The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 84

'The _cheese_, which retains in its pores the milk which has been collected there, recalls by its taste the fragrant herbs upon which the cattle have fed; by its texture it reminds us of the softness of oil, from which it differs in colour by its snowy whiteness. Having been carefully pressed into a wide cask and hardened therein, it retains permanently the beautiful round shape which has thus been given to it[833].

[Footnote 833: From the description of Ca.s.siodorus, it seems to have been a kind of cream cheese.]

'The _wine_, to which Antiquity gave the name of praise, Palmatiana, must be selected not of a rough but sweet kind[834]. Though last [in geographical position] among the wines of Bruttii, it is by general opinion accounted the best, equal to that of Gaza, similar to the Sabine, moderately thick, strong, brisk, of conspicuous whiteness, distinguished by the fine aroma, of which a pleasant after-taste is perceived by the drinker[835]. It constrains loosened bowels, dries up moist wounds, and refreshes the weary breast.

[Footnote 834: 'Non stipsi asperum sed gratum suavitate perquire.' The same peculiar word, _stipsis_, which we had in Letter xii. 4. What meaning are we to a.s.sign to the word?]

[Footnote 835: 'Magnis odoribus singulare:--quod ita redolet ore ructatum ut merito illi a palma nomen videatur impositum.']

'Let it be your care to provide as speedily as possible a stock of both these products of our country, and send them in ships to the Royal residence. For a temporary supply we have drawn on our own cellars, but we look to you to choose specimens of the genuine quality for the King. We cannot be deceived, who retain the true taste in our patriotic memory; and at your peril will you provide any inferior article to that which our cellars will have supplied[836].'

[Footnote 836: Baronius (Ad Ann. 591) quotes this letter of Ca.s.siodorus to explain an allusion in the life of Pope Gregory the Great, who refused to receive a present of 'Palmatiana' from the Bishop of Messina, and insisted on paying for it.]

13. AN EDICT.

[Sidenote: Frauds committed by the revenue officers on the Churches of Bruttii and Lucania.]

'The generous gifts of Kings ought to be respected by their subjects.

'Long ago the const.i.tutions of the Emperors enriched the holy Churches of Bruttii and Lucania with certain gifts. But since the sacrilegious mind is not afraid of sinning against the Divine reverence, the Canonicarii (officers of the Exchequer) have robbed these ecclesiastical positions of a certain portion of their revenue in the name of the Numerarii of the Praetorian Praefect's staff; but these latter, with righteous indignation, declare that they have received no part of the spoils thus impiously collected in their name.

'Thus have the Canonicarii turned the property of the clergy into a _douceur_ for the laity[837]. Oh, audacity of man! what barriers can be erected against thee? Thou mightest have hoped to escape human observation, but why commit crimes which the Divinity cannot but notice?

[Footnote 837: 'Facientes laic.u.m commodum substantiam clericorum.']

'Therefore we ordain by this edict that anyone who shall hereafter commit this kind of fraud shall lose his own private gains, and shall forfeit his place in the public service[838].

[Footnote 838: 'Edictali programmate definimus, ut qui in hac fuerit ulterius fraude versatus et militia careat et compendium propriae facultatis amittat.' The last clause is perhaps purposely vague. We should have expected to hear something about rest.i.tution, but the words will not bear that meaning.]

'Let the poor keep the gifts which G.o.d has put it into the heart of Kings to bestow upon them. It is cruel above all other cruelty to wish to become rich by means of the scanty possessions of the mendicant.'

14. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO ANASTASIUS, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII.

[Sidenote: Plea for gentle treatment for citizens of Rhegium.]

'The citizens of Rhegium (so called from the Greek word [Greek: rhegnumi], to break, because their island has been broken off from Sicily by the violence of the waves) complain that they are being unfairly hara.s.sed by the tax-gatherers. I, as an eyewitness, can confirm the truth of their statement that their territory does not bring forth the produce which is claimed at their hands. It is a rocky and mountainous country, too dry for pasture, though sufficiently undulating for vineyards; bad for grain-crops, though well suited for olives. The shade has to be all provided by the industry of man, who has planted there the tree of Pallas [the olive], which prospers in even the driest soil, because it sends its roots down into the very depths of the earth.

'The corn has to be watered by hand, like pot-herbs in a garden. You seldom see the husbandman bending beneath his load as he returns from the threshing-floor. A few bushels full are all that he can boast of, even in an abundant harvest[839].

[Footnote 839: I do not understand the following sentences: 'In hortis autem rusticorum agmen habetur operosum: quia olus illic omne saporum est marina irroratione respersum. Quod humana industria fieri consuevit, hoc c.u.m nutriretur accepit.' Can they have watered any herbs with salt water?]

'Contrary to the opinion of Virgil [who speaks of the bitter roots of the endive[840]], the fibres of endive are here extremely sweet, and encircled by their twisting leaves are caked together with a certain callous tenderness[841].

[Footnote 840:

'Nec tamen, haec quum sint hominumque boumque labores Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser, Strymoniaeque grues, et _amaris intuba fibris_ Officiunt.'--Georgic i. 118-121.]

[Footnote 841: I must renounce the attempt to translate the rest of the sentence: 'Unde in morem nitri aliquid decerptum frangitur, dum a fecundo cespite segregatur.' There is an alternative reading, _vitri_ for _nitri_; but I am still unable to understand the author's meaning.]

'In the treasures of the deep that region is certainly rich; for the Upper and Lower Sea meet there. The _exormiston_[842], a sort of king among fishes, with bristly nostrils and a milky delicacy of flavour, is found in these waters. In stormy weather it is tossed about on the top of the waves, and seems to be too tired or too indolent to seek a refuge in the deeper water[843]. No other fish can be compared to it in sweetness[844].

[Footnote 842: Apparently a kind of lamprey. See the fourth letter of this book.]

[Footnote 843: Perhaps Ca.s.siodorus means to say this makes it more easy of capture, but he does not say so.]

[Footnote 844: The praises of the exormiston are not only foreign to the main subject of the letter, but to a certain extent weaken the writer's argument on behalf of his countrymen; but, as a good Bruttian, he cannot help vaunting the products of his country.]

'These are the products--I speak from my own knowledge--of the Rhegian sh.o.r.e. Therefore you must not seek to levy a tribute of wheat or lard from the inhabitants under the name of "coemptio."

'I may add that they are so troubled by the constant pa.s.sage of travellers entering Italy or leaving it, that it would have been right to excuse them even if those products had been found there in abundance[845].'

[Footnote 845: The pa.s.sage to and fro of travellers no doubt brought with it burdensome duties for the inhabitants in connection with the _Cursus Publicus_. It was therefore a reason for mitigating other taxes.]

15. SENATOR, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT, TO MAXIMUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS, CANCELLARIUS OF LUCANIA AND BRUTTII[846].

[Footnote 846: This letter, being the description by Ca.s.siodorus of his native place, is translated entire.]

[Sidenote: Praises of the author's birthplace, Scyllacium.]

'Scyllacium, the first city of Bruttii, which Ulysses the destroyer of Troy is believed to have founded, is said to be unreasonably vexed by the exorbitant demands of purveyors[847]. These injuries grieve us all the more on account of our patriotic love for the place.

[Footnote 847: 'Irrationabiliter dicitur praesumentium nimietate vexari.']

'The city of Scyllacium, which is so placed as to look down upon the Hadriatic Gulf, hangs upon the hills like a cl.u.s.ter of grapes: not that it may pride itself upon their difficult ascent, but that it may voluptuously gaze on verdant plains and the blue back of the sea. The city beholds the rising sun from its very cradle, when the day that is about to be born sends forward no heralding Aurora; but as soon as it begins to rise, the quivering brightness displays its torch. It beholds Phoebus in his joy; it is bathed in the brightness of that luminary, so that it might be thought to be itself the native land of the sun, the claims of Rhodes to that honour being outdone.

'It enjoys a translucent air, but withal so temperate that its winters are sunny, and its summers cool; and life pa.s.ses there without sorrow, since hostile seasons are feared by none. Hence, too, man himself is here freer of soul than elsewhere, for this temperateness of the climate prevails in all things.

'In sooth, a hot fatherland makes its children sharp and fickle, a cold one slow and sly; it is only a temperate climate which composes the characters of men by its own moderation. Hence was it that the ancients p.r.o.nounced Athens to be the seat of sages, because, enriched with an air of the greatest purity, it prepared with glad liberality the lucid intellects of its sons for the contemplative part of life.

a.s.suredly for the body to imbibe muddy waters is a different thing from sucking in the transparency of a sweet fountain. Even so the vigour of the mind is repressed when it is clogged by a heavy atmosphere. Nature herself hath made us subject to these influences.

Clouds make us feel sad; and again a bright sky fills us with joy, because the heavenly substance of the soul delights in everything that is unstained and pure.

'Scyllacium has also an abundant share of the delicacies of the sea, possessing near it those gates of Neptune which we ourselves constructed. At the foot of the Moscian Mount we hollowed out the bowels of the rock, and tastefully[848] introduced therein the eddying waves of Nereus. Here a troop of fishes, sporting in free captivity, refreshes all minds with delight, and charms all eyes with admiration.

They run greedily to the hand of man, and before they become his food seek dainties from him. Man feeds his own dainty morsels, and while he has that which can bring them into his power, it often happens that being already replete he lets them all go again.

[Footnote 848: 'Decenter.']

'The spectacle moreover of men engaged in honourable labour is not denied to those who are sitting tranquilly in the city. Plenteous vineyards are beheld in abundance. The fruitful toil of the threshing-floor is seen. The face of the green olive is disclosed. No one need sigh for the pleasures of the country, when it is given him to see them all from the town.

'And inasmuch as it has now no walls, you believe Scyllacium to be a rural city, though you might judge it to be an urban villa; and thus placed between the two worlds of town and country, it is lavishly praised by both.

'This place wayfarers desire frequently to visit, and as they object to the toil of walking, the citizens, called upon to provide them with post-horses, and rations for their servants, have to pay heavily in purse for the pleasantness of their city. Therefore to prevent this, for the future we decide that all charges for providing post-horses and rations shall be debited to the public account. We cut up, root and branch, the system of paying _Pulveratica_[849] to the Judge; and we decide, according to ancient custom, that rations for three days only shall be given on their arrival to the great Dignitaries of the State, and that any more prolonged delay in their locomotion be provided for by themselves.

[Footnote 849: Dust-money.]

'To relieve your city of its heaviest burdens will be, according to our injunctions, an act of judicial impartiality, not of laxity. Live, by G.o.d's help, a mirror of the justice of the age, delighting in the security of all. Some people call the Isles of the Atlantic 'Fortunate:' I would rather give that name to the place where you do now dwell.'