The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 4

The much-desired object of 'making the origin of Gothic history Roman'

was effected chiefly by attributing to the Goths all that Ca.s.siodorus found written in cla.s.sic authors concerning the Getae or the Scythians. The confusion between Goths and Getae, though modern ethnologists are nearly unanimous in p.r.o.nouncing it to be a confusion between two utterly different nations, is not one for which Ca.s.siodorus is responsible, since it had been made at least a hundred years before his time. When the Emperor Claudius II won his great victories over the Goths in the middle of the Third Century, he was hailed rightly enough by the surname of _Gothicus_; but when at the beginning of the Fifth Century the feeble Emperors Arcadius and Honorius wished to celebrate a victory which, as they vainly hoped, had effectually broken the power of the Goths, the words which they inscribed upon the Arch of Triumph were 'Quod _Getarum_ nationem in omne aevum docuere extingui.' In the poems of Claudian, and generally in all the contemporary literature of the time, the regular word for the countrymen of Alaric is Getae.

[Sidenote: The term Scythian.]

The Greek historians, on the other hand, freely applied the general term Scythian--as they had done at any time since the Scythian campaign of Darius Hystaspis--to any barbarian nation living beyond the Danube and the Cimmerian Bosporus. With these two clues, or imaginary clues, in his hand, Ca.s.siodorus could traverse a considerable part of the border-land of cla.s.sical antiquity. The battles between the Scythians and the Egyptians, the story of the Amazons, Telephus son of Hercules and nephew of Priam, the defeat of Cyrus by Tomyris, and the unsuccessful expedition of Darius--all were connected with Gothic history by means of that easily stretched word, Scythia. Then comes Sitalces, King of Thrace, who makes war on Perdiccas of Macedon; and then, 'in the time of Sylla,' a certain wise philosopher-king of Dacia, Diceneus by name, in whose character and history Ca.s.siodorus perhaps outlined his own ideal of wisdom swaying brute force. With these and similar stories culled from cla.s.sical authors Ca.s.siodorus appears to have filled up the interval--which was to him of absolutely uncertain duration--between the Gothic migration from the Baltic to the Euxine and their appearance as conquerors and ravagers in the eastern half of the Roman Empire in the middle of the third century of the Christian era. Now, soothing as it may have been to the pride of a Roman subject of Theodoric to be informed that his master's ancestors had fought at the war of Troy and humbled the pride of Perdiccas, to a scientific historian these Scytho-Getic histories culled from Herodotus and Trogus are of little or no value, and his first step in the process of enquiry is to eliminate them from 'Gothica historia,' thus making it, as far as he can, _not_ 'Romana.'

The question then arises whether there was another truly Gothic element in the history of Ca.s.siodorus, and if so, what value can be attached to it. Thus enquiring we soon find, both before and after this intrusive Scytho-Getic element, matter of quite a different kind, which has often much of the ring of the true Teutonic _Saga_. It is reasonable to believe that here Ca.s.siodorus, whose mission it was to reconcile Roman and Goth, and who could not have achieved this end by altering the history of the less civilised people out of all possibility of recognition by its own chieftains and warriors, has really interwoven in his work some part of the songs and Sagas which were still current among the older men who had shared the wanderings of Theodoric. This legendary portion, which Ca.s.siodorus himself perhaps half despised, as being gathered not from books but from the lips of rude minstrels, is in fact the only part of his work which has any scientific value.

[Sidenote: The Amal pedigree.]

In his glorification of the Amal line, Ca.s.siodorus follows more closely these genuine national traditions than in his history of the Gothic people. References to Herodotus and Trogus would have been here obviously out of place, and he accordingly puts before us a pedigree fas.h.i.+oned on the same model as those which we find in the Saxon Chronicle, and therefore probably genuine. By genuine of course is meant a pedigree which was really current and accepted among the people over whom Theodoric ruled. How many of the links which form it represent real historical personages is a matter about which we may almost be said neither to know nor care. We see that it begins in the approved fas.h.i.+on with 'Non puri homines sed semidei id est Anses[44],'

and that the first of these half-divine ancestors is named _Gaut_, evidently the eponymous hero of the Gothic people. Some of the later links--Amal, Ostrogotha, Athal--have the same appearance of names coined to embody facts of the national consciousness. At the end of the genealogy appear the undoubtedly historical names of the immediate ancestors of Theodoric. It is noteworthy that several, in fact the majority of the names of Kings who figure in early Gothic history, are not included in this genealogy. While this fact permits us to doubt whether Ca.s.siodorus has not exaggerated the pre-eminence of the Amal race in early days, it must be admitted to be also an evidence of the good faith with which he preserved the national tradition on these points. Had he been merely inventing, it would have been easy to include every name of a distinguished Gothic King among the progenitors of his Sovereign.

[Footnote 44: Jordanes, De Reb. Get. xiii.]

[Sidenote: Abstract by Jordanes.]

Such then was the general purpose of the Gothic History of Ca.s.siodorus. The book itself has perished--a tantalising loss when we consider how many treatises from the same pen have been preserved to us which we could well have spared. But we can speak, as will be seen from the preceding remarks, with considerable confidence as to its plan and purpose, because we possess in the well-known treatise of Jordanes 'On the Origin of the Goths[45]' an abbreviated copy, executed it is true by a very inferior hand, but still manifestly preserving some of the features of the original. It will not be necessary here to go into the difficult question as to the personality of this writer, which has been debated at considerable length and with much ingenuity by several German authors[46]. It is enough to say that Jordanes, who was, according to his own statement, 'agrammatus,' a man of Gothic descent, a notary, and then a monk[47], on the alleged request of his friend Castalius, 'compressed the twelve books of Senator, _de origine actibusque Getarum_, bringing down the history from olden times to our own days by kings and generations, into one little pamphlet.' Still, according to his statement, which there can be little doubt is here thoroughly false, he had the loan of the Gothic History for only three days from the steward of Ca.s.siodorus, and wrote chiefly or entirely from his recollection of this hasty perusal[48]. He says that he added some suitable pa.s.sages from the Greek and Latin historians, but his own range of historical reading was evidently so narrow that we may fairly suspect these additions to have been of the slenderest possible dimensions. Upon the whole, there can be little doubt that it is a safe rule to attribute everything that is good or pa.s.sable in this little treatise to Ca.s.siodorus, and everything that is very bad, childish, and absurd in it to Jordanes.

[Footnote 45: 'De Rebus Geticis,' or 'De Gothorum Origine,' is the name by which this little treatise is usually known. It seems to be doubtful, however, what t.i.tle, if any, Jordanes himself prefixed to it. Mommsen calls it simply 'Getica.']

[Footnote 46: Especially Schirren, 'De Ratione quae inter Jordanem et Ca.s.siodorum intercedat' (Dorpat, 1858); Sybel, 'De Fontibus Libri Jordanis' (Berlin, 1838); and Kopke, 'Die Anfange des Konigthums bei den Gothen' (Berlin, 1859).]

[Footnote 47: _Possibly_ in the end Bishop of Crotona, or a Defensor of the Roman Church, since we find a Jordanes in each of these positions; but this is mere guesswork, and to me neither theory seems probable.]

[Footnote 48: 'Sed ut non mentiar, ad triduanam lectionem dispensatoris ejus beneficio libros ipsos antehac relegi.'

Notwithstanding the 'ut non mentiar,' most of those who have enquired into the subject have come to the opinion which is bluntly expressed by Usener (p. 73), 'Die dreitagige Frist die Jordanes zur Benutzung der 12 Bucher gehabt haben will, _ist naturlich Schwindel_.' Even by an expert precis-writer a loan of three months would be much more probably needed for the purpose indicated by Jordanes than one of three days.]

[Sidenote: Temporary retirement from official life (?).]

The literary labours of Ca.s.siodorus, of which the Gothic History was one of the fruits, were probably continued for two or three years after its completion[49]. At least there is reason to believe that he was not actively engaged in the service of the State during those terrible years (524 and 525) in which the failing intellect of Theodoric, goaded almost to madness by Justin's persecution of his Arian co-religionists, condescended to ign.o.ble measures of retaliation, which brought him into collision with Senate and Pope, and in the end tarnished his fame by the judicial murder of Boethius and Symmachus. It was fortunate indeed for Ca.s.siodorus if he was during this time, perhaps because of his unwillingness to help the King to his own hurt, enjoying an interval of literary retirement at Squillace. His honour must have suffered if he had abetted the intolerant policy of Theodoric; his life might have been forfeit if he had openly opposed it.

[Footnote 49: This was probably 521 at latest.]

[Sidenote: Ca.s.siodorus as Master of the Offices, 526.]

Whatever may have been the cause of the temporary obscuration of Ca.s.siodorus, he was soon again s.h.i.+ning in all the splendour of official dignity; for when Theodoric died, his old and trusted minister was holding--probably not for the first time in his official career[50]--the great place of Master of the Offices.

[Footnote 50: The language of Ca.s.siodorus in Var. ix. 24 implies that he had held this office for a considerable time before the death of Theodoric. Usener thinks that he was made Magister Officiorum for the first time about the year 518.]

The _Magister Officiorum_, whose relation to the other members of the Cabinet of the Sovereign was somewhat indefinite, and who was in fact constantly trying to enlarge the circle of his authority at their expense, was at the head of the Civil Service of the Roman Empire, and afterwards occupied a similar position in the Ostrogothic State. It was said of him by the Byzantine orator Priscus (himself a man who had been engaged in important emba.s.sies), 'Of all the counsels of the Emperor the Magister is a partaker, inasmuch as the messengers and interpreters and the soldiers employed on guard at the palace are ranged under him.' Quite in harmony with this general statement are the more precise indications of the 'Not.i.tia.' There, 'under the disposition of the ill.u.s.trious Magister Officiorum,' we find five _Scholae_, which seem to have been composed of household troops[51].

Then comes the great Schola of the _Agentes in rebus_ and their deputies--a mighty army of 'king's messengers,' who swarmed through all the Provinces of the Empire, executing the orders of the Sovereign, and earning gold and hatred from the helpless Provincials among whom their errands lay. In addition to these the four great stationary bureaux--the Scrinium Memoriae, Scrinium Dispositionum, Scrinium Epistolarum, and Scrinium Libellorum--the offices whose duty it was to conduct the correspondence of the Sovereign with foreign powers, and to answer the pet.i.tions of his own subjects, all owned the Master of the Offices as their head. Moreover, the great a.r.s.enals (of which there were six in Italy at Concordia, Verona, Mantua, Cremona, Ticinum, and Lucca) received their orders from the same official. An anomalous and too widely dispersed range of functions this seems according to our ideas, including something of the Secretarys.h.i.+p for Foreign Affairs, something of the Home Secretarys.h.i.+p, and something of the War Office and the Horse Guards. Yet, as if this were not enough, there was also transferred to him from the office of the Praetorian Praefect the superintendence of the Cursus Publicus, that excellent inst.i.tution by which facilities for intercourse were provided between the capital and the most distant Provinces, relays of post-horses being kept at every town, available for use by those who bore properly signed 'letters of evection.' Thus to the multifarious duties of the Master of the Offices was added in effect the duty of Postmaster-General. It was found however in practice to be an inconvenient arrangement for the Master of the Offices to have the control of the services of the 'public horses,' while the Praetorian Praefect remained responsible for the supply of their food; and the charge of the _Cursus Publicus_ was accordingly retransferred--at any rate in the Eastern Empire--to the office of the Praefect, though the letters of evection still required the counter-signature of the Master[52].

[Footnote 51: They are 'Scutariorum prima, secunda et tertia, armaturarum seniorum et gentilium seniorum' (Not.i.tia Occidentis, cap.

ix.).]

[Footnote 52: This is the account of the matter given by Lydus (De Magistratibus ii. 10); but as the Not.i.tia (Or. xi.) puts the 'Curiosus Cursus Publici Praesentalis' under the disposition of the Magister Officiorum, the retransfer had probably not then taken place. It would seem also from the Formula of Ca.s.siodorus (Var. vi. 6) that in his time the Magister Officiorum still had the charge of the Cursus Publicus.]

[Sidenote: Death of Theodoric, Aug. 30, 526.]

Such was the position of Ca.s.siodorus when, on the 30th of August, 526, by the death of Theodoric, he lost the master whom he had served so long and so faithfully. The difficulties which beset the new reign are pretty clearly indicated in the letters which Ca.s.siodorus published in the name of the young King Athalaric, Theodoric's grandson, and which are to be found in the Eighth Book of the 'Variae.' Athalaric himself being only a boy of eight or ten years of age, supreme power was vested in his mother Amalasuentha, with what t.i.tle we are unable to say, but apparently not with that of Queen. This Princess, a woman of great and varied accomplishments, perhaps once a pupil, certainly a friend, of Ca.s.siodorus, ruled entirely in accordance with the maxims of his statesmans.h.i.+p, and endeavoured with female impulsiveness to carry into effect his darling scheme of Romanising the Goths. During the whole of her regency we may doubtless consider Ca.s.siodorus as virtually her Prime Minister, and the eight years which it occupied were without doubt that portion of his life in which he exercised the most direct and unquestioned influence on State affairs.

[Sidenote: Services of Ca.s.siodorus to the Regent Amalasuentha.]

His services at the commencement of the new reign will be best described in his own words: 'Nostris quoque principiis[53]' (the letter is written in Athalaric's name) 'quanto se labore concessit, c.u.m novitas regni multa posceret ordinari? Erat solus ad universa sufficiens. Ipsum dictatio publica, ipsum consilia nostra poscebant; et labore ejus actum est ne laboraret imperium. _Reperimus eum quidem Magistrum sed implevit n.o.bis Quaestoris officium_: et mercedes justissima devotione persolvens, cautelam, quam ab auctore nostro didicerat, libenter haeredis utilitatibus exhibebat[54].'

[Footnote 53: Variarum ix. 25.]

[Footnote 54: The meaning apparently is: 'The experience which he had gained in Theodoric's service was employed for the advantage of his grandson.']

[Sidenote: Fears of invasion.]

Ca.s.siodorus then goes on to describe how he laboured for his young Sovereign with the sword as well as with the pen. Some hostile invasion was dreaded, perhaps from the Franks, or, more probably, from the Vandals, whose relations with the Ostrogoths at that time were strained, owing to the murder of Theodoric's sister Amalafrida by Hilderic the Vandal King. Ca.s.siodorus provided s.h.i.+ps and equipped soldiers at his own expense, probably for the defence of his beloved Province of Bruttii. The alarm of war pa.s.sed away, but difficulties appear to have arisen owing to the sudden cancellation of the contracts which had been entered into when hostilities seemed imminent; and to these difficulties Ca.s.siodorus tells us that he brought his trained experience as an administrator and a judge, resolving them so as to give satisfaction to all who were concerned.

[Sidenote: Ca.s.siodorus as Praetorian Praefect, 533.]

Seven years of Amalasuentha's regency thus pa.s.sed, and now at length, at fifty-three years of age, Ca.s.siodorus was promoted (Sept. 1, 533) to the most distinguished place which a subject could occupy. He received from Amalasuentha the office of Praetorian Praefect. As thirty-three years had elapsed since his father was invested with the same dignity, we may fairly conjecture that father and son both climbed this eminence at the same period of their lives; yet, considering the extraordinary credit which the younger Ca.s.siodorus enjoyed at Court, we might have expected that he would have been clothed with the Praefecture before he attained the fifty-third year of his age. And, in fact, he hints in the letter composed by him, in which he informs himself of his own elevation[55], that that elevation had been somewhat too long delayed, though the reason which he alleges for the delay (namely, that the people might greet the new Praefect the more heartily[56]) is upon the face of it not the true cause.

[Footnote 55: Var. ix. 24.]

[Footnote 56: 'Diutius quidem differendo pro te cunctorum vota la.s.savimus, ut benevolentiam in te probaremus generalitatis, et cunctis desiderabilior advenires.']

[Sidenote: Office of the Praetorian Praefect.]

The majesty of the Praetorian Praefect's office is fully dwelt upon and its functions described in a letter in the following collection[57], to which the reader is referred. Originally only the chief officer of those Praetorian troops in Rome by whom the Emperor was guarded, until, as was so often the case, he was in some fit of petulance by the same pampered sentinels dethroned, the Praefectus Praetorio had gradually become more and more of a judge, less and less of a soldier. In the great changes wrought by Constantine the Praetorian guards disappeared--somewhat in the same fas.h.i.+on after which the Janissaries were removed by Sultan Mahmoud. The Praetorian Praefect's dignity, however, survived, and though he lost every shred of military command he became or continued to be the first civil servant of the Empire. Ca.s.siodorus is fond of comparing him to Joseph at the Court of Pharaoh, nor is the comparison an inapt one. In the Constantinople of our own day the Grand Vizier holds a position not altogether unlike that which the Praefect held in the Court of Arcadius and Theodosius. 'The office of this Praefect,' said one who had spent his life as one of his subordinates[58],' is like the Ocean, encircling all other offices and ministering to all their needs. The Consulate is indeed higher in rank than the Praefecture, but less in power. The Praefect wears a _mandye_, or woollen cloak, dyed with the purple of Cos, and differing from the Emperor's only in the fact that it reaches not to the feet but to the knees. Girt with his sword he takes his seat as President of the Senate. When that body has a.s.sembled, the chiefs of the army fall prostrate before the Praefect, who raises them and kisses each in turn, in order to express his desire to be on good terms with the military power. Nay, even the Emperor himself walks (or till lately used to walk) on foot from his palace to meet the Praefect as he moves slowly towards him at the head of the Senate. The insignia of the Praefect's office are his lofty chariot, his golden reed-case [pen-holder], weighing one hundred pounds, his ma.s.sive silver inkstand, and silver bowl on a tripod of the same metal to receive the pet.i.tions of suitors. Three official yachts wait upon his orders, and convey him from the capital to the neighbouring Provinces.'

[Footnote 57: Var. vi. 3.]

[Footnote 58: Joannes Lydus, De Dignitatibus ii. 7, 8, 9, 13, 14.]

[Sidenote: The Praetorian Praefect as Judge of Appeal.]

The personage thus highly placed had a share in the government of the State, a share which the Master of the Offices was for ever trying to diminish, but which, in the hands of one who like Ca.s.siodorus was _persona grata_ at the Court, might be made not only important but predominant[59]. The chief employment, however, of the ordinary Praefectus Praetorio consisted in hearing appeals from the Governors of the Provinces. When the magical words 'Provoco ad Caesarem' had been uttered, it was in most cases before the Praetorian Praefect that the appeal was practically heard; and when the Praetorian Praefect had p.r.o.nounced his decision, no appeal from that was permitted, even to the Emperor himself[60].

[Footnote 59: Bethmann Hollweg (pp. 75, 76) enumerates the functions of the Praetorian Praefect thus: '(1) _Legislative._ He promulgated the Imperial laws, and issued edicts which had almost the force of laws. (2) _Financial._ The general tax (indictio, delegatio) ordered by the Emperor for the year, was proclaimed by each Praefect for his own Praefecture. Through his officials he took part in the levy of the tax, and had a special State-chest (arca praetoria) for the proceeds.

(3) _Administrative._ The Praefect proposed the names of provincial governors, handed to them their salaries, had a general oversight of them, issued rescripts on the information furnished by them, and could as their ordinary Judge inflict punishments upon them, even depose them from their offices, and temporarily nominate subst.i.tutes to act in their places. (4) _Judicial_, as the highest Judge of Appeal.']

[Footnote 60: See authorities quoted by Bethmann Hollweg, pp. 79, 80.]

[Sidenote: Letters written during the Praefecture of Ca.s.siodorus.]

Ca.s.siodorus held the post of Praetorian Praefect, amid various changes in the fortunes of the State, from 533 to 538, or perhaps a year or two longer. Of his activity in the domain of internal administration, the Eleventh and Twelfth Books of the 'Variae' give a vivid and interesting picture. Unfortunately, neither those books nor the Tenth Book of the same collection, which contains the letters written by him during the same time in the names of the successive Gothic Sovereigns, give any sufficient information as to the real course of public events. Great misfortunes, great crimes, and the movements of great armies are covered over in these doc.u.ments by a veil of unmeaning plat.i.tudes and hypocritical compliments. In order to enable the student to 'read between the lines,' and to pierce through the verbiage of these letters to the facts which they were meant to hint at or to conceal, it will be necessary briefly to describe the political history of the period as we learn it from the narratives of Procopius and Jordanes--narratives which may be inaccurate in a few minor details but are doubtless correct in their main outlines.

[Sidenote: Opposition to Romanising policy of Amalasuentha.]

The Romanising policy of the cultivated but somewhat self-willed Princess Amalasuentha met with considerable opposition on the part of her Gothic subjects. Above all, they objected to the bookish education which she was giving to her son, the young King. They declared that it was entirely contrary to the maxims of Theodoric that a young Goth should be trembling before the strap of a pedagogue when he ought to be learning to look unfalteringly on spear and sword. These representations were so vigorously made, and by speakers of such high rank in the State, that Amalasuentha was compelled to listen to them, to remove her son from the society of his teachers, and to allow him to a.s.sociate with companions of his own age, who, not being wisely chosen, soon initiated him in every kind of vice and dissipation.

[Sidenote: Amalasuentha puts three Gothic n.o.bles to death.]

The Princess, who had not forgiven the leaders of the Gothic party for their presumptuously offered counsels, singled out three of the most powerful n.o.bles who were at the head of that party and sent them into honourable banishment at the opposite ends of Italy. Finding, however, that they were still holding communication with one another, she sent to the Emperor Justinian to ask if he would give her an asylum in his dominions if she required it, and then gave orders for the secret a.s.sa.s.sination of the three n.o.blemen. The _coup d'etat_ succeeded: she had no need to flee the country; and the s.h.i.+p bearing the royal treasure, which amounted to 40,000 pounds weight of gold, which she had sent to Dyrrhachium to await her possible flight, was ordered to return home.