Resultados16 letters/passages
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
Scyllaceum [Squillace, on the coast of Calabria], the first city of the Bruttii — which Troy's destroyer Ulysses is said to have founded — is reported to be irrationally harassed by the excessive demands of presumptuous officials. This should not have been tolerated under my administration, since I am compelled to feel …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
I also entirely abolish the judge's travel tax [pulveratica, literally "dust-money"] and decree that governors shall receive only three days' rations in accordance with ancient regulations, with any additional transportation at their own expense. The laws intended administrators to be a remedy, not a burden. Therefore, …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
King Theodoric to All the Jews Residing in Genoa. The observance of law is the mark of civilization, and reverence for the decisions of earlier rulers is a testament to our own devotion. What could be better than for a people to live willingly under the rule of justice, so that an assembly of many becomes a union of di …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
To these virtues is added a desirable literary education, which renders an already praiseworthy nature truly distinguished. Through learning, the wise man finds what makes him wiser; the warrior discovers what strengthens his courage; the prince learns how to govern his peoples with fairness. There is no condition in t …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
There are many more such examples, if one investigates. Everything that can encounter adversity would be quickly destroyed if creatures did not care for their own safety. Let me return my words to you, master of the prison. Allow your penal sanctuary to be innocently empty. You are tormented, indeed, that no one is bei …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
So the soul's vigor is weighed down when compressed by a heavier atmosphere. We are necessarily subject to such conditions — growing sad when it is overcast and naturally rejoicing when the sky clears — because the celestial substance of the soul is troubled by impurity and delights in everything pure. The city also en …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Queen Amalasuntha to the Senate of the City of Rome. [Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great, ruled as regent for her young son Athalaric. After his death in 534, she appointed her cousin Theodahad as co-ruler -- a fateful decision, as he soon had her murdered.] After the sorrowful death of our son of blessed mem …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
The establishment of divine law provided the beginning of human law, since the commandments found in the Two Tablets are read as its foundation. Holy Moses, formed by divine instruction, decreed among other things to the people of Israel that they should keep their marriages away from the proximity of sacred blood, so …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
You will inevitably win public love if you make no secret promises. It would be a truly great and singular distinction if judges took nothing, in a place where so many compete to give generously. Your authority extends not only over Rome -- though Rome contains the whole world -- but the ancient laws have also extended …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Love your blade, for a moment, when it is gleaming rather than bloodied. Let a happier rust receive your chains, wet with tears. Lock up instead the instrument that used to lock men in. Let the courtrooms of deadly sentences fall silent under a better fortune. This is how you truly preserve the name of "guardian" — wit …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Formula of the Urban Prefecture. [The Urban Prefect (Praefectus Urbi) was the chief magistrate of Rome, responsible for law, order, public games, food supply, and the baths.] Since the reputation of any judge is always measured by the office entrusted to him, and since he must be held greater than those he is known to …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
While I was dining with the lord of the realm [the king] at a formal banquet and the delicacies of various provinces were being praised, the conversation turned — as it tends to — to the wines of Bruttium and the sweetness of Silan cheese [from the Sila plateau in Calabria]. This cheese is produced there with such natu …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
But you who are released — you who must no longer be deceived by ambition — leave your crimes behind with your chains, absolved by the grace of these holy days. Live honestly now, you who have learned what it means to die while still alive. Recognize how beneficial a good life is: the other way brought you a hideous pr …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
But since that famous wine has already claimed the noblest reputation for itself, let this one too be sought out — equally fine in its own kind — lest the wisdom of our ancestors appear to have given it an undeserved name. For it is softly thick with a pleasant richness, supremely firm in its lasting power, forceful on …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
[1] It is our settled policy to crown honest labors with the palm of reward, so that the advancement of the deserving may sting the idle into action — and they can blame no one but themselves for their own stagnation, when they see what honest effort achieves. For it would be a dull and lifeless kingdom if merit went u …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Although the very title of "judge" seems dedicated to justice, and I am commanded to walk in the footsteps of equity through the entire orbit of the year, on these days I rightly turn aside into the dwelling-place of mercy — so that through the path of forgiveness I may reach the Redeemer of all. From this virtue I gat …