The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 75

'If vengeance on King Theodahad be the thing required, I [who have put him to death] merit your love. If you desire to honour the blessed memory of Queen Amalasuentha, think of her daughter[705], who has reached [by our means] that royal station to which your soldiers might well have striven to exalt her, in order that all the nations might see how faithful you remained to the old friendship.

[Footnote 705: Matasuentha, now wife of Witigis.]

'This fact too ought to influence you, that by the ordering of Providence we were permitted to make your acquaintance before our accession to the throne, that the remembrance of our favourable reception at your Court, and the sight of your person in that splendid position, might move us to love and reverence.

'Even now you can undo all that has been misdone, since the continual expectation of favours to come, makes perseverance in affection easy[706]. Therefore, soliciting your Clemency with all due respect, we inform you that we have appointed A and B our amba.s.sadors to the Wisdom of your Serenity, that you may, according to your custom, duly weigh all these considerations, that the two Republics may persevere in restored harmony, and that all which hath been settled in past times by Sovereigns of blessed memory may, by G.o.d's help, be increased and made more prosperous under your dominion.

[Footnote 706: 'Quando non est difficile illum in affectu retinere, qui gratiam constat desideranter expetere.' Very nearly, but not quite, the modern proverb which says that grat.i.tude is 'a lively sense of favours to come.']

'The rest of their commission will be more fully explained to your Serenity by the aforesaid amba.s.sadors.'

33. KING WITIGIS TO THE MASTER OF THE OFFICES [AT CONSTANTINOPLE].

[Sidenote: Emba.s.sy to Constantinople.]

'In sending our two amba.s.sadors to the most serene Emperor, it is fitting also to send letters of salutation[707] to your Greatness. May your prudence support our reasonable requests with the Emperor. You can easily correct those things [the war against the Gothic people]

which you ought never to have allowed to take place; and all things can now be arranged in the most friendly manner, since a reconciliation between men who have fought out their quarrel is often the surest ground of friendship. An unknown man might possibly have been shunned by you; but I, who have seen the magnificence of your Republic, who have known the hearts of so many of your n.o.ble statesmen, have no desire to quarrel with your most pious Emperor, if he will only cherish thoughts of justice towards me. If another [Theodahad] deserved the anger of the Emperor, I ought to be looked upon with the highest favour, who have executed vengeance on that hateful predecessor. I have carried your intentions into effect, and therefore I deserve reward, not punishment. Let all hatred be buried in the grave of the sinner; and even if you think nothing of our deservings, think of the liberty of the Romans, which is everywhere suffering amid the clash of arms. A few words to a man of your wisdom are sufficient.'

[Footnote 707: 'Salutiferos apices.' See x. 15.]

34. KING WITIGIS TO HIS BISHOPS.

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'If we owe honour to Priests even when unknown to us, how much more so to you whom we have seen and spoken to, and with whom we have had frequent and familiar intercourse.

'By the amba.s.sadors who are bearing our letters to the most serene Emperor we send a message of reverence to your Holiness, hoping that you will pray for us and set them forward on their journey with all necessary a.s.sistance, since you are bound to wish well to those whom you know to be united to you by the ties of religion.'

35. KING WITIGIS TO THE PRAEFECT OF THESSALONICA.

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'We are sending two amba.s.sadors to the most serene Emperor, who will salute your Greatness. We earnestly hope that your Excellency will speed them on their journey.'

BOOK XI.

PREFACE.

'The necessity for a Preface often arises from some contrariety in an Author's position which prevents him from writing as he would wish to write. It is admitted that it is not fair to expect the same degree of excellence from a busy man which we may reasonably look for in a man of leisure. But a man in high official position cannot be a man of leisure. It would be the highest disgrace to him if he were, since even his so-called privy-chamber[708] resounds with the noise of clamorous litigants.

[Footnote 708: 'Secretum.']

'I can well understand that a man of few occupations will object against me, here that a word has been thrown out with ill-considered haste, there that a commonplace sentiment has not been dressed up in sufficiently ornamental language, or there that I have not complied with the rules of the Ancients by making my persons speak "in character." But the busy man, hurried from one cause to another, and constantly under the necessity of dictating to one man and replying to another, will not make these objections, because the consciousness of his own literary perils will make him tender in his judgments. And yet there is something even in the pressure of business which sometimes promotes briskness of mind, since the art of speaking is one which is placed very much in our own power[709].

[Footnote 709: Here follows a sentence which I do not understand: 'Remanet itaque ad excusandum brevitas insperata librorum, quam nemo purgat diutius, nisi qui bene creditur esse dicturus.']

'If anyone objects that I, placed in the height of the Praetorian dignity, should have dictated so few decisions of a legal kind, let him know that this was the result of my a.s.sociating with myself that most prudent man Felix[710], whose advice I have followed in every case. He is a man of absolute purity of character, of surpa.s.sing knowledge of the law, of distinguished accuracy of speech; a young man with the gravity of age, a sweet pleader, a measured orator; one who by his graceful discharge of his official duties has earned the favourable opinion of the public.

[Footnote 710: This can hardly be the Consul of A.D. 511, since he is called in the next sentence 'senilis juvenis.']

'Had it not been for his help, overwhelmed by so great a mult.i.tude of causes, I must either have been found unequal to the burden, or else perchance have seemed arrogant [in my disregard of previously settled decisions]. But, what was more important still, relieved by his labours from this duty, I was able to give such attention to the higher affairs of the State, that I could not fail to win approbation even in those arduous duties.

'I have therefore subjoined two books, in which I myself speak in my capacity as Praefect, to the ten in which I have spoken by the mouth of the King; for it seemed absurd to me to be silent in my newly-acquired dignity, who had so often spoken on behalf of others.

'Then, after these twelve books had been brought to their long-desired end, my friends compelled me to discuss the substance and the powers of the Soul, that I might say something _about_ that faculty _through_ which I had already said so much[711].

[Footnote 711: 'De Animae substantia vel de virtutibus ejus amici me disserere coegerunt: ut per quam multa diximus, de ipsa quoque dicere videremur.']

'Now then, learned men! view these letters with indulgence. If there be no eloquence in them, attribute it to my many occupations, which have prevented my reading as much as I would gladly have done. Cicero, that fountain of eloquence, when he was one day asked to speak, excused himself on the ground that he had read nothing the day before.

The barn must be constantly refilled if it is not to become empty. All that is good in our minds is the fruit of study, and soon withers if it be separated from reading, which is the parent stem. Great indulgence therefore should be shown to us if we have often had to write when we were busy, to be read by others when we had no leisure to read, ourselves. And now enough of excuses, lest too elaborate a defence should rather injure our cause.'

BOOK XI.

CONTAINING THIRTY-NINE LETTERS WRITTEN BY Ca.s.sIODORUS IN HIS OWN NAME AS PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO, AND ONE ON BEHALF OF THE ROMAN SENATE.

1. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME (A.D. 534)[712].

[Footnote 712: This letter, which was not composed immediately after Ca.s.siodorus' accession to office, most have been written after the death of the Frankish King Theodoric, which occurred, according to Clinton, early in 534, and before October 2 of the same year, the date of the death of Athalaric. Notwithstanding the obscurity of many of the allusions in it, this doc.u.ment is one of our best authorities for the history of Amalasuentha's regency, and is therefore translated almost verbatim.]

[Sidenote: Ca.s.siodorus on his promotion to the Praefecture.]

'If I can only be sure that my advancement is acceptable to you, Conscript Fathers, I shall not doubt of its being approved by G.o.d and popular with all good men.

'It is in the nature of things to love a colleague, and you are in fact exalting your own honour when you approve of a dignity given to a _Senator_[713].

[Footnote 713: Partly a pun on his name, partly an allusion to his rank.]

'After our Sovereigns there is none to whom I so much desire to commend myself as you. To me honour will ever be the sole test of advantage. Justice, like a handmaid, will wait upon my actions; and the power, which I have not myself bought from our virtuous Sovereign, I in my turn shall sell to no man. You have heard, n.o.ble Sirs, the panegyrics[714] pa.s.sed upon me at my entrance into office. These praises I will not dare to call false, but I will say that they lay upon me a heavy responsibility to show that they are not unmerited.

[Footnote 714: The letter written by Ca.s.siodorus himself, in the name of Athalaric, to announce his elevation to the Praefecture (Var. ix.

25).]

'Happy fortune of our time in which, while the Sovereign himself takes holiday, the love of his mother rules and covers us all with the robe of her universal charity! Happy for the young Ruler, who in this difficult position learns first to triumph over his impetuous impulses, and attains in the springtime of his life that self-control which h.o.a.ry age with difficulty acquires!

[Sidenote: Praises of Amalasuentha.]

'As for the Mother whom he so dutifully obeys, her most fittingly do all kingdoms venerate, whom to behold is to adore, to listen to is to witness a miracle. Of what language is she not a perfect mistress? She is skilled in the niceties of Attic eloquence; she shines in the majesty of Roman speech; she glories in the wealth of the language of her fathers. She is equally marvellous in all these, and in each the orator in his own especial tongue feels himself surpa.s.sed by her. A great safeguard and a great excellence is this in the ruler of so many nationalities. None needs an interpreter with his accomplished mistress. No amba.s.sador need wait, or hear his words slowly filtered through the mind of a go-between. Everyone feels that his own words are listened to, and receives his answer from her lips in the language of his forefathers.