The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 52

[Footnote 452: 'Vice sacra sententiam dicis.']

[Footnote 453: 'Carpentum.']

[Footnote 454: 'Aula libertatis.']

'Take therefore this dignity, and wield it with moderation and courage.'

16. FORMULA OF THE NOTARIES.

[Sidenote: Notaries.]

'It is most important that the secrets of the Sovereign, which many men so eagerly desire to discover, should be committed to persons of tried fidelity. A good secretary should be like a well-arranged _escritoire_, full of information when you want it, but absolutely silent at other times. Nay, he must even be able to dissimulate his knowledge, for keen questioners can often read in the face what the lips utter not. [Cf. the description of the Quaestor Decoratus in v.

3.]

'Our enquiries, keen-scented as they are for all men of good life and conversation, have brought your excellent character before us. We therefore ordain that you shall henceforth be a Notary. In due course of service you will attain the rank of Primicerius, which will ent.i.tle you to enter the Senate, "the Curia of liberty." Moreover, should you then arrive at the dignity of Ill.u.s.tris or at the [Comitiva] Vacans, you will be preferred to all who are in the same rank but who have not acquired it by active service[455].

[Footnote 455: I think this must be the meaning of the sentence: 'Additur etiam perfuncti laboris aliud munus, ut si quo modo ad Ill.u.s.tratum vel Vacantem meruerit pervenire, omnibus debeat anteponi, qui Codicillis Ill.u.s.tratibus probantur ornari.']

'Enter then upon this duty, cheered by the prospect of one day attaining to the highest honours.'

17. FORMULA OF THE REFERENDARII.

[Sidenote: Referendarii.]

[We have no word corresponding to this t.i.tle. Registrar, Referee, Solicitor, each expresses only part of the duties of the Referendarius, whose business it was, _on behalf of the Court_, to draw up a statement of the conflicting claims of the litigants before it. See the interesting letters (v. 40 and 41) describing the useful services rendered in this capacity by Cyprian in the King's Court of Appeal. His duties seem to have been very similar to those which in the Court of the Praetorian Praefect were discharged by the officer called _Ab Actis_ (See p. 107).]

'Great is the privilege of being admitted to such close converse with the King as you will possess, but great also are the responsibilities and the anxieties of the Referendarius. In the midst of the hubbub of the Court he has to make out the case of the litigant, and to clothe it in language suitable for our ears. If he softens it down ever so little in his repet.i.tion of it, the claimant declares that he has been bribed, that he is hostile to his suit. A man who is pleading his own cause may soften down a word or two here and there, if he see that the Court is against him; but the Referendarius dares not alter anything.

Then upon him rests the responsibility of drawing up our decree, adding nothing, omitting nothing. Hard task to speak _our_ words in our own presence.

'Take then the office of Referendarius, and show by your exercise of it to what learning men may attain by sharing our conversation. Under us it is impossible for an officer of the Court to be unskilled in speech. Like a whetstone we sharpen the intellects of our courtiers, and polish them by practice at our bar[456].'

[Footnote 456: 'Sub n.o.bis enim non licet esse imperitos; quando in vicem cotis ingenia splendida reddimus, quae causarum a.s.siduitate polimus.' Strange words to put into the mouth of a monarch who could not write.]

18. FORMULA OF THE PRAEFECTUS ANNONAE, AND HIS EXCELLENCY.

[Sidenote: Praefectus Annonae.]

'If the benefit of the largest number of citizens is a test of the dignity of an office yours is certainly a glorious one. You have to prepare the Annona of the sacred City, and to feed the whole people as at one board. You run up and down through the shops of the bakers, looking after the weight and fineness of the bread, and not thinking any office mean by which you may win the affections of the citizens.

'You mount the chariot of the Praefect of the City, and are displayed in closest companions.h.i.+p with him at the games. Should a sudden tumult arise by reason of a scarcity of loaves, you have to still it by promising a liberal distribution. It was from his conduct in this office that Pompey attained the highest dignities and earned the surname of the Great.

'The pork-butchers also (Suarii) are subject to your control.

'It is true that the corn is actually provided by the Praetorian Praefect, but you see that it is worked up into elegant bread[457].

[Footnote 457: 'Quando in quavis abundantia querela non tollitur, si panis elegantia nulla servetur.']

'Even so Ceres discovered corn, but Pan taught men how to bake it into bread; whence its name (_Panis_, from Pan).

'Take then this office: discharge it faithfully, and weigh, more accurately than gold, the bread by which the Quirites live.'

19. FORMULA OF THE COUNT OF THE CHIEF PHYSICIANS.

[Sidenote: Comes Archiatrorum.]

'The doctor helps us when all other helpers seem to fail. By his art he finds out things about a man of which he himself is ignorant; and his prognosis of a case, though founded on reason, seems to the ignorant like prophecy.

'It is disgraceful that there should be a president of the lascivious pleasures of the people (Tribunus Voluptatum) and none of this healing art. Excellent too may your office be in enabling you to control the squabbles of the doctors. They ought not to quarrel. At the beginning of their exercise of their art they take a sort of priestly oath to hate wickedness and to love purity. Take then this rank of Comes Archiatrorum, and have the distinguished honour of presiding over so many skilled pract.i.tioners and of moderating their disputes.

'Leave it to clumsy men to ask their patients "if they have had good sleep; if the pain has left them." Do you rather incline the patient to ask you about his own malady, showing him that you know more about it than he does. The patient's pulse, the patient's water, tell to a skilled physician the whole story of his disease.

'Enter our palace unbidden; command us, whom all other men obey; weary us if you will with fasting, and make us do the very opposite of that which we desire, since all this is your prerogative.'

20. FORMULA OF THE OFFICE OF A CONSULAR, AND ITS EXCELLENCY.

[Sidenote: Consularis.]

'You bear among your trappings the axes and the rods of the Consul, as a symbol of the nature of the jurisdiction which you exercise in the Provinces.

'In some Provinces you even wear the _paenula_ (military cloak) and ride in the _carpentum_ (official chariot), as a proof of your dignity.

'You must not think that because your office is allied to that of Consul any lavish expenditure by way of largesse is necessary. By no means; but it is necessary that you should abstain from all unjust gains. Nothing is worse than a mixture of rapacity and prodigality.

'Respect the property of the Provincials, and your tenure of office will be without blame.

'Receive therefore, for this Indiction, the office of Consular in such and such a Province, and let your moderation appear to all the inhabitants.'

21. FORMULA OF THE GOVERNOR (RECTOR) OF A PROVINCE.

[The distinction between the powers of a Rector and those of a Consularis seems to have been very slight, if it existed at all; but the dignity of the latter office was probably somewhat the greater.]

[Sidenote: Rector Provinciae.]

'It is important to repress crime on the spot. If all criminal causes had to wait till they could be tried in the capital, robbers would grow so bold as to be intolerable. Hence the advantage of Provincial Governors. Receive then for this Indiction the office of Rector of such and such a Province. Look at the broad stripe (laticlave) on your purple robe, and remember the dignity which is betokened by that bright garment, which poets say was first woven by Venus for her son Priapus, that the son's beautiful robe might attest the mother's loveliness.

'You have to collect the public revenues, and to report to the Sovereign all important events in your Province. You may judge even Senators and the officers of Praefects. Your name comes before that of even dignified Provincials, and you are called Brother by the Sovereign. See that your character corresponds to this high vocation.

Your subjects will not fear you if they see that your own actions are immoral. There can be no worse slavery than to sit on the judgment-seat, knowing that the men who appear before you are possessors of some disgraceful secret by which they can blast your reputation.

'Refrain from unholy gains, and we will reward you all the more liberally.'