The Letters of Cassiodorus Part 68

'VIII. _Donations_ are not to be extorted by terror, nor acquired by fraud, or as the price of immorality. Where a gift is _bona fide_, the doc.u.ment conveying it is to be drawn up with the strictness prescribed by Antiquity, in order to remove occasions of fraud.

'IX. Magicians and other persons practising nefarious arts are to be punished by the severity of the laws. What madness to leave the Giver of life and seek to the Author of death! Let the Judges be especially careful to avoid the contagion of these foul practices.

'X. _Violence Exercised towards the Weak._ Let the condition of mediocrity be safe from the arrogance of the rich. Let the madness of bloodshed be avoided. To take the law into your own hands is to wage private war, especially in the case of those who are fortified by the authority of our _tuitio_. If anyone attempts with foul presumption to act contrary to these principles, let him be considered a violator of our orders.

'XI. _Appeals_ are not to be made twice in the same cause.

'XII. _Epilogue._ But lest, while touching on a few points, we should be thought not to wish the laws to be observed in other matters, we declare that all the edicts of ourself and of our lord and grandfather, which were confirmed by venerable deliberation[612], and the whole body of decided law[613], be adhered to with the utmost rigour.

[Footnote 612: 'Quae sunt venerabili deliberatione firmata.' Is it possible that we have here a reference to a theoretical right of the _Senate_ to concur in legislation?]

[Footnote 613: 'Et usualia jura publica.' Dahn expands: 'All other juristic material, all sources of law--Roman _leges_ and _jus_, and Gothic customary law--the whole inheritance of the State in public and private law.']

'And these laws are so scrupulously guarded that our own oath is interposed for their defence. Why enlarge further? Let the usual rule of law and the honest intent of our precepts be everywhere observed.'

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

[Sidenote: Promulgation of the Edict.]

'Good laws are called forth by evil manners. If no complaints were ever heard, the Prince might take holiday. Stirred up by many and frequent complaints of our people, we have drawn up certain regulations necessary for the Roman peace, in our edict which is divided into twelve chapters, after the manner of the civil law[614].

We do not thereby abrogate, but rather confirm, the previously existing body of law.

[Footnote 614: 'Necessaria quaedam Romanae quieti edictali programmate duodecim capitibus sicut jus civile legitur inst.i.tutum in aevum servanda conscripsimus, quae custodita residuum jus non debilitare, sed potius corroborare videantur.']

'Let this edict be read in your splendid a.s.sembly, and exhibited for thirty days by the Praefect of the City in the most conspicuous places. Thus shall our _civilitas_ be recognised, and truculent men lose their confidence. What insolent subjects[615] can indulge in violence when the Sovereign condemns it? Our armies fight that there may be peace at home. Let the Judges do their duty fearlessly, and avoid foul corruption.'

[Footnote 615: Evidently aimed at the Goths.]

20. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE JUDGES OF THE PROVINCES.

[Sidenote: The same subject.]

'It is vexatious that, though we appoint you year by year to your duties, and leave no district without its Judge, there is yet such tardiness in administering justice that suitors come by preference to our distant Court.

'To take away all excuse from you, and relieve the necessity of our subjects, we have drawn up an edict which we desire you to exhibit for thirty days in the wonted manner at all places of public meeting.'

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

[Sidenote: Increase of salaries of grammarians.]

'You who are called Fathers should be interested in all that concerns the education of your sons. We hear by certain whisperings that the teachers of eloquence at Rome are not receiving their proper reward, and that the sums appointed to be paid to the masters of schools are lessened by the haggling of some persons.

'Grammar is the n.o.ble foundation of all literature, the glorious mother of eloquence. As a virtuous man is offended by any act of vice, as a musician is pained by a discordant note, so does the grammarian in a moment perceive a false concord.

'The grammatical art is not used by barbarous kings: it abides peculiarly with legitimate sovereigns[616]. Other nations have arms: the lords of the Romans alone have eloquence. Hence sounds the trumpet for the legal fray in the Forum. Hence comes the eloquence of so many chiefs of the State. Hence, to say nothing more, even this discourse which is now addressed to you[617].

[Footnote 616: 'Hac non utuntur barbari reges: apud legales dominos manere cognoscitur singularis.']

[Footnote 617: 'Et, ut reliqua taceamus, hoc quod loquimur inde est.']

'Wherefore let the teacher of grammar and of rhetoric, if he be found suitable for his work and obey the decrees of the Praefect of the City, be supported by your authority, and suffer no diminution of his salary[618].

[Footnote 618: 'Et semel Primi Ordinis vestri ac reliqui Senatus amplissimi auctoritate firmatus.' What is the meaning of 'Primi Ordinis vestri?']

'To prevent his being dependent in any way on the caprice of his employer, let him receive half his salary at the end of half a year, and his _annonae_ at the customary times. If the person whose business it is to pay him neglects this order, he shall be charged interest on the arrears.

'The Grammarian is a man to whom every hour unemployed is misery, and it is a shame that such a man should have to wait the caprice of a public functionary before he gets his pay. We provide for the salaries of the play-actors, who minister only to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the public; and how much more for these men, the moulders of the style and character of our youth! Therefore let them henceforward not have to try the philosophical problem of thinking about two things at once, but, with their minds at ease about their subsistence, devote themselves with all their vigour to the teaching of liberal arts.'

22. KING ATHALARIC TO PAULINUS, VIR CLARISSIMUS AND CONSUL (533).

[Flavius Theodoras Paulinus Junior was Consul with the Emperor Justinian in 534. This letter was written in Sept. 533, about thirteen months before the death of Athalaric. Paulinus was son of Venantius and grandson of Liberius.]

[Sidenote: Paulinus chosen as Consul.]

'The absent from our Court need not fear that they will be disregarded in the distribution of honours, especially when they are sprung from an ill.u.s.trious stock, the offspring of the Senate.

'In your family Rome recognises the descendants of her ancient heroes the Decii, who, in a great crisis, alone saved their country.

'Take then for the twelfth Indiction the ensigns of the Consuls.h.i.+p[619]. It is an arduous honour, but one which your family is well used to. The Fasti are studded with its names, and nearly all the Senate is of kin to you. Still, presume not too much on the merits of your ancestors, but rather seek to emulate their n.o.ble deeds.'

[Footnote 619: The twelfth Indiction began Sept. 1, 533. The Consul would enter office Jan. 1, 534. Was he _designated_ when the great Imperial officers were _appointed_ at the beginning of the Indiction?]

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

[Sidenote: On the Consuls.h.i.+p of Paulinus.]

'Judge of our esteem for your honourable body, Conscript Fathers, when, without any hesitation, we appoint your sons whom we have never seen to high office, because they are your sons.

'We admire the Patrician Venantius, blessed as he has been with such an abundant progeny, and found equal to the weight of so many Consuls.h.i.+ps. His sons have been all temperate and lively; worthy members of the same distinguished family. They have been trained in arms, their minds have been formed by letters, their bodies by the exercises of the gymnasium. They have learned to show constancy to their friends, loyalty to their lords; and they have succeeded to the virtues of their ancestors, as they will to their patrimony. Wisely husbanding his own fortune, Venantius has been able to support the honour--gratifying, but burdensome--of seeing so many of his sons made Consuls. But this is an honour not strange to his family, sprung from the ancient Decii. His hall is full of laurelled Fasces, and in his line one might almost say that each one is born a Consular.

'Favour our candidate then, Conscript Fathers, and cherish him with that care which the name of your body[620] signifies.'

[Footnote 620: _Curia_, from _cura_.]

24. KING ATHALARIC TO SENATOR [Ca.s.sIODORUS HIMSELF], PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT (SEPT. 1, 533).

[Sidenote: Ca.s.siodorus appointed Praetorian Praefect.]

'If you had been hitherto an obscure person we might feel some doubt how you would bear yourself in your new office, but your long and glorious career under our grandfather relieves us from any such anxieties. _His_ choice of you is a thing to be not discussed but reverently accepted. It was by him that we ourselves were chosen; and the Divine favour so conspicuously followed him that no General whom he selected was other than victorious, no Judge whom he appointed was other than just. In short, one might almost deem him to have been endowed with the gift of prophecy.

[Sidenote: His Quaestors.h.i.+p.]

'In your early manhood he received you into the office of Quaestor, and soon found you to be a conscientious man, learned in the law beyond your years[621]. You were the chief ornament of your times, inasmuch as you, by your blameless service sustaining the weight of that royal intellect by all the force of your eloquence, enabled him, with his keen interest in all public affairs, to await the result with confidence. In you he possessed a counsellor pleasant in the transaction of business, rigid in his sense of justice, free from all taint of avarice. You never fixed a scandalous tariff for the sale of his benefits; and thus you reaped your reward in a wealth of public opinion, not in gold. It was because that just Prince proved you to be averse from all these vices that he selected you for his glorious friends.h.i.+p. A wise judge, he threw upon you the weight of listening to the arguments of contending parties; and so high was his opinion of your tried sagacity that he at once uttered your decision as the greatest benefit that he could confer on the litigants. How often did he rank you among the oldest chiefs of his Council! How often was it seen that your young beginnings were more than a match for them, who had the experience of long years behind them! What he found to praise in you was your excellent disposition, wide open for useful work, tight closed against the vices of avarice. Whereas, for some reason, it is rare to find amongst men, the hand closed and justice open.