's eye[535]. He noted your eloquence, your fidelity, your youthful beauty, and your maturity of mind. No client could ask for more devotion than you showed in his cause; no Judge found in you anything to blame.

[Footnote 535: 'Dudum te forensibus negociis insudantem, _oculus imperialis_ aspexit'--an expression which goes very near to styling Theodoric Imperator.]

'Receive then now the dignity of Quaestor for this sixth Indiction (Sept. 1, 527), and judge in the Courts where hitherto you have pleaded.

'You are called Felix; act so as always to merit that name; for it is absurd to have a name which denotes one thing and to display the opposite in one's character. We think we have now said enough for a man of your good conscience. Many admonitions seem to imply a doubt of the character of him who receives them.' [A maxim often forgotten by Ca.s.siodorus.]

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