Resultados25 letters/passages
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
What the invaders suffered is well known -- but I choose to pass over the details, lest the spirit of our allied prince be embarrassed by another's disgrace. How highly the East regarded our court can be understood from this: the Eastern emperor freely granted peace to those who had offended him, though he had refused …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
It is a pleasure to entrust responsibilities to proven men, since the judgment of the one who chooses is vindicated by their selection, and what is committed to the approved rests on a secure foundation. Just as we hope to find men who please us, so we take care that those who please us may flourish. Therefore, setting …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
The pain may subside, yes — but it leaves behind consequences worse than itself. In a novel form of misery, the illness appears to depart while the patient never stops being ill. Even debtor chains are sometimes released from those they torment, but these bonds, once they have captured a man, never release him for the …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
Let us love the gifts God has granted there. Against this scourge of the human race, the timely defenses of these baths have been provided. What no decade of endurance can overcome, what no thousand potions can soften, is driven out there by pleasurable remedies. May God grant the desired blessing — so that I may confi …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
King Theodoric to Luduin [Clovis], King of the Franks. The divine will has ordained that the bonds of kinship among kings should strengthen, so that through their peaceable dispositions the longed-for tranquility of peoples may be achieved. This bond is sacred — it must not be violated by any upheaval. For what hostage …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.02
Rejoice together, Goths and Romans alike -- here is a wonder for all to proclaim! By God's grace, our blessed queen has fulfilled what is finest in both sexes: she has given us a glorious king and defended a vast empire through the strength of her spirit. These things touch on military affairs and are reported as best …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Athalaric to Liberius, Praetorian Prefect of the Gauls. [Liberius was a distinguished Roman senator who served as Praetorian Prefect of Gaul under the Ostrogothic crown. This letter announces the death of Theodoric the Great (526) and asks Liberius to secure loyalty oaths from the Gothic and Roman populations of G …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
It is right that royal devotion should accommodate itself to those wounded by the blow of fate, because those whom the adversity of their lot has crushed deserve all the more to be lifted up. We therefore declare to your magnificence by the present authority that you are to allow the sons of Ecdicius -- whom we had pre …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
The blessings of our times seize our attention and, like travelers parched by a long drought, invite us to drink from the sweetest spring. What a fortunate age! Under a prince still at leisure, a mother's affection reigns, and through her everything is accomplished so that we all feel sheltered by a universal care. She …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theodoric to Marabadus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious]. It befits our mercy to arrange petitioners' requests through sound administration, since the spirits of our subjects are relieved each time a mourner's complaint is settled. The respectable Liberius has come before us with a grievous petition, stating that …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theodoric to Gundobad, King of the Burgundians. It is a grave evil to see the wills of beloved royal persons set against each other, and to watch in silence as something lamentable threatens to erupt from their conflict. If our kinsmen fight while we stand by and do nothing, the blame falls on us too. You all hold …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
[1] If the consular largesse is owed to wrestlers who compete with oiled and supple bodies, if prizes are given to those who play the organ, if a delightful song commands its price -- what reward must be given to the hunter, who risks his own death to please the crowd? He offers entertainment at the cost of his own blo …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theodoric to Argolicus, Praefectus Urbis [Prefect of the City]. A prince's clemency rightly takes in those whom a father's love has left behind, since under a public parent the loss of one's own father should scarcely be felt. Destitute youth rightly turns to us, for the growth of all our people is our concern. Th …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Receive, conscript fathers, the appointment that marks the beginning of our reign. First decisions are always scrutinized more closely, because people believe the sequel will match the start. No one expects a ruler to be careful later if he is not seen guarding his reputation from the very first. A prudent gardener str …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
From this comes an invaluable advantage for many nations: no one needs an interpreter before the ears of our most learned queen. No ambassador suffers delay, and no petitioner loses time waiting for a translator, since each is heard in his own words and answered in his own tongue. Add to all this, like a priceless crow …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theodoric to Duda, Saio [royal agent]. It is the way of wisdom to bring treasure hidden in the earth back into the service of the living, and not to call the property of the dead what belongs to the commerce of the living. What lies buried is lost to us, and to the dead it is of no use whatsoever. The pursuit of m …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect, to the Senate of the City of Rome. [Cassiodorus served as Praetorian Prefect under the Ostrogothic kings of Italy. The Variae are official state letters he drafted on behalf of the court.] Senators, you honor my appointment by making it clear that it was something you wished f …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theoderic to Felix, a Man of Distinction. [1] Through the petition of Venantius, guardian of Plutianus, we have learned that you have been acting in a way unworthy of your station — that you have afflicted with financial injury the very ward whom you should have supported at your own expense. Your family relations …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
This second brother also nourished his eloquence through advocacy. Yielding to his brother the fame of the city of Rome, he chose instead to immerse himself in the affairs of Spoletium [Spoleto] -- a task as difficult as it was far removed from your sophistication. Among well-mannered men, it was easy to uphold justice …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
It is fitting that the splendor of Rome's buildings should have a skilled guardian, so that the marvelous forest of its monuments may be preserved through diligent care and new construction may be raised through expert craftsmanship. Our generosity does not shrink from this effort: we both restore the works of the anci …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theodoric to the Senate of the City of Rome. Senators, it is certain that your council flourishes with wise men. But it is also a distinguished fact that among you the honor of letters is woven in. Whenever we elevate someone to the high office of Quaestor [the chief legal officer who drafted royal decrees], we ju …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
[1] Although the crime of homicide is abhorrent at first hearing, and the eyes of judges recoil from a bloodied hand -- because the path to mercy always lies open more readily to good minds -- nevertheless, justice requires us to weigh the circumstances under which a crime becomes necessary. What new misfortune of fate …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
King Theoderic to Florianus, a Man of Distinction. [1] Lawsuits that have been settled should not be dragged out endlessly. For what peace will be given to those in dispute, if they will not submit even to lawful sentences? There is one harbor built amid human storms; if men pass it by in the heat of passion, they will …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
Senator [Cassiodorus], Praetorian Prefect, to the Tax Collector of Venetia. The lavish provisions of the royal table are no small ornament to the state, for a ruler is believed to possess as much as the novelties on which he feasts. A private man has what his locality provides. But at a royal banquet, one ought to seek …
cassiodorus · c. 522 · score 0.01
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 …